Decalog: Ten Stories, Seven Doctors, One Enigma (Doctor Who)

Rating:
Summary: Decalog
Review: If ever there was a case of stories in a collection getting better as they go along, this is it.

Ten stories, seven Doctors, one enigma. But it's all pretty formulaic, and kind of goofy, until 'The Book of Shadows' by Jim Mortimore, featuring the First Doctor, Barbara and Ian (barely Ian; accent on Barbara). This story is a bit of a re-working of the TV tale called The Aztecs--once again Barbara is mistaken for greatness and is bowed down to alot--but there are some nifty temporal oopsa-daisies going on here, and some powerful emotional content. Then, it's a fairly successful uphill ride as the stories stay fun and imaginative in the back half, the sole exception being a Fifth Doctor-and-Peri story called 'Fascination' that seems too magical, and sexual, for the Who universe. The highlight of the collection is the next entry, 'The Golden Door', which involves the Sixth and First Doctor untangling a bizarre and dangerous mystery from opposite ends (but will they meet??). I also liked the hard-hitting 'Prisoners of the Sun', plus 'Lackaday Express', which is successful even though it revisits some of the themes already dealt with in 'The Book of Shadows'; I'd rather have two interesting stories that are thematically similar than what is presented in the first few tales: zippy, forgettable ideas that may offer variety, but nothing of much consequence.

The final part of the book is the resolution of the framing story called 'Playback' which involves the Seventh Doctor visiting a private-eye, in 1947 LA, to get his memory back. This, in fact, is the ploy used to thrust us into the various short stories, once a medium is consulted to help the Doctor remember all his past lives. 'Playback', also the name of a Raymond Chandler novel, wraps up with a nice twist. It's also unexpectedly great at pulp detective-story mood--feels like a left-out portion of Hammett's Red Harvest, with the Doctor involved. Four stars for about half the contents of this book.

For the record, the First and Third Doctors shine best.