Time and Relative is told in a series of journal entries written by Susan herself, giving us a different perspective on an adventure with the Doctor and placing him almost as a secondary character. He is still, however, the star of the show even if he is not in it a great deal; Susan's thoughts often return to him and to their plight - exiles from somewhere else living in what she refers to as "the Box" in a junkyard in London's east end. Attempting to think too much about where they are from and how they got to Earth causes Susan blinding headaches, but she has bigger things to worry about: she's a teenage girl in the 60's.
Susan is doing her best to fit in at Coal Hill School, which means first and foremost not letting anyone cotton on that she is not like them. She speaks of her gal pal Gillian and their schoolgirl antics, of their sort-of friend John whom they ironically nickname "the Martian", of the peer pressure to do silly things and of schoolyard bullies and the whole wretched social pecking order that comes with being a teenager in any point in history.
To make matters worse, though, it's cold. It should be spring but London is still buried under a lot of snow and more keeps coming. People are blaming the Soviets, imagining that there is a freeze ray aimed at England. Susan has her own inklings that there is something else afoot but can't put her finger on it; it's just feelings at this point but her Grandfather is distracted and aloof, working to his own agenda. And then the snowmen start to come to life. And not in the happy jolly soul kind of way.
Like Frayed this is one best read after watching a few years' worth of episodes to pick up on the more subtle things that are done. Susan casually mentions her school dealings with her teachers Mr Chesteron and Miss Wright, and the scandal that is them being seen together outside of school hours. And there is the journey across a frozen snow-entombed London which references locations in and around Coal Hill School which will be seen in an adventure from 1988 but set in 1963.
Telling the story from Susan's first-person narrative gives so much more depth to the tale as opposed to normal narration. Case in point: the TARDIS is only vaguely referenced as a time space machine, as Susan takes it pretty much for granted and doesn't feel the need to go into its physics in her own journal; it's Earth which is the alien environment when it is told from her perspective. And although Susan can't really say where she is from she knows enough to see the differences between her ordered society back Home vs the way the Humans go about their lives with the single hearts, their emotions, their ignorance of their place in the universe. Susan compares the predicament of herself and her Grandfather to what would happen if someone were to play truant from school and have a Truant Officer come after them, one of the Masters in particular strikes a chord with her if she thinks about it enough.
Did I like it? Hell yes, this is through and through a Doctor Who story. Under the Telos rules it can be told differently and is at times a lot more frightening than some of the adventures in the televised series. If this was what was broadcast one can imagine the screams of horror from Mary Whitehouse and her breed at the violent images of wholesale slaughter in the London streets. 11 years after Time and Relative was published the current series did something similar and, well... not as effective.
And I found another CD cover version of it online, almost as if it's begging to be picked up and made into an audio version.
C'mon Big Finish...
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