Earth

"Evolution in effect."

Writer: Jim Mortimore
Format: Short Story
Released: October 2005
Printed in: Short Trips: The Solar System 03

Featuring: Fourth Doctor

Synopsis

The Fourth Doctor has ended up on Earth with Jake, a young man from 1939, 50 million years into his future. The only species left on Earth are two species of large robot ants and a cattle-like species that the Doctor claims are humanity's descendants...

Verdict

Earth was not the greatest short story in the world, it has to be said. I was bitterly disappointed with this one unfortunately and after a good start to The Solar System edition of this Short Trips volume, the longest story in the collection will surely be the worst. I'll be stunned if anything is as bad as this and I really was quite generous with my rating! I really thought Jake was just an awful character and having him as the basis of the first person mode of storytelling was an awful choice. I just knew from the first page or two that I wasn't going to enjoy this. I'm not usually a fan of the first person at all but there have been exceptions such as my recent reading of Scratchman, but my return to the Fourth Doctor was far from a similar standard. It felt quite rushed and there wasn't much clarity and elaboration on what was actually happening. There was such a big jump from 1939 and 50 million years into the future and whilst I did like that this was not a traditional story for the Earth setting, it just didn't work for me. It had nothing to do with the unfamiliar setting, it just wasn't good. The concept of Earth 50 million years into the future is a very good one and I like the idea of things being totally different to what we know of our planet today. Instead of humanity remaining the dominant species, Earth was now the battleground for the last remaining species of robotic ants. The battle between the Black and Red ants needed to be made more of in my opinion but that is where the first person became a limitation. We just got to experience Jake's reaction of everything that was happening and I just wasn't interested to be honest. If it was the Doctor doing the narrating then that would have been different, but he was just reduced to being a clearly far superiorly intelligent person who was annoying always referred to as the Zoot. I didn't understand that and the more it occurred the more it aggravated me. I won't lie, even at just 40 pages this was a struggle to read. Right, so my rating is obviously not completely disastrous so I will mention some positives! Hurrah! I did like the setting and as I said, the battle between the ants was good but needed more. The moment where the Doctor revealed that the meadow contained what was left of humanity was a grotesque moment but one that I thought was excellent. I'd have liked some more development on that but the fear that Jake would end up like that was good. I thought the ending was action packed but as a whole was still lacking. The one good thing with Jake was when he saw the Empire State Building being something different to the dominating aspect of the landscape he is so used to. I really liked that moment. Overall though, this one was just lacking a lot and that was a big shame. The characterisation of the Fourth Doctor was also really bad too! Ugh.

Rating: 5/10