The Eternal Present

"I am back screaming again and always."

Writer: Steve Cole

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2023

Printed in: Ten Days of Christmas 06

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Rose

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

The Eternal Present was another great short story to continue my way through the Ten Days of Christmas festive collection! After her outing in Life in Oils earlier in the book, this saw a welcomed return for Rose as the companion alongside the Tenth Doctor and I thought the story was a good representation of that Series 2 era. It just felt right at home within that timeframe which is testament to the writing of Steve Cole. Speaking of which, credit must go to him as the author of this book because coming up with ten different stories centred around Christmas cannot be easy! There wasn’t much of a Christmas theme in this story which was fine and it was just in proximity date wise towards the big day, but having an adventure in the Brazilian jungle doesn’t feel all that festive in my opinion! I enjoyed that unique setting though and it was nice to take Rose somewhere different on her home planet. I thought James Pryce was a good character as an agent of MI5 and his search for whatever the Nazis and other national powers were after in this specific location was a great focus for the story. Starting with him within the time bubble he’d be frozen in for 108 years was intriguing though and hearing the description of his eternal screaming in the present was very dark. It wasn’t the revelation I was expecting but I liked that. This story certainly wasn’t predictable. I thought it was fun for James to recognise the Doctor from within the bubble and that was something that surprised the Time Lord, but it would all tie together nicely over the thirty or so pages. I enjoyed Ernest Hobley as the man that was being searched for because of his time freeze technology and the connection to Black Orchid and him being a friend of Cranleigh’s that had gone missing was a nice little addition. That worked very nicely and made sense for him to be in hiding with the ability to go as small as freezing one person in time whilst the world moved around it, or for it to go as large scale as a country. His example of doing that and then having an opposing power’s troops at the borders without the country preparing for defence was excellent, especially in a world where the Nazis were growing and war was once again looming. I was a big fan of that. As I was of the connection of James being found by Jo and Cliff who let the Doctor know. He required some investigating to make sure that James wasn’t dangerous, and getting the information on the expedition and the creature killing his entire party was fantastic. It was timey wimey and somehow not overly confusing! Rose defying the Doctor’s orders of staying in the TARDIS was fun and always going to happen, and I liked how she was sort of responsible for the fate that befell James. His putting the two ends of the faulty time vector together and essentially short circuiting them and himself was good stuff and tied everything up nicely by the conclusion really. The Doctor had sent the creatures to an asylum world and now in 2045 James needed a lift back home. He’d even be there in time for Christmas. Overall, a great little read! 

Rating: 8/10