The Bog Warrior

"I didn't want to steal their final moment together."

Writer: Cecelia Ahern

Format: Short Story

Released: May 2014

Series: Time Trips 06

Featuring: Tenth Doctor

Synopsis

Arriving on the planet Cashel, the Tenth Doctor witnesses a strange masked ball. To guarantee peace, Prince Zircon has to choose a bride from the Bog People – dead men and women who have been resurrected as slaves. Or as warriors. But Zircon is in love with the enslaved Princess Ash, whose parents were deposed and executed by the current Queen. As usual, the Doctor has walked right into trouble, and it's up to him to sort it out.

Verdict

The Bog Warrior was a very good adventure and a great way to continue my reading through the Time Trips series! This is the last set of collections I am currently getting through so maybe a change of format will be on the cards once I read the final two of these, and I have to say I'll quite enjoy that! This one saw the return of the Tenth Doctor to the series which was a little disappointing to be honest as I had hoped to get a variation of Doctors featuring but it looks like the next story will feature another repeat so I guess that's not what they were after. This again had him travelling alone during the 2009 Specials era and I thought his characterisation was excellent throughout. His arrival on Cashel was good and I liked how he knew he should leave once things were getting a little heated with the local politics, but he just couldn't bring himself to do so. Curiosity got the better of him and it definitely wasn't the first time, nor would it be the last. Root was a magnificent character and the relationship he formed with the Doctor was great. I couldn't help feel sorry for him though with his unrequited love of the much older Princess Ash. She was supposedly the most beautiful girl that even the Doctor had seen and he was quite taken aback. The little moment where he saw that he glimpsed her getting changed was terrific and mischievous in a young boy way which was good and just real. It wasn't anything sinister and the Doctor's smile confirmed that to us. The looming war was a good focal point and it seemed quite the decision for Zircon to pick any of the Bog People to be his bride and avoid conflict. The Bog People were horrifying though and the very concept of their living was just awful! They were the dead brought back to life by nature conjoining with a planetary shift that Xenotime had claimed was her own doing and had become the kingdom's ruler as a result. The descriptions of the people was just grotesque and them all having different levels of decay was just dismal. The poor people! What was even worse was that some of those who hadn't come back had their faces made into a cast that people wore as masks, something the Doctor had to do in a dress in a very comical moment. I liked Mossy as a character and him knowing that the Doctor initially sent him the wrong way when the search for Ash was underway was good as he was on Root's side. They wanted to overthrow the Queen. The use and search for the shoes was very good and I liked the connections it had with Root witnessing her parents' final moment together. They would eventually bring about her downfall but instead of killing her, like Xenotime had done to Ash's mother, the new ruler would see that the evil monarch would spend her days doing hard labour. This was what she had made the Bog People do and that was some very sweet justice. A real fitting end. Overall, a very good adventure with some excellent political aspects and a lot of intrigue. The Doctor was on form and this was a positive story all around.

Rating: 8/10