Drabbles! Drabbles for everyone

[quipxotic]

I've added a lot of drabbles to AO3 over the last two weeks. Time for a round-up.

The Further Adventures of Lucie Miller/Eighth Doctor Drabbles

I really enjoyed this box set, but as I've mentioned before, it contains a few spoilers for Lucie's third season. Below I'll link to my drabbles for each story and give a short review of the audio.

• "The Dalek Trap" by Nicholas Briggs - The weakest and weirdest audio in the set. I didn't care for it on first listen because it's intentionally confusing, but it improved on second listen once I understood how it fit into the overarching story. There's interesting ideas here, some good character moments, and a few funny Daleks. As a Doctor-lite story, it also allows Lucie to shine as she tries to come up with a plan to save the day on a planet that eventually makes people forget who they are.


• "The Revolution Game" by Alice Cavender - A Lucie Miller story written by a Lucie Miller fan! Alice Cavender also wrote the Short Trip "The Curse of the Fugue" which, while not my favorite Lucie Short Trip, is still a good one. "The Revolution Game" is a bonkers mix of sci-fi settings, roller derby, old movies call-backs, and environmental debates; and, while I liked it on first listen, I loved it the second time around.


• "The House on the Edge of Chaos" by Eddie Robson - Unlike the other audios, this one didn't improve on a second listen, in fact I liked it less. The story is Upstairs, Downstairs meets Rebecca on an alien planet. The ideas are interesting and the transposing of typical haunted house tropes into a sci-fi world is well done, but it just felt a bit flat in the end. That said, listening to Lucie being welcomed into an upstairs world that has no use for the Doctor is fun.


• "Island of the Fendahl" by Alan Barnes - This story is a companion to the Fourth Doctor TV serial "Image of the Fendahl" and it has all the witchy/horror spookiness that made its predecessor so memorable, but with a much better plot. It also ties up the box set's story-line in a satisfying way and has several fantastic support characters who I wouldn't mind showing up in further stories, although that seems unlikely to happen. Long story short, I love this one (love it, love it, love it). I wish I could say more, but I won't for fear of spoilers.

Fourth Doctor Drabbles

"Image of the Fendahl" - Nick Briggs mentions in the behind the scenes segment for "The Further Adventures of Lucie Miller" that this serial wasn't one of his favorites, but it had really interesting ideas. For what it's worth, I agree. It's the supernatural imagery and convoluted mythology that makes this story memorable to so many fans. The story itself is pretty nonsensical, but it has a very Hammer Horror vibe so, if that's your thing (as it is mine), you still may enjoy it.

Ninth Doctor Drabbles

"Battle Scars" by Selim Ulug - This Short Trip is set not long after Nine's regeneration and before he meets Rose. It's another story that deals with the after effects of the Time War and, while it's not the best story of that type Big Finish has done, it's still well worth a listen.