Day of the Dragon

"Surely you're not saying that Sarah's 'dragon' came up from the cellar and killed the Colonel? That kind of thing only happens in bad horror films!"

Writer: Unknown

Format: Short Story

Released: September 1984

Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 1985

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis 

After Colonel Latham is burned to death in extraordinarily mysterious circumstances, the Doctor fears one of his most devastating and destructive enemies has found its way to Earth in the form of a fire breathing dragon.

Verdict 

Day of the Dragon was a very good short story to continue along the high standard already set in this 1985 Doctor Who Annual by Battle Planet, a story I did what must be some ten months ago now! I really enjoyed that one and I'm glad a similar standard continued here. I've openly voiced how critical I can be of the Annual stories partly due to their length or lack of adventure needed to tackle the short format but with the Classic era, the limited stories I have read have been impressive and I can't remember a Classic Annual story dropping below a 7/10 rating, and that's both comic strip or in this adventure's case, short stories. It was rather refreshing to read a story featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri! It seems an awfully long time since I've done a story with a TARDIS pairing I so dearly love. The relationship between these two is just wonderful and I think it might have been my reading of Players which was some time before Christmas was the last time I got an adventure with these two. But that will soon consistently change after my recent blogging of The War Games which brought an end to my chronological run of blogging the TV adventures. The reason I only went as far as the Second Doctor's tenure was because the whole reason I was watching chronologically again was because I discovered the magnificent Loose Cannon recons of the missing episodes and to get a better feel of those technically 'new' stories, or at least partly new, I thought watching in order was the only option. And I definitely proved myself right because I'm not sure, in fact I'm pretty certain, that the departures of Vicki and Victoria or the deaths of Katarina and Sara would have me as hard. However, the run ending means I'll have plenty more opportunities to reconnect with the Sixth Doctor and Peri on screen! But even here in print they were superb together. The characterisation of Peri probably could have been better but the humour shared with the Doctor was absolutely spot on. The accompanying illustrations were very good I think and I like the idea of including them because it gives some much needed visualisation to what may otherwise appear a very boring piece of writing. Who wants to read a boring old piece of text? Yes, the irony of my own blog was intended! The death of Colonel Latham was certainly mysterious which opened things up nicely and I loved Harper and Sarah's reactions to the burnt out corpse that accompanied the stories of dragons being spotted in the cellar. Once that was mentioned where else would the Doctor be heading? No dragons down there though. With nothing else in the room that Latham was killed being scorned, the Doctor suspected he'd be reunited with an old and deadly enemy, one we've never seen before. So I want to see/hear/read that original story in which Qualor is given Zalon to do with what he likes! The fact the Doctor and a dragon were having a conversation was great and I liked how Peri seemed to be shocked into silence by what was going on throughout most of this adventure. The thought of the TARDIS being surrounded in flames was good and I loved how the Doctor found a weakness simply by conversing with the dragon. He knew that because Latham was killed, he must have posed a threat to Qualor. That meant that he had a way of destroying the alien dragon. Of course, the Doctor found it and laid the trap for a spectacular demise of the dragon and his compatriots. An explosive demise. The Doctor would see that Sarah and Harper would return in the near future when all was safe. Overall, a very neat and tidy story and I just think it's a darn shame that the writer is unknown! I scoured the web for an answer but came to know result sadly. 

Rating: 8/10