Gifts from Afar

"Put me in your police box and take me into custody!"

Writer: Steve Cole

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2023

Printed in: Ten Days of Christmas 07

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis

Return to the incredible days of Ten this Christmas...

For the Tenth Doctor, the festive season always brought adventure.

In fact, he's saved Christmas across space and time more times than we ever knew...

Join the Doctor (and Donna and Martha and Rose, and other friends old and new) for incredible tales of daring and danger. From Daleks plotting to save humanity to Sycorax working to exploit it... from star-narwhals massing on the Moon to a toy factory in space.

Because even in the jolliest of seasons there's a world or two to save.

Verdict

Gifts from Afar was another really strong story to continue my way through the Ten Days of Christmas collection! The big day itself has been and gone now but that's no reason to not get stuck into more festive adventures of the Tenth Doctor. This is the man who once blogged Tales of Terror over the summer so it wasn't a necessity for me to read this over Christmas, but I won't be too far removed by the time the ending comes! This was another strong story in what is turning out to be a very consistent collection. Nothing screams out as extraordinary in this book so far but it's really solid and quite clear that with the entirety of the collection by the same author, that he's bringing out all the best hits in terms of the formula of a Doctor Who story. I'll jump ahead as all of my blog entries are certainly full of spoilers, but when the truth regarding the Aviakks came out that they weren't actually evil but just trying to help I found myself smiling because I should have guessed. It was a good surprise and revelation, but it's not exactly a unique idea. That's fine though as the formula is tried and tested. It does work and did so again here as my rating reflects. It's just from a personal perspective that this was now the 'aliens aren't actually evil' story that we've seen many a time in Doctor Who stories of the past. You can't have a Tenth Doctor collection without having a story that includes Martha as companion and she was wonderful. Despite her popularity I do think she is an underrated companion so it was nice to see her shine here. She built a good relationship with Trinkin in quick fashion and when the Doctor left the two women together as he went in search of their new acquaintance's spaceship, she really did shine in a more senior role. Their discussions about Christmas were fun and fed in nicely to the festive theme of the book, probably in ways much more obvious than some of the book's other instalments. Trinkin having stolen some myrrh, frankincense and gold was pretty humorous, and the Aviakks having used the first two elements to repair her ship was great. Especially because the gold was fake! That was a fun revelation and her moment of realisation was strong, although she might not be in as much trouble now! The Doctor would help but she'd still have to answer for her attempted theft. But the Doctor was in a forgiving mood considering it was nearly Christmas on Jaslo. Martha's reaction to hearing that they still celebrated Christmas was a nice moment that brought her a little closer to home. I liked the Doctor pondering on his previous time to the planet of the pterosaur as he called it and surely it must have been the glimpse we saw with Rose in Army of Ghosts/Doomsday where she said she would stay with him forever. I'm surprised that wasn't referenced as Martha's reaction would have been a hoot! It was funny enough to have her and Trinkin paraded around by the Aviakks! They were just helping though and they'd brought the TARDIS to the height of their base because that's where they took off from so thought the ships should too. It meant the book ended quite calmly despite the threat of meteor storms, but it was still a really enjoyable read! Overall, a strong story. 

Rating: 8/10