‘MODEL TRAIN SET’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Playing with Trains and the Eighth Doctor
This is probably the very first official ‘Short Trips’ book anthology of ‘Doctor Who’ ever published!
Before Big Finish came along with their range of ‘Short Trips’ stories, both in prose and on audio, there was a time when the BBC came up with their series of ‘Short Trips’ anthologies. The first ‘Short Trips’ anthology published by the BBC was released in March 1998, two years after ‘The TV Movie’. 🙂
Paul McGann was the current Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’. Or at least he was in the books and comics following his brief TV stint. It’s fascinating to uncover the first ‘Short Trips’ anthology by the BBC with stories featuring various Doctors and companions, ranging from the First to Eighth Doctor eras.
For me, the primary reason to uncover these ‘Doctor Who’ short story collections is to check out a Nyssa story I haven’t read or heard before. In this particular case, the short story featuring Nyssa and the Fifth Doctor is called ‘The Parliament of Rats’. But it’s nice to check out the other stories in the collection too.
As well as ‘The Parliament of Rats’, there are stories like ‘Model Train Set’, ‘Old Flames’, ‘War Crimes’, ‘The Last Days’, ‘Stop the Pigeon’, ‘Freedom’, ‘Glass’, ‘Mondas Passing’, ‘There are Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden’, ‘Mother’s Little Helper’, ‘Rights’, ‘Wish You Were Here’, ‘Ace of Hearts’ and ‘The People’s Temple’. I hoped there would be something for me to enjoy in each story. 🙂
It’s intriguing to note that certain stories in the first ‘Short Trips’ collection by the BBC have audiobooks accompanying them. The audiobooks are currently included in the two ‘Tales From The TARDIS’ audio volumes, which can be purchased on CD or as downloads, as I’ve done, via Audible.
The audiobook readings are read by ‘Doctor Who’ actors like Sophie Aldred, Nicholas Courtney, Colin Baker and Paul McGann. Through my reviews on the stories featured in the first ‘Short Trips’ collection by the BBC, I hope to illustrate which stories I’ve enjoyed a lot and which ones I haven’t. 🙂
There’s an introduction by Stephen Cole, the editor of the ‘Short Trips’ book. It was intriguing to read how he started the BBC ‘Short Trips’ range of books and it’s amazing to reflect on how this started a trend of ‘Short Trips’ collections, especially by Big Finish Productions on audio and in prose.
The first story in the first ‘Short Trips’ anthology by the BBC is called ‘Model Train Set’ by Jonathan Blum. It features the Eighth Doctor. The only other time I’ve come across Jonathan Blum as a ‘Doctor Who’ writer is when he wrote ‘The Fearmonger’, featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace. I enjoyed that.
I also enjoyed ‘Model Train Set’, although it’s not at all dialogue-driven as one might expect. This story only features the Eighth Doctor as a character and it takes place all inside his TARDIS. In the story, the Doctor is playing with a model train set, which he has built over quite a period of time.
This was during his previous incarnation as the Seventh Doctor, apparently. I often thought of the Doctor as being like a child sometimes, especially when wanting to play with a model train set. 😀 It’s even mentioned the Doctor had always dreamed of wanting to drive a train when he was a little boy.
That’s clearly a reference to ‘Black Orchid’, my absolute favourite ‘Doctor Who’ story! 😀 The story illustrates how the Doctor tries to make his model train set work very efficiently like a proper railway system in the real world. Unfortunately, when walking away from his set for a bit, it goes disastrously wrong.
Even when the Doctor leaves the TARDIS for an adventure and he returns, he finds his toys in disarray. 😐 Reading and hearing this story did put me in mind of ‘The Railway of Time’, which I’ve written. The model train set does return in stories like ‘Vampire Science’, ‘Genocide’ and ‘The Janus Conjunction’.
Those are a few BBC ‘Eighth Doctor Adventures’ in book form, by the way. 😀 There’s an audiobook for ‘Model Trin Set’ read by Sophie Aldred, which is available in ‘Tales From The TARDIS: Volume One’. I enjoyed Sophie’s reading of the story, though it’s a pity Paul McGann didn’t read the story instead.
‘Model Train Set’ rating – 7/10
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Bradley's Basement 
Model Train Set is one of my favourite short stories for Doctor Who. It’s a simple premise with a deeper theme. The newly regenerated Eighth Doctor struggles to maintain a railway set created by his predecessor.
The transition from the Seventh to the Eighth Doctor is a staggering tectonic shift of a change in Doctor Who of the era. The Seventh Doctor has been the de facto current Doctor since 1987. By 1996, that’s almost been a full decade, and initial reactions to the Eighth Doctor were… controversial.
The TV Movie itself was, unfortunately, a failure. It failed to achieve its goal of commissioning a full series starring this new Doctor. For some, it was a missed opportunity. For others, just another misfire like Dimensions in Time. It’s impossible to go through the Virgin or BBC Books ranges without seeing a barb directed at the telefilm (in particular, it’s Spock-like “half-human” idea).
While the legitimacy of this new incarnation was questioned, it could not be denied that the licence holders of Doctor Who had accepted Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor into the fold. What that meant, however, was a prolonged teething period as writers and fans tried to determine who exactly this new incarnation was.
Did he emerge fully formed like the Second Doctor did with The Power of the Daleks? Was he erratic and uncharacteristic as the Fourth Doctor in Robot? Who was the Eighth Doctor beyond his regeneration? It took far longer to define than other Doctors who’d had whole television tenures to draw from.
Hence, a rather unique and interesting quirk of the Eighth Doctor. Amnesiac and divorced of traditional trappings, he spends a few stories trying to rediscover himself. One of which is Model Train Set.
On a superficial level, it’s about a new Doctor discovering how he needs to approach this model railway set. Something the Seventh Doctor set up, to his mind and methods, and which does not suit the new Eighth Doctor.
More deeply… It’s actually a metaphor about saying goodbye to the New Adventures. The meticulous planning and execution of those tales. The Seventh Doctor’s own responsibilities and neuroses that were crippling him by the end of that series.
Kate Orman — Jonathan Blum’s frequent writing partner — wrote an epilogue for Time and the Rani called The Useful Pile. A bitterly upset Seventh Doctor pilfers through his discarded patchwork coat, considering what to retain and discard after his regeneration. It’s a metaphor for what the Seventh Doctor will take forward from his predecessor.
Here, Model Train Set is the Eighth Doctor returning to an old habit of his predecessor — a common event at Eight’s beginning — and realising that he’s not the Seventh Doctor. Nothing fits because he’s outgrown it. That’s not his life any more. He’s a new incarnation with new wonts, needs and tastes. That may create a mess in the short-term, but something wonderful might come from it in the end.
It’s a subtle tale, but a worthwhile one. A reminder that there was a time in Doctor Who when new incarnations had to prove their legitimacy and the Eighth Doctor had it harder than most. Where do you go after ten years of the same face? It’s a difficult transition, but… Forward.
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Hi Wolfie,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on ‘Model Train Set’. Glad you like this short story and that it’s one of your favourites. It’s interesting to come across these early Eighth Doctor stories and how they present his beginnings following his start in ‘The TV Movie’. I suppose it would have been a struggle for writers to get the Eighth Doctor’s character when there’s little to work from in TV terms. This was before Eight met companions like Charley, Lucie, Molly and Liv. Thankfully, over the years, the Big Finish audios have established the Eighth Doctor’s character, thanks to Paul McGann being able to reprise his role. It’s interesting this story didn’t not feature dialogue throughout and I suppose the transition between the Seventh Doctor to the Eighth Doctors is a factor in that. I’m glad the trappings in ‘The TV Movie’ like the half-human element weren’t used in the Eighth Doctor stories afterwards, as the stories were able to find ways to progress the character, even if the continuities of the Big Finish audios, books, comics and short stories didn’t always match up.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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