Dust

"We were counting the particles of dust on the surface of Mars."

Writer: Paul Leonard

Format: Short Story

Released: December 2003

Printed in: Short Trips: Steel Skies 05

Featuring: Second Doctor

Synopsis

There are many places that most of us can never see: places that are sheltered, locked away, cordoned off from the outside world. But to the Doctor, and those who travel with him in his TARDIS, there is no such thing as a locked door. Anywhere in space and time is open to them to visit – even if sometimes it might be better to leave such places well alone.

Steel Skies is a collection of stories based in enclosed and artificial environments: places constructed to keep the dangers of the universe outside, perhaps, or to keep their inhabitants locked in. It is divided into four sections, each exploring a different kind of confinement:

Section One, Flight, comprises four tales of travellers who left their homes for far-away destinations – to explore, to start a new life, or to fight for the survival of their species.

Section Two, Frontiers, explores the corridors, living quarters and ventilation shafts of four futuristic environments – designed to shelter men, women and children from harsh natural forces, or from the threat of nuclear war.

Section Three, Incarceration, tells four stories of punishment and imprisonment, from San Francisco's infamous Alcatraz, to the cage of a flightless angel in the dilapidated ruins of Heaven. 

Section Four, Isolation, deals with the loneliness and despair of being cut off from the world outside, by physical or mental incapacity, by the ravages of war, or caught between destinations aboard the TARDIS itself. 

A recurring theme in all four sections is the effect of the Doctor's arrival in these enclosed environments – sometimes positive, sometimes less so.

Verdict

Dust was an excellent story to continue my way through the Steel Skies edition of Short Trips! This saw me move into the second section of the collection as we now move into a series of stories under the umbrella of Frontiers and if this is anything to go by then it’s going to be an improvement on the first quartet! I think a setting of Mars is excellent and I really do think it’s a planet that is still underutilised despite having it as the home of the Ice Warriors and the likes of Pyramids of Mars, The Waters of Mars and Empress of Mars featuring there. I still think more could be done with it being the closest planet to Earth and this one had an eery feeling. The title of the story itself was incredibly blunt but it was perfect for this kind of adventure. Thinking of dust in the terms that were presented in this story was quite frightening actually and I think most of that was down to the character of Jovain Pallis. The story being told in first person from his perspective became more and more chilling as it went on. He was clearly a little demented and that was later confirmed with him being revealed as the murderer of Marissa. That whole reveal with the murderer actually being the perspective the story was told from was fascinating and it was actually pretty fun to see him trying to work out who it was. Of course, from this perspective we got the inner thoughts of Jovain and it was clear to see that he wasn’t all there. I quite enjoyed how the Doctor barely featured and I must say I think that was for the better. I don’t really know where the placement is in chronology for the Second Doctor to be travelling alone unless the Season 6b theory is confirmed here and we’re post the events of The War Games, but it worked well and I was glad that we didn’t get much interaction from him. He was basically just on hand to work out the murderer and then send him packing. Jovain even seemed to be contempt with his punishment of isolation and appreciated that the Doctor had given him a voice recording box in order to be able to speak to somebody and get some sort of reply. I’m assuming that the story told here was that voice recording? Maybe a tad more clarity on that would have been welcomed. With Marissa dead, Isabell was able to push Jovain about the murder as she knew that in the circumstances they found themselves in, the culprit could only be one of the them. And she certainly knew it wasn’t her! I thought that was pretty chilling and it was really good to have Jovain still thinking about things on a microscopic scale. From dust into joints then on a planetary scale of Mars, it was so interesting to think about. The fact that Jovain seemed to have killed Marissa simply because he couldn’t have her was pretty horrifying but something I can’t say was surprising. It was disturbing and that was made evident by his thoughts on their sixteen year age gap with him being thirty-nine whilst she was just twenty-three. His outburst at the ridiculousness of him killing her because he was in love with her sold him out really because nobody mentioned those kind of feelings. The Doctor challenging him in a calm but stern way was powerful stuff that I wouldn’t ordinarily associate with this incarnation. It was good to see that more stern side of the Second Doctor. I was surprised he even let Jovain in the TARDIS! But he seemed accepting of his fate to remain in isolation. The rest of the crew had a couple of years to wait until the last flight home and thinking that they had been there for two decades was almost incomprehensible. No wonder they all got along! How could they not? Overall, a really interesting read. I loved the discussions of the titular element of dust and the perspective worked with a really strong setting. A brilliant read!

Rating: 9/10