The Four Faces of Immortality

"Who was Rassilon to stop the future learning about the past."

Writer: Gary Russell

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2024

Printed in: The Adventures Before 04

Featuring: Borusa

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

The Four Faces of Immortality was a fascinating prequel to The Five Doctors to continue my reading of The Adventures Before collection! Or was it? Because to be honest this could quite easily also be labelled as a sequel. I understand there is a sequel version of this collection due to come out next year and they could probably get away with a reprint there with this story! This isn’t a negative at all because the story was terrific and honestly was a glorious Gallifrey continuity vomit spree in the best way possible. It was incredibly positive and almost a celebration of the Time Lord home world. It was a really interesting take and I’m a sucker for delving into Gallifreyan and/or Time Lord history. It was really strong and getting mentions as varied as the Timewyrn and Zagreus to Pandora and the Division. The references came far and wide. I was a little confused at first as this is essentially the first moments for Borusa after he has lost the game in the Tomb of Rassilon and gets his wish of immortality, but then we learned all about the other faces on the tomb who were trapped. Their respective stories of how they came to be entombed in seeking immortality was decent. I thought Pandad’s story was very good and the concept of a new inauguration for him as President purely because he’d regenerated was pretty amusing. His first decree would be to change that process right away which I couldn’t entirely disagree with. It did seem slightly arbitrary. I thought Jarel’s story was excellent and I really loved how she had an attitude of challenge. She didn’t understand why the mighty Rassilon, now long since dead, was still having a ruling effect over the elite of Gallifrey. Why was knowledge forbidden? She wanted to know it all and I couldn’t blame her there. The way she actually stood up to Rassilon and defied him was fantastic and she wasn’t given much of a choice when it came to her immortality being granted. We saw that brutal streak of Rassilon in glimpses which was good. Muul’s story was certainly the least interesting and seemed like it was just chucked on at the end to round out what we saw on screen in the twentieth anniversary special, but I did like that it was acknowledged to be quick within the story. That certainly helps! I thought bookending the story over 983 years with a Borusa lecture was a nice touch and did help with the prequel element of the adventure. I was really impressed throughout with how much the Cloister Wraiths were sold as a strong monster and their almost mythical status on Gallifrey was presented really well. They made a strong impression in Hell Bent so to have them with an allure status here was great stuff. I thought touching upon the history of Rassilon’s involvement in establishing time travel and the status of Time Lords was excellent, although I think some of the commentary from the author in brackets making a little mockery of Gallifreyan legend was a bit of a shame. That felt slightly unwarranted but thankfully it didn’t last for the entire adventure. Despite that though, this served as a fine prequel (and sequel!) to a celebratory adventure. Overall, a terrific read!

Rating: 8/10