Good Companions

"Why is it the good people who have to die?"

Writer: Peter Angelides

Format: Short Story

Released: March 1999

Printed in: More Short Trips 16

Featuring: The Doctor, Anna, Tegan

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

Good Companions was a very intriguing little adventure to continue my reading through the More Short Trips collection! This was one of the longer ones with it reaching close to thirty pages and that really allowed room for the story to develop. For this kind of adventure, I think it needed that space to breathe. That was especially evident when it came to the more frequent jump in narrative format from Tegan's perspective as the writer of the book that shares the same title as this very story, and then the scenes in the TARDIS. I think it's always interesting to approach a story with an unspecified incarnation of the Doctor. Of course, back in 1999 when this book was released there had only been eight seen, but by now we're on the Fifteenth Doctor and even then we've also got the additions of the Fugitive and War incarnations which takes us up to seventeen, and none of them match the description of the one that features here! That's absolutely fine and I love the prospect of getting a glimpse into the future. The TARDIS interior now having a staircase isn't exactly a surprise and the scale presented here was actually really good. I would love to know more about Anna as a companion as she seemed rather inquisitive and quite brash towards her Doctor. She definitely shared a few similarities with Tegan there! I think this adventure is actually quite a sad one for Tegan as it basically establishes that she had a mental breakdown following on from her departure at the end of Resurrection of the Daleks. Given everything she went through on her travels in the TARDIS, that wouldn't actually be that surprising and it really does just make her sudden decision to leave all the more hurtful. The Doctor knows he should have checked up on her, but he didn't and that led her to the care facility of Shawlands. It was really quite saddening to think that she thought of all her time in the TARDIS as fiction. She had an image in her mind of the Doctor and linking back to Logopolis where her Aunt Vanessa died as the start of her breakdown was honestly heartbreaking. I felt so sorry for her and I was half expecting everything to be a dream from which she would awake, but alas it was not to be which was a big shame! I do love the idea though of her having written a book and it ending up in the TARDIS library. It absolutely belongs there. The concept behind the virtual library there and it showing books based on one's experiences and even karma was exciting stuff. More of that please. Anna confronting the Doctor about his guilt towards Tegan was strong stuff and it was definitely something he wished could be changed, but the past shapes the future and now he couldn't change that. I did think we perhaps had a little too much from the first person point of view of Tegan as a lot of the story wasn't wholly that exciting when it was just her ordinary life, but I did like the meeting on the train where the future Doctor brushed feet with Tegan. She thought he could be her fictional Doctor as the man now known as Dr Smith, but she was convinced otherwise. Appearances could be deceptive and it seems a little odd given that Tegan witnessed a regeneration that she would think her Doctor would just get old. She'd seen him change, why couldn't it have happened again? I guess a breakdown does that to you. It was quite sad to ponder in the end, but as a whole it was an intriguing little glimpse into what could have been for Tegan in life after the TARDIS. I must say though, thankfully The Power of the Doctor has essentially retconned this and given her more of a fitting ongoing life post-Doctor. She was still the Tegan we know and love, and that's terrific. Overall, a strong read regardless! 

Rating: 7/10