Post by Kestrel on Jan 10, 2021 8:21:17 GMT
I dunno about y'all, but when I think of the word, "gentleman," the only Doctor who really leaps to mind is John Pertwee's. So yeah, obviously, a perfect title for his debut Short Trip.
That said, I'm a bit iffy on this story. It was fun and well-written, don't get me wrong (I loved the weepy ambassador), but it just... didn't quite feel right to me. Part of that was the fact that it was being narrated by a young boy, but being read by an (apparently) old woman. Another part is the sheer... absurdity of the premise.
So, like... I can get behind the idea that lead is a rare metal to these aliens. But that it's a rarity in an entire galaxy? Eh, not so much. And that they're capable of transgalactic travel, but only ever go to the Earth to find lead, where they're content with a small lump from the Doctor? It just doesn't make much sense.
I was also a bit confused about the continuity. It's been a while since I binged through Classic Who, but my recollection is that the 3rd Doctor was placed on Earth immediately after regenerating, where was was in a state of exile and forced to work with UNIT until he, in turn, regenerated into the 4th Doctor. So just where, exactly, did he find the time to set up a semi-permanent residency in some rural English village?
And then there's the fact that the alien bemoans having to travel "thousands of miles to get here." Umm, I know a lot of writers have difficulty comprehending the size of the universe, but when it comes to scale I'd expect just about every SF writer on the planet to know that Earth, itself, is just under 10,000 miles in diameter. It's not an appropriate unit of measurement for interstellar flight, even if we're just talking about intra-system stuff.
I dunno. It just makes the whole idea of the story feel a bit half-baked. So, anyone else grab these early Short Trips in the recent sale? Or listen to 'em recently? If so, what did you think?
That said, I'm a bit iffy on this story. It was fun and well-written, don't get me wrong (I loved the weepy ambassador), but it just... didn't quite feel right to me. Part of that was the fact that it was being narrated by a young boy, but being read by an (apparently) old woman. Another part is the sheer... absurdity of the premise.
So, like... I can get behind the idea that lead is a rare metal to these aliens. But that it's a rarity in an entire galaxy? Eh, not so much. And that they're capable of transgalactic travel, but only ever go to the Earth to find lead, where they're content with a small lump from the Doctor? It just doesn't make much sense.
I was also a bit confused about the continuity. It's been a while since I binged through Classic Who, but my recollection is that the 3rd Doctor was placed on Earth immediately after regenerating, where was was in a state of exile and forced to work with UNIT until he, in turn, regenerated into the 4th Doctor. So just where, exactly, did he find the time to set up a semi-permanent residency in some rural English village?
And then there's the fact that the alien bemoans having to travel "thousands of miles to get here." Umm, I know a lot of writers have difficulty comprehending the size of the universe, but when it comes to scale I'd expect just about every SF writer on the planet to know that Earth, itself, is just under 10,000 miles in diameter. It's not an appropriate unit of measurement for interstellar flight, even if we're just talking about intra-system stuff.
I dunno. It just makes the whole idea of the story feel a bit half-baked. So, anyone else grab these early Short Trips in the recent sale? Or listen to 'em recently? If so, what did you think?
