Loose Wire

"I have feasted, and I am strong."

Writer: Richard Dungworth

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2016

Printed in: Twelve Doctors of Christmas 10

Featuring: Tenth Doctor

Synopsis

The Doctor is experimenting with some old tapes in the TARDIS and accidentally sets the Wire loose! With modern technology at its mercy and all sorts of data transfer techniques at its whim, is there any way the Wire can be contained?

Verdict

Loose Wire was another terrific little story to continue along my reading of Twelve Doctors of Christmas! I somehow failed to realise that we would get a returning enemy for the Tenth Doctor in this adventure despite its title but I soon realised what was going to happen once things went haywire for Alice Wu's new phone. The belief that she was getting a phone call from Justin Bieber was quite humorous and the Doctor's reaction to that once he burst onto the scene was purely one of sympathy which I thought was lovely. The pace of this story was frantic which was great and I couldn't quite believe how quickly I was getting through the pages. I know this wasn't the biggest of stories as it is, but it still absolutely flew by which is always a good sign. I liked how quickly the Doctor burst onto the scene and I've always thought that a present day setting featuring the Wire would be fantastic given all it could use to its advantage in what is very much a digital age. WiFi, radio and BlueTooth! The possibilities really are quite endless. The Doctor had created a shield around the vicinity including the house where Alice lived thanks to the sonic screwdriver so it couldn't get far, but the Doctor hadn't considered short-range hops in the likes of BlueTooth speakers and paired devices so the Wire was still very much at large. I thought the expected reference to The Idiot's Lantern was brilliant and Alice's reaction to the Doctor stating he last faced off against this enemy at the time of the Queen's coronation. I thought she was a good little character and she was clearly scared by everything that was going on, and specifically to what had happened to her parents and grandmother, but she did well in not showing it. Once the Doctor confirmed to her that they could be restored back to normal, a light seemed to switch in her head that was fully driven to achieving that purpose. I liked that. The Doctor aiding her in being close to a companion was great and I would have really liked to see her reaction to going into the TARDIS. I thought it was a bit of a shame for that to be omitted. The Christmas Day setting was intriguing and I like to ponder over what year this took place for the Tenth Doctor. Would it perhaps interfere with any of the events of recent Christmas Specials? That's just some fun speculation on my part. Speaking of fun, the Wire attempting to hijack a car through the BlueTooth transfer and link was hilarious and the image of the Doctor diving into the car and being trapped was very humorous. That really was good. To his surprise, Alice's mum was into her cassette tapes and that was all he needed to trap the Wire once again. After he'd freed it, he now had it back trapped where it belonged. A fitting end. His joining of Alice's family on Christmas Day was good but I'm not sure how some of the companions and their families would have felt given how many he turned down. Overall though, a fun little adventure! 

Rating: 8/10