Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury, ed. Paul Cornell
Second stanza of the poem that is the third chapter ('In the TARDIS: Christmas Day' by Val Douglas): `We must have a Christmas pudding,'
The Doctor said at last
As he searched through all the cupboards
For relics of Christmas past.
`Aha!' he cried in triumph
And held up a mouldy goo.
`A present from Mrs Beeton
`In eighteen umpty-two.'
These themed anthologies of Who stories are sometimes more miss than hit, and I fear this is largely in the former category - perhaps not helped by my reading it at the height of summer rather than in the Christmas season for which it was intended when published in 2004, with New Who looming round the corner. Perhaps appropriately, the two stories I enjoyed most are reflexive vignettes where the TV show becomes part of the narrative, "Christmas Special" by Marc Platt and even more so "All Our Christmases" by Steve Lyons. Otherwise I think this is best enjoyed with mulled win in one's hand and a seasonal mood in one's brain.
Nest in sequence: Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins, ed. David Bailey.
The Doctor said at last
As he searched through all the cupboards
For relics of Christmas past.
`Aha!' he cried in triumph
And held up a mouldy goo.
`A present from Mrs Beeton
`In eighteen umpty-two.'
These themed anthologies of Who stories are sometimes more miss than hit, and I fear this is largely in the former category - perhaps not helped by my reading it at the height of summer rather than in the Christmas season for which it was intended when published in 2004, with New Who looming round the corner. Perhaps appropriately, the two stories I enjoyed most are reflexive vignettes where the TV show becomes part of the narrative, "Christmas Special" by Marc Platt and even more so "All Our Christmases" by Steve Lyons. Otherwise I think this is best enjoyed with mulled win in one's hand and a seasonal mood in one's brain.
Nest in sequence: Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins, ed. David Bailey.