The King in Glass

"Throne rooms generally only had one chair."

Writer: Dave Rudden

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2018

Printed in: Twelve Angels Weeping 09

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

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 

The King in Glass was another fun adventure to continue my reading through the Twelve Angels Weeping collection! The Zygons were a certainty to feature in this collection and their presence wasn’t felt much throughout, but that wasn’t an issue as from the subtitle we knew they were coming and the anticipation was built pretty darn nicely. I must admit that prior to reading given that this story featured the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory, I was hoping that this adventure would depict their encounter with Zygons mentioned and taking place during the events of The Power of Three when they were no longer full time travelling companions in the TARDIS. Unfortunately that didn’t happen and I think it was a slightly missed opportunity to fill in a gap, but that’s not to take anything away from this story in its own right. It was really entertaining! I was surprised that apart from a brief cameo at the start when she was a hologram, Amy didn’t feature here and allowed us a rare tale with the Eleventh Doctor essentially having Rory as a sole companion. That was a fun dynamic and it’s clear that Mr Pond isn’t quite as headstrong as his wife. It’s not even close really! That provided some fun humour which was lovely to read. I must say that the characterisation of the Eleventh Doctor was excellent and it really did capture all of the traits of Matt Smith on the page. That’s always beneficial! It really did work well in providing an accurate take on this incarnation. The moments where he was talking fast and Rory couldn’t get a word in was great stuff. I thought the Numina Vitri setting worked well and the monarchy system there was slightly different to what we are used to! It didn’t differentiate in terms of a monarch ruling for life, it’s just that the titular glass was reference to a suit of armour that was adorned by the King or Queen that essentially acted as a life support meaning they could rule for millennia! It was more efficient that way. By the end, I thought Rory being able to relate to that length of service thanks to his two thousand years as the Lone Centurion was magnificent. Amy even mentioning that he was forgiven two thousand times over for his actions as an Auton was lovely. The love there was very real! The emergence of the Zygon potentially came a little late but we always knew they were coming which meant it was built to pretty nicely. They were a little different here in taking on a metallic form of the kingly armour suit instead of a normal organic body, and it didn’t sit well with them at all! The Doctor would pounce on that though and take advantage of a glass-like makeup, especially with Vitri glass being immune to the effects of the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor pondering on the motive behind the murder victim in trying to get the throne was good and we could see his mind ticking over and working things out as the story went on. The humour that came from it not actually being the Vizier was fun stuff! The Doctor and Rory certainly went a long way from their arrival in skipping the queue to aid with the murder investigation to now literally working it all out with the Zygons! It was a really solid tale from start to finish and the Zygons were dealt with pretty easily in the end by the new King, but at least they didn’t get the power they were after. Overall, a really great read! 

Rating: 8/10