Doctor Who: Tales of Trenzalore: The Eleventh Doctor's Last Stand

Doctor Who: Tales of Trenzalore: The Eleventh Doctor's Last Stand by Justin Richards
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Time of the Doctor only scratched the surface of what happened during the Doctor's centuries on Trenzalore.

Let it Snow by Justin Richards: Mysterious ice meteors rain down on Trenzalore and the Ice Warriors are responsible. But what do they have in mind for the town of Christmas and the Doctor?

Justin Richards utilzes the Church of the Papal Mainframe's truth field to the utmost in this tale. The Doctor proves to be as clever as a mongoose and Christmas is saved.

An Apple a Day by George Mann: A bizarre seed pod crashes through the roof of a glasshouse orchard and soon a Krynoid is running amuck in Christmas! Can the Doctor stop the Krynoid before it kills and devours everyone in Chrismas? Of course he can. He's the Doctor!

An Apple a Day is a fun tale that hearkens back to the era when all you needed in a Doctor Who episode was a monster and some running. The Krynoid was actually a little scary and reminded me of similar creature in Day of the Triffids and The Ruins.

Strangers in the Outland by Paul Finch: A prospector gets ambushed and his daughter wanders the forty miles back to Christmas, only to say that his attackers looked just like The Doctor?

The Autons are the villains this time. While I liked some of the Doctor's dialog and the Lifeboat, it was kind of weak compared to the previous story. The Autons are as creepy as ever, however.

The Dreaming by Mark Morris: A malign intelligence threatens the people of Christmas. But can even the Doctor stop an evil that attacks in the victim's dreams?

The final story in the collection is the creepiest and features the Mara. As always, the Doctor saved the day.

Tales of Tenzalore did a good job filling in a few gaps during the Doctor's time on Trenzalore in The Time of the Doctor. As the foreword said, there is ample room for hundreds if not thousands more like it so we'll probably see a sequel. The first two stories were my favorites but it's a pretty good collection overall. Three out of five stars.

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