by Dave Rudden

Available via the Doctor Who website here

A museum of anomalies gets a frantic call from the Doctor

Tied into Dave Rudden’s new book of short stories, The Wintertime Paradox, Canaries is a very short – under 3,000 words in length – story that links events on Earth into those of Time Lord Victorious. The connection doesn’t seem that present to begin with, but as you read on, you realise that Anke Von Grisel’s collection is somehow fundamentally linked to timelines that shouldn’t exist – and if they did, there shouldn’t be anything remaining from them.

Rudden has a good knowledge of Doctor Who history, and there are references to other “closed off” timelines from the past – such as the one caused by the Master and the Toclafane. But it’s those items that delve back to the Dark Times that are the real issue…

We’ve had instances in the past where a short story has been expanded into a full novel, and I’d say that there’s definitely scope here for a longer version – not least, because I want to know what happens next.

Verdict: Something of a sidestep, but a cleverly conceived one. 8/10

Paul Simpson