Chasing the Dawn

"You can't tow a plane with a hammock!"

Writer: Jenny T. Colgan

Format: Short Story

Released: December 2019

Printed in: Star Tales 01

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Eleventh Doctor

Synopsis

"Even though they're gone from the world, they're never gone from me."

The Doctor is many things – curious, funny, brave, protective of her friends... and a shameless namedropper. While she and her companions battled aliens and travelled across the universe, the Doctor hinted at a host of previous, untold adventures with the great and the good: we discovered she got her sunglasses from Pythagoras (or was it Audrey Hepburn?); lent a mobile phone to Elvis; had an encounter with Amelia Earhart where she discovered that a pencil-thick spider web can stop a plane; had a 'wet weekend' with Harry Houdini, learning how to escape from chains underwater; and more.

In this collection of new stories, Star Tales takes you on a rip-roaring ride through history, from 500BC to the swinging 60s, going deeper into the Doctor's notorious name-dropping and revealing the truth behind these anecdotes.

Verdict

Chasing the Dawn was an excellent start to the Star Tales collection of stories! I am not surprised at all by this release given the amount of name dropping that occurred during Series 11, so using the Thirteenth Doctor as the basis for telling these stories where she met famed figures was really good. I also liked the interruptions to the storytelling for the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz to talk about the events that were being told and it just made for a really good little tale! The format was excellent and I loved that we got to now read of when the Doctor met Amelia Earhart. Before getting to that adventure, I really liked how it was addressed that Yaz was on her time of the month and the Doctor definitely seemed to have the right remedy! It came in four parts and involved the telling of this story which she was clearly quite enjoying! I liked how the Doctor addressed formerly being a man and in this particular outing it was the Eleventh Doctor who met the first female pilot. I don't know a great deal about Amelia Earhart other than her obvious achievement and the trailblazer she would become as a woman and for humankind. She was experiencing some travel difficulties this time around and the fate of Noonan, her navigator, was quite horrific. The fact that she had to put him out of his misery as he was a walking burned corpse was incredibly brutal. I felt quite sorry for her there but I also admired how she wanted to end the pain for her navigator. It was going to be a difficult task for her to survive without a navigator and on a small islet with nowhere near enough fuel to get back home. In stepped the Doctor brilliantly arriving in the TARDIS, on its side, and begging Amelia to let him tow her home. She didn't trust him though and wanted desperately not to rely on anyone. That was the very point of her flight and I thought that was incredibly admirable. She became a really likeable character and even though the Doctor was just trying to help, he was becoming a little bit of a nuisance. It was nice to consider whether Amelia may have been more likely to take the Doctor's help had she been a female like she was now and it brought the story around to being current which was great whilst also featuring a past incarnation of the Doctor. I also loved the moment where the Doctor said how much he liked Amelias. A really great line. The Eleventh and Thirteenth Doctors sharing a distaste for Bourbon biscuits was a humorous moment and I loved the absolute seriousness with which the latter incarnation responded to Yaz as if she was asking a stupid question. Brilliant stuff. The use of the International Date Line was superb and I liked how it didn't seem to quite be imaginary! I have always found it an intriguing part of Earth and time zones and with it being a potential entry point for the parasites. They actually got really close to establishing themselves but in the end the Doctor was able to stitch over the gap after a selfless sacrifice by Earhart. It was quite emotional at that point which surprised me as it really did hit home with me what she was doing. She wanted to save the day and didn't want a hand in getting back which was killing the Doctor on the inside because it had to be her decision and he couldn't risk anything with the parasites looming. It was quite the internal struggle! The ending implying that Earhart was actually okay and that she got to live out her life and became a symbol of humanity was really nice. Overall, a fine start to the collection of stories!

Rating: 9/10