The Sons of the Crab

"How dare you treat me like a specimen?"

Writer: Walter Howarth

Format: Short Story

Released: September 1965

Printed in: Dr Who Annual 1966

Featuring: First Doctor

Synopsis

The Doctor arrives on the planet Wengrol in the Crab Nebula, inhabited by shapeshifters. Taken as a specimen by humanoid scientists who believe he is a shapeshifter stabilised in single form, the Doctor has a biological fight on his hands...

Verdict

The Sons of the Crab was a terrific little short story to continue my reading of the very first Doctor Who Annual! I truly do feel privileged to even have the chance to be reading this collection of adventures some six decades on from its release, and that time difference really is felt. This story in particular felt very retro and it's just wonderful to think that for fans of the show back when this was released in 1965 that William Hartnell was the current, and only, Doctor. The illustrations showing him are glorious and whilst I do think the artwork for this particular story was a little repetitive, as a whole the colour and design was brilliant. It certainly brought the story to life which is obviously a big help. It definitely aided with my enjoyment of the story and I thought the characterisation of the First Doctor himself was very well captured in the prose. It was definitely an improvement on the way he was written in the previous The Lair of Zarbi Supremo, and a lot of that was because he didn't take too kindly to his treatment. It was classic First Doctor in terms of his reactions. It was very strange to hear the Doctor refer to himself as human and from Earth, but that offers such a fascinating insight into how Doctor Who was viewed at this time. It didn't have the incredible depositary of mythology that it has today. It doesn't add up with the Doctor's comments in An Unearthly Child about being from another world and of course we saw someone else from that world in The Time Meddler, but it's still tremendous fun. It still feels wrong to refer to the main character as Dr Who but that feels incredibly retro so it does put a smile on my face. The idea of the Crab Nebula is intriguing and I love the idea of depicting the Doctor's first foray into a different universe. There wasn't too much of a crab theme there but it was certainly different! The Yends were a fascinating species and I liked how they thought so little of the Doctor when they captured him. They referred to him as 'it' and spoke as if he wasn't there. The Doctor didn't take too kindly to that as you might imagine! It was great fun. The shapeshifting nature of the Yends was intriguing as it seemed to happen on a slow motion basis, but the real story was in the horribly misshapen mutations. They were uncontrollable and grotesque and at one point it seemed the Doctor was going to get caught up in them in deadly fashion. The way he fought science and belief in the Chief Yend to show that he wasn't a shapeshifter and that has singular form was just normality was good stuff. The world of Wengrol was too far gone with the devastation of the radiation effect, but the take on in vitro fertilisation was an unexpected one! It made sense for the Chief Yend to want to give his race a chance to live on elsewhere and that was the term of the Doctor's being released. He took the phials of fifty of each gender but upon his escape back to normality and the Milky Way, not one of the embryos survived. That was incredibly somber! Of course, we know now that IVF is more than sufficient for giving birth but I was amazed to read that this story was released some thirteen years prior to the first IVF baby being born! Social commentary in these kind of Doctor Who stories is so interesting and that's the beauty of reading this far in hindsight. It's an entirely different perspective and I really appreciate that. Overall, a fun read even if the crabs weren't exactly present. A captivating read. 

Rating: 8/10