My Daddy Fights Monsters

"It was sad to see someone scramble for details about their own father."

Writer: Dave Rudden

Format: Short Story

Released: September 2022

Printed in: Origin Stories 02

Featuring: Kate

Synopsis 

We all change, when you think about. We're all different people all through our lives...

Amy Pond looks for her Raggedy Man, Jo Grant remembers her childhood, the Master hunts the past... a young girl discovers a love for explosives.

Eleven incredible stories from the world of Doctor – the early lives of friends and foes that have never been told before.

Verdict 

My Daddy Fights Monsters was another great story to continue my reading of the Origin Stories collection! This was a very emotional family affair adventure and not quite what I was expecting from a story where Kate was the focus. This wasn’t just centred on her though, it was a story about family life at UNIT and it become powerful stuff in places. The idea of Kate having to take part in a school presentation of describing what her dad did as a job was amusing because how on Earth would a little girl in year four be able to detail the role of Brigadier at UNIT? I tell you what though, she gave it a really good go. She had overheard little bits from her dad on the phone and knew that he did work for UNIT and what the acronym stood for. She got to blurt out that her daddy fought monsters which was the basis for the quite brilliant story title, and just as her teacher was pushing her to conclude she conjured up the name Axons as an example. It was really nice and innocent stuff. Of course, this is a version of Kate far different to the one we know from her grown up character on screen but it was brilliant to see just how much she was learning. She admired her dad and was understandably missing him with him being away for a few months now on another task. Fiona was going through a lot too as she struggled with not knowing exactly what it was that her own husband did for a job. That darned Official Secrets Act! Except on this occasion, Alistair wasn’t away on a mission. He and Fiona had separated and she just couldn’t bring herself to tell Kate that. I was a bit surprised by that as with all that was going on, Kate could have helped rather than be lied to. The false hope that her dad would be back soon was pretty harsh in my opinion and I really felt for Kate. Fiona did hate herself for it and even thought she was a coward which I agreed with, but Kate’s simple comment at the end to her mum that she shouldn’t lie was tremendous. I thought that was excellent in its simplicity for a child to realise that. I enjoyed the author’s line about children not being complicated and just telling you what they wanted or how they were feeling through acts like grumpiness, whilst adults were a myriad of emotions and complications. As the father of an 18-month old, I can absolutely agree with this! The Assessor was a decent character and I liked how he wasn’t exactly thrilled with his current assignment. He didn’t think much of Earth but the fact a Time Lord would come every other week seemingly had given it a bit of a reputation. The Assessor didn’t seem out for violence which was a change and probably necessary in a story where the lead character is a little girl, but going to the lengths of disguising itself as a pupil and then Kate’s teacher showed it didn’t exactly have the best morals. The scene at the door of Fiona’s make-do home was amusing as the Assessor was hoping to get inside, but that wasn’t happening. Its feeling of suffocating within the disguise when Fiona took her time to locate Kate was amusing and it was clear that the door would reopen just as its true form would emergency

Rating: 8/10