“Every life is a
pile of good things and bad things,” once said the eleventh Doctor,
and he wasn't wrong. He could just have easily have said, “Doctor
Who is a pile of good things and bad things – The Caves of
Androzani on one side, The Twin Dilemma on the other.”
Or, “a fan fiction anthology is usually a pile of good things and
bad things – cross your fingers when you open one.”
Fortunately, A
Pile of Good Things, the new eleventh Doctor fanzine put together
by Ginger Hoesley, is accurately titled. There's not a single poorly
written story in here, which, in even the slimmest collection, is
really saying something. For me, there was a nice mix of new and
recognisable names, and even those stories that were slightly weaker
than the best in the collection were great reads.
The collection runs
in roughly chronological order from the Doctor's point of view,
beginning with “Displaced Persons” by Michael O'Brien. This is a
bit of a delight, an affectionate spoof of space opera that drops the
Doctor and Amy into the middle of a thinly-veiled episode of Star
Trek to solve the problem of the week, only to find some familiar
enemies cropping up. I won't spoil it, but I will say that while I
might have guessed the first alien race that brought back from the
archives, I was happily surprised by second. And for Trek fans,
there are little nods at the Whoniverse equivalents of Section 31 and
the Department of Temporal Investigations. The interplay between the
Doctor and Amy is great, although their dialogue sometimes seems a
little off.
Katie and Claire
Lambeth bring us a beautiful story with “Lost Soul,” a wartime
drama with a solid mystery at its centre. This story sees the Doctor
travelling alone but paired up for an adventure with the sparky
twelve-year-old Edna. Seeing the Doctor from a new character's point
of view, especially a child's, is always a great way to explore him.
“Lost Soul” is a quite touching story with some classic sci-fi
elements.
“Someone
Kidnapped, Something Blue,” my personal highlight of the
collection, is a follow-up to the Doctor Who Magazine comic
strip adventure “Hunters of the Burning Stone.” This strip saw
the eleventh Doctor reunited with Ian and Barbara for the fiftieth
anniversary, and was deserving of a follow-up. Author Tina Marie
DeLucia absolutely nails the three characters and their dynamic, with
Ian and Barbara affectionately coming to terms with this new Doctor
while absolutely refusing to get drawn into another reckless
adventure. It's a small scale story and all the more effective for
it. Beautiful.
Two stories take
place during the Doctor's extended sulk on top of a cloud in
Victorian London. Paul Driscoll gives us a fun story with some
unexpected elements in “The Birds of Sweet Forgetfulness,” which
sees the TARDIS try to set the Doctor up with a new companion picked
off the streets of London. It's an effective examination of the
Doctor's loneliness and depression, which also points out that if he
really wanted to be left alone, he wouldn't have picked a bustling
capital to hide out in. Driscoll's story even sees the Doctor take
over the ownership of a pub, yet still complain about people
bothering him, which sounds exactly like the sort of thing he'd do.
Dana E. Reboe's
story, “The Stars and Their Promises” is set a little later in
the Doctor's self-imposed exile, it seems, as he is beginning to
defrost and enjoy his time in London. He's only a little put-out when
Madame Vastra recruits him to deal with an alien threat to the
capital. It's a lovely little horror story with some great interplay
between the two heroes. Both Vastra and Reboe can see clearly that
whatever he says, the Doctor's only really content when he's in the
middle of an adventure.
It's appropriate,
then, that the next story sees the Doctor struggling with the
challenge of spending a few days in London without taking in an
adventure. “Staying Put” by Ellen Montgomery brings us into the
era of Clara and Coal Hill School. Clara doesn't think the Doctor can
stay put for a week without the using the TARDIS, and to his credit,
he does technically manage this. Perhaps with a little string-pulling
from school governor I. Chesterton, the Doctor is given charge of a
group of Year 8 pupils. Naturally, his idea of a suitable field trip
is to take them back to his junkyard on Totter's Lane, only to find
it's been replaced by a Nando's. A very fun story indeed, with a
particularly good rendition of the eleventh Doctor.
The funniest
adventure, however, has to be William J. Martin's “Lost in
Translation.” This doesn't involve two disparate souls thrown
together in Tokyo, but the Doctor and Clara's trip to the planet
Delphon. Yes, that's the same planet Delphon where they communicate
with their eyebrows; the idea of sending the opto-follically
challenged eleventh Doctor to this planet is hilarious. The idea of
eyebrow language makes you wonder just what sort of creature could
possibly evolve to communicate like that, and Martin comes up with a
clever answer. It's a funny but clever piece of sci-fi on the
universe's quietest planet. (Now do one set on Tersurus.)
Michelle Alvarez
brings us “Making Memories,” a very beautiful tale of the Doctor
and Clara's of a world where memories can be recorded onto
snowflakes. It's a brief but touching look at the friendship between
the two time travellers. Kara Dennison's “Universal Love” is
another funny one, a biting take on New Age nonsense alternative
medicines, which sees the Doctor take Clara on a shopping trip to the
least exciting locale in the universe. Fair enough, he needs specific
types of crystals and knows that a Wellness Fair is exactly where to
find them – even if the vendors have no idea what they're actually
useful for.
The stories have
enough variety to keep things interesting, while fitting nicely
together as a single collection. There are one or two Americanisms
that stuck out in the main characters' dialogue, but otherwise this
is well-edited and thoroughly enjoyable selection of tales. Not only
are the stories great, but the design of the fanzine is eyecatching
and the selection of artwork is fantastic. It's a stunning piece of
work altogether.
Perhaps
surprisingly, there are no appearances by everyone's favourite Roman,
Rory Williams, nor any stories set during the Doctor's long vigil on
Trenzalore. It shows just how rich the eleventh Doctor's era was that
there can be so much in here yet still be more to explore. Still,
there's always room for a second Pile of Good Things.
You can order A Pile of Good Things
here, but hurry - it's only on sale till the 25th of November!
All proceeds go towards the Cancer Research Institute. There's merc too!
Ginger's site and shop can be found here.
