Silver Mosquitoes

"To be bitten by one is to invite death."

Writer: L. M. Myles

Format: Short Story

Released: June 2015

Printed in: The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who 07

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara

Synopsis

The Twelfth Doctor adheres to Clara's wishes of going to the Roman era. She wants the encampments, but he provides the forest. Soon they meet Caesar, but perhaps not the one they bargained for. Deadly insects are on the uprise, don't get bitten...

Verdict

Silver Mosquitoes was another decent little continuation of The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who! This one wasn’t quite up the recently super high standard, but it was still a very enjoyable little read. I say little in the literal sense because twelve pages really isn’t much at all and it’s testament to a lot of the authors in this collection that they manage to put together an entertaining adventure over such a small word count. That’s a challenge in itself, but for the most part this book has been rather enthralling which I am delighted to say. I didn’t really notice what scientific element this particular short story was about and I haven’t even gone to look at the chapter titles, but the only thing I can think of was the silver mosquitos of the adventure’s title. What is scientific about them in the real world I am unsure. Nevertheless, it turned out to be a good read and once again, from a personal perspective, plague was being used as a weapon. That’s obviously where the mysterious and enigmatic mosquitos fitted in but I was kind of hoping, rather hopelessly, that they might turn out to be some new batch of Cyber technology! Who was I kidding though? One thing that really impressed me in this book was just how well the characterisation of Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor was captured. That certainly was a story highlight and it provided a lot of good moments. Clara having to stop the Doctor from responding when he found out that some of the locals had used prayer as a means to try and combat the patients suffering from the strain was magnificent, but I have to say I definitely sided with the Doctor’s sentiments on this one. What use was praying going to be? I also found the realism of the moment at the story’s conclusion quite poignant with the Doctor simply stating that he wasn’t the planet’s medical officer and couldn’t save everyone. That often gets forgotten, especially in stories of this nature, so that worked well and I think Clara’s reaction of acceptance showed just how right the Doctor’s words were. I thought Ulpia was a good character and it was nice to have her trying to follow in her husband’s footsteps. Caesar would take some emulating though and these mosquito pests were causing havoc. I don’t think the silver mosquitos were quite utilised to their full potential, but they still served their purpose and that was a good one. I also think a bit more could have been of the setting and whilst I fully appreciate that there wasn’t very much time to play around with, it was established that Clara really wanted to visit the Roman era and see the encampments and whilst there was a bit of humour surrounding the forest and bathe Doctor technically giving her what she asked for, I still think there could have been more. It definitely didn’t feel like a Roman era story which was a slight shame. I thought the conclusion was quite logical but that doesn’t always mean it’s entertaining as it was just all nicely agreed for the mosquitos to be taken away and everyone go their separate ways. I mean, the Doctor must have been delighted but for the reader that’s a slightly underwhelming occurrence. It seemed in line with the Doctor’s character that he wouldn’t go back and get the reward he’d been promised by Ulpia, but I was quite surprised that Clara didn’t push him a bit more into collecting that. It could have been quite a lot of fun! As a whole though, this remained a decent little outing with the relationship between the Doctor and Clara presented very well. One thing it definitely had going for it was that it felt perfectly suited to Series 8 and that’s a big positive in my eyes. Overall, a good little story to keep the collection ticking over. 

Rating: 7/10