The Stranger

"The Daleks have been on Gallifrey since day one."

Writer: Gary Russell

Format: Short Story

Released: August 2015

Printed in: Heroes and Monsters Collection 01

Featuring: War Doctor

Synopsis

The War Doctor travels back in time to the early period of the Time War. He does so to save Gallifreyan children from being killed by Daleks who have managed to hide away under the surface of Gallifrey itself.

Verdict

The Stranger was a very good start to the Heroes and Monsters Collection of short stories! I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to proceed with my blogging of this collection as I have a number of the TARDIS Files that make up the bulk of the reprints from childhood. I’m sure I would have read the stories long ago, but of course they have never been blogged by myself so I’ll have to proceed with the original adventures like this one and then go with those ones that I wasn’t able to add to my collection back when the Tenth Doctor was gracing our screens. Anyway, this one was a great start and I am always glad to get anything more with the War Doctor. There have been a decent amount of stories with this mysterious and lost incarnation of the Doctor, but there’s still so much more to be explored! This was quite a harrowing little tale with the Daleks being on Gallifrey and targeting children. It seemed a horrible plan that they were executing but that perfectly fitted the Daleks during the Time War. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they had actually come back in time to prevent these children becoming adults and going on to become Time Lords. They were attempting to reduce the numbers of Time Lord sources at the source. That’s quite despicable! The idea of time travel within the Time War itself was really interesting and I don’t think that’s been done before so I found myself really intrigued. It transgressed all rules of time, but this was war. Senior Tahl was a really great character and his love for the children he had been entrusted to protect was clear. He was a very good man. His working out of who the stranger was provided a lovely moment, but the Doctor was maintaining that he no longer had a name. If it was, it would be Warrior based on past events. A nod to The Night of the Doctor there was very much welcomed. I thought the continuity in this story was excellent and suggesting that the Time Lords brought the Time War upon themselves isn’t actually too far from the truth! The references to Genesis of the Daleks, The Apocalypse Element and Remembrance of the Daleks were all superb and I am all for the middle adventure being referred to. That needs to come up more in my view! Rojan was a fantastic character and the courage he showed when the Daleks arrived was commendable. I really was quite astonished to find that the Daleks were on Gallifrey during any part of the Time War. This was just the First Segment, it wouldn’t be until the Fifth that the Doctor revoked his name which really fascinated me and was again good continuity. The Doctor had come a long way into his past, would he be feeling he could have done more in his eighth incarnation? Whatever he had done in all of his past lives, it had resonated on Gallifrey because the Doctor was the subject of his very own heroic tale which was incredibly fitting and somewhat emotional. Tahl suggesting that the Doctor was defending Gallifrey and hiding in plain sight after so many regenerations was a nice way to comfort the children and I loved that Rojan knew from thereon in that this stranger was in fact the Doctor. And he even acknowledged his name ever so slightly which was a nice touch. One little negative for me in the book was trying to sell that the Daleks wouldn’t have been able to get over a bridge that had collapsed. That hardly seems a difficult task for beings that can literally elevate? I was dreading that the story was going to end with the Doctor getting the children to safety simply by being on the other side of the bridge, but thankfully that wasn’t the case and I could breath a huge sigh of relief! In fact, Tahl took his chance now to save the Doctor after all he had done for his home planet and blew himself and the Daleks into smithereens. If the Daleks weren’t dead, then they were entombed. What Tahl had done was save the children and now Rojan would go on and look after the children. The Daleks would continue to attack remote weapons outposts like the one here, so the dreaded cities was where had become safest now. A harrowing thought, but they’d gotten a taste of the Time War now and they’d also known the Doctor had been there to help save them. Just like he had with Sontarans in The Invasion of Time, and with space chickens apparently? Now that would be a fun adventure!  Doctor Who and the Space Chickens is a story just waiting to happen. The Doctor showing something resembling a lack of reaction after Tahl died showed how bad things had gotten in the Time War. Who knew what segment he had been fighting in by now, but he was back off in the TARDIS to continue the fight. Overall, a very good start to the collection.

Rating: 8/10