Notre Dame du Temps

"Today she was saving our lives."

Writer: Simon Guerrier

Format: Short Story

Released: April 2003

Printed in: Short Trips: Companions 12

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Anji

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

Notre Dame du Temps was an excellent little story to continue my way through the Companions edition of Short Trips! I really enjoyed this adventure and I must admit I was a little cautious when I saw which companion the story featured. I know next to nothing about Anji other than she features in the New Adventures novels and is usually joined by another companion known as Fitz alongside the Seventh Doctor. I liked how this story detailed the more scheming nature of this incarnation and to my surprise the story was actually more focused on the Doctor. Anji was there for something of a background character and a point of reference in finding the piece of paper with this story’s title on it. The significance was actually fascinating as we had a huge amount of self reflection from the Doctor. This occurred for both his companions and even his previous incarnations! That was good to play with and his inner thoughts on his multicoloured immediate predecessor were rather amusing. Pondering on experiencing different tastes and smells through each of his bodies was good and it was quite amusing to use peppermint tea as an example of what changed throughout his different bodies. Later in life he rather enjoyed it! I thought it was good to touch upon the Seventh Doctor being late in his incarnation and having a feeling that renewal was imminent. Not quite yet, but that’s good when it comes to placement for the New Adventures novels when Anji will become the companion. I have no idea how many books into the NAs that is, but rest assured one day I will reach it. I thought the Doctor claiming time as his only companion was a powerful statement and it must be difficult by this point to go through the constant emotional turmoil of your friends moving on, or unfortunately for some passing away. I was expecting at first when he referred to just one who might actually get the real him to be the TARDIS, but somewhat surprisingly this had a feeling of the Doctor yearning after Romana! I wasn’t expecting that but given she was also a Time Lord it wasn’t a huge surprise I guess! The thought of her in the attire resembling a schoolgirl was perhaps a little shocking to read but each to their own. The suggestion of the Doctor not being truly who this Time Lord is was something I found very intriguing and I think the Seventh Doctor is certainly the right incarnation to explore that. Was he only truly himself when with Romana as another Time Lord? Is it only with his own species that the Doctor feels he can truly be himself? Or was that just an impact of this incarnation going longer than his six others. That makes sense given the proximity and run of the New Adventures and even The Movie with the regeneration. It’s a long time between those and Time and the Rani for example! The cameo at the end with the Eighth Doctor finding the bit of paper that the Doctor dropped in Paris in his fourth incarnation was a nice touch to end and so boldly proclaiming him to have one heart was quite something! I sense I’m missing some continuity from the Eighth Doctor Adventures books which I will also cover one day, but I could still appreciate what was happening! Especially after the imagery of the Seventh Doctor creeping after his fourth self, Romana and even Duggan! So much was happening in just ten pages which made this a delight to read despite not being familiar with the companion. Overall, a fantastic read!

Rating: 9/10