Dark Waters

"Something so beautiful can come from something so deadly."

Writer: Steve Cole

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2023

Printed in: Ten Days of Christmas 09

Featuring: Tenth Doctor 

Synopsis

Return to the incredible days of Ten this Christmas...

For the Tenth Doctor, the festive season always brought adventure.

In fact, he's saved Christmas across space and time more times than we ever knew...

Join the Doctor (and Donna and Martha and Rose, and other friends old and new) for incredible tales of daring and danger. From Daleks plotting to save humanity to Sycorax working to exploit it... from star-narwhals massing on the Moon to a toy factory in space.

Because even in the jolliest of seasons there's a world or two to save.

Verdict

Dark Waters was an excellent story to conclude my reading of the Ten Days of Christmas collection! These short stories have been a real festive treat and it's always fun to delve back into the era of the Tenth Doctor. It's certainly not a bad way to round out the year of 2023 in terms of blogging! Finishing a book is always a nice feeling, even one that's made up of several adventures and isn't read in one go or block. They might have saved the best until last with this particular story that saw a welcomed return of Jackson Lake! I wasn't expecting that, especially not some fifty-plus years after the events of The Next Doctor had occurred. For the Doctor, it had only been a couple of months but for Jackson he now had a whole new life on the southern hemisphere after his retirement as a teacher in 1881. He'd scratched that travel itch in a big way by emigrating and his reaction when he recognised the Doctor not looking a day older than when he'd last seen him over half a century previously was golden. The Doctor didn't even recognise Jackson to start with so that moment of recognition and catching up with an old friend was touching. A quite lovely moment. Things did not stay lovely for long though as the Doctor revealed he was on the track of a Dalek time signature which instantly set the threat level to high. Jackson remembering details from the info stamp the Cybermen had stolen was good and with it momentarily making him believe he was the Doctor, he knew all about the Daleks. That's who the Cybermen had stolen the stamp from in the first place after all! I thought over fifty years after first meeting the Doctor was an awfully long time for an elderly Jackson to still be having adventures, but it was nice to be catching up. I thought the format of the story was excellent in that it was all told as a letter written by Jackson to Rosita which he'd hoped would get there in time for her Christmas. That's putting the Christmas theme very loosely on this story, but it was a really nice read and there were some genuine moments of affection and compassion there. He clearly did care about Rosita and certainly missed her. It's a shame we didn't get any reply from Rosita in this story to read her reaction to Jackson encountering the Doctor again, but his infectious enthusiasm was evident throughout the letter. Of course, it's not entirely believable that the chunks of dialogue would be included as they were, or even for Jackson to recall the exact words, but making efforts with Jackson apologising for the length of the letter was a nice attempt at realism. The Daleks did feature but not for long as the Doctor and Jackson used the equivalent of an electric fizzy drink well shaken to wipe them out, but I appreciated how fearful Jackson came across in his words. Their plan to use the geyser to eject particles into the atmosphere that would bind ions ready for the interplanetary journey Earth would take in The Stolen Earth which I thought was massively intriguing! It was almost like a prequel to that episode as far as the Daleks were concerned. That was a lot of fun. The Doctor had to let it happen because he knew what was in store a century from now, and explaining that to Jackson was nicely done. The image of them both escaping the eruption on a Dalek hovercraft was magnificent and I loved that the Doctor stayed once again for Christmas. He couldn't go breaking tradition! Overall, a terrific read to conclude what has been a very strong and consistent book. 

Rating: 9/10