The Last Days

"It's too late to try rewriting the ending."

Writer: Evan Pritchard 

Format: Short Story

Released: March 1998

Printed in: Short Trips 1.04

Featuring: First Doctor, Susan, Ian, Barbara

Synopsis

From Neolitch Earth to the furthest reaches of the universe in the far future, Short Trips brings together established Doctor Who authors and first-time writers in a collection of stories exploring the ever-changing worlds of the Doctor and his friends.

Witness the last days of the siege of Masada with the First Doctor and meet the Fourth Doctor's extraordinary 'old flame'. An evil enemy makes life difficult for the Seventh and Third Doctors, and while the Fifth Doctor is under attack on a sinister ship shrouded in fog, the Second may soon be guilty of a grave error of judgement... The Sixth Doctor's hopes of a holiday are dashed when he discovers a pleasure planet is hiding a shocking secret, and the Eighth Doctor is caught up in a deadly drama played out during the construction of Stonehenge.

And, of course, that's just the beginning...

Verdict

The Last Days was an outstanding short story to continue my reading of Short Trips! I was really impressed with this little adventure and it really accomplished so much in just twenty-four pages. Anytime we have a historical paring with the quartet that started off Doctor Who, I know we're in for a treat and this one absolutely had authenticity in feeling like it was part of its era. This could so easily slot in during the first two seasons and I loved the connection with The Aztecs and how Barbara wanted to change history better there, but here she had learned from those events and was very much on board with the Doctor in not wanting to impact history. They had arrived at a time and place that had a big bearing on history with it being Judaea at the time of the Roman victory and mass suicide to try and tarnish that. I know that the area that would go on to become Israel or Palestine is incredibly contentious and having Barbara and the Doctor name the region as each of those was very important. I don't think Zionism and the history of this region is taught or recognised enough in the UK and it took me until my second year of a Bachelors degree in History to get some sort of teachings on it. It's filled with history and importance on an incredible scale, which helped Barbara try and preserve what she knew as fact. I liked that she had been unconscious for a few weeks whilst Ian was involved in helping the zealots against the Romans. However, once Barbara awoke she immediately opposed him and hearing his internal struggle through the words on the page was tremendous. He'd never heard of Masada so you couldn't blame him for getting involved and supporting what he thought was right, but to then hear that suicide was the only freedom left for those he had gotten close to as their Joab over the last fortnight must have been gut wrenching. We didn't get a huge amount of the Doctor and Susan and that was absolutely fine, it was good to have Ian at the forefront. He's a strong character and this was him at his very best. It was always going to be his name that drew the short straw in having to kill the other remaining ten zealots who'd already killed their family as a way of preserving destiny and denying the Romans, but having them impale themselves on the sword he was holding was striking and something I really didn't see coming. It took me by surprise in a good way that had a huge impact on me, which you don't often get with short stories. I just can't imagine Ian dealing well with something like that! Especially when it was revealed that Eleazor had fixed the result all along. Ian had given them hope which was nice to draw on, but history couldn't be defeated and Ian was understanding that. Having the Doctor arrive and proclaim Ian and Barbara as having been his spies all along was tremendous and the inner turmoil that was evident in Ian bowing before the coin baring Caesar's image to prove he wasn't a Jew was another strong and powerful moment, and a fantastic to way to conclude what was a superb and heavy story. A brilliant read!

Rating: 10/10