Star Tales

Trevor Baxendale, Steve Cole, Jenny T. Colgan, Jo Cotterill, Paul Magrs, Mike Tucker (2019) Star Tales, 244 pages.

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I had a bit of a hard time with this collection od Doctor Who short stories. Star Tales is a name-dropping collection with e.g. Elvis Presley, Amelia Earhart and Audrey Hepburn. I think the fact that we stayed on Earth and with famous people was little bit dull for me. I want something new, unreal and exciting!

The Doctor in all the stories is the same, number 13.

Even the beginning of the book is somewhat weird. Yaz is having period cramps and the Doctor is trying to ease her pains with hot bath and some snacks. But Yaz wants to hear stories. So, the Dcotor begins to tell her stories.

I don’t see any of this ever happening. I mean the Doctor seems to live in the moment and I just can’t see her stopping to tell some great stories from her past to anyone like this.

But let’s hear what she has to tell.

She talks about Amelia Earhart who fought some aliens alongside the Doctor. Earhart is famous for disappearing but the story explains that Amelia did not die but spent 50 years in the Tardis.

In the last story Audrey Hepburn changes places with a clone robot of herself and explores space, too. Freedom seems to call all these famous people.

In the short story about Elvis we see how small things can affect the world. The Doctor, kind of haphazardly, gives Elvis some alien technology that takes over all of Elvis’ life. Elvis goes on to live until old age and the world develops in wrong direction. He has a difficult decision to make when he finds out he was supposed to die young and his life has changed history of the world.

The short stories are quick to read and there’s always something great in Doctor Who but somehow I just didn’t like this as much as I would have wanted to. I wanted to read scifi and got some Earth pop culture instead. I mean, if you have the whole Universe to explore, why stay here?