The Haven

"Life is going on..."

Writer: Unknown
Format: Short Story
Released: September 1982
Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 1983

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan

Synopsis

The Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan investigate some strange life signs on the barren Planet 435 and they discover a mysterious and monotonous Carnak, the apparent caretaker for the planet's haven of bodies in suspended animation. But all is not as it seems...

Verdict

The Haven was a terrific little short story that saw me return to my reading of the 1983 Doctor Who Annual for the first time in nearly two years! I seem to have favoured stories of more prestige and greater length in recent times but after a venture into the attic and numerous wardrobes and chest of drawers to locate sources, I couldn't resist the retro feel of a Classic-era Annual and I was excited to be reading another story. The format was much better than I remembered it and I really did think the accompanying artwork was good and adds a little bit of flavour to this kind of story. I'm not sure it would really work all that well if it was just a big block of text. Thankfully, that was not the case! I thought the trio of the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan worked really well and I was very impressed with the writing of the Doctor as Peter Davison's likeness was captured effortlessly on the page - something that is not always the case in these Doctor Who Annuals. I thought the plot was excellent and despite some sketchy moments, I really enjoyed the premise of what was going on. The Haven was a great basis for the story and the 24th century setting was really intriguing. The links it had with the 1990s was what really caught my attention and I liked how reading in hindsight brought a different perspective to the story. As it is 2018 and cryogenics is far from perfect, we know that freezing bodies and waiting for deadly diseases to be cured is not a thing but in 1982, it seems that it might have been an imminent expectation and as a History student, I really do find that extremely fascinating. It paints a wonderful picture of the world at that time and it's brilliant to see it reflected in a Doctor Who story. I thought Nyssa was really good in this adventure and I liked how inquisitive she was regarding what was happening around her. Tegan was decent too but I think the native of Traken was definitely the better companion in this story. Carnak was mysterious which was great and although I wasn't sure about his sudden change of tone once he caught the Doctor and co snooping around, he served as a good villain. He was using the people who had voluntarily allowed themselves to be frozen as glorified robots in order to maintain perfection on the Haven and the Doctor was having none of it. The battle of minds was good but I was also unsure over the Doctor's confidence in having defeated him forever. That seemed a tad too easy but as a whole, I really did enjoy this little text adventure and I think with my reaching the end of university and the workload that comes with that, they could be a little more common on the blog in the near future. Overall, a great story!

Rating: 8/10