Stop the Pigeon

"They come here old and I make them young again."

Writers: Mike Tucker & Robert Perry

Format: Short Story

Released: March 1998

Printed in: Short Trips 1.05

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace

Synopsis

From Neolitch Earth to the furthest reaches of the universe in the far future, Short Trips brings together established Doctor Who authors and first-time writers in a collection of stories exploring the ever-changing worlds of the Doctor and his friends.

Witness the last days of the siege of Masada with the First Doctor and meet the Fourth Doctor's extraordinary 'old flame'. An evil enemy makes life difficult for the Seventh and Third Doctors, and while the Fifth Doctor is under attack on a sinister ship shrouded in fog, the Second may soon be guilty of a grave error of judgement... The Sixth Doctor's hopes of a holiday are dashed when he discovers a pleasure planet is hiding a shocking secret, and the Eighth Doctor is caught up in a deadly drama played out during the construction of Stonehenge.

And, of course, that's just the beginning...

Verdict

Stop the Pigeon was a really good Short Trips story! As far as the adventures in this book go, at nearly fifty pages this was certainly one of the longer ones and that really did allow for some depth and background which is often missing from this range. There was a lot going on here which in a shorter page count may have become rushed or just too convoluted, but there were no worries of that here. It flowed nicely and the pace was really good! I thought the opening was very intriguing with Joe on his way to work at Innovations Unlimited and his commute being dominated by a wasp. I actually felt a little nauseous when all eyes were on him because the wasp had landed on his hand, and the anticipation from everyone regarding what he’d do next was almost uncomfortable! As a regular train user, I wouldn’t fancy that. Of course, the significance would later be know as this was the first way the Virgoan tried to blend in on Earth and fix the time anomaly. As a concept they were a fun species and the way the Doctor acknowledged their presence with almost annoyance was very fun. The Virgoans were almost obsessed with temporal tidiness but they weren’t actually overly good at it which was quite amusing. Describing them as cowboy builders was a fun analogy. I was a little less impressed with them taking the form of a pigeon, but their interaction with Joe and him thinking he was either dreaming or hallucinating was fun stuff. He was having one hell of a morning. I liked the relationship between the Doctor and Ace here, especially once the latter was snatched from him in a flash as that set him into a strong sense of urgency to find her giving the story a good direction. Ace coming across the Master was an unexpected treat and I loved the continuity from Survival with him still suffering from the effects of the Cheetah virus. It would often get the upper hand on him which was good and I just love that we get another encounter between the Seventh Doctor and the Ainley incarnation. We didn’t get enough of that. He was as deranged as ever and his paradoxical scheme of rejuvenating an ageing population in 2067 was incredible. I thought initially it was going to be something akin to The Lazarus Experiment but it was far more complex than that. The Master posing as Chithros was fun and the idea of him being on the cover of Times Magazine was tremendous! What an image that was. His method of solving the ageing population being to literally go back in time and find the people who paid for the service when they were a baby and bring them to the future was audacious to say the least. That’s some paradox! The DNA match couldn’t fail so that was really fun to explore. The Master actually having governmental support was super fun stuff. The Master on the side of the law? Joe being on his side and turning on Ace was a strong moment and I liked how the Doctor shifted into gear in a big way when he knew his arch nemesis was present. He would obviously foil the plan in revealing the truth and the epilogue with the news bulletin was decent in tying things up. The Master feeding off the nutrients from his experiments and having the babies all linked up to medical equipment really showed the tool the Cheetah virus was taking on him. It was a nice touch for him to get an unseen getaway at the end, but that did feel like a slightly easy way to see him off. But should there be much of a wider impact in a Short Trips story? I’m not so sure. Overall though, a really strong read!

Rating: 8/10