In Matt Smith’s final episode, The Time of the Doctor, we find out that he has been protecting the town of Christmas for 900 hundred years. While that episode showed some of what he did, there are many more untold stories. With Doctor Who: Tales of Trenazalore, BBC Books is taking us back to that time and allowing us to get a glimpse of what happened during that long time in Trenzalore.
As it had been foretold, the armies of the Universe gathered at Trenzalore. Only one thing stood between the planet and destruction – the Doctor. For nine hundred years, he defended the planet, and the tiny town of Christmas, against the forces that would destroy it.
He never knew how long he could keep the peace. He never knew what creatures would emerge from the snowy night to threaten him next. He knew only that at the end he would die on Trenzalore.
Some of what happened during those terrible years is well documented. But most of it remains shrouded in mystery and darkness.
Until now.
This is a glimpse of just some of the terrors the people faced, the monstrous threats the Doctor defeated. These are the tales of the monsters who found themselves afraid – and of the one man who was not.
(Tales of Trenzalore documents four of the Doctor’s adventures from different periods during the Siege of Trenzalore and the ensuing battle:
Let it Snow – by Justin Richards
An Apple a Day – by George Mann
Strangers in the Outland – by Paul Finch
The Dreaming – by Mark Morris)
As the description shows, the book is made up of four short stories, each by a different author. Each story features a different alien that the Doctor must battle. The stories are short, the entire book being only 192 pages, so you will be able to get through it pretty quick.
In the first story, Let it Snow, the Doctor battles the Ice Warriors. We spend quite a bit of time learning more about the areas outside of Christmas and the snow harvesters. The author, Justin Richards, does a bang-up job of capturing the Doctor’s ‘voice’. The dialogue was great and it fit Matt Smith’s Doctor perfectly. There is quite a bit of humor and plenty of the Doctor being at his best. There is even time for a neat twist that will make you smile at just how smart the Doctor really is in this short story.
In the next story, An Apple a Day by Charles Mann, we hear about the Doctor as he has aged more. He has a little more grey in his hair, laughter lines enhance his face and he gets around with a limp thanks to a wooden leg. The villains this time are the Krynoids, a race of parisitic invaders. They were sent to Trenzalore to take over and consume all animal life. While the first story nailed Matt Smith’s Doctor, this one didn’t feel quite the same. Some of his familiar mannerisms were there, but the dialog was a little off at times. The one thing I couldn’t shake is that the centerpiece of this story is an apple orchard. An orchard that the Doctor takes an apple from and eats. Even referencing multiple times how much he likes apples. We all know that the 11th Doctor thought that apples were “rubbish”. This totally took me out of the story along with the dialog issues.
The third story is Strangers in the Outland by Paul Finch. Once again something is falling from the sky, just like the previous two stories. This time around, it is the Autons that arrive in Christmas. Multiple ones, all looking like the Doctor. Of course, the Doctor has aged while on Trenzalore, even more so than the last story, so they don’t look like him anymore. I enjoyed this one the least so far. Maybe its just the old Doctor that I’m having a problem with? The author said the Autons looked like the Doctor, but then seemed to abandon the idea. In fact, I never really felt them as a threat. It was more about the people the Doctor was helping, or that were helping him, with very little involvement of the Autons. This one drives home the fact that the Doctor has a wooden leg. It seems to be mentioned every other sentence. I actually groaned at the end when it was used one last time in the story.
The fourth and final story is The Dreaming by Mark Morris. Surprisingly, nothing fell from the sky at the start of this story. The Doctor is older once again, the oldest he has been yet in these stories. He has been in Christmas for 750 years and his mind isn’t quite what it once was. He calls people by other names from his past and forgets mundane tasks. This may sound like a horrible start to the story, but it is actually written so well that I found this older version of the Doctor charming, unlike how he was portrayed in the last story. The villain of this story is the Mara, a creature that infects people to take over their minds. That premise allows the Doctor to interact with different people and it creates lots of great moments. We get the Doctor being whimsical, but confident. It builds up to a confrontation that allows another great speech, the Doctor grandstanding at his finest. It was a very satisfying ending and I found myself reading out loud, in my poor imitation of the Doctor, as I read it.
As you may have guessed, TheDreaming, was my favorite story of the bunch. The first and fourth are both good, so they start off and end the book strong. The book is pretty cheap, only a few dollars on Amazon, so it is worth a read and you can find out a little more about the 11th Doctors time on Trenzalore.
