Peril in Mechanistria

"You must talk louder."

Writer: Unknown

Format: Short Story

Released: September 1965

Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 1966

Featuring: First Doctor

Synopsis

Dealing with some TARDIS malfunctions after escaping from Skaro, the Doctor wonders into something much more perilous than appearances would have him believe...

Verdict

Peril in Mechanistria was a decent little story to continue my way through the very first edition of the Doctor Who Annual! I still feel incredibly privileged to be able to read this resource as it's such a historic release. I unfortunately don't have a physical copy and I'm reading the PDF copy that comes with The Web Planet DVD release, but that doesn't make it any less special for me. I gave up collecting physical releases long ago to focus on space for the figure/figurine collection but this is a gem of a piece. It's so full of character and just has a slightly different feel to traditional Doctor Who stories. That's definitely a quirky bonus and I always look forward to delving into these kinds of short stories. Part of that is because in the Classic era these Annual adventures actually aren't that short! There was more than enough time and page count to produce a story with depth and that was certainly the case here. Having an authentically and contemporarily 1960s First Doctor tale with some colour is really intriguing and the illustrations that accompany the story really do help it. Sure, they're pretty basic for the most part but the style is fantastic and they just work. It has that retro feel reading now in 2025 which I love. The start of the story is intriguing as for a 1965 release it seems to be intended as following on directly from the end of The Daleks which concluded over eighteen months prior! Maybe a tie in to Dr Who and the Daleks on the big screen? I could certainly see the First Doctor stories in this Annual fitting in with that slightly alternate universe! It's a fun concept as I'm not sure there's room for this to fit in prior to The Edge of the Destruction. And would the Doctor really leave his companions behind when it came to the TARDIS malfunctioning? They didn't appear at all here which indicates a sideways step for continuity in this book which is absolutely great. That doesn't make it any less valid for me. The setting of Korad was really good and I thought the makeup of that planet was intriguing to say the least. I liked the Doctor reacting to being taken physically and knocked unconscious from the illustrated grab! The Doctor wasn't all that keen on his captors and the humour that came from the locals needing to talk loudly was fun for this incarnation in particular. He didn't enjoy being told to speak up which was wonderful and I could so easily picture William Hartnell reacting to that. The planet history came in a bit of a burst and the scale of it was incredible over the course of ten million years or more! The situation had always been that the machines were in charge and even the Wise Ones weren't in control. I must admit I didn't see that one coming so it was a pretty decent revelation! Drako was a good and interesting little character and his acceptance from the Doctor that things could be different despite everything that was established was great. I was a little surprised that despite the situation on what was now Mechanistria and it clearly being a bad one with the machines in control and the entire planet one big workshop of metal, the Doctor was willing to change history. It throws everything he said to Barbara in The Aztecs in everyone's face! The little quirk at the end with Drako seemingly being successful despite not taking the atomiser with him was fun, but it just feels wrong for the Doctor to be so willing to help change things on a scale of millions of years! Overall, an intriguing little tale that had a lot of quirks and a decent plot at its heart! An enjoyable read.

Rating: 7/10