The Mondas Touch

"He had become a superhuman in less than a week."

Writer: Richard Dinnick
Format: Short Story
Released: June 2017
Printed in: Myths and Legends 01

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor

Synopsis

The society of Catrigan Nova is changing with technological advancement on an unprecedented scale in the form of Queen Lydia's new gauntlet. It can enhance strength and memory but it begins to spread and a familiar silver grows. Only Mr. Clever can put a stop to this disease...

Verdict

The Mondas Touch was a decent beginning to my reading of the Myths and Legends collection of short stories! I quite like the idea of this book as I have always found mythology incredibly interesting despite it not being my preferred area of study when it comes to my current Masters and previous Bachelors degrees in History. I thought this one was a little slow to start with the absence of any familiar characters for the first third of the adventure but once it got going, it turned into a very good tale! I am unsure why the Doctor was not referred to by his name but I thought it actually suited the Twelfth Doctor to want to be known as Mr Clever. It was quite apt for this incarnation and I liked how he had been hunting down this gauntlet that had found its way to Catrigan Nova which sold the credibility of just what it meant. The little hints of the truth of the technology's identity were very good and I liked how it wasn't until the Doctor arrived that it was confirmed to be of Cyber origin. I thought the one thing that might have hurt this story a little was the restrictions on its length because the idea here was actually fantastic. It was almost like a Cyber disease with the way the gauntlet spread Cyber technology and upgraded humans, even just part of them, into Cybermen. The Doctor was quick to realise this would happen and his prediction of them creating Leaders soon came into fruition. He was hardly surprised. The Doctor's relationship with both Lydia and Mida was very good and I thought their relationship with each other was actually one of the best things about the story. They had disagreements over the use of the gauntlet which were seemingly warranted but they emotionally came to embrace each other in an emotional conclusion to the story. I'll admit that I didn't really know anything about the mythological story this adventure was based upon but I still enjoyed it. Taking myths into space is a great concept and I thought it worked well here as there was a familiar element. The Doctor mentioning Handles was a lovely throwback to The Time of the Doctor but his whole Mr Clever monicker was realised wonderfully with how quickly the Queen accepted his expert knowledge. He didn't stay in the cell long and quickly used the gold in the controlled water flow of the planet to basically drown and destroy the Cybermen once they had been lured in. It was a clever ending and I thought Lydia losing her arm was excellent as we shouldn't always get happy endings, especially in mythology. Overall, a good start.

Rating: 7/10