“Winter kept us warm, covering earth in forgetful snow.”

A remote cabin in the woods with the Doctor chopping wood is the initial scene for Winter Light by Julio Angel Ortiz. But while this setting appears to be almost idyllic and pastoral, something is very, very wrong. Ruby is dying, and the TARDIS is nearby but completely inaccessible to the Doctor and Ruby.

Thus begins a strange and bizarre tale. Winter Light is a story of contrasts, it has two different plot threads that are vastly different in tone, setting and atmosphere. The second thread concerns a kingdom gone mad, its people building a kind of Tower of Babel, robots and jesters amusing the royal court, and oh yes, people who suddenly run around in extremis, lose all rational thought and drop dead!

That’s what makes this story so fascinating. How did the Doctor and Ruby find themselves in that cabin? Why is she dying? How is it linked to the other plotline? The first episode answers none of those questions, instead, it’s more of a character study of two people who are trapped and have been trapped there for a long time and they don’t remember why. There’s no obvious threat nor enemy, but that the TARDIS stands has locked out the Doctor- indeed the female persona of Tardis is entirely missing from Winter Light- is a simple but effective way of describing just how dire the circumstances are.

I wonder if the fact that Ruby is still a new companion may diminish the impact of her possibly dying. If this story were scheduled later in the season, would I care more about what happens to her? Perhaps. But then again, the relationship between her and the Doctor in the virtual golf scene early in the chapter and in the scene where he ministers to her by staying with her so she won’t be alone…

    ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. It’s just that… it’s just that outside… it’s getting so dark.’ She paused for a moment, taking in a deep breath. ‘Doctor, I don’t want to be alone right now. Could you stay, only for a little while? Please?’

    The Doctor nodded his head and smiled. ‘Very well. How about I read you something? Would that relax you?’

… is touching and heartfelt writing. This Doctor is compassionate and caring to a vulnerable Ruby, and both characters comes across particularly well by the author.

What I also liked very much was that it’s “The Wasteland” by T. S. Eliot the Doctor selects to read to Ruby. The surest way to pique my interest in anything is to cite a work of poetry, (the quote that starts this review is from “The Wasteland”) and that Julio uses “The Wasteland” sets a subtle undertone of melancholia and reflection that pervades much of this story.

The other thread, has a stronger sense of unreality, or what Julio calls the surreal. The picture of a fractured sky and people building a tower of Babel leading up to the heavens is not weird per se- people have build great churches and works of art out of faith- but these people are angry at their god and if god won’t come to them, they’ll build their tower and confront him. Nonsensical thinking and the Doctor, who’s never been a believer in blind faith or superstition just stops short of ridiculing the poor citizens of Counterpane and their tower.

Maybe more nonsensical are the series of unusual deaths occurring in Counterpane. Amid the robot jesters and performing mimes, a poor unfortunate person suddenly runs around in distress, spouting, “Circles!” and promptly falls and dies a gruesome death. The Doctor naturally is quite concerned and even more so when he’s told that is the fifth such strange death in two weeks. Whatever is causing such unnatural deaths, the Doctor intends to find out.

Again, there are few clues yet as to who or what is responsible, but what I found odd was the closing scene of part one where the King’s advisor warns him about the Doctor…

    “I have seen the trail of dead that the Doctor leaves behind in his wake. You must not allow him to stop your plans, my Lord.”
Didn’t the Doctor just arrive on Counterpane? The man who died was in full view of others at the Royal Court, the Doctor didn’t do anything. How then can the King’s advisor accuse the Doctor or know anything about the Doctor at all? Certainly, the advisor’s statement that he’ll deal with him in due time is ominous, and makes me think that this advisor bears watching.

The second chapter of Winter Light provides a few possible answers to the mystery. But even for a three part story, this episode is slowly paced at times, and the concentration of this novella is definitely on the Doctor and Ruby in both plot lines. The other characters are in the background and mostly serve to advance the plot. That’s not a huge complaint though, I enjoy the banter between Ruby and the Doctor, especially in the autopsy scene, when the Doctor says he’s hungry after examining a corpse it’s incongruous and just amusing.

Of course, when the setting switches back to the remote cabin, the mood changes again from the absurd to the edge of hopelessness. It’s almost shocking to see the Doctor unable to enter the TARDIS, and it is shocking to see a Doctor with resignation or defeat. This passage is written well, on the whole the Doctor is reserved and to find him almost pleading with the TARDIS illustrates again how different this incarnation is.

Frankly, this shifting back and forth does interrupt the smoothness of the overall novella. While the scenes with the bedridden, frail Ruby and the Doctor are more personal in nature, you get to see both their thoughts and emotions as they struggle with their fears. There is a passage in chapter three centering on Ruby that is exceptionally poignant. But just as that draws me in like a magnet emotionally as a reader, the setting and tone changes once more and I take a breath from the intensity of a two character drama to a wider, more complicated and bizarre scenario. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the Counterpane scenes, it’s that it is somewhat jarring. By this point I’m wondering what the connection between the two plot threads is (besides Ruby reading “The Wasteland” in both threads) and when they will intertwine.

When the Doctor gets closer to the perpetrator responsible for the horrific deaths, however, the drama heightens. Julio uses imagery well, the marvelous description of the white being, the Concept Addict, when it’s about to murder the king…

    “A dripping white, coalescing on the floor from the ceiling. The white drowned out everything around it and within, defying the world and its senses as it grew, taking form, like a newborn from clay.”
… is both eerie and terrifying. What is this creature and why is it intent on murdering? By the end of the second chapter, after the king is dead, and Koras hypnotizes the Queen into ordering the Doctor and Ruby’s executions, maybe that’s another clue….

The concluding chapter of Winter Light is the strongest episode of the novella in various aspects. Julio captures the characters of the Doctor and Ruby well; for example, the jail scene at the beginning shows the Doctor’s ingenuity and humor. From commenting that all the jail cells he’s been in look alike…

    “These prisons I keep getting thrown into. It happens enough, you know. I half-expect it the moment I land somewhere.”
… to that wry remark about his clothes…
    “I suppose I shall also have to make another trip to the tailor.”
… he may be more reserved, but the Doctor still has his wit intact, thank goodness.

Then, later in this chapter, there’s that remarkable soliloquy by the dying Ruby, which begins…

    “I am old. Somehow, somewhere, in a different life, my name was Ruby. And I was young. I wasn’t perhaps the most beautiful, or most well figured, but I was certainly me…”
This entire sequence is superb writing, it’s a stirring, hauntingly intimate passage, I felt like I was delving into her soul.

Although the rest of the chapter doesn’t match that depth of writing, there’s a lot of action to resolve the mystery of who’s behind the Concept Addict and those bizarre murders. When the antagonist is finally revealed literally, in a well executed grotesque scene, Rodenza is seen as both completely alien and like so many Who villains in their total megalomania of universal domination. Although exactly why temporal metaphysics is an impossibility while dimensionally transcendentalism isn’t made me smile to myself, who am I to argue with that logic? The revelation that the Doctor and Ruby were in the TARDIS all the time, and not stranded for years in the wilderness was a nice, reassuring touch. The TARDIS would always try to protect the Doctor and his friends, and I should’ve thought of that as a possibility. But one thing, Rodenza will be destroyed by the Big Bang, twice, and in the previous story, Time and the Doctor, Ashgotoroth was dispersed into a black hole. Do I detect a cosmic pattern developing?

Conclusions:
Winter Light is a tale of two diverse scenarios. One is surreal, strange and incredible, the other with its focus on Ruby and the Doctor seems painfully real and yet unimaginable. But throughout both threads the characters of the Doctor and Ruby are well rounded, and it’s definitely interesting to see what happens to them. There’s also a nice salute to Doctor Who’s past by having the Doctor subdue an adversary with Venusian Aikido, which shows the Doctor doesn’t have to resort to excessive violence. Winter Light is a fantasy, dark at times and at other times unreal, but it is imaginative. It is, as they say, a good read.