Wish You Were Here

"He seems to have turned into an artificial life form while I was sleeping."

Writer: Guy Clapperton

Format: Short Story

Released: March 1998

Printed in: Short Trips 13

Featuring: Sixth Doctor

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 

Wish You Were Here was not the greatest of short stories to continue my way through the first volume of Short Trips! I was looking forward to this one prior to reading purely based on the title alone as it sounded enticing and rather interesting. But unfortunately I didn't find it all that great for much of the story. It was just a bit jumbled and not exactly clear what was happening. I think that's a big issue and it didn't really become all that clear until much later in the story which is a shame and not ideal! Perhaps I just didn't get it which might absolutely be the case, but this is purely my own rating of my enjoyment of the story. Which for was bang average and I must admit I've probably been a little generous in my allocated rating because I appreciated some of the concepts being explored, even if the detail was not there for my enjoyment. A tourist planet isn't new and is something that can absolutely work in having unfamiliar peoples arrive at a destination that might not exactly resemble the brochures. That's a good basis for a Doctor Who adventure, but this didn't feel all that touristy. I thought the introduction of Janis was actually good and the concept of her being fearful of the Doctor stalking her was a little odd but it certainly intrigued me! I wanted to know all about her because if the Doctor was following her then she had to be important. Except she was just one of many like K'tarth who was almost a bit part player. He had a history with the Doctor but one we hadn't explored and I must admit the story of the Doctor aiding him didn't sound all that enticing. I did find it very humorous with how he introduced himself to the Time Lord though in impersonating a Dalek and threatening the Doctor causing him to duck for cover! That was good stuff and probably the story's highlight in all honesty. I didn't get much of a sense of the motive for Lakksis and whilst it wasn't really the robot's fault, that just made things seem insignificant. It was a programming error that was causing issues and the Thetrans were to blame, but it wasn't malicious. It's very rare that this kind of resolution serves as a pleasing one in my opinion so admittedly this was a bit of a let down for me. There was no evil threat or anything for the Doctor to stop, just some programming to put right. Considering the story was released in 1998, it's a pretty progressive one to be exploring artificial intelligence in the way that did it, but perhaps the lack of modern technological knowledge is what held it back? I'm not sure but there was clearly something missing. The characterisation of the Sixth Doctor was a bit of a mixed bag but I did like how he fondly remembered Peri when it came to hearing the American accent. It was also nice for him to look back well on K9 and Kamelion as old robotic friends. The dentist for a broken leg conversation the Doctor had with the robots was fun as he tried to make them see logic in not just providing the tourists with everything they would ordinarily want and more. It didn't work that way and it actually worked in the opposite direction! The nonchalant description of the TARDIS dematerialisation at the end felt a little off and the author almost seemed lacking of a bit of respect in my opinion with his 'that sort of thing' line. It didn't feel right. Overall, a decent idea at the heart of the story but the clarity and execution was lacking. Not my favourite read unfortunately.

Rating: 5/10