‘THE SIMPLE THINGS’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

A Draconian with Graham, the Thirteenth Doctor, Ryan and Yaz

‘The Simple Things’ by Joy Wilkinson features the Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz on an adventure back in time to West Ham, 20th of April 1896. The story was originally published on the ‘Doctor Who’ website. Now it’s published as the eighth tale in the ‘Adventures in Lockdown’ book. 🙂

The story is told from Graham’s perspective, though not in the first person. Graham wishes for a trip back in time to the glory days of 1964 to tackle Bobby Moore on the training ground in West Ham. The Doctor gets it wrong as they end up in 1896. The West Ham Charity Cup tournament takes place.

I’m not an expert on football, but apparently the West Ham Charity Cup tournament did take place from 1895 to 96. It’s nice how Joy Wilkinson brings in the historical element in her story for ‘The Simple Things’, especially considering she wrote a historical adventure in ‘The Witchfinders’ for Series 11. 🙂

The story also features a female Draconian present on Earth in 1896. Huh, I suppose ‘female liberation’ did occur as Jo predicted in ‘Frontier In Space’. The Draconian supervises the construction of a Draconian Galaxy-class battlecruiser by the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company in this.

She also takes on a human male disguise whilst in West Ham. I’m pretty sure Joy Wilkinson was inspired to include a Draconian in this story after watching ‘Frontier In Space’ for ‘Behind the Sofa’ on the Season 10 Blu-ray box set. 😀 Graham ends up playing a good game of football in 1896 here. 🙂

‘The Simple Things’ rating – 8/10