The Dark River

"Helping me is a crime."

Writer: Matthew Waterhouse
Format: Short Story
Released: October 2019
Printed in: The Target Storybook 05

Featuring: Nyssa, Adric

Synopsis

In the midst of doing battle against the Tereleptils in London during 1666, Adric and Nyssa take an accidental sidestep in the TARDIS to the future of the USA. There, they come face to face with a slave, before being reunited with one of the Doctor's old friends who wants a TARDIS exchange...

Verdict

The Dark River was a pretty decent continuation of my somewhat sporadic reading of The Target Storybook! I liked the uniqueness of this one in that we didn't get anything of the Doctor and setting things midway through The Visitation was a fantastic idea and it's quite fun to think that Adric and Nyssa just journeyed away for four days whilst the Doctor and Tegan needed their help urgently to defeat the Tereleptils! This opens up so much room throughout Doctor Who history for little pockets of adventures to take place unknowingly to other characters. What we got was not the most incredible story by any stretch of the imagination, but it was good for the development of the relationship between Adric and Nyssa. Now, I have made it no secret that I am not an Adric fan, but I am very much a fan of Nyssa so the dynamic here was a little strange from a personal perspective. Even more so considering Matthew Waterhouse was the author! But nonetheless, I thought he did a pretty good job in being able to capture the essence of his character and there was enough annoyance to make it a good representation and characterisation of Adric of Alzarius. I've always been a fan of his abilities to heal quickly and seeing those on full display here was very good. I was less sure about his desire to have helped James as Adric can be incredibly selfish so that didn't quite seem in character, but the rash decision to leave the TARDIS was very much something I would expect of him despite his intelligence. The way the companions always wearing the same clothes throughout their TARDIS travels was addressed here was very fun and the idea of K9 placing a mechanical tailor function into the TARDIS was a lot of fun. That definitely seems plausible for the Fourth Doctor to have implemented, even if it was just for the scarves! The outburst of Adric are something I have never been fans of and the one he labelled against Nyssa here was embarrassing. It didn't really stem from anything but there he was going off on one against Nyssa and how she was the Perfect Princess of Traken. I was surprised she reacted so well and I still think she might just be comforting him by later saying how he was the most extraordinary boy she'd meet. She must have incredible patience! The basis of the plot firstly centring on Adric wanting to help James because he had saved his life was not my favourite as there didn't seem to be any kind of end goal for the adventure. We were just plodding along as James hoped to find sanctuary and be free of slavery. That theme getting explored and Nyssa not understanding what was meant by 'whites' was a fantastic inclusion though. I really liked that. The introduction of Doc Ashbury following the steamboat explosion which saw the TARDIS sink beneath the water was good, especially as he retrieved the time machine and knew what it was! Not only what, but whose it was as well! It was fun for Adric and Nyssa to bump into a Time Lord from the Academy and I enjoyed how he seemingly had met different incarnations from the seventh to the fourth to the second all out of order. Typical Doctor! His having a Type-29 TARDIS was good and I loved the concept of it malfunctioning and being bigger on the outside. That was terrific. The temporary threats that came from him wanting to swap TARDISes was decent, but then it was all settled by a simple using the Type-40 to charge the dead battery of the Type-29's time rotor and we were off to the races with everyone happy, including James who would be off to travel the stars. Overall, a decent little short story!

Rating: 7/10