Student Bodies

"Cybermen do not possess morale, and therefore will fight to the last."

Writer: Dave Rudden

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2018

Printed in: Twelve Angels Weeping 05

Featuring: River Song 

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 

Student Bodies was a fantastic story to continue my reading of the Twelve Angels Weeping collection! I thought this was a tremendous short story and I was very close to giving it the perfect rating. It was a fantastic use of the Silence without them actually doing a whole lot and that’s part of their appeal. They made such an impact when they debuted in The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon and the way this story fitted in with the story arcs of the Eleventh Doctor’s first two series was superb. I was really impressed. I particularly enjoyed the unique style of a short story in the format of multiple audio recordings and I must admit that when that was stated on the first page, I had my trepidations. However, it was brilliant from start to finish and PhD student Claire made for a really insightful and interesting character. The subject of cartography is not something I know a great deal about but putting it on an interstellar scale is fascinating. She was trying to map out the stars and make routes easier, but when a planet went missing around Christmas time things really did start to go wrong. The micro bead recordings were fun and I liked that Claire didn’t feel confident enough in herself to go back and listen to them. It would have been quite helpful if she did though! The inclusion of the Silence was excellently done and I loved how their infamous chilling shiver noise was referred to throughout as an unidentified recording. That came more and more throughout and only increased once River Song arrived on the scene. She made a usual spectacular entrance and just having her as an actual student at Lunar University was really fun stuff. River exudes fun and the reputation she had garnered was terrific to learn about from Claire. She wasn’t at all surprised to find that it was River who had set off the fire alarm. That very much sounded like her. It’s fun to think that she’d even been a student at the university for three years and the reaction from Claire when River revealed she was studying archaeology was very amusing. Once they finally met I thought the direction of the story moved well and you felt like the Silence could be tackled and potentially defeated. There was no explanation of the motive of the Silence but that almost made them scarier. That constant reference to an inaudible sound became very eery indeed. The way that Claire’s work was changing before her very eyes was great and the desperation she had in wanting the computer to find her references to planet B4 was palpable. She knew the planet was there and had made orders that required delivery diverting past it, but now they had no such records of any kind of diversion. That planet turning out to be Saturnyne was a brilliant touch and sublime continuity with The Vampires of Venice. That was really impressive and a welcomed explanation! The Silence had erased a whole planet from memory with the cracks. The cameo appearance of Madame Kovarian was really well done as well, although her significance wasn’t massively important to the story. She was keeping tabs on River Song which was good continuity. Overall, this was a terrific read!

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