Decalog 3: Consequences
"Tarnished Image"

by Guy Clapperton

"The consequences of having the Doctor crashing around our universe can be colossal... The Doctor is a time traveller. Never forget that, because it is central to an understanding of what makes him so terribly dangerous. Most of us, in our own tiny, individual ways are involved in the writing of history. Only the Doctor is out there rewriting it."

But even the Doctor may not see the threads that bind the universe together. Perhaps, instead, he cuts right through them. Who knows what events he sets in motion without even realizing? Who knows what consequences may come back—or forward—to haunt him?

Ten completely new tales from the universe of Doctor Who. Seven Doctors' lives, inexorably linked in a breathtaking chain of consequences.

Analysis:

"Tarnished Image" takes an interesting story structure—telling the story through news articles with the characters commenting on the events after the fact—and manages to make it a thoroughly boring experience.

The problem isn't so much the structure of the story, but the plot itself. It isn't terribly interesting, and when you're doing something of this nature the plot needs to be something special to keep this different story form going. Instead there's a tired old chestnut about a faked holovid that the populous believes in... ho hum. We've seen this before, and done more interestingly. This one's a yawn-fest. It's too bad—this could have been a lot of fun.