Werebears of Bergen

Whew! After some more lighthearted adventures which saw the TARDIS crew scrambling to break Martian camp as "Yakety Sax" played, taking on a cute, cat-like pet, and then showing some goodwill towards the folks of Los Angeles, "That Which Went Away" comes like something of a blow to the solar plexus as it is a return to the more serious and somber tones of the last couple of novels, The Indestructible Man and The Final Sanction, though not as apocalyptic as those lengthier stories.

My mind flashed back to Robert Egger's The Northman several times during this story which sees the TARDIS land in a foggy, fjord-less area of Scandinavia in circa the 8th century. A jolly stroll in the chill and fog turns into a nightmare as our heroes are confronted by a line of men who look like they arose from the pages of Beowulf. 

The Doctor and Zoe take off while Jamie stands his ground and fights. The young Scotsman proves himself to be quite the swordsman and manages to take out a few of the warriors before the BBG, Vignor, appears and proves more than a match. Jamie suffers a blow from Vignor's sword and goes down. Meanwhile, a few of the warriors have caught up with the Time Lord and his companion. One sweeps Zoe off of her feet and throws her over his shoulder as his booty. Er, plunder.

Just in the nick of time, another band of warriors appears to save the day. Led by Bior, they chase the brigands away and bring our heroes back to their village where Jamie receives medical attention from their shaman, Hefn. Treatment goes well but recovery takes several days. During this time, the Doctor notices Bior, Hefn, and the warriors sneaking away from the village under cover of only the stars every night. His curiosity and Spidey sense get the better of him and he follows them on one of their nocturnal ventures. He discovers that the men are into lycanthropy and that Hefn leads a ceremony involving bearskins and a mysterious red substance that he daubs onto the men's faces which seems to abet the transformation from man into bear.

One day Bior takes Jamie on his nightly trek to the pit where the transmogrification happens under the guise of "finishing" his course of healing. Jamie transforms and joins the sleuth, I guess you'd say. The Doctor worries for his friend and confronts Bior and Hefn about this vile magic. He is told that is only used to protect the village.

Soon enough, Vignor leads a raid against it which leaves Bior's son, Einar, dead. The distraught father rejects the comfort of his wife, Aella, and instead allows himself to be consumed by hatred and a desire for revenge. It isn't long before he decides to lead an assault on Vignor's people and orders Hefn to once again transform him and his men into ursine warriors. Hefn refuses but Bior says that, if he disobeys, he'll kill Zoe and Aella. The shaman accedes and begins the process, including on Jamie. The Doctor intervenes so that the laddie remains human.

The werebears head to Vignor's village and loose their vengeance upon it, even helpless women and children. Bior and his giant claws rip Vignor to shreds in a berserker rage. When all is said and done, the warriors leave the village in ruins and return home. They all revert to human form - except Bior.

The author of this tale, Mark Wright, sounded familiar. When I looked him up, I was delighted and highly unsurprised to see that he was co-author of the great Big Finish story, Project: Twilight. That was a dark and violent tale just like this one and they share a gloomy, sepulchral feel even though their settings are miles and centuries apart.

Just as Project: Twilight stood out for its rather graphic depiction of death in the form of bodies exploding, "That Which Went Away" features some of the most graphic death scenes in all of Doctor Who literature. Just as Cassie was the tragic figure in Wright's Big Finish classic, it it Bior here. He loses his humanity to become an ursine killing machine, but even after the killing stops, he never returns to human form. 

The TARDIS crew are rendered well here but quite differently from what we get onscreen. There's some playful banter at the beginning but it's chased away at the tip of a sword before long and it never returns. The Doctor is forced to compete with Bior as the primary father figure in Jamie's eyes. I viewed this through a Moorian lens with the Doctor providing the wisdom of the King while Bior could offer the excitement of the Warrior.

Jungian ramblings aside, this was a very good, very meaty tale. We never learn what the magic wielded by Hefn was but it didn't matter. Much more important was how it was wielded. There are some touching scenes with Einar and his father that stand in such great contrast to the bloodlust that follows. And the way that Bior rejects Aella after the boy's death was just heartbreaking. Some of the most intense Doctor Who around.