Velvet Hugs

"I was going to be in charge of my own destiny."

Writer: Katy Manning

Format: Short Story

Released: September 2022

Printed in: Origin Stories 10

Featuring: Jo

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 

Velvet Hugs was an excellent story to continue my reading of the Origin Stories collection! I thought this was a really love origin adventure for Jo and whilst I’m not typically a fan of the first person format of prose, the fact that it was Katy Manning as the author loosened my clutches on how much I am not a fan of that style. It was tremendous! If anyone is able to give a voice to Jo then it’s obviously Manning as she has been playing the character for over half a century now. That in itself is pretty remarkable and whilst she’s used to voicing the character for Big Finish, it’s wonderful for her to get to write for her own character. She has an important job as well as we learn a lot about Jo’s childhood and family which was very pleasant. I thought the biographical nature of the story worked brilliantly and it was just interesting to learn the details about Jo. Her Christmases in Dorset with the mysterious uncle Giles and how she was initially educated at home as she was moved from place to place. That can’t have been easy! It was intriguing to learn that Jo didn’t fair so well at school and event went onto fail all of her A-Levels! That’s not the type of background you would expect to get you employed at UNIT. Jo looking back on her life was lovely and it also allowed us a look into the character in her later years. It was magnificent to have her alongside Cliff and the pair recently having returned from a climate conference in Greenland just seems perfect for them. I admire their desire to tackle the very big issue of climate change and Manning addressing that not enough people are making an effort against it was a subtle appeal that I appreciated. With this being an origin story, I really liked that there was no threat from a monster or villain. It really was what the book’s title says. I absolutely loved that we got the moments before Jo’s introduction in Terror of the Autons with the Brigadier announcing that she had completed her training and was now a fully qualified member of the UNIT team. We got everything leading up to her knocking on the door of the Doctor in the science laboratory and we know what would come next with the Nestenes and Autons. Honestly, that’s the kind of lines I was expecting the entire book to take but alas that wasn’t the case. And that’s absolutely fine! But I think this was perhaps the best story in actually living up to the umbrella title. The little cameo appearance for Iris Wildthyme was an unexpected treat and just delightful that Manning also got to write some dialogue for another of her characters! She absolutely nailed it of course as before the name was revealed that infamous ‘chuck’ dialogue showed her identity immediately. It was a lovely moment as Jo thought she was dreaming as you might expect from being young and she was told that she would go onto have adventures when she grew up. That was really nice. I really liked how things concluded with Jo’s anecdote about the Doctor and whilst her incarnation would be the one to provide velvet hugs, she’d met several other regenerations and she always knew within that it was the same two hears that cared about her and she loved him. Overall, a tremendous read!

Rating: 9/10