64 Carlysle Street

"We want to live here."

Writer: Gary Russell

Format: Short Story

Released: March 1999

Printed in: More Short Trips 06

Featuring: First Doctor, Steven, Dodo

Synopsis

Here on Earth or out in the depths of the cosmos, the Doctor and his companions are never far from adventure.

Discover things on Earth you were never meant to know. Get around the universe. Get short tripping.

Verdict

64 Carlysle Street was a really strong story to continue my reading of the More Short Trips collection! This was very good and I liked the unique style of format. With these kind of stories I think it's good to shake things up a little and this is a perfect example. Having this adventure of sixteen pages go in the form of police reports or statements was terrific. I don't think it would work for a full length novel, but for a shorter trip like this one it was perfect. It was engaging and reading the events in chronological order for the most part worked well as each little development was from somebody else's perspective in the household of 64 Carlysle Street. I thought the actual story itself when looking from above and coherently was rather basic and that was absolutely fine. The continuity of including Quinnis as the planet mentioned in The Edge of Destruction visited by the First Doctor and Susan was wonderful. It worked well and very much in Sutekh style from Empire of Death, we found out that Roztoq had been riding the TARDIS coattails ever since. It found its way from the Fourth Universe into this one and that meant things were very unstable. On the basis, that was all very exciting and I'd love to know more about this Fourth Universe. Sure, we've had the actual audio adventure of Quinnis which is great, but there's a whole universe to explore there! I liked the varied perspectives we did get and I thought Gary Russell did a good job as author in changing up the voice of the statement depending on who was giving it. We hard Lord Greystone himself sounding quite posh and upper class, but then we shifted to a more rough Cockney sounding Emily as the kitchen maid. It was really good and kept me engaged throughout as I wanted to read who was next! I enjoyed the description of the First Doctor as being old but with young eyes and having Steven supposedly as his assistant but entering through the main door was great. That wasn't becoming of his position! He didn't have a huge amount to do in the story but I find it fascinating he was only referred to as Taylor throughout the adventure. A nice little look at the kind of class and society of the early twentieth century. I think it's more than fair to suggest that this was a time period not so well suited to Dodo. She didn't exactly embrace her position to get into the house as a servant and she had the cheek to ask for tea. That didn't go down well with the other servants who were perplexed by her comments. They couldn't believe how she saw herself! That was quite fun and actually what I would expect of our Dorothea. She didn't take kindly to the idea of being called Dottie either which was good fun. I liked Steven referencing The Gunfighters and The Massacre when it came to namedropping Tombstone and Paris as places he had visited whilst in the Doctor's accompany, and he was looked upon very kindly by some of the females in the household. The way Roztoq was defeated was pretty simple in having Annebel expel it from her mind at the encouragement of the Doctor, and I liked the description of her being a silver angel. The little passage at the end that took on a more traditional style and not in the police report/statement format was fun as it revealed that 64 Carlysle Street was actually a home for the mentally unstable. I must admit I didn't see that coming and didn't get that impression from what I had read, but it was a fun little note to finish on and certainly gave me a thought or two at the end. Overall, a really good read! 

Rating: 8/10