Island of the Sirens

"Why come back to the ship you've already escaped from?"

Writers: Keith Temple

Format: Comic Strip

Released: August 2008

Printed in: Doctor Who Storybook 2009

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Donna

Synopsis 

The TARDIS takes the Doctor and Donna to an early encounter with Jason, long before the Argonauts, but the famous historical figure has a story to tell...

Verdict 

Island of the Sirens was a very good short story! It’s been an incredibly long time since I have blogged anything from the Doctor Who Storybook 2009, but whilst on a staycation in West Wales at a Parkdean resort for the little one, this book seemed like the perfect thing for his afternoon nap to keep me entertained and ensure the daily blogging continues! I’ve always had a mixed relationship with the Storybooks and I’m not entirely sure why. They’re a quirky little item in the collection and it’s quite mad that I blogged the first story in this book nearly a decade ago! There it is just sitting on my bookshelf as the wait to complete it goes on and on. I’ll get there one day. What’s the rush? This particular story was really good and whilst I’m not usually a big fan of a story being told in the first person, I thought the way it was used here was tremendous. This is a rare example of me actually thinking that a story was improved by having this perspective. I think it would have been less interesting if this was not the approach taken so kudos must go to the author for that. Jason and the Argonauts seems to be a story title that is renowned and something I bet everyone has heard of, but for me I don’t actually know much of the details and I’m not sure I’ve ever read it or even an extract! But I was still delighted that this was the Jason we were encountering and his position in history made him a fun narrator. His nicknames given to the Doctor and Donna were fun and felt very much in line with their Doctor-companion relationship. Donna would certainly have approved of Jason referring to the Doctor as Skinnyman and that was kept up throughout the entirety of the story! That was quite impressive but it somehow just felt right. Donna was referred to as Red which was good and I wonder if that’s something she would have approved of if she was able to read the recollection back. This was a time before Jason went on his famed adventures but the line at the end about this being the most marvellous was a nice touch. I almost felt like this story would have been a perfect place to have the return of the Silurians or the Sea Devils but alas we got some weird fishy aliens instead. I must say that the artwork wasn’t overly great for this story but I still appreciate the format of having it to accompany the prose which at ten pages of an Annual style book is quite long! It works well but it felt a bit blocky and looked childish. The depiction of Donna I felt was particularly poor. I thought having Jason misspell the likes of TARDIS and sonic screwdriver was fun and actually helped in selling this as a real tale. There were also a few lines where Jason was recalling some of the science-based lines of the Doctor and caveated it with saying that it was at least what he thought he said. He couldn’t be sure. That was a nice touch and realistic which I appreciated. I liked how the Doctor wanted to apply science and fact to the apparent emergence of the sirens, and whilst the idea of using cheese and bread to block one’s ears from the noise was silly, it was picked up quickly and did work! It ought to have been too silly but when it was used again at the conclusion to see off the Parthenopes I couldn’t help but appreciate the continuity. It worked. The myth of the Cyclops also appearing in the form of a Castelathuron was fun and Donna’s reaction to seeing a one-eyed creature was as amusing as you would expect from her. I’m sure she must have had some input in Jason referring to the creature as One Eye. That just feels like a Donna line. Atalanta was a good character to compliment Jason but everything was all too far advanced for him to fully comprehend what was happening. That actually helped in fleshing out the details of the conclusion but when someone describes a torch as having the moon on a stick how can that be a problem? It was fun stuff and the Doctor would see that the Parthenopes didn’t get the TARDIS. Jason’s reaction to seeing the TARDIS dematerialise and having the noise described as a mix between an elephant and broken chains was wonderful. Overall, a really solid read!

Rating: 8/10