From: Sean Gaffney Subject: Short Trips and Side Steps: Review by the Happy Guy Date: 13 Mar 2000 00:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <8ahera$qp8$1@nnrp1.deja.com> X-Http-Proxy: 1.1 x33.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 207.171.147.78 Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. X-Article-Creation-Date: Mon Mar 13 01:04:44 2000 GMT X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDhotaru_chan Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Windows 95; DigExt) Short stories and Doctor Who haven't really gotten along in recent years. None of the Decalogs caught fire, though each had at least one fine example. The Short Trips series has been of even spottier quality, and I still haven't quite made my way through More Short Trips yet. The third book, however, while having its share of clunkers, is intriguing and inventinve enough to be more interesting than any of the other books - AND it manages to have some sparkling gems. SPOILERS!!! As per usual, I'll go through each story with a few lines, and individual ratings, then gove an overview and book rating at the end. The stories in parts will be reviewed as one entity. The Longest Story in the World: Short, metaphorical, nothing special but a nice intro. 7/10. A Town Called Eternity: An intriguing premise and good characterization battle with a somewhat standard and dull execution, but in the end the good wins out. Peri is written very well here, and I love the Brown 'family'. 7/10. Special Occasions: Seeming to take place in the 'post-Well Mannered War' universe, these are 3 episodes of total 4th Doc-Romana fluff followed by a freakout scary ending. I wonder if the first 3 came in and Steve/Jac wrote the last to tie them together. Eerie, nonetheless. 9/10. Nothing at the End of the Lane: OK, what the hell was this? The most stunning, brilliantly written story in the entire book... and I have *no idea* what was going on! The ending was... what was that? HUH?! I'm still, however, giving this a 10, as it was gorgeously written and I couldn't put it down. But as for comprehension... nope. 10/10. Countdown to TV Action: OK, this was a lot of fun. I read the Classic Comics when Gary first put them out, in all their awful, mischaracterized glory. And that's exactly what we get here, with a dead-on pastiche on Countdown. The Doctor saves a small English town... for SCIENCE! 9/10. The Queen of Eros: Blah. My anticipation of Coldheart went way down. Putting the Doctor in a modern-day Amanda Quick novel, complete with lovelorn warrior maiden. And boy is Sam an annoying bitch in this one. Not a favorite at ALL. 2/10. The Android Maker of Calderon IV: Short, cute, fun. 8/10. Revenants: This was very reminiscent of another story by Gareth Roberts I remember from a previous Decalog. But the companion was wonderful, and made up for that. More Guin, please! 8/10. Please Shut the Gate: Short, cute, fun. 7/10. Turnabout Is Fair Play: This was huge fun, and featured a wonderful characterization of Peri, the second in this book. Loved it. 10/10. The House on Oldark Moor: Weird, with another confusing ending. Were the doubles ever really explained? 6/10. Gone Too Soon: The best of the short, cute, funs. Lovely ColDoc charaterization, some hilarious images, and even quite touching. 10/10. Reunion: Suffers from being a long, serious story that's too caught up in its plot. I never really sympathized with the narrator, and the Doctor seemed to be there to explain the plot, nothing more. 4/10. Planet of the Bunnoids: Um... Long, not as cute, and not as fun. No real idea why I didn't care for this, I just didn't get into the idea. 4/10. Monsters: You'll pardon me before I write these lines as I slit my wrists with this rusty spoon. There are creepier stories in this collection, but none as bleak and depressing as this one. I felt awful after reading it. Still quite good, of course, but wow, why not kick us in the stomach again? 7/10. Face Value: I wanted to like this more, as Steve is a favorite of mine, but I'm unfamiliar with the source, and the balance of silliness and gripping drama really never balanced. 5/10. Storm in a Tikka: Dull. Very dull. The most interesting part was when I thought Leo McKern and Eleanor Bron might show up, but they didn't. 3/10. Vrs: For an epitaph, it's a winner. What the heck, 10/10. OVERALL: I think I can see why several stories were split up for this collection: to balance the weaker second half. Nevertheless, there are some stellar entries here, and the only ones that really fall down are the ones that try too hard to be normal, staid DW short stories. Still, for Dan's, Gary's, Graeme's, and Christopher's stories, this is a must. 7.5/10 (overall). --SG --next: Fall of Yquatine, as the arc may be over but the Arc lives --on... Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.