Red Planet

"I led my people into the storm."

Writer: Dave Rudden

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2018

Printed in: Twelve Angels Weeping 02

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Leela

Synopsis 

On every planet that has existed or will exist, there is a winter...

Many of the peoples of Old Earth celebrated a winter festival. A time to huddle together against the cold; a time to celebrate being half-way out of the dark.

But shadows are everywhere, and there are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things, lurking in the cold between the stars.

Here are twelve stories – one for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas – to remind you that to come out of the darkness we need to go into it in the first place.

We are not alone. We are not safe. And, whatever you do: don't blink.

Verdict 

Grey Matter was another excellent short story to continue my way through the Twelve Angels Weeping collection! I really like the style of this book in that each instalment tells you which villain the adventure is focusing on and whilst we started strong with the titular Weeping Angels, following up with the Ice Warriors is tremendous! I’m a massive fan of the natives of Mars so I was surprised to find that much of this book was actually focused on the Sycorax! That was an unexpected treat as I do think they made a big impact on screen in The Christmas Invasion and getting what I believe to be their earliest encounter with the Doctor so far here was excellent! It was really intriguing to have them depicted as pirates and their belief in stolen technology being christened as new was superb! I thought that was really good and a new take on theft in a way to try and legitimise it. It was a very fun concept. You can’t really go wrong with the pairing of the Fourth Doctor and Leela with their relationship depicted really well here. All of the familiar traits in their relationship were present although the comedic values of the companion were on the back burner here which was the right move given her role in the story’s conclusion. Kyrss as the Ice Warrior was a fantastic character and I loved the description of him and his ability to fight. He was almost indestructible and that had led to a number of Sycorax betting on him and winning time after time. The Fourth Doctor getting an encounter with the Sycorax was great and painted a fun image of my head of them clashing. Kyrss believing himself to be the last Ice Warrior provided a strong moment for him to reflex and explain that he kept on fighting simply because his body wouldn’t let him die. The Great Diaspora was an intriguing event to reference and Leela’s method of dealing with a storm being not to do anything was contrary to the Doctor wanting to tackle or head on. What else would he do? Only he could try and take on nature. The line from the Doctor about imagining being the last of your people and giving up looking for them was incredibly powerful given what we know is to come in his future. That was pretty poignant. The Doctor involved in the Sycorax betting affairs was amusing as they really didn’t seem interested in his comments on probability. He was right though when it came to anyone getting rich if they bet against the seemingly indescribable Ice Warrior. He had a trick up his sleeve though in the form of Leela! I thought she had a tremendously strong outing here and having her encounter the Ice Warriors was a perfect match. She knew all about honour and that was a code sacred to the Ice Warriors so she could talk on the level of Kyrss. The way she challenged him to buy time for the Doctor and Bathast was sublime and she really was on another level here. The way she was able to interact with him and understand how he felt lost was just brilliant. He’d been tormented to fight after fight in the Cage which was a fascinating facility in its own right. Bathast accepted death when it was decided she would have to do battle with him which said everything we needed to know about his combat skills. A Nimon or Rutan were on offer but the Ice Warrior meant death. The honour Kyrss felt was something to live by and when he heard other Ice Warriors had survived the relief was clear on the page. Leela was able to have him surrender and he just wanted death, but the way he would get an honourable one in saving the rest of his diasporic race was really well done. It’s a shame the Doctor didn’t get the happy ending he wanted and his feelings on honour were laid out very clearly which was terrific, but as a whole this was a brilliant read!

Rating: 9/10