Disappearing Act

"I hold up my hand – and it isn't there."

Writer: Justin Richards

Format: Short Story

Released: July 2008

Printed in: Doctor Who Files 14

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Donna

Synopsis

When the Tenth Doctor and Donna show up to a magician's show, the star of the show gets a little more than he bargained for...

Verdict

Disappearing Act was a good little story to conclude my reading of the Doctor Who Files! The last of the collection was sourced from the local library's reserve stock as I keep them busy to ensure their Doctor Who records are all up to date and I was delighted that they still had this one kicking around for me to complete the series. It's been an interesting bunch of stories and the Ood are an obvious candidate to round out the series of files with this being released in 200 after the run of Series 4. The Ood are the modern era's first original returning monster as far as I can remember so given the proximity to Planet of the Ood I think it's a good option to get another outing for them. I was really glad to see that the Doctor and Donna would be featured here as it just felt right to conclude things with the central character. It's been great to give the likes of Captain Jack and the Sontarans their own stories, but I'm not convinced the Ood are quite of that stature to carry their own. I thought having just one singular Ood was a fantastic choice and I loved the name of Ood Delta. It just fits in with the Tenth Doctor's numerous encounters with Ood Sigma and I like the idea of the Ood going through the phonetic alphabet like that. The use of the Ood's telepathy was granted original here although I'm just not sure a magic show was the right kind of environment for them. I contemplated in my mind what rating to give this story once I'd finished reading and whilst enjoying a lot of the elements and not finding anything particularly wrong, it just didn't rank higher in my mind. It's still a very solid rating but I feel like it sometimes deserved more. Maybe it was random names like Fergus Antelect as the main villain that brought the vibe down a little? I thought he was a dislikable character which is certainly the intention and the way his downfall came about here was really good. The Ood just seems a little wasted when it comes to using their telepathy to fool an audience into a magic show. I know the basis was a little more than that with the thievery that was occurring and the Doctor using the telepathy against him to out himself was brilliant, but something just felt slightly off with the setting. I appreciated the unique nature of it though. It was certainly different! I'm glad that Donna gets to feature in one of this range's story and it's a bit of a shame really that she wouldn't get her own file! She's more than deserving. I would have liked her to have some more interaction with Ood Delta given she has encountered the species before, but her chemistry with the Doctor was clear on the screen even if they weren't around for too long. I thought Delta revealing the scale of the abuse he suffered from Fergus was quite sad actually as he was treated as a terrible slave. Fergus got was coming to him though as his own trick was used against him to admit his misgivings and you could just feel his anger towards the Doctor and Donna. I thought the ending line for them was a little cheesy in how they'd disappeared in sneaking off back to the TARDIS, but I appreciate the effort to bring things full circle with the title. Overall, a really good little read to round out a pretty decent series! 

Rating: 7/10