On the Slippery Trail

"No one was safe from the powerful suction..."

Writer: Paul Crompton

Format: Short Story

Released: 1976

Printed in: The Amazing World of Doctor Who

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Sarah

Synopsis 

The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith arrive on a seemingly deserted planet but with a giant trail left behind it's clear that the planet hasn't been deserted for long. Where will the trail lead?

Verdict 

On the Slippery Trail was a pretty good little story to continue my ongoing reading of The Amazing World of Doctor Who! I don't think I've ever consistently read a collection of stories that is, or in this case resembles, a Doctor Who Annual since my sporadic reading of the 1980 Doctor Who Annual. That was quite a long time ago now after I fantastically found it in a local collector's shop for just £3.50. In my opinion, that's an absolute bargain for an Annual from the Classic era. But when I consider that to be a bargain, I'm just incredibly envious that my auntie paid a tiny £1.10 for this copy of The Amazing World of Doctor Who and I'm convinced it's pretty rare. I'd never even heard of it before seeing it in the bedroom and although my collection isn't the largest, but is still rather vast, there isn't a lot out there that I don't at least know about. This book took me by surprise and I just had to take advantage of the resource whilst it was available. My cousin and auntie are currently living with my grandparents so we've spent an unprecedented week together now and after watching Revenge of the Cybermen together, I am hopeful that two more television serials will follow. But before that I still have two stories to get through in this interesting little book. I'm still not quite sure what to make of it as we've had some excellent stories in the form of A Fresh Start and The Vampires of Crellium but there have also been some stories that, whilst not disappointing, have also failed to hugely impress and I've probably been a tad generous with my ratings. I would think this story falls into that latter category because whilst there wasn't really anything to be negative about, not an awful lot actually happened in the story. That's obviously why there wasn't much to speak badly of but one thing I do want to highly praise is the characterisation of Sarah Jane Smith. The likeness of Elisabeth Sladen's popular companion was captured with absolute ease and her interaction with the Doctor was superb. The dialogue was absolutely perfect for the time of her character and I even now have her on my Doctor Who Legacy team lineup. I'm really enjoying that game despite the fact I wasn't able to play it much today but I've still got a tremendous amount of time to fulfil my gaming needs. I was quite surprised that the story length was only four pages long and even for a collection of stories like an Annual, that is very short. It becomes so difficult to tell an effective and entertaining story with a such a small format so I do commend the writers when they manage to pull it off. The Doctor and Sarah just following a trail for most of the story wasn't boring because of the strong dialogue, but there was distinct lack of action. I wasn't overly struck with the Doctor defeating the Jannosaur with salt, of which there was plenty in the local surroundings. It just seemed random and to come out of nowhere but I must admit it made me laugh at how pathetic and ignorant the Anthrons must have been not to use it as a weapon. It was quite comedic but it shouldn't have been and in all honesty that's not important. Overall, a decent little story with not a lot wrong. It just need something more to happen for a better rating. 

Rating: 7/10