Little Did She Know

"Daisy did it."

Writer: Janet Fielding

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2024

Printed in: The Adventures Before 03

Featuring: Tegan

Synopsis

Discover what happened before...

What did Osgood do the morning of The Day of the Doctor?

What happened to Tegan before Arc of Infinity, and why does it involve strange sentient lights in the Australian outback?

What was the Tenth Doctor doing in a hall of mirrors, right before Planet of the Dead?

Answers to all these questions lie in an incredible collection of new Doctor Who short stories that give a glimpse into the moments just before we saw the Doctor step on screen.

From Skaro to Apalapucia, from a shop front drained of colour to Rassilon's tomb, join a host of incredible adventures across the universe with Doctors, companions, friends and foes.

Verdict

Little Did She Know was a lovely little story to continue my way through The Adventures Before collection of prequels! I'm not entirely sure I would say this would qualify as a prequel to Arc of Infinity, but given how Tegan was left behind in Time-Flight this does a good job of filling in the gap as far as the former air hostess was concerned. We know from Big Finish that the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa went on quite a number of journeys together, but Tegan was left behind and had to deal with the aftermath of the events of Logopolis and the death of her aunt Vanessa. Getting to know more about Tegan's family was really good and whilst I liked that we alluded to her meeting up with cousin Colin in a few weeks in Amsterdam, this was all about Tegan's immediate family for me. It's lovely to have a Tegan adventure in Australia and having her met by her brother Luke was a nice touch. A four-hundred kilometre trek sounded quite unappealing though! That would be some train journey as Tegan alluded to when she met Luke. He'd been okay as he seemed to be something of a groundhopper and ticked off a football match on his overnight stay. That's certainly one way to kill time and something I can get on board with. It was lovely to explore their sibling relationship and he was something of a buffer between Tegan and her father. Their relationship was presented in a very frosty manner as she tried to explain the truth involving the Master and tissue compression eliminators when it came to telling her dad how his sister had passed away. I loved the background on the Daisy did it gag in the family when it came to Tegan as a youngster blaming her imaginary friend for her own wrongdoings, but her father didn't take kindly to her sister's death supposedly being made a joke of. This almost felt like more of a prequel to Snakedance with the involvement of the Mara and Tegan encountering it again. I thought the Australian setting there was excellent given the country's renounce for snakes. I can't say I have ever really encountered anything more than a small grass snake living in Wales, but they're not something I would want to come face to face with. They are pretty frightening! So to have real snakes blended with the Mara was presented very well. The mystery of the orange lights was good and getting to Vince as Tegan's uncle was good because he'd seen them too. It was no gag against their father. I thought the way her dad was opened up to the alien world after nearly dying at the hands of the orange light blast was good and it allowed him to rekindle his relationship with his daughter again. That was the highlight of the adventure for me as he then wanted to learn all about Tegan's adventures in the TARDIS with the Doctor. That was terrific and it was nice for Tegan to get that emotional attachment again after all she had gone through. The way she utilised her own air hostess skills to start the pumping of CPR on her father was brilliant and the threat that also came from Luke being bitten by the venomous snake was also exciting. There was quite a bit of tension at the end of the story for what was mostly a family reunion! That was really good though and made this more than just a catch up story for Tegan. Overall, a really strong read and nobody would get the character more than Janet Fielding! A fantastic writing debut for the actor who played the iconic companion. A lovely read to continue my way through the collection.

Rating: 8/10