New Beginning (Mamba Seyra)

"I know that my legacy is not one of death and destruction."

Writer: Stephen Cole

Format: Short Story

Released: July 2024

Series: I, TARDIS: Memoirs of an Impossible Blue Box 12

Featuring: TARDIS

Synopsis

The Doctor has a unique bond with their TARDIS. They've always loved the 'old girl' for the way she's gone looking for trouble anywhere in the universe. The Doctor says they stole the TARDIS from Gallifrey. The TARDIS disagrees... she stole them. She hasn't always taken them where they want to go, but she's made sure to take them where they needed to be.

For the TARDIS is dar more than just a time machine crossed with a spaceship. Her life reflects the Doctor's life – a shared wanderlust and longing to explore. Now you can revisit the Doctor's adventures as seen through the eyes – or the flashing rooftop light, at least – of the TARDIS. From the time the Doctor stole her from Gallifrey to her latest adventures with the Fifteenth Doctor, the TARDIS reflects wittily on her epic, incredible history – past, present and future! 

Verdict

New Beginning (Mamba Seyra) was a decent end to the I, TARDIS: Memoirs of an Impossible Blue Box collection! I was very surprised to find that the concluding chapter was a solitary page (and not even a full one at that!). I will be very surprised if I ever blog a smaller story than this one because this blog entry alone will be nearly five times longer than the story in which I am blogging! When I saw that it was so short I had contemplated just adding a quick section onto the end of my blog entry for Just the Two of Us, but that didn't quite feel right given that I've given a separate entry to each of the eleven stories that came before this one. Despite being so short, I thought this was potentially the best use of the perspective of the TARDIS in the entire book! It was a nice touch and moment for reflection from the Doctor's time and space machine and it feels like an important time to look back after divulging all of the information that we had previously read as part of the book. It was an incredible spiel of information and comments so here she was just reaffirming who she was and it felt like the TARDIS was taking a breather at the end of a very informative account of her life with numerous Doctors. I was intrigued that the TARDIS felt the need to ask if she was a good TARDIS. Is there any doubt? She was referencing the recent events of the likes of Flux and The Giggle which were interesting, but she can hardly be blamed for anything that happened in those stories! It almost felt like with the referring to herself as reborn that this chapter might have been the one of the Fourteenth Doctor that the Fifteenth whacked into existence. No confirmation was given on that given the short length of the story, but it's a theory I am keen to run with. I think the shortness of this story gives me a chance to reflect on my own reading of this collection of short stories and I must say that despite some strong ratings, this isn't a book that I will look back on too fondly unfortunately. I think some of the decision making was questionable in lumping together different incarnations of the Doctor and I'm not sure why this became basically an account of each Doctor's televised adventures and a list of their respective companions. It was supposed to be from the perspective of the TARDIS but I don't feel like we actually got enough substance of that. The Journey Logs were usually quite mundane and just very small lines about what happened that could have been written by anybody. They rarely felt unique to the TARDIS which is supposed to be the ultimate selling point of the book. Almost contradictorily, this book is actually one I wish I had bought a physical copy of now because it really is a beautiful cover and feel. The TARDIS blue is stunning and I almost don't want to give it back to the library! I don't think I will end up buying one though because of the content and the fact I will now have blogged every story. It's also probably a downside on my part that I am reading a year or so after publication and I know a lot now of what the TARDIS will go through in the Fifteenth Doctor's second season. It still feels off that no mention of Sutekh came in references to The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death in the last story in the book, but even the TARDIS reacting to the Doctor's year in a hotel during Joy to the World could have been great. But here we are at the end and the TARDIS is discussing herself and looking ahead. Just as she should do so. The bluest blue ever indeed! I love that description of the TARDIS. She will live in infamy. She really is forever. But please, The Doctor's Wife was the perfect representation of the TARDIS. We don't need anything like this again. Overall, incredibly short but a strong way to conclude the book. 

Rating: 7/10