Visiting Hours

"People can get lost in memories."

Writer: Dave Sudden

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2020

Printed in: The Wintertime Paradox 05

Featuring: River, Rory

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

Visiting Hours was another fun short story to continue my way through The Wintertime Paradox collection! This was a unique tale in having Rory team up with River Song and that’s a pairing I never knew I needed. I absolutely loved them together and it was delightful to explore their relationship. There’s so much potential between the characters in their own right but then you throw in the complicated familial connection they have in and there’s a fascinating dynamic there. That was explored ever so well here and being the father of a 17 month old myself, I can’t imagine what Rory would have gone through to see River be taken away from him at birth and then to find out he’d met her all grown up before he’d even conceived her! I thought it was fun to play around with the confusion of River’s genetics and I just love how she exudes confidence. She loves her predicament of being in Stormcage and actually using it as free accommodation. It was so fun to read how she was starting to collect contraband in her cell! That of course included sprouts. The Christmas theme was really well used here as whilst this was far from being a Christmassy adventure, Rory was hurt at what Christmas with his daughter was. Amy wasn’t around for this story, but Rory really wished she was because she was just better at this kind of stuff. Rory probably went slightly overboard when it came to not seriously acknowledging River as his daughter, but he apologised for that. River understood though which was really nice and it was lovely that she knew her father just wanted a traditional Christmas. A visit to Stormcage was far from that! Chyll was an intriguing character for a prison guard and his desire to actually tell the story of River Song was very unique and I quite liked it! Unbeknownst to him, River was already coming and going as she pleased but his offer to ease her escape and not report it so it still appeared that she was locked up was amusing! The explanation of why she was actually in jail was also brilliant when put plainly with the Doctor faking his death and River paying the price because everyone thought she had been the killer. Of course, that’s wasn’t the case and she was fine with her situation if it meant the Doctor was safe. I loved how Rory came into his own towards the final pages of this story as Chyll just couldn’t believe that he would be the one to produce River. He knew all along about Chyll’s plans to tell River’s story and see in her action, but then he shone when pronouncing how he’d been an Auton, set fire to the Cyber legion fleet and even locked Hitler in a cupboard. That was a pretty defining moment for Rory and a fine reminder of his companion credentials. He’s just brilliant. The little After section was intriguing and leads me back to the opener in thinking that there may be something tying all of these adventures together. But for now, this was a great read!

Rating: 8/10