Damascus

Short Trips #6.8

Released: 30 August 2016

Listened: 5/30/21

This one is pretty complicated, for a Short Trip. It takes place concurrently with the Eighth Doctor Short Trip “The World Beyond the Trees,” and most of the action happens in that story, so what goes on here feels somewhat incomplete. The Third Doctor even suspects he may have crossed his own timeline. To complicate things even more, the story is told from the point of view of Prime Minister Jeremy Thorpe. In our reality, Thorpe was a Liberal Party leader, but within Doctor Who, he’s Prime Minister, specifically mentioned during “The Green Death” as an inside joke. When some aliens turn up rather visibly, the Doctor declines to get involved, considering them harmless, and Thorpe goes to intercede personally with the Doctor. It turns out the aliens were mostly harmless, but during the events, Thorpe reveals that a certain Project Damascus is still being funded, despite the Doctor’s recommendation that it be shut down. This leads to the Doctor angrily telling Thorpe off, much the same way the Tenth Doctor reacted to Harriet Jones in “The Christmas Invasion.” There are a number of new-series references in the story, not the least of which is writer Jonathan Barnes slipping in a reference to “All the Strange, Strange Creatures.” It’s an enjoyable Short Trip, but not really because of the plot, but rather for everything else going on.