‘THE TIP OF THE MIND’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
On X249 with Sandra Urtiman with Zoe and the Third Doctor
I’ve read the amazing ‘Short Trips: Companions’ collection of ‘Doctor Who’ stories!
‘Short Trips: Companions’ is a fascinating book that I’ve enjoyed reading. This collection of stories from Big Finish focuses on the companions featured in ‘Doctor Who’. I like ‘Doctor Who’ companions and its great there’s this book about them. Most of the companions feature in each of these stories.
The book contains short stories by various ‘Doctor Who’ writers and it’s compiled by Jacqueline Rayner. I don’t usually read ‘Doctor Who’ short stories, but back in 2015, I decided to check out this book. I also wanted to check out ‘Hearts of Stone’ featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric.
This was from hearing the ‘Destiny of the Doctor’ audio ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ by Steve Lyons, who also wrote ‘Hearts of Stone’. As I review each of the stories in ‘Short Trips: Companions’, I hope to pick out the stories that I like and dislike, as there’s something for everyone to enjoy from the book.
There are seventeen stories in total, including ‘The Tip of the Mind’, ‘The Splintered Gate’, ‘The Man From DOCTO(R)’, ‘Apocrypha Bipedium’, ‘A Boy’s Tale’, ‘Kept Safe and Sound’, ‘The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe’, ‘Hearts of Stone’, ‘Distance’, ‘Qualia’, ‘Curriculum Vitae’, ‘Notre Dame du Temps’, ‘The Little Drummer Boy’, ‘Hidden Talent’, ‘The Canvey Angels’, ‘Balloon Debate’ and ‘A Long Night’.
The first story of the collection called ‘The Tip of the Mind’ is by Peter Anghelides. It features the Third Doctor and Zoe. I’ve come across Peter Anghelides before as he’s written stories like ‘The Chaos Pool’, ‘The Four Doctors’ and ‘Pest Control’. Peter has also penned the Short Trip ‘Good Companions’. 🙂
‘The Tip of the Mind’ is set after ‘The War Games’. I found this tale a little hard-going when I first read it. It isn’t the most inspired story to start off the collection. It also doesn’t help when a lot of the dialogue between characters gets crammed into paragraphs and you’re confused by who’s talking. 😐
The story is told in the first person by a character called Sandra Urtiman. I found hard it to engage with her character when I first read the story and when I revisited it in 2021. Sandra does come across as an unlikeable character, especially when she’s supposed to help Zoe remember something.
I liked the touches made to Zoe’s character when she features in the story, especially when she struggles to remember the Doctor. This is of course when her mind has been wiped by the Time Lords. Intriguing that it’s the Third Doctor who meets up with Zoe aboard the research station X249!
The Third Doctor tries to rekindle her friendship with Zoe as well as regain her memories about the dematerialisation codes for the TARDIS. This is during his exile on Earth. But the Third Doctor realises that the Time Lords wanted to check if Zoe would forget the codes before she revealed them to him.
‘The Tip of the Mind’ rating – 3/10
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