Ante Bellum

"Germans, that's all I need!"

Writer: Stephen Hatcher
Format: Short Story
Released: May 2004
Printed in: Short Trips: Past Tense 05

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace

Synopsis

Maurice Bernard heads for his dig site. He is pleased they found a goblet that possibly came from Troy. However, he is shocked to see that the dig site has been completely destroyed, with the goblet sitting in the centre of the devastation. The Doctor knows why, and he needs to take the goblet off world before it's too late.

Verdict

Ante Bellum was a very good little story that got the Past Tense collection of Short Trips right back on track! After a shaky blip in the previous story of CHAOS, we got back to normality with another good and consistent adventure. This time around we saw the Seventh Doctor and Ace on their travels and they arrived in Constantinople in 1914, shortly before the outbreak of World War One. I thought that was an excellent setting and the way it would come to play a part in the overall plot being quite different from most adventures. The use of the goblet was intriguing with it being powerful and having an early version of a chameleon circuit. It was actually not a goblet at all but more a Krivani propulsion unit from a crash some twelve millennia ago. The signal to come and retrieve it due its value was never met by the species as they were engaged in a deadly war that would see their species end. It was an emotional tale but I really liked that they were far removed from the events of the story and it was just their object left behind that became the issue. There was no need for them to actually appear so that was a positive. The relationship between the Seventh Doctor and Ace was very good and it was just nice to see them get along so well for the duration of an adventure. There was genuine concern for each other's safety once they were split apart after robbing the goblet with the Doctor ending up in a Turkish prison, but Ace being captured by the English representatives in the city seeking to take the goblet's power for their own country. The political tensions during a time of pre-war, but with something firmly on the way, was brilliant and dealt with in just the right proportion. Ace thinking so badly of the Turkish prisons based on a TV show she'd seen was quite apt for character, but perhaps my favourite thing about this story was that the British were presented as the bad guys. I liked that contrast to normality and it was really quite different. I could probably have done without Ace actually mentioning that as with this being in the past, it did not really need addressing. The pace of the story was fun and back and forth and I was quite taken aback by how brutal some of the violence towards Ace was. She was full on slapped in the face to the point she was spitting blood twice. I am not at all advocating violence towards women or at all for that matter, but it just made things that bit more realistic. I was a fan of the way the setting and its surroundings were captured on the page. The Doctor gaining the trust of his Turkish colleagues was fun and what you'd expect of him and I liked how the end had a three-way tussle between Turkish, German and English officials all wanting the power of the goblet. A fight ensued and the Englishmen perished at the hands of the goblet after an inadvertent shot, but the Doctor was more saddened by the prospects of his newfound Turkish friends with the coming war. Would they survive being allied with Germany? Could they cope in a new era for the country following civil war? It was nice for the Doctor to actually ponder on the aftermath of his meeting with people on his travels. He got rid of the threat of the goblet into the Vortex, but something much worse was coming to Earth. Overall, a great little story!

Rating: 8/10