‘FEMME FATALE’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Iris Wildthyme with the Eighth Doctor and Sam

This story called ‘Femme Fatale’ is by Paul Magrs. It features the Eighth Doctor and Sam. It also features Iris Wildthyme, who has recently regenerated in this story. I believe this is the ‘Jane Fonda’ Iris that comes after the ‘Beryl Reid’ Iris. I’m not expecting you to know these facts. I certainly didn’t.

I found ‘Femme Fatale’ rather hard-going as a ‘Doctor Who’ story. The storytelling isn’t as linear as you would expect and I’m not sure if some of it was taken from the point of view of Iris when she’s interacting with characters like the Eighth Doctor and Sam. It’s easy to be confused when reading this tale.

In the story, Iris is hanging out with an artist named Andy Warhol and his crowd at the Factory in New York City. Iris also has a friend who is a writer named Valerie Solanis. The Doctor and Sam visit where Iris is and are surprised to see her. Apparently, they came because Sam wanted to meet Andy.

Valerie attempts to kill Andy since he rejected her latest play. She shoots him in the presence of Iris, Sam and the Doctor. The Doctor tries to stop Valerie, but she manages to wound Andy. Sam soon discovers that the real Valerie Solanis is in Paris. The Valerie who had shot Andy was actually a clone.

That’s essentially the story in a nutshell. Otherwise, you’d be forgiven for not finding this story exciting when it’s all over the place. Apparently, Iris has also written a book called ‘Wildthyme: Confessions of a Time Lady’ in this story. I’m not sure if the Brigadier, Benton and Fitz were in this story either. 😐

At the end of the ‘More Short Trips’ anthology book, there are biographies for the authors, including ones for Tara Samms and Andrew Miller. Again, it’s amusing to read these biographies, especially when Tara Samms and Andrew Miller are pseudonyms for Stephen Cole. Stephen Cole is also clearly witty when writing up the biographies of the real-life authors of this ‘Doctor Who’ anthology book.

‘More Short Trips’ has been another enjoyable collection of ‘Doctor Who’ short stories to check out. I especially enjoyed reading ‘The Eternity Contract’, which I found better than ‘The Parliament of Rats’ in the first ‘Short Trips’ book, and I found ‘Good Companions’ an intriguing story to check out. 🙂

It was also good to read stories like ‘Moon Graffiti’ and ‘Dead Time’ with their audiobook counterparts from ‘Tales From The TARDIS, Volumes 1 and 2’. Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Paul McGann are terrific readers. I’m sure I’ll enjoy checking out more ‘Short Trips’ collections in future. 🙂

‘Femme Fatale’ rating – 4/10

‘More Short Trips’ anthology book rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Eighth Doctor was ‘The Face-Eater’ (Book) For Sam was ‘The Face-Eater’ (Book) For Iris Wildthyme was ‘Verdigris’ (Book)	The next story For the Eighth Doctor is ‘Sad Professor’ (PT) For Sam is ‘Sad Professor’ (PT) For Iris Wildthyme is ‘Suitors, Inc’ (ST)
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