The People's Temple

"He wants to be a god in the afterlife."

Writer: Paul Leonard

Format: Short Story

Released: March 1998

Printed in: Short Trips 14

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Sam

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

The People's Temple was a great little short story to conclude the first volume of Short Trips! It’s been a long time coming for me to actually complete this collection and I haven’t done it wholly in story order, but it’s been a real treat! I like that things concluded with what I believe to be the contemporary TARDIS pairing of the time of release with the Eighth Doctor and Sam, and that’s a pairing I’m always glad to revisit. I’m obviously incredibly far behind in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels (one day I will catch up!), so getting a little bonus for them here was a nice touch. I thought the characterisation of the Eighth Doctor was strong but for me I was a big fan of how Sam was written. She’s a really strong companion and I love the idea of her wanting to visit Stonehenge but at a time when it was actually purposed as a temple. That’s a fun idea and venturing over four millennia into her past was really exciting. I thought she was really audacious in defying the Doctor when he realised they weren’t exactly in the same time he had initially thought, but she wanted to experience this. She’d heard the guttural screams and knew this wasn’t an ordinary sacrifice. She wanted to help but did promise not to interfere if it was a typical sacrifice. I have reservations about that! I was a big fan of the setting and Sam introducing herself as the Holy Mother was rather fun! Coyn and Shalin were two really strong characters and I liked the way things came full circle for them. We had them as youngsters at the start but by the end the former had killed the latter just because of some words. That was a powerful moment and a bit of a shock, and I can’t help but feel the Doctor was partly to blame with his use of the word killing. I thought the format of the adventure was great as it’s not common to get chapters and even a prologue and epilogue in a story that’s only forty-eight pages. I was all for it though and it really helped to break things up as this was one of the longer Short Trips. The fate of Dorlan was another big shock as I was really enjoying the relationship he’d built with Sam, so his death came very suddenly and was a powerful moment for sure. The effect that had on Sam was good to see as she was learning that she didn’t always know best when it came to interfering in time. She blamed herself for starting the war which isn’t easy to disagree with despite the Doctor’s best efforts to explain that events would have taken a similar course regardless. She was deeply saddened though and I couldn’t blame her. One good that did come of everything though was Coyn freeing the people of Dorlan after Sam served her punishment in preparing the bodies of the dead. That was neat and tidy in the end despite the emotional conclusion. For a religious based story, I wasn’t expecting so much death! I would have just liked something regarding Stonehenge at the end, but overall this was still a great read! 

Rating: 8/10