Life in Oils

"Imagine being just dissolved like that."

Writer: Steve Cole

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2023

Printed in: Ten Days of Christmas 04

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Rose

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

Life in Oils was another great little adventure to continue my way through the Ten Days of Christmas short story collection for the Tenth (and Fourteenth!) Doctor. This particular story saw a welcomed return to the era of Series 2 as Rose was here in the companion role, but there was no real indication that I could identify of where it would be placed. Judging by the relationship between this Doctor and his companion, I would guess it would be somewhere prior to The Impossible Planet, but that’s pure assumption and speculation on my part! It’s not really all that important though as this was just a really good and solid outing. I liked the idea of the setting and the futuristic time of the 26th century with Earth firmly in the grips of having an empire in space. The Doctor being angered by the drive for money and financial gain was fantastic and that allowed for some fine moments of seriousness from this incarnation. I thought that aspect of the Tenth Doctor was written very well as he was scornful regarding what was happening at the actions of Folkow as the head of the organisation. She was a very decent character and I liked her dedication to her job and the aim of getting as much money and resources for Earth as she could. To her, the kind of indigenous life that existed in the way that wasn’t typical carbo-hydro forms didn’t mean much. And that angered the Doctor in a big way. I thought the Goobers were an intriguing element of the story as being literally sentient sediment, but I must say the name that they were adorned didn’t help them. It just sounded a bit silly but thankfully it was sugarcoated a little with it not being their official species name, just what the rig workers called them. Rose noticing right away that something was a little off was good and the Doctor soon was in agreement regarding the smell. Perhaps there wasn’t as much protection from the fumes as first suspected. That turned out to be true in a pretty fun way as Rose was basically intoxicated and at one with the Goobers. That was good stuff and allowed for some good jeopardy as the voice that came out of her mouth wasn’t always hers. That’s always a bit freaky but the Doctor actually tried to use it to his advantage as he realised the connection with Rose was two way. So whilst she was feeling what the Goobers were feeling, so were they feeling her sadness and being scared. That was nicely done and proved important. Rose was able to relate to the Goobers which was a good way to gain some sort of emotional connection, something that didn’t seem possible when they were just described as being sludge beings. The humour that came from the Doctor and Rose communicating with the Goobers because of the TARDIS translation and it sounding like gibberish to the rest of the crew was fun stuff. I thought the ending was pretty simple and could have had a little more action, but it was a quick remedy and basically a fertiliser to reverse the effects of the rig actions against them. Rose thinking of Christmas dinner with her mum as a happy thought was a nice way to incorporate the Christmas theme into the story too, but the Doctor didn’t want Jackie to know and receive credit! That was fun. Overall, a great read!

Rating: 8/10