"I take photos of old places."
Writer: Jacqueline Rayner
Format: Short Story
Released: July 2026
Printed in: DWM 632
Featuring: Victoria, Sally
Synopsis
When two people looking to capture the perfect photograph of an abandoned London Underground station below the British Museum, a mummy with a certain kind of intelligence is awoken.
Verdict
Ghost Station was a great little short story! This was a surprise in the latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine but I can't speak highly enough of how wonderful a surprise it was. I had no idea that the Brief Encounters tagline for this short story was actually something revived from some issues of the magazine in 1990s and with it being included in the 'Regular Features' section in the contents, I am delighted by the prospect of further encounters. It's such a fun concept and it just absolutely works. Even at just two pages long, this had a lot going for it and that actually sounds a little smaller than it really is because the text fills the bulk of two A4 magazine-style pages. There's a lot going on and I really like that. It's also really beneficial to get the illustration which helps bring the story to life. I must admit, on a first glance I thought we were getting a repeat of The Wonderful Doctor of Oz as I thought this was an encounter between the Thirteenth Doctor and Missy! Upon closer inspection, the combination was very different indeed! This is a kind of loose sequel to The Web of Fear and also follows on slightly from Blink in the timeline as we incredibly get a meeting between Victoria Waterfield and Sally Sparrow! Now that really is a duo I would never have imagined would meet and lead a story together! But it was great fun. Unbeknownst to the pair of them they had both had very different encounters with the same man albeit he was in very different bodies and got to know one of them very well whilst the other he barely met at all yet made a huge impact and shaped her life massively. I like the idea of Sally Sparrow wanting to visit an abandoned London Underground station for photography and almost just the thrill of it all whereas it appears that Victoria has matured a lot since we saw her departure in Fury from the Deep. Addressing the UNIT dating controversy felt a little forced here as it usually does in not knowing if it was then 1960s or '70s, but surely you'd know based on a tad of research and finding out when the London Underground was impacted in the way it was by the Yeti and the Great Intelligence? That felt a little off but I really am nitpicking there. It would have been nice if there was some time for them to really touch upon their encounters with the Doctor, but the remnant of the Great Intelligence needed stopping so there wasn't exactly time for a lot of chitchat! I liked how Victoria took the initiative and let's face it, she is more experienced than Sally when it comes to this sort of thing. It may have only been a few years since the Weeping Angel incident for Sally, but despite it being decades since Victoria gave up her TARDIS travels she went through quite a lot! I liked that she was appealing to the inner nature of what the Intelligence possessed rather than trying to reason with that itself. I wonder if anything here would lead into the events of The Bells of Saint John and the Great Intelligence's return as the timeline would pretty much add up. Did Sally finding her way down to the abandoned station actually cause a whole lot more ruckus than she was already experiencing and helping prevent? A fun thought for sure. Overall, just a delightful little read. A huge bonus and I'm so excited by the potential for this series. Text stories always appeal to me in the latest edition of DWM, regular or special, so to have this every month would be a joy. Keep them coming!
Rating: 8/10
