Missing Habitas Frond

"I'm afraid there's been a murder."

Writer: Dave Sudden

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2020

Printed in: The Wintertime Paradox 10

Featuring: Missy

Synopsis 

Did you Davros and the Doctor met for three Christmases, on different planets, across time and space? Have you heard the one about the time the Plasmavores came to pay a festive visit? Or when Madame Vastra fought a cyborg?

The perfect collection of the bleakest – and sometimes brightest – time of the year, these are the tales to get you halfway out of the dark...

Verdict 

Missing Habitas Frond was an excellent adventure to continue my way through The Wintertime Paradox collection! This was a really fun story and I was delighted to open the page and find Missy’s face adorning the whacky illustrations that kick off these tales. I’m such a fan of hers and if there is any new material for Missy released, I am all over it and want to consume it straight away! I think her Big Finish series is incredible and Michelle Gomez is just absolutely tremendous in the role. She is a defining feature of the Twelfth Doctor era and I do hope that we haven’t seen the last of her. She’s simply magnificent and that was on full display here. I thought the author did a good job in capturing the characterisation of Missy as the female incarnation of the Master, and I loved that she used her mental strength to get a seat on the train after she was politely asked to move from Habitas Frond’s pre-booked seat. That felt a bit more modern than the 1909 setting, but the early twentieth century timeline worked well when it came to the lack of technology involved in the theft and murder spree that took Christmas Eve in Edinburgh by storm. The Scottish Crown Jewels being stolen was fun and it was obvious that Missy would have had some involvement, but that wasn’t clear from the outset. Her conversation with Frond was amusing and she genuinely did seem apologetic towards him for his firing that day. I mean, when you allow thieves to escape with Crown Jewels because you were getting a bag of chips, I’m not sure what else he would be expecting. It wasn’t exactly the best excuse but it did make for fun reading! Even Missy realised by the end that he was far from being a good constable or detective. She obviously knew more about him too. The way she tried to get him back into the thick of things with the events she was orchestrating was brilliant and I loved that she was doing all of this because she was bored. The Doctor was busy with River Song on Darillium enjoying married bliss as was depicted in The Husbands of River Song, so she was just waiting around for him. The Scottish city reminding Missy of the Doctor was a nice comment too. It seemed like she needed to be tested and only the Doctor could provide that for her. The mugging on the platform turning into a murder at the hands of Missy via hairpin was a sublime revelation and Frond’s reaction to realising that it was her all along was sensational. He really wasn’t the best detective. The fact he believed that Missy wasn’t responsible for the mugger’s fall off the roof was almost hilarious. Of course he didn’t jump to his death in order to not face the law! The very thought. Horrinthal as the superintendent was a good character and I loved that Frond and Missy went to confront him. Missy almost convinced him that it was his former superior responsible for the deaths, before she finally wound the knots to show that it was all her. He couldn’t believe that. Missy was at her delicious best here and the fact that she killed Horrinthal in the same fashion with a hairpin was gruesome and brittle, yet somehow neat and tidy. Such small things can cause devastating consequences. This was hardly a fun Christmas for anyone involved. Missy’s comment about the mugging being a coincidence and it being a good job that happened because otherwise the old lady who had initially refused to share seats with her was getting it was just tremendous.  

Rating: 9/10