The Shadow Passes

"I get a different perspective on what I've done."

Writer: Paul Cornell

Format: Short Story

Released: 15 April 2020

Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis

A new short story by Paul Cornell.

Verdict

The Shadow Passes was a decent little story to keep us Doctor Who fans going during lockdown, something that doesn't seem like being lifted anytime soon. At least, it doesn't here in Wales. I'm not really sure what they're playing at over the border but I am glad to be Welsh and back living in my homeland! I enjoyed this story and whilst it was a little childish and playful with the mentions of bottoms, it was largely good and a very good allegory for the current lockdown situation with all that's going on during this coronavirus outbreak. The setting of Calapia was an intriguing one as almost immediately after arriving, the fam were in danger. That's not an unusual occurrence, but the source of the danger was very much just a natural phenomenon. I think that's a big positive of these little short stories in that you can bring some normality to the Doctor's travels in the TARDIS with her companions. It doesn't all have to be fighting monsters and defeating aliens. Here, they'd arrived amidst an event that only happens every sixty-four years with the Death Moon passing over the planet. I think we should have learned a little more about it and what it could do rather than just accepting danger from the name, but it was very good to have the Doctor and her friends locked up below ground without any choice in the matter. They'd come to accept their situation pretty quickly and their efforts in playing board games was great. I am sure a number of families and households must be playing them more than ever now – I know I have been playing a few games with my girlfriend including Doctor Who Trivial Pursuit – so it was good to see something similar here. The writing of the Thirteenth Doctor was brilliant by Paul Cornell and I loved how he wrote her attempting to play board games. She was kind of out of place in being the Doctor and that worked so well. I really enjoyed that. I liked that the story was told from the perspective of Yaz as she's my favourite companion of the three alongside the Thirteenth Doctor, but with that it left very little for Ryan and Graham to do. Their game of Who Am I? was all they had to do really. That was a bit of fun with Yaz being the Doctor. I was surprised that it sparked such a deep conversation between her and the Doctor about how despite all she can, the Doctor always seems to put herself down. I think that's just modesty, but she seemed to attribute it to a bit more than that. With all the revelations recently revealed in Fugitive of the Judoon and The Timeless Children, the Doctor had a lot going on and that was clear. Her discussion about regeneration and changing personality as well as getting a new body was excellent and I loved how she thought that she needed to become someone new as a way of dealign with all of the memories. But then came an intriguing reference to Human Nature/The Family of Blood with how she once trapped a girl in the mirror. She says that isn't who she is now in this incarnation which is interesting as I'm not entirely sure that was even resemblant of the Tenth Doctor's personality. However, with this coming over a week before the watch-along of the above Tenth Doctor story, I think there has been some good planning gone on by Cornell. This seems to have just set things up for what might be to come. Overall, a decent adventure!

Rating: 7/10