Vanessa Bishop did a lot of writing for Doctor Who Magazine in addition to penning some short stories, none of which I've ever read. Until now.
"The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back" appeared in the first Decalog so we are looking at a tale from c.1994. The Reference Guide places it immediately after Doctor Who and the Silurians while the Complete Adventures shunts it forward a bit to follow The Ambassadors of Death instead. The Reference Guide adds explanations for chronological placement of the stories whereas I can find nothing similar at The Complete Adventures site. I am going with the former here as the Brigadier is still pissed at the Doctor for what he sees as his willingness to betray UNIT in favor of the Silurians.
Lethbridge-Stewart is indeed very angry with the Doctor. He is suspicious of that two hearts thing and not happy that his scientific advisor has been slipping out without telling his (ostensible) superior where he's going. And so the Brigadier is having the Doctor followed.
I should note that the story begins with a bit of Reverend Maurice Burridge. First, the beginning of an encounter with the Doctor followed by some reckless driving out on the country lane that shakes him out of prayer mode.
As noted above, the Brigadier is suspicious of the Doctor and even Liz isn't quite sure where he's been going when he suddenly goes absent from the lab. It turns out that the Doctor has been trying to track down an alien who has been stranded here on Earth. Sounds like something right up UNIT's alley but the Brig and Co. have been left out of the loop, presumably because of the jiggery-pokery that the Brigadier pulled off with the Silurians. It turns out that Burridge has been harboring the creature.
With the Doctor having been tailed, the Brig and a crack UNIT squad show up as the Doctor is closing in on the alien. It turns out that, when people make eye contact with the visitor from another world, this alien gaze induces seizures followed by death. Of the humans, that is. The Brigadier refuses to let the Doctor follow through on his plan to have the alien captured and cared for while he repairs its ship.
The alien, an Eriscent, is running for its life but encounters a group of UNIT red shirts as it attempts to re-enter the church. The soldiers suffer from the telepathic contact the alien tries to make. In order to prevent death on a wider scale, the Doctor lets off a shot and the alien falls to the ground dead. He bitterly whispers to himself, "There. I'm sure that's made everything a lot tidier for you, Brigadier." before telling Liz that his shot didn't even hit the alien, that it has simply died of fear.
This is one dark, bleak tale. It's hard to believe that the Doctor and the Brigadier would become such good friends after they fight here. I mean, they don't just do the old couple bickering routine, they really go at it. Recriminations follow accusations and poor Liz gets stuck in the middle. The Brig reprimands her and good, at one point. And that poor alien. For once the Doctor is unable to help someone who really needed his assistance.
Bishop does a great job here of telling a fine tale in under 30 pages but also taking the relationship between the Doctor and the Brigadier to an extreme - for Doctor Who. I am used to this pair being at loggerheads occasionally but ultimately working together for a common cause. Here these two alpha males show a lot of contempt for one another. A very different feel than anything I've seen on the TV show.
As I was writing, it occurred to me that this dark twist on the Doctor Who formula may have been part of a larger trend in the mid-90s. Then I struggled to find another example of a TV show/movie franchise/whatever which usually had happy endings take a turn to the dark side. I thought about Batman but I don't read comics so I didn't know when he turned into The Dark Knight. So my hypothesis remains just that.
Anyone out there more familiar with pop culture out there that can comment on existing properties becoming darker and grittier in the 90s?
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