Shell Shock
By Simon A Forward 

     This is the eighth of Telos' highly collectable and enjoyable Dr. Who novellas, and features the sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and his long-suffering assistant, Peri. I confess that I always thought was possibly the most believable of his human companions in the way she reacted to all situations, never quite taking them blithely into her stride and never forgetting to contrast them to Twentieth Century Earth. This time the pair is on an unspecified planet where there has recently been a disastrous war. With only a shell-shocked veteran and a squadron of mutated crabs, the Doctor must find Peri, who has been saved from drowning by a sentient sponge and changed beyond all recognition, then discover who is killing off the crabs, one by one.

     As with Dave Stone's Citadel of Dreams (also reviewed on this site), this is another story that would have been impossible to serve up as Saturday teatime fare. To start with it moves too slowly for a television show, as the reader tries to guess the history of Scrounger and Ranger and what has happened to transform Peri so utterly. The gory deaths of the crabs would not have been suitable material, and the pair would merely have climbed into the TARDIS like a family after a summer's outing at the end of the tale, whatever had happened to them. Here not only is Ranger suffering from Post Traumatic Stress, but so is Peri after her dreadful adventures, which shows that this series give writers scope to weave appropriately adult stories around the Doctor. It also gives a topical flavour to the novella, in the light of news stories and makes it seem all too real. It is true perhaps that at times the story did tread water somewhat and although I have no complaints about the beginning of the end, the middle could have been less repetitive at times. But even this does not detract from a fine modern story about a character the BBC was all too ready to consign to television history. More, please.