Freedom

"It will undoubtedly be destroyed when it reaches its own moment of creation."

Writer: Steve Lyons

Format: Short Story

Released: September 2023

Series: Short Trips 06

Featuring: Third, Jo, Brigadier

Synopsis

From Neolithic 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

Freedom was a really good story to continue my way through the first volume of the Short Trips books! I’m always a big fan of revisiting the Third Doctor’s exile on Earth following the events of The War Games (and beyond), especially when the theme is the exile itself. I really liked the continuity with The Mind of Evil in having the Master imprisoned at Stangmoor Prison and there is somewhere quite familiar with him which is fun. Well, familiar with Keller at least and his appearance. The Doctor having sympathy for his Time Lord counterpart was intriguing and quite a stunning way to kick off the story. With this story taking place somewhere during the events of Season 8, exile is still relatively fresh for the Doctor and it’s fair to say here he hasn’t entirely come to terms with it. He’s struggling being contained to one planet and one time so when the Master is contained to a single prison he has all of the sympathy. To him, an entire planet is small scale imprisonment. The Brigadier’s reaction to the Doctor almost asking if the Master could have a bigger space for his imprisonment was superb and met with the expected bafflement. After trying to take over the planet a few times, the Brigadier sarcastically suggested just giving the Master the key to his cell! It’s fair to say he wasn’t in agreement with his scientific advisor. I thought Jo had a really strong outing in this episode and it’s good to expand on her early days at UNIT. She’s settled in by now and conjured a relationship with the Doctor, but she’s still a little ditzy and the inner thoughts of the Doctor when she asks more questions showed that. The direction of the story was really good as it was essentially the Doctor getting trapped within his own trap. The concept of the construct was really good to explore and I think it would definitely be worthy of a full length novel. There’s a lot of potential to explore the gap between seconds and whilst it was impossible to get there, the idea of it being occupied and then there being conflict occurring within was excellent. I really liked how the Master had forced his mind there too in the form of Gooder and even in a short story at just twenty-six pages, we get a good old disguise so associated with his character in this era. The Doctor knew it right away but the reveal of that goatee was still a good moment. I’m a sucker for a Master reveal even when it’s obvious. The way the story shifted between times leading up to the Doctor and Jo being stuck in the construct was good and kept things bouncing back and forth which was fun and certainly helped with the pace. It wasn’t quite frantic but it was fast flowing. It was a breeze to read. The Doctor accepting the circumstances of he and Jo being trapped was good and I loved how she refused to just take the situation as it was. There was no way to tell time or how it was passing here which must be incredibly difficult. Jo had slept three times but it was troublesome to not know for how long each time! The conclusion to this one was so powerful as Jo had to almost plead with the Doctor to save Earth. He was prepared to leave the fate of the planet to the Time Lords as they temporarily restored his knowledge of time travel and the TARDIS, but Jo was enough to get him to immediately give up his freedom. I’m not too sure how I feel about the Doctor putting himself ahead of Earth, but it was powerful stuff. Overall, a really good read!

Rating: 8/10