Sweet Flower of Uthe

"The enemy no longer exists."

Writer: Unknown

Format: Short Story

Released: September 1980

Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 1981

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana II, K9

Synopsis

When the Doctor, Romana and K9 get caught as hostages on an abandoned world that has recovered from war, it's up to the Time Lords to prove that there is peace on the surface...

Verdict

Sweet Flower of Uthe was an excellent story to conclude my reading of the 1981 Doctor Who Annual! This has largely been a consistently enjoyable read over the last couple of months or so but they may have saved the best until last! These Annual stories always have the potential to be hit or miss, but this one really does a stellar job with the limited text it has! The artwork that accompanies it is certainly useful but I maintain that here and for most of the stories in particular printed in Annuals, they don't go far enough in exploring the story's imagery. We have six distinct illustrations to accompany this adventure but they don't do a huge amount in presenting visuals. Of course, one of the major problems there is the lack of likeness for Romana II with the character depicted here not looking anything like Lalla Ward! That really does take away from the story's authenticity a little bit, but at least we do have a Tom Baker-looking Fourth Doctor. I thought the characterisation of the fourth incarnation here was actually superb and definitely the best that his likeness has been captured in the prose that appear in this collection. It absolutely nails the comedy dynamic with Romana and K9 which is always fun. It's a sublime trio and I'm delighted it was captured in print here. The Doctor sending K9 off to find the Uthian Scatterbud was fun as initially it seemed like he was doing so almost as a punishment for the robot dog correcting him on which number of the Uthe planets they were on. The Doctor claimed it was 4 but K9 pointed out it was actually 3. And that's where the scatterbud flourished and grew. The timing of K9's return to the commander as it appeared the Doctor and Romana would be killed was terrific and I could easily see the smile of the Fourth Doctor there as it happened. He knew all would be well. Once he was captured, the humour that came from him trying to change the strategy and point out its weaknesses was excellent and it was a nice way to include the often heavy-handed nature of this Doctor into print. He tried to own the room, but his referring to war as a game didn't sit well here. The reveal of the war computer was nicely done and I liked that with it only being programmed for war, it didn't understand peace so manufactured its own war on the planet despite it being 80% destroyed and now at peace. The Uthe originals were none the wiser which was a shame, especially considering over a century had passed since peace was declared! From there it rounded out into a pretty neat and simple conclusion as life would resume on Uthe and more flowers would flourish. As a whole, a really strong story! 

Rating: 9/10