Fairytale of New New York

"I like cats."

Writer: Gary Russell

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2016

Printed in: Twelve Doctors of Christmas 06

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Mel

Synopsis

New Earth sees Catkind in the positions intended for aid. Hospitals, doctors, clinics. You name it, they're there to help. Except not every human actually likes cats. Some are allergic. An experiment to prevent those allergies has become out of hand and the Sixth Doctor and Mel look to put it right.

Verdict

Fairytale of New New York was another decent story to continue my reading of the Twelve Doctors of Christmas collection and another wonderfully-named adventure! It was the second successive piece of genius when it comes to story titles, but sadly this one didn't really have much to do with a fairytale of New New York. That's not to say it wasn't a good story - my rating clearly reflects my enjoyment - but I'd have just liked a more focused setting of New New York rather than a ship in space containing children and Catkind from there. The arrival of the Doctor and Mel was good and I liked their banter regarding where exactly they were. Mel was challenging the Doctor but he always seemed to have some sort of roundabout way of not being wrong. At least in his own eyes anyway. One thing I felt that slightly let this story down was the characterisation of the Sixth Doctor. It wasn't all that strong and other than descriptions of his famed multi-coloured coat and cat brooch, there wasn't much likeness to Colin Baker's sixth incarnation in terms of his actions and what he was saying. On the other hand though, I felt the characterisation of Mel was excellent and I really enjoyed it when she stood up to Charge Tarrow. That was a great moment! The Doctor having a history with the Catkind was good and it was pretty evident in New Earth that he had been there prior to his tenth self taking Rose, but in a similar situation to A Comedy of Terrors, I'd have loved for this to be his first visit. It didn't really matter and didn't change my liking of the story but it's just a selfish point of view. The little nods to the televised appearances of New Earth were great with the likes of the Sisters of Plenitude pumping things out into the atmosphere. Mel already felt calmer which was a nice touch. I really liked how this story came at the Catkind from a different direction and explain that humanity's affection for cats was meant to make them more comfortable in hospitals where they otherwise might not be, but of course not everyone liked cats. There were even some who were allergic and that was something this ship was trying to eradicate. Human children were test subjects but they weren't aware of that fact. That seemed a tad unbelievable but in the spirit of Christmas I was willing to let that slide. The Doctor being mistaken for Santa Claus could have done with some more explanation though as he didn't really look the part! An elderly and bearded Colin Baker might be more feasible but of course that's not who we had here. Charge Tarrow's explanation for the children she was supposedly 'eating' was also a little easy and simple as her own offspring were suffering from allergies to humans. It was rare but deadly. She was trying to reverse engineer the qualities found that made humans no longer allergic to cat fur. This story basically told us one thing - tell the truth! Everything would have been so much better and nothing really would have gone wrong. There would be no sneaking about or worried children in distress. I thought that was a good message to have in a collection of stories that were celebratory. Overall, another decent adventure!

Rating: 7/10