Glass

"It was the same face, just watching me with that smile."

Writer: Tara Samms

Format: Short Story

Released: March 1998

Printed in: Short Trips 07

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana II

Synopsis

From Neolithic 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

Glass was a great little story to continue my way through the first volume of the Short Trips books! Whilst I’m traditionally not a fan of reading a story in the first person, this was a really strong adventure! I was hooked right away from the unidentified woman’s trauma and the way she was recounting her awful experience was really well done. It instantly grasped me with the language and the sheer agony she felt. I instantly believed everything she had gone through and that was good because the idea of a face in the glass, every bit of glass, does sound rather ludicrous. It’s a brilliant concept for a Doctor Who story though and helped explain this instalment in the book’s title! I was intrigued prior to listening to see what the reference would be concerning, but it actually became a little like horror. I could see this adventure absolutely being made on television with some sort of horror vibes, and it would definitely fit with Torchwood. There was already something akin to an adult theme with this story when it came to the woman describing her neighbours and hearing them either arguing or being at it loudly. Of course, sex wasn’t referred to by name but it didn’t take much to put two and two together there. Hearing how she listened even more than usual since the glass instances was intriguing and almost quite sad, but the toll the glass was having on her life was extraordinary. She was frightened of lightbulbs and couldn’t even look at her own son Jason because he wore glasses. She swiped them off his face cutting him in the process and that delivered some serious tension. Her husband Alan was slightly more understanding despite the likes of candles burning and curtains being drawn to prevent any kind of glass being needed. She’d locked herself up in her room and that’s when the Doctor and Romana emerged onto the scene. They knew what was happening and were the only two people who could help, much to our narrator’s relief. She was sceptical at first, and rightly so, but when a jelly baby was the peace offering she couldn’t help but laugh. I liked that. It was a fun way to establish the incarnation of the Doctor was the Fourth, although I do think it was a little odd to omit Romana’s name. Thankfully, the description her hair and outfit was enough to tell us this was the Time Lady in her second incarnation. The golden pairing of the Classic era! Due to the nature of the first person perspective, they didn’t get too much of a chance to shine with their humour but it wasn’t really that kind of story. The smile in the glass in particular was quite chilling and I was a big fan of the Cambridge setting to have this as essentially a follow on from Shada which is very fun indeed. They’d just sorted things there but one mind had gotten loose so they were tying up loose ends which I really liked. The woman didn’t really understand and she acknowledged her lack of comprehension for a lot of the words used which felt real. She was none the wiser about a lot of the details and she just wanted the glass creature out of her life. That was more than enough with the family issues they’d had in their new home with her mother-in-law dying a fortnight later. The house was back up for sale with everything the woman was going through with the glass and these kind of real world issues were great to explore. I thought the way things ended with the Doctor and Romana using branches to permanently crack and splinter the glass to drain the creature out was good and the ambiguity and lack of clarity actually fitted in nicely with the first person nature. How would she be able to explain the Doctor taking the creature away. But she was safe, but she didn’t want the greenhouse rebuilt. Overall, a very good read!

Rating: 8/10