Short Trips: There are Faeries at the Bottom of the Garden

Short Trips
"There are Faeries at the Bottom of the Garden"

by Sam Lester

From Neolithic Earth to the furthest reaches of the universe in the far future, Short Trips brings together both established Doctor Who authors and first-time writers in a collection of stories exploring the ever-changing worlds of the Doctor and his friends.

Witness the last days of the siege of Masada with the First Doctor and meet the Fourth Doctor's extraordinary "old flame". An evil enemy makes life difficult for the Seventh and Third Doctors, and while the Fifth Doctor is under attack on a sinister ship shrouded in fog, the Second may soon be guilty of a grave error of judgement... The Sixth Doctor's hopes of a holiday are dashed and the Eighth Doctor is caught up in a deadly drama played out during the construction of Stonehenge.

And of course, that's just the beginning...

Analysis:

Well, this is an exciting story. Dodo wanders around in a lot of mud. And more mud. And still more mud. Then she encounters something and doesn't understand its true meaning. At the grand conclusion, Dodo cries... no doubt, because she's in such a horrible story. (I lied about it being an exciting story.)

This story almost commits one of the greatest sins of Doctor Who fan-fiction, which is "the Doctor and companion do nothing whatsoever to influence the events of this story." To be fair, the Doctor does do something in the last page or two. Did we need the build up to this? Did we need repeated scenes of Dodo rolling around in the mud? Did we need this story at all?

No, not really. Don't bother, folks.