Tales of Trenzalore: The Eleventh Doctor's Last Stand

[matthewsee]

Tales of Trenzalore: The Eleventh Doctor’s Last Stand:
In the Eleventh Doctor swansong The Time of the Doctor, the Eleventh Doctor spent 900 years on Trenzalore in the town of Christmas.
During The Time of the Doctor there were brief glimpses of his long time on Christmas. Tales of Trenzalore: The Eleventh Doctor’s Last Stand is a book that presents some of the full-length accounts of the Doctor’s 900 years on Christmas.
The first of these stories is Let It Snow.

Let It Snow:
Written by Justin Richards.
Featuring the Ice Warriors and it has them invading Christmas with help from a collaborator from Christmas itself for the purpose of seeing the death of the Doctor.
Fun moments from this story includes the Doctor explaining what breakfast is when he thought someone did not what it is and to read about barbeque breakfast. I don’t think I know anyone who has breakfast that way.
On TV the Eleventh Doctor only encountered one Ice Warrior in Cold War and it is good that in Let It Snow that he encountered more than one of them.
Christmas as established in The Time of the Doctor has the Truth Field making it impossible for anyone to say anything other than the truth. It is therefore impressive in Let It Snow one can say something without it being the total truth but not exactly a lie at the same time.
Quite impressive from Richards in his closing words of this story on what impact the Ice Warriors would have on Christmas at the conclusion of this story. An example that while monsters come and go there will always be the Doctor.

[matthewsee]

An Apple a Day:
Second story.
Written by George Mann.
Featuring the Krynoid.
It seems the story title is symbolic of the fact that apples do grow on trees and the Krynoid are tree like creatures.
The story title is an allusion to the saying an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Well not this Doctor in this story.
An Apple a Day begins with young man Pieter who is eagerly anticipating the stories told by the Doctor when he encountered a Krynoid and made him as part of them.
What ensues is a very good battle between the Doctor and the Krynoid which unfortunately includes Pieter.

[matthewsee]

Strangers In The Outland:
Penultimate story.
Written by Paul Finch.
To be honest I could not find myself enjoying this story as the menace that are the Autons did not translate well with me.
It is not bad how the Autons are revealed here but their presence is not served well to me by the story’s lack of thrill and suspense.

[matthewsee]

The Dreaming:
Written by Mark Morris.
Final story.
This story featured the Mara and a very good one at that.
During this story the Doctor tells Vida the monsters he encountered before that had disguised science as magic and this included the Hervoken.
The Hervoken are not monsters that have appeared in the TV series but from Morris’ own novel Forever Autumn.
Absolutely enthralling and frustrating when the residents of Christmas turn against the Doctor thanks to the Mara.
Funny when the Doctor got confused between Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. This is due to the fact both were played by the same actor Fess Parker on television.
Effective on how physical old age is having on the Doctor as he referred to some Christmas residents to old friends with Aliganza as Barnable the 43rd, Mellandine Eggleton as Amelia and Taskia as Clara.
Impressive when the Doctor faced off against the Mara and I can only imagine Matt Smith doing this scene very well had this story been made for television.