Distance

"I've seen hell."

Writer: Tara Samms

Format: Short Story

Released: April 2003

Printed in: Short Trips: Companions 09

Featuring: Ian, Barbara

Synopsis

Adventures in time and space are no fun if there's no one to share them. the Doctor has taken along many people on his travels – humans, aliens and robots. Did he really care for any of them? What in their previous life fitted them for the role of companion – and how did they cope after they left the TARDIS?

These seventeen stories look at the Doctor's trusty companions, before, during and after their travels with the eccentric Time Lord. Discover the truth about Romana's regeneration, find out what happened when Zoe encountered the Doctor again, and learn which of his companions the Doctor cared for the most...

Verdict

Distance was a decent little story to continue my way through the Companions edition of Short Trips! This was a bit of a somber tale I must say as whilst on the face of it I was very excited to be getting an adventure with Ian and Barbara post the events of The Chase, things got very serious and quite emotional! Starting with Barbara getting an ultrasound at the hospital initially seemed to excite me because I thought she was pregnant and that would be terrific news! She was referred to as Mrs Chesterton which is lovely and it just confirms what we always knew would happen anyway. Ian and Barbara belong together. They’re perfect together and we only saw that grow during their time in the TARDIS. Except with the descriptions of whitened hair and growing old, the likelihood was that Barbara had something wrong with her rather than being pregnant. That’s such a great shame, especially knowing that Jacqueline Hill hasn’t been with us for some time now. The actress and the character are inextricably linked in my opinion so there was an added emotional pull there. I thought Barbara being pushed by Karen Ellis into visiting her sick father in any kind of hope of helping was good although I thought she relented a little easily considering she wasn’t interested. It’s not like she had a relationship with Karen or her dad Frank. That was all Ian after working on the Hubble space telescope. I love these kinds of stories because it’s so good to catch up with companions and their lives after they have left the Doctor and seeing that Ian had put his scientific knowledge to good use was tremendous. He’d clearly made something of his skills. I thought we could have gotten a little bit more about Barbara’s career but I guess the focus was on her more for the plot and for an emotional pull. The connection she had with Karen after the touch was fascinating and whilst I’ve never taken recreational drugs, I can only imagine that this was something akin to that. Karen’s mad babble about driving the eight mile journey to death over and over again was a moment of insanity and it instantly changed the atmosphere in the hospital. It got uncomfortable but in a really appealing way as a reader. I thought her being on edge from that point was good although Ian should have picked up that things weren’t right given his experience in the TARDIS! I thought it was actually a bit of a shame that they made it a thing not to mention the Doctor in a bid to have some sense of normality in their lives, but Ian’s impression of you know who was a sheer delight. Clutching the lapels and getting the name wrong. Glorious stuff. I’m not convinced he would be close in age though! If only he knew the truth of the Doctor. I thought Barbara having a connection with Frank was interesting and the link with the unicorn nebula and Monoceros was a little odd. I think the story could have benefited from a couple more pages to just flesh things out a little as it got a little convoluted when Barbara was in her mental state, although that may have been the point. Ian being on hand to the rescue was good once Frank was dead and I liked how he found that the cause was actually a dermoid cyst containing ganglia. Nerve cells actually trying to send a message, Ian thinks to invade whilst Barbara thought to get home. I actually do think the latter was more feasible but the ambiguity was good. It didn’t really matter why! Concluding things with Barbara ready to tell Ian what was wrong with her was quite sad and honestly I’m glad we didn’t get specific details. I like to think of Barbara living on forever. She’ll never really die as far as I’m concerned. Overall, a good little read!

Rating: 7/10