It had been a while since I'd read a Virgin Decalog story and I was pleased to find that this one was written by Gareth Roberts. I really enjoyed his Virgin New Adventure, The Highest Science, as well as the 2 or 3 Missing Adventures with the Fourth Doctor of his that I've read. He has a good sense of humor and writes tricky tales, stories with some meat on their bones. Just good Doctor Who.
Here in "Vortex of Fear" Roberts plops the reader down in what I at first thought might be an old folks home. Then I hypothesized that we were, in fact, at an insane asylum or psychiatric hospital or whatever they're called now. It turns out, though, we are at a prison, of sorts, where the 1%ers of the planet Dephys 49 can spend a year instead of paying taxes. The joint is suspended in the time vortex and the communications equipment has mysteriously gone down.
When the Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie land there, they're mistaken for technicians who have come to fix the radio. While poking around they notice weird things like bodies disappearing and they find themselves enacting the same situations repeatedly. We learn that the prison/hotel/place they are in was sabotaged by an enemy of someone there and that the prisoners/residents have been exposed to the time winds of the Vortex. They are little more than ghosts now, fated to bicker with one another for all of eternity in this place.
At 35 or so pages, I wouldn't have minded at all if it were to be expanded to novel length. Indeed, I was reminded of the BBC Past Doctor Adventure Relative Dementias at the beginning. But I think it also works well as a short story. It was spooky and gave off The Ward/The Jacket kind of vibes without really descending into all out horror. Just weird and uncanny.
I thought it was funny that one of the characters, Kya, smokes. Then again, this is a mid-90s story. I love that she uses one of those super duchess filter extenders so she looks aristocratic as she fails to keep the smoke at arm's length. Great stuff.
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