Decalog 3: Consequences edited by: Andy Lane and Justin Richards

 

With each Decalog the editors find a different way of presenting ten stories from ten authors featuring each of the seven Doctors.  The first had a frame story connecting each story from the editors, the second on a theme of homes, while the third, Decalog 3: Consequences, decides to have each story have some connecting tissue so one leads to another.  The Doctor is analyzed as the catalyst for these events, especially in the Seventh Doctor story, and the consequences of the Doctor existing and erasing himself from history are the main theme.  Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker are no longer the editors, handing the reigns to veteran Doctor Who novelists Andy Lane and Justin Richards and only three of the ten stories are from returning writers, meaning that this is the first Doctor Who work of writers including Peter Anghelides, Colin Brake, and even future showrunner Steven Moffat.  As such this is going to be one of those reviews where because of ten different authors giving ten different stories, the score at the end of this one is going to be perhaps a bit lower as it is an average and Decalog 3: Consequences is one of those releases that is actually better than the sum of its parts.

 

This concept can easily be seen in the opening story by Stephen Bowkett, “…And Eternity in an Hour”, a story with the Third Doctor and Jo Grant on an alien planet that suffers simply because it has the task to introduce a lot of the conflict that will be the thread of the anthology.  A mission from the Time Lords sends them to Alrakis where there are several time storms occurring, giving the story its title.  Jo doesn’t actually get to do much in this story, which is really a shame as Jo Grant is one of those companions who when she isn’t allowed to do anything you can get the real sense that this is not a character Bowkett understands what makes the character work.  The Third Doctor and Jo are a dynamic duo, but here Jo is pointless and a lot of the setup is just that, setup for later.  None of the characters are particularly jumping off the page, and the first half of the short story breeze by on the fact that it’s trying to be a fun romp, which then turns rather dark creating some tonal whiplash.  The dark ending does really stay with the reader, but it is not necessarily something that could be good.  It’s also telling that Bowkett didn’t ever write again for Doctor Who and while selling himself as a writer of books he also places hypnotherapist in that description.  4/10.

 

The debut of novelist Peter Anghelides comes next and this one is actually one that shines.  “Moving On” continues Decalog 2: Lost Property’s trendsetter of including at least one story where the Doctor does not appear, and the focus is on Sarah Jane Smith, something that would most likely had continued had Virgin Publishing not lost the Doctor Who license.  Anghelides gives a character focused story that examines Sarah Jane Smith’s time after being left in South Croydon at the end of The Hand of Fear and receiving K9 Mark III in K9 and Company, attempting to find some sort of purpose in her life after being far away from the amazing things she saw in the universe.  There of course is the throughline obviously setup in the previous story, but that really isn’t the point of “Moving On”, the point is that Sarah Jane has to find the strength to actually move on and live her life.  Eventually K9 is put away and Sarah Jane has taken her experiences and used them to start a career as a successful novelist, something that is essentially an epilogue to a short story that does have an issue of feeling like it was meant to be a novella.  8/10.

 

“Tarnished Image” by Guy Clapperton is unique for this era of Doctor Who as it is a First Doctor and Dodo which is not tarnished by any sort of dark character exploration or exploitation.  Clapperton seemed to take one look at The Man in the Velvet Mask and decided that it was going to tell a story where the Doctor and Dodo have a fun adventure together and just get to be happy.  There was a reason of course that Dodo stayed with the Doctor and indeed the Doctor allowed her to stay.  Dodo’s reaction to their last adventure here, told in “Tarnished Image” through newspaper clippings making a great format for a short story.  It also allows Clapperton to really show how irascible yet charming the First Doctor can be: he is completely floored by the bias in the newspaper stories, placing him and Dodo in events in ways that he clearly will be remembered wrongly.  Dodo, on the other hand, is just having the time of her life, even if the last adventure was quite dangerous and there really wasn’t a great deal to actually save.  Clapperton’s prose actually works really well with its clipped, reporteresque style which makes the reader feel that there is definitely something to this collection.  9/10.

 

Jackie Marshall’s story on the other hand is the perfect example of a story being incredibly middle of the road.  “Past Reckoning” is a story that doesn’t actually feel like a story, more connective tissue bringing the consequences for the Doctor to Earth and a new era so that the next story can actually pick them up.  There is also a theme of home and family which feels almost out of place, as the last decalog was Decalog 2: Lost Property, all dealing with homes.  Nyssa perhaps is the closest thing to a highlight here, as there are moments of reflection on just what the Master being in the body of her father means to her along with Adric’s death and Tegan’s exit, although the Master doesn’t actually appear and has nothing to do with the story.  There are also divergences to a mother and son which could be touching, but the constant cutting back and forth doesn’t quite work.  This is a short story that is written like a novel with a bunch of the connecting tissues taken out.  There also isn’t anything that can just bring the reader in, just getting things onto a page is difficult and the attempted side plot to explain the villain just doesn’t do it.  5/10.

 

“UNITed We Fall” is not only a story who’s title is a pun, it is a story where the Brigadier has to essentially defend himself for his actions with the Third and Fourth Doctors as well as what UNIT would have become post-Battlefield.  Keith R.A. DeCandido’s story is one that for the most part functions without the Doctor, who only appears halfway through the story and being the Fourth Doctor means that the insanity that the Brigadier is trying to convince the antagonist is real, only makes things worse.  Both the Brigadier and the Doctor are highlights from DeCandido and the entire plot is fairly tense.  There is this melancholy permeating throughout and clearly DeCandido is an author who knows how to write a short story, which makes me wonder just why he only wrote two short stories, though looking at his other work in science fiction franchises such as Farscape and Star Trek, but this was one of his earlier short stories only doing a few things for Marvel up to this point.  There are also some incredibly poignant moments sprinkled throughout which give this story some of its life while not necessarily being the pinnacle of the anthology.  7/10.

 

Colin Brake’s stories can easily be criticized for perhaps being overly long and not very interesting.  His debut short story, “Aliens and Predators”, actually has the opposite effect: it’s one of those stories that stops before it really has the chance to get going.  It’s a story where the Second Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe essentially are chased down a corridor until a genuinely great ending brings it up just a little bit.  Really it’s the one story in Decalog 3: Consequences which I really don’t have many strong feelings about and can barely find the effort to bring a lot of words towards it.  It’s just boring and like many of the other stories here, is one where an extension in length could have created something more interesting.  4/10.

 

With “Tarnished Image” before it Gareth Roberts’ contribution, “Fegovy”, takes a less used TARDIS team and gives them an incredibly fun little adventure featuring the Chelonians.  Fegovy is actually the villain and the Sixth Doctor and Mel have to take down in a story kind of about the accumulation of wealth and the evils that come with that.  Roberts as always is incredibly humorous and puts the Sixth Doctor and Mel’s relationship in stark contrast to Millennial Rites and Head Games as they genuinely like each other and take part in some good natured ribbing.  The Chelonians featuring area always fun and it’s just nice to see the Doctor and Mel having an adventure.  The Doctor has to sing opera at one point and Mel as a character is clearly one whom Roberts has a soft spot for.  Often maligned for her screaming, Melanie Jane Bush is one of those characters who simply got a bad run of stories on television, really only having one that could qualify as good, a few that are alright, and then the rest are mostly clunkers, yet Bonnie Langford’s Mel perhaps deserved more than the scrutiny she received.  Mel is an optimist and always fun to include in a story and explore just why she would want to travel with a life that’s pretty good on Earth.  Roberts doesn’t do that, but her inclusion here is an especially nice one.  7/10.

 

A compelling complex comedy.  That’s essentially how Steven Moffat’s first Doctor Who story, “Continuity Errors”, plays out.  This is essentially the beginner’s guide to what makes a Steven Moffat story work.  It’s split in two: first a lecture from someone substituting for Prof. Arthur Candy on the nature of who the Doctor is, and second scenes set in a future Library of Alexandria where Benny is left by the Doctor told through the perspective of a librarian.  Like many Steven Moffat stories, “Continuity Errors” delights in using time travel as a central premise, with the butterfly effect in full force.  Andrea, our librarian, has her life turned upside down over the course of the day while Benny is left in the library and the Seventh Doctor is off working on his latest master plan, changing Andrea’s past many, many times in the process.  As this happens many times over the course of a few hours, Andrea is slowly becoming aware of the changes and trying to bring all of the continuity errors in her life to some sort of real story.  There is also a war brewing with the library being told to suppress some information about one race that might seem distasteful if it came out that the allies of this planet were involved in genocides.  The Doctor is supposedly trying to stop this and Andrea is setup as simply a ripple effect a la Remembrance of the Daleks, though Moffat leaves the reader with one final twist that changes the meaning of “Continuity Errors” entirely, recontextualizing everything.  This is a review if I were writing in full on its own I could have fun with the format because of the odd style, and how it just leaves itself in the mind of the reader.  It’s absolutely brilliant and the best part of the book.  10/10.

 

The penultimate story has the hard task of following up “Continuity Errors” and Ben Jeapes’ “Timevault” does it to be incredibly fine story.  Jeapes tells a tale which has the Fourth Doctor and K9 Mark II engaged in some Graham Williams style insanity, however, there really isn’t a lot there that brings this up.  The Fourth Doctor is at his zaniest which means that there is a lot of fun there and the dialogue at the beginning with Xo’ril is one of those brilliant little moments which just feels like Tom Baker come to life.  The Doctor comforts a child who has been given a Sisyphean task of scrubbing the deck of an incredibly large spaceship.  The actual premise is largely okay, there is well written conflict, but it never actually rises above mediocrity because things just fall apart as Jeapes is a first time writer, though there is some promise for him to write things in the future.  5/10.

 

Craig Hinton ends the anthology with “Zeitgeist”, a Fifth Doctor and Turlough story which is filled to the brim with continuity references as is to be expected form the originator of the term fanwank.  The Fifth Doctor being replaced by an alien Time Lord, who may or may not represent an incarnation of the Other metatextually, is actually really interesting and Hinton could have done a lot more with that.  Hinton has this style where every character is written to be on top form, and including the sniveling Turlough is also great as Hinton allows him to have some of those moments where latent courage, or the glimpses of it, can actually break through.  He’s the one who has to figure out the plot which is great and the examination of the idea of zeitgeist (a word which means the spirit of a period of history based on its ideas and beliefs) in regards to Doctor Who is also apt for the end of Decalog 3: Consequences.  Virgin Publishing’s Doctor Who license is ending and this is the first point where their lasting legacy on the show in regards to bridging things from Survival to The TV Movie.  It’s a great ending and bittersweet.  8/10.

 

Overall, Decalog 3: Consequences is definitely worth a look, but the average of the scores is really only a 6.7/10.