This, the final Second Doctor short story in an Annual, begins on something of an odd note with the Time Lord discoursing on the subject of infinite universes. This brief esoteric diversion provides the illusion that we're in for something different and then the author steers us back to the silly world of the Doctor Who Annual by having the Time Lord refer to Jamie and Zoe as "my children". The TARDIS then lands on a planet with dual suns. Wanting to investigate, the Doctor opens the "great door" of his ship. Can "eldritch glow" be far behind here?
While the air outside is breathable, gravity is a bit wonky, apparently, as they all float in the air. Until they're caught in a net, that is, and pass out. When the Doctor awakens, he hears a voice calling him a monster because he breathes oxygen. This trope again? And the Doctor's captors threaten to dissect him. I guess it's the same author as the Marie Celeste and chimp man stories and he or she was a good recycler.
The Doctor learns that he and his friends have been captured by dimension explorers from the 8091st Universe. They use "doors", that is, points where the various universes touch and allow travel from one to another. The Doctor basically gets tired of their anti-oxygen breather BS and clocks one right on the glass dome head which shatters. Running on adrenaline, the berserker Time Lord also rips away part of the creature's suit. What the Doctor sees almost makes him sick.
"That face and that body! There were no words to describe it."
I've got one: "eldritch". I cannot believe the author didn't use "eldritch"!
Although he or she neglected "eldritch", the author did find words to describe it: "a writhing vortex of something slimy and sticky". And it burned up in the oxygenated air.
The creature's pals were so shocked by the bellicose oxygen breather that they just stood there, mouths no doubt agog in astonishment behind their glass helmets which gave our favorite time travelers time to escape and flee to the TARDIS.
Not only are there creatures that discriminate against those who breathe oxygen as in another tale, but this story is yet another in this annual that features the Doctor killing someone to save Jamie and Zoe and escape.
As far as this tale goes, I like its mood. It begins with some esoteric banter about multiverses before we meet some stern, sadistic figures. I don't know why, but I simply liked the combination. Also, I give it points for the Lovecraftian descriptions of the creatures behind the mirrored helmets.
Glad to be done with Second Doctor Annual stories. It's funny to me how they're directed at pre-teens yet the author uses "eldritch". Surely it fell out of anything resembling common usage during the Edwardian period, if it indeed ever was remotely common. I didn't care for all the quarreling amongst our heroes. Perhaps I could have tolerated it more if those scenes were more often balanced by those in which they show some affection for one another or, at least, had a rapport beyond "Let's go this way."
Let us hope the Pertwee era Annuals show improvement.
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