Where's Boo Radley When You Need Him?
‘To Kill a Nandi Bear’
by Paul Williams
Short Trips #6, Past Tense
4th Doctor, Sarah and Harry
Cover Art by Red Ink
2004
Disclaimer: Doctor Who is owned by the Beeb, the opinions below are my own.
Throughout all his travels, the Doctor has had many adventures both on Earth and in the past. His affection for this particular planet is clear - as is his enjoyment of seeing history happen.
Past Tense features stories set exclusively in Earth’s past: from the heady atmosphere of Shakespearean London to the shadowy world of pre-war Istanbul; from the time of King Alfred to the turn of the millennium.
Short Story Synopsis at The Doctor Who Reference Guide
In the last post I touched on my discomfort with so many stories being crammed in between ‘Genesis’ and ‘Zygons’. There seems to be some good amount of time and damage done on Earth between when the Brigadier first starts signaling the Doctor during ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’ and when the Doctor finally arrives in ‘Zygons’, and that seems to be an excuse to pile any stories (or novels) containing Harry between the two episodes.
Let me be clear, I’m not arguing that this isn’t the only placement for them, I can’t think of anywhere else to squeeze them in either, but it bothers me that so many are. It feels forced and I don’t like that.
‘Wolfsbane’ at least created some leeway for them to travel a bit more before arriving in Tulloch, Harry needing a cure before he could return home after all. But how long does anyone believe that would really take the Doctor? A week or two at the outside? I know Harry is a character worth exploring further, but how many more adventures can we expect to fit in here, really?
How could the Doctor explain to this learned man, thought Harry, that the tribe depended on the shaman and the shaman’s beliefs? If his power was broken then every storm, every attack by a predator, every failure to find food would be blamed on this rash action. The system worked for his people. The chief did not understand it and did not follow the logic but he could not introduce widespread change. The risk lay not in the retaliation of the elements but in the loss of his own credibility.
This story is a Doctor Who twist on the central themes of ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’, (as is fairly obvious from the not-so-creative title), with the Chief as Atticus and the travelers in the place of Tom Robinson. They have landed in a time where a few people are starting to realize that regardless of differences, all people are equal and generally good, and the Chief is one of these.
The Chief knows there is no Nandi Bear because there has never been evidence of such an animal. He also implies agreement that the Shaman doesn't believe either, but finds it a useful tool. He has a rational mind, which is probably what made him Chief - a fitting balance to the superstition of the Shaman.
He wishes to help the Doctor and his friends since he believes they're simply innocent humans like his tribe, but he cannot go against the Shaman directly. So, he helps the Doctor, Harry and Sarah to escape, (successfully in this take on the story), but pays the price himself as his Tribe turns on him.
Aside from the 'Mockingbird' theme, this story is also a bit reminiscent of ’10,000 BC’ and ‘The Tribe of Gum’. The travelers are kept prisoner unless they can provide a mystical service for the tribe. The themes of fear of those who are seen as different and the dangers of superstition are re-used well here. Perhaps there's even a bit of clever foreshadowing of 'Face of Evil' here, but I could be reading too far into it.
The chief perched on the floor in his hut and ordered food to be brought to his strange guests. Meat and small jugs of water were quickly fetched. The Doctor refused his drink, passing it back to the bearer.
‘They say that you are a chiruwi,’ said the chief to the Doctor.
‘Have I asked you to wrestle?’
‘You know some of our beliefs?’
I adore it when the Doctor casually references tiny, arbitrary details like this. On top of everything else in that enormous brain of his, he knows these little things too. It’s fantastic detail for the character and always give me a little thrill of fan-geek joy when I come across something like this.
The characterizations are pretty spot on, though the Doctor stands out as the best of the three. Perhaps the Doctor is a Chiruwi, if 'wrestling' is not taken in a literal sense. He asks the Chief to wrestle with a moral dilemma, and having won he and his companions escape to their freedom. In fact, in many of his advantures he could be described as such a spirit. And as there is doubtless a name for such creatures in every culture in existence, wouldn't it be fun if the Doctor were the foundation on which they were created?
Harry is back to the level of competence we saw in ‘Genesis’ and ‘Device’, observant and insightful. But I don’t follow his logic in the first quote. It seems to me the Chief does know he cannot go against the Shaman directly, and why he can't - he says as much in his conversation with the Doctor and Harry.
Poor Sarah is out of the meat of the story, being a woman. In light of this, while you can’t fault her for them, Sarah’s thoughts regarding the rights of women in the tribe are fairly predictable for her character, and tedious. Sure, we’d all probably have those thoughts in her place, but that’s what makes it so expected and cliché. I'd rather be surprised by her, though I suppose she can't be surprising all the time.
I have a little trouble following the jump from where Sarah is the one to be held hostage, presumably because she’s a woman, and where the tribe agrees to let her go with the Doctor while Harry stays. Obviously the Chief helps them, but the Chief says he will not go against the Shaman, and then this. It just seems a bit abrupt.
In all a tale reminiscent of the Hartnell Era. Perhaps it's a bit standard, it borders on having been done before and doesn’t exactly stand out. The title makes me cringe, as it's a bit too obvious for my comfort, and it's more of a side step than an adventure. All that said though, it's a fun little story, particularly in the context of the Anthology, and still worth the read.
Next Time: ‘The Last Broadcast - Short Trips: A Day In The Life’