Lethbridge-Stewart: The HAVOC Files 2

This is the second collection of short stories from the Lethbridge-Stewart series of books.

Ashes of the Inferno by Andy Frankham-Allen: This story links the parallel worlds of  The Schizoid Earth and the Doctor Who story 'Inferno'. It's a nice exploration of parallel worlds and the idea of how they might affect those that find out about them. What I really liked from this story was the hints at how the Lethbridge-Stewart novels work with Doctor Who and why there seems to be more to the Brigadier than we ever saw on TV.

House of Giants by Rick Cross: Another story which deals with the aftermath of a Who story, this time First Doctor story 'Planet of the Giants'. It sees Anne Travers become miniaturized and the Brig attempt to clear things up. It's a lot of fun and sets up an element of The Grandfather Infestation well.

In His Kiss by Sue Hampton: A different style this one, set in 1945 and featuring a young Alastair through the eyes of his friend Jemima. It deals with the aftermath of James Lethbridge-Stewart's death and is really a dark story about a young girl dealing with grief.

The Lock-In by Sarah Groenewegen BEM: Another different style. This is set late in the Brigadier's life and sees an exchange of letters between a woman called Pearl Hammond and the Brig in his care home as she recounts an encounter with the Fifth Operational Corps and aliens. I liked the style but felt the plot didn't quite work. 

The Black Eggs of Khufu by Tom Dexter: Lethbridge-Stewart arrives at the Great Pyramid in Egypt where ancient alien activity has been uncovered. There's an alien body and mysterious black eggs but when a group of Russians get involved Lethbridge-Stewart finds himself racing across the desert on a camel. It's a decent story and I liked the alien explanation for the pyramids. It certainly made good use of the locale although it's never really explained how on Earth Lethbridge-Stewart ending up going there. 

The Band of Evil by Roger J Simmonds & Shaun Russell: An alien band called Totem Pole is brainwashing it's fans. It's a plot that has been used before but done well here. The story also introduces Captain Younghusband who is immediately a great character. 

The Playing Dead by Adrian Sherlock: Sherlock wrote a Lethbridge-Stewart novel set in Australia which I thought was never published but will apparently be next year. This follows on from that future book. Bishop and Anne Travers are in Darwin and find themselves in a zombie apocalypse. Whilst I am a big zombie fan it felt out of sorts with the feel of the series. It worked in a Torchwood novel but I don't think it works here. 

Schädengeist’s First Love by Jonathan Cooper: This is a deleted scene from The Showstoppers. It delves into how Schadengeist/ Mondegreene ended up as the villain of the book. I really liked this and felt it would have worked well in the book. 

Exodus from Venus by John Peel: The original prologue from The Grandfather Infestation. It sees a failed invasion of Venus by the grandfathers. It's a good story but I can see why it was cut as it reveals too much of the aliens of the book. 

The Lost Skin: Episode One by Andy Frankham-Allen: The first part of a longer story which is set parallel to Times Squared. Whilst the Brig is away in New York, Anne Travers, Bishop and Samson have their own problems to deal with. Harold Chorley and Larry Green are investigating the Brigadier so a distraction involved Anne's father Professor Travers is conceived. Travers inevitably finds a myth to investigate... It's a fantastic first part of the story and I am really looking forward to seeing where this goes. 

Overall, I thought this was a great collection. It's great to see how the publisher's have decided to expand it's short stories for this range and experiment with different styles and eras of the character. As with any short story collection some are better than others but I thought generally the standard was very high.

Time Trips: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller

As with many others in the Time Trips series, this sees a popular author, this time author of Chocolat Joanne Harris, write a Doctor Who story. This one features Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor and in terms of continuity is set right before the end of his last story, Planet of the Spiders. 

The dying Doctor finds himself in the Village where life is idyllically simple. But when the Doctor meets the Queen he begins to realise this strange world masks a dark secret.

The idea for this is a good one, poignantly focusing on the Doctor dying. Whilst I felt Harris characterised the Third Doctor pretty well it didn't have much in common with his era. It felt like a New Who story which only used the Third Doctor as it was the only one that practically worked with the regeneration. 

One of the best of the series and an excellent idea which is well executed. Harris did a decent job of doing a Doctor Who story.

Salt of the Earth

The Third Doctor is perhaps my favourite Doctor thus far and whilst he and companion Jo Grant are characterised fairly well here this doesn't feel much like a Third Doctor story, with no UNIT, no Master yet still set on (virtually)contemporary Earth. The TARDIS lands on a salt lake in Australia in 2028 where they discover strange statues made of salt which look worryingly like people.

I really liked the setting and the idea of the Third Doctor 'blokarting'- being a man of action I could picture Jon Pertwee doing that- but this lacks in some of the key elements a really good Doctor Who story needs. The first of these is a villain, or at least a strong sci-fi element, which this story doesn't really have. Another is a strong guest cast- here we only really have one woman and a dog and oddly quite a high proportion of the story is told from the dog's point of view.

I could see that Trudi Canavan had chosen a place that she knows and loves because the setting is really strong here but it feels a bit like he had a setting and then tried to build a Doctor Whos story around it, and didn't do a terribly good job. In fact the solution is almost identical to one of the Ninth Doctor stories.

Not a complete failure but my least favorite of the Time Trips stories so far