The Memory Bank and Other Stories

 

The Memory Bank And Other Stories

As someone who's written over one-hundred Doctor Who short stories (not all of them good, mind you) I have a special appreciation for the short story in Doctor Who, and the closest equivalent bar the short trips (I cannot handle narration for some goddamn reason) is these anthology releases from the main range. I love them so damn much, and I've only heard two - You Are The Doctor and Blood on Santa's Claw were two phenomenal collections, and they really, and I mean, really, worked. Both were incredibly consistent collections across the board - granted Blood had a better overarching theme, but that was because it told three stories instead of two (which worked out quite well for it I might add) and You Are The Doctor told four more seperate stories with their own identity than Blood - which had a cohesive center due to being penned by one writer. Although I prefer Blood on Santa's Claw for being fucking magnificent I still maintain a preference for the approach of the four stories. If a normal release has four episodes, it makes sense to have it written by four writers. But ultimately I don't really care. 

I just want the set to be actually good please

Yeah. The Memory Bank isn't a very consistent one, it has some high highs, but it has more …tur(lows) and honestly, I'm not quite sure what to think of it. Perhaps some more detail could bring a little... ILLUMINATION, GENTLEMEN

[phantom of the opera theme plays] 

The Memory Bank by Chris Chapman

My prior experience with Chris Chapman led me to believe he was a god in human form, and based on the majesty of the Middle and Hosts of the Wirrn I am still inclined to believe so. I do not however, think his sense of scope in his work is accustomed to this format - The Memory Bank has excellent ideas, but it does suffer from the fact that it's not intended to be a short story - and we do get some of these in these anthology releases, oh boy do we get them, and this is legit a two hour main range release compressed into a half hour instead of a half hour idea in it's own right. And to my surprise, the concepts, the performances, the writing, everything is there - this would work pretty much magnificently as it's own release. It just doesn't have the time. It also suffers from the issue of "Turlough is a massive annoyance" which is an issue I was not aware of before, not even when I saw him on television, but I can't help but feel he's a massive little shit in this one, sorry. And not even in the slimy conniving way that made his first trilogy in the TARDIS so interesting, no, he's just, slightly annoying. I'm unsure what to think, I really am on this one. On one hand, the description is so full of life, the concepts are so good, the energy is there - and on the other...it just falls flat. An even five for failing to exceed in either direction: 5/10 

The Last Fairy Tale by Paul Magrs

Now this is more like it - a tale with a humorous heart to it, The Last Fairy Tale isn't trying to be the most ambitious thing in the world but it's also the most immersive, the most magical experience. It flicks you in the head and drags you into it's little perturbed sort of world, and it is just all kinds of sweet and lovely and funny but never reaching into the dreadful realm of saccharine. Imagine Terry Pratchett wrote for Doctor Who and you have this gem of a story - medieval and magical and farcical and yet so inherently Doctor Who that it screams. Magnificent: 10/10

Repeat Offender by Eddie Robson

I'm wondering if Eddie Robson was hit over the head by a hammer, because he's got as many if not many more hits under his belt than Chris Chapman and he's still managed to deliver something really subpar for this one. The central concept is a very good one, of the Doctor being found in a house with a dead body and having to try and explain to the police that he totally didn't do it and the murder was the work of a gestalt alien entity. It's played for both humor, in that we obviously know that the Doctor didn't do it and so we can have a little fun with the police's perspective, and also used for tension, the entire episode is set rather claustrophobically in one room. Very good start - but it doesn't truly excel in either area and the ultimate tale involves the Doctor technobabbling a bunch rather than focusing on either sense of atmosphere which would be helpful to the piece, and by a bunch I mean oh my god is it a bunch. There's never really a sense of danger and there's never really anything hysterical, it feels like nothing connected and it was a series of events really. Turlough is a bit of a dick again, but he's at least the funniest thing in the episode, quickly realizing that the Doctor is going to have to explain himself to the authorities and he doesnt want to deal with that and so he goes into the bathroom and blows up the wall. Again, funny, but could have been absolutely hysterical. The story's most interesting turn is the halfway through revelation that the dead body is the Doctor, which the story then works backwards to explain even though it's a simple concept and oh dear lord is this one a timey wimey mess to the point I'm not sure even Eddie Robson knew what he was doing. You can be chaustrophobic and tense, timey wimey and all the while being funny - but this story certainly doesn't manage either. 6/10 

The Becoming by Ian Potter

I am not sure if it is personal preference or anything but I have not liked a single one of Ian Potter’s tales thus far. This is my fifth tale with him, and it does make me question if I will ever listen to one of his stories again. (For reference, my previous stories were An Ideal World, The Revenants, Cortex Fire and The Pelage Project, the best of which being merely passable and the worst being agonizing) But this is probably his best one, so I’ll give him credit for that. It’s a story about an alien ritual that signals adulthood, and bar an excellent and immersive soundscape, it doesn’t fit for me. It at least has the correct scale in mind, unlike previous ones it is an actual short story, and not a novel compressed into five minutes. It has some ideas, but none really ever came out to me as anything very interesting. A dystopian society where everyone gets a title and that’s the one thing they do? Daring today, aren’t we? Nonetheless, the soundscape does earn it credit, and it has an atmosphere and imagery to it that works to its benefit, I just wished that beyond the nice image, it was something more satisfying. 5/10