The Body Bank

"You stump up the cash and rent out your body to someone else."

Writer: Gareth Roberts

Format: Short Story

Released: August 2007

Printed in: Doctor Who Storybook 2008

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis

Close to the year five billion, on the planet Fraxinos, Natalie Sharrocks is attacked by a Chelonian. It accuses her of destroying a Chelonian breeding planet, but how is that possible? Natalie's been at the Body Bank for the past year. Can Natalie discover the truth? It seems, not without the Doctor...

Verdict

The Body Bank was a great short story to continue my reading of the 2008 Doctor Who Storybook! These particular releases can be a little whacky and that was evident in this book's opener of Cats and Dogs, but this was something more of a traditional Doctor Who story and one that I thought worked very well! I very much enjoyed going to the far future and whilst we were still a couple of hundred centuries earlier than what Martha experienced in Gridlock, the proximity was good and referencing that episode was a good indicator to show roughly when we were. This was the far future and technology had moved on, but so had junk food. The concept behind the titular Body Bank was actually fantastic and absolutely rife for a Doctor Who adventure. I was a big fan of the selling point for the Bank that I took as my opening quote as it must be incredibly appealing and enticing for someone else to just take your body and do the work out! I am speaking as someone who has taken up running this year and I'm in the middle of a fundraiser for Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity where I'm running 100k in February, and I could definitely be convinced for someone else to do an early morning run in my own shoes! Especially if it just felt like my mind was asleep when the created minds took over my body. That's brilliant, but of course it would be used for evil here and it was done so in a very clever way. Colly as the Body Bank owner was a good character and I liked how he seemed inferior almost right away when the Doctor brandished his trusty psychic paper to show that he was actually an officer and investigating the claim against Natalie Sharrocks that she had murdered several Chelonians. The threat from the Chelonian that was on the hunt for her throughout the first half of the story was good and I liked how that came to fruition at the climax, although I do think the Doctor was able to explain the situation perhaps a little easily. A consequence of the limited word count perhaps? It wasn't bad by any means but it definitely could have been shown a little more. The death of the true culprit within the body of Baxter was a nice way to tie everything up, but a little bit quick as well! He died from the shock which was a little difficult to buy considering the death he had caused in Natalie's body, but it did provide a really nice moment for Martha to showcase her medical instincts and rush to his aid. But there would be no pulse to find. I thought the illustrations that accompanied this story were really good and I was a big fan of the layout as well. It looked artistic and really helped with the flow of the story. It was an easy read and the background art was a great help in visualising the adventure. It only complimented the story which is a huge positive. Martha's reaction to the concept at the Body Bank was one of interest in the future technology, whereas when the Doctor heard those two words he was rather disgusted. He seemed to work things out pretty easily which I liked and he wasn't a fan of the organisation at all. The characterisation of the Tenth Doctor was decent but not overbearing. There wasn't much of a chance for the humour of David Tennant to come out in the prose, but that wasn't bad at all. As a whole, I thought the concept behind the story was fantastic and I definitely think it could work even better in a longer format. For now though, a really strong adventure! A great read.

Rating: 8/10