No Exit

"We don't know why you can't have children."

Writer: Kate Orman

Format: Short Story

Released: December 2003

Printed in: Short Trips: Steel Skies 07

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan

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

No Exit was an excellent adventure to continue my way through the Steel Skies edition of Short Trips! This was only eight pages long but it packed a whole lot in with some incredible world building. I thought the concept at the heart of the story was incredibly poignant as we joined in with the adventure that the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan were having on the colony of F-four. This was an interesting place and whilst there seemed to be a fun little dig at the city of Coventry (I’ve only been to the football stadium there so I can’t comment much on the city itself!), there really wasn’t a lot to laugh about. This was a desperate colony that had been that way for a decade. A completely sterile population on the colony and there was no way off. That’s a pretty daunting prospect to think that the entire population would never be able to have children. That’s pretty devastating as a father of two myself and I’ve always wanted children so to have it written in stone that I couldn’t have them before my first born arrived would have been pretty crushing. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s a slow realisation that the population would eventually come into the position of never meeting anybody new. At some point you would get bored of the same company! Imagine never being able to make new friends and engage with new people? I’m not the most social of people but that still seems pretty frightening! No wonder the TARDIS trio were in a pretty difficult situation where they were basically being crowded and hoarded to take them away. Utilising the scientific expertise of the Doctor and Nyssa was terrific and I was glad that their knowledge was highlighted. It was quite fun that Tegan was subjected to the virus that made the colony sterile and that helped with quickening the search for information and a cure. It soon became clear though that no cure was coming and this colony would one day end, one by one. That’s an incredibly bleak situation to think that the younger members of the colony would be in a race for the death. Imagine being the last member to survive and be surrounded by the dead? I thought the characterisation of the Fifth Doctor here was really strong. The urgency in his voice was presented really well on the page which was good as it managed to portray his incarnation perfectly. Toopyar being friends with Nyssa was good and I liked that we had a focal point for the colonists. I don’t want to say he was the leader but he was definitely respected amongst the rest of the population. The threat given to Nyssa when the Doctor was clearly trying to escape with his companions in hardly a subtle way was strong. She really was in a bad way but was healed and it was nice for the Doctor to have genuine concern for a companion he’s had a pretty frosty relationship with historically! I think doing some visual magic with the TARDIS to move it slightly and have Nyssa fake that he’d used the self destruct to not let anyone off the colony and prevent such a spread of disease was a tad amusing. Nyssa and Tegan helping the colonists see that they were unfortunately completely helpless. There was no way off and there was nothing that could be done to continue the population. That was devastating to accept but they were angry at the situation, not Nyssa and the Doctor. It was good that they at least came to that realisation at the end. The planet being trapped before humanity even arrived set things in stone and the description of the virus seeping into all chromosomes and if it was removed it meant the entire genetic structure would be broken down was pretty scary! A daunting concept for sure. There really was no way off the colony and no hope. Overall, a bleak and powerful adventure! A fantastic story to continue my way through the collection.

Rating: 9/10