The Paradox Moon

"Do you always have to enforce the law at the barrel of a gun?"

Writer: Dave Sudden

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2020

Printed in: The Wintertime Paradox 12

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor

Synopsis 

Did you Davros and the Doctor met for three Christmases, on different planets, across time and space? Have you heard the one about the time the Plasmavores came to pay a festive visit? Or when Madame Vastra fought a cyborg?

The perfect collection of the bleakest – and sometimes brightest – time of the year, these are the tales to get you halfway out of the dark...

Verdict 

The Paradox Moon was an excellent story to conclude my reading of The Wintertime Paradox collection! This has been an impressive volume of short stories and I’m really glad that we finished on a a high note! The consistency of this collection has been brilliant and I must say I’m very impressed that all of these adventures were written by the same author as they were all very different and encompassed a lot of varying themes and characters. It feels right to finish with the then current incarnation of the Doctor, and this was what I believe to be the first solo outing for the Thirteenth Doctor! That was a little different and it worked well in presenting a new dynamic. I was impressed with the characterisation of her incarnation and it was nice to have a lot of familiar traits associated with what Jodie Whittaker brought to the role. Having her go to the Shadow Proclamation was fun and I really liked the interaction she shared with the Shadow Architect. It was great to have her return and the little moment where the Doctor called her a flirt was delightful. It would have been good to get a little more from the Judoon, but they weren’t the focus of the story so that didn’t matter a great deal. The adventure was a fascinating one in tying in with numerous stories previously in the book along with some pretty pivotal television adventures. The fact we got a new glimpse into the Year That Never Was was fantastic and I loved the idea behind Sibling Same and Sibling Different being split down the middle as an after effect of the Time War. They weren’t exactly happy with their ghostly situation but with them being split and torn, they had gained paradox Energy which meant they could dip in and out of broken timelines that no longer existed. That was such a brilliant concept and one I think has a lot of potential for further exploration in the future. There’s so much that can be done there and it worked fantastically here. Sibling Same and Different had different thoughts on their predicament with the former not wholly convinced by their need for revenge on the Doctor. Why should she always be the victor, writing her own way and being the one to survive? I was intrigued by the knowledge both Siblings had on how the Time War ended and everything that came in between. Just how did they know what timelines were broken? Having them witness River Song enter the TARDIS prior to it blowing up and resetting the universe was very good and I loved that instead of stealing the Doctor’s TARDIS and feel the immediate wrath of the one they wanted to destroy, they would grow their own. The realisation of that was not at all how I expected with it actually being the paradox moon which was chasing chaos to the communications of the Shadow Proclamation. The fact that this was an amalgamation of a TARDIS made up of parts from broken and deleted timelines was superb and the reaction from the Doctor was tremendous. She was disgusted! She was also impressed with the Siblings which was nice, but what they’d put together just couldn’t be safe to travel through the Time Vortex. Their desire to rewrite the Time War’s ending so they would survive was incredible and the Doctor really didn’t know what would happen if they attempted that. I thought it was tremendous that the Doctor recognised her own maker marks within the paradox moon as it being parts of her TARDIS. That was the final straw for her. The distress call coming from the TARDIS itself was nicely done and the ending was fantastic. Sibling Same sacrificing itself for Different was an emotional ending and one that was rather powerful. Giving power to save a sibling and endure everything moved on was a nice touch as the paradox concludes. Overall, a brilliant read to finish a fine book! 

Rating: 9/10