Jorus and the Voganauts

"Who could exert that kind of power and yet need assistance?"

Writer: Richard Dinnick
Format: Short Story
Released: June 2017
Printed in: Myths & Legends 05

Featuring: Rassilon

Synopsis

Stuck aboard a Ra'ra'vis ship, Rassilon is helpless in aiding their desire to travel in time. He is forced to concoct numerous experiments with what, to him, is extremely primitive technology. He gets on with those holding him captive, but he's up to something far more purposeful than offering the Ra'ra'vis time travel. He needs an escape route...

Verdict

Jorus and the Voganauts was another very decent short story in what is turning out to be a rather impressively consistent Myths & Legends collection! I really am enjoying this set of adventures and they're now shaping up to be quite different with the return of the Doctor to a story nowhere in sight! This time around we saw Rassilon take the lead role and it was very good to get an insight into such an instrumental figure in Time Lord history, especially at a time when they were raging war against the Vampires. I do perhaps wish there was some more elaboration on the war between the Time Lords and Vampires but I guess a short story is probably not the right place for that as I am sure a great deal more could be told than what would have been available in the space of this story. Like is becoming the case with many of the stories from this collection, I had no idea about the myth or legend that this adventure was based upon but what we got was actually a relatively simple plot. Rassilon was held captive and was using the means he had at his disposal to try and carry out a distress call. He was at the mercy of the Ra'ra'vis, an intriguing race that I am sure could offer more potential should they ever return in the future, and they were so longing for time travel. They had captured Rassilon by chance so their luck was in but he wasn't quite adhering to their wishes. You could hardly blame him for trying to escape, right? Rassilon drawing the Vogan ship to his proximity was great and I really liked that they got another outing in a Doctor Who story, albeit set some time before Revenge of the Cybermen. Their determination to brake through the asteroid barrier and save the alien captive they knew was there, despite knowing who he was, was commendable and quite impressive. Once Meda knew that they were coming, that was that. They accepted defeat and would have to wait for time travel despite their best wishes. The way this story set up what we saw in the aforementioned Cyberman story from Season 12 was terrific with Rassilon thanking Jorus and the Vogans for their help by providing them with the technology they would need in the wars to come and by giving them the Time Lord seal in a ceremonial way. This would explain why it was visible on Voga when the Cybermen came to invade the golden planet. It was a very nice way to tie things in with history and even thought the stories were obviously set far apart, the links provided here are great. I thought Rassion was a good character throughout and whilst the illustrations did not really offer much, it was nice to get some visuals of him at this period in Time Lord history. I thought the plot was entertaining and the battle was full of action, even if it was a little short. Overall, a very positive read!

Rating: 8/10