BBC Books: The Missy Chronicles Review
Missy has been unleashed on the universe, in this selection of short stories from BBC Books. But can anyone survive in her wake?
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| The cover for "The Missy Chronicles", designed by Lee Binding. |
Written by James Goss, Cavan Scott, Paul Magrs, Peter Anghelides, Jacqueline Rayner & Richard Dinnick.
Back when Missy was introduced in Series 8, she made an immediate impression, especially when she was revealed as the first female incarnation of the Doctor's arch-enemy the Master in the two-part "Dark Water/Death in Heaven". As time went on, her recurring appearances in the Peter Capaldi era only endured her to the audience more, and, by the time Michelle Gomez made her final appearance in "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls", she had become a firm fan-favourite with the audience. So, after her departure from the show, it was only natural that BBC Books would create new stories for Missy, especially showing her adventures away from the Doctor. And so, "The Missy Chronicles" was born. This selection of stories are perfect vehicles for the character of Missy, as she comes up with crazy schemes and plans, all of which are carried out in her incredibly eccentric style. These stories feel very different from the standard fare of Doctor Who stories, and it makes for a varied and interesting collection of tales.
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| Missy, as played by Michelle Gomez, in a promotional photo from Series 10. |
The stories in this collection can be divided into two groups: those that focus directly on Missy, and those that show the character through the eyes of others. "Dismemberment", the opening story, falls into the latter group, as we see Missy take her revenge on a gentleman's society for throwing her out for being a woman. Writer James Goss has come up with an absolutely genius conceit for this first story, as it actually examines how the change of gender has affected the Master's scheming. This is exactly the kind of issue that, in any other incarnation, wouldn't be a problem, and so it means the story is unique to Missy's version of the character. I love this: the concept is very simple, but very effective, and it allows us to see Missy in all her insane glory. Her revenge is slowly delicious, and Goss makes some pointed satire about certain political figures in the United Kingdom, as well as tying into Missy's first full appearance in "Dark Water/Death in Heaven", which actually make for some genuinely surprising revelations. It's over-the-top, insane fun, which suits the character down to the ground, and Goss perfectly captures that subtle, on-a-literal-knife-edge characterisation Missy has. One moment, she's all crazy, over-the-top villainy, the next, she's turned into something far more menacing and chilling, and Goss captures these shifts in character perfectly. While it might be essentially plotless, this is a tone of fun, and a great way to open the book. This is a story that perfectly characterises Missy, and makes for one of the best stories to feature the character. Honestly, its so good, you can hear Michelle Gomez chewing the scenery in every line.
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| Missy and the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) in a promo photo from "The Doctor Falls". |
The second story, "Lords and Masters" takes the book into more standard fare, although still with that delightfully zany twist that Missy brings to all her stories. With her TARDIS impounded by the Time Lords, Missy is forced to go on a mission to investigate temporal experiments that threaten all of reality. And she's even got a companion. Basically taking the format that was used for the vast majority of the Third Doctor's off-world stories (and even a number of early Fourth Doctor stories), and giving it a dark twist in the central figure of Missy, this is a story that delights in turning the central concept of Doctor Who on its head. Missy may have a Time Lord companion forced upon her, but, unlike the Fourth Doctor and Romana, there's no love lost between Missy and Yayani. Yet, as the story goes on, writer Cavan Scott teases us with the possibility that there may just be a connection between the two. After all, both are renegades: cast out of Rassilon's post-Time War Gallifrey (and we get a hilarious reason for Rassilon's regeneration here as well), and forced by the General to go on a dangerous mission to do the Time Lord's dirty work. The similarities and differences between the two characters are what drives the story, and this is absolutely the right approach for a story of this length. If Scott had focused too much on the time experiments and the Time Lord's motivations for sending Missy into this scenario, it would have probably ended up too loaded down with technobabble and dull conversations about morality. In its current form, however, "Lords and Masters" is an exciting, brisk read that partners Missy up with a character who is not too dissimilar to her, and examines that slight softening of her morality that this incarnation of the character has. Of course, the ending reinforces the nature of the character completely, in a twist that, while you can see coming, is no less powerful because of it. Overall, "Lords and Masters" is a fine story that works as a nice companion piece to "The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar", and gives the reader an even greater insight into what makes Missy tick.
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| Missy and her Cyberman army, in a promotional photo from "Death in Heaven". |
The third story, the insanely-named "Teddy Sparkles Must Die!", is the only real disappointment of the collection, and sees Missy take on the role of a 1920's governess in order to enact a dreadfully complicated plan that hinges on a walking, talking teddy bear... It's clear that Paul Magrs is riffing off the Mary Poppins-inspired image of Missy in this story, and there are a number of ideas and images that are great on paper. However, for this reader, I found the end result slightly hollow, and it didn't quite follow through on that strong initial set-up. Ultimately, I was expecting something really 'out-there' and crazy from a writer like Paul Magrs (his Eighth Doctor books and Fourth Doctor audio dramas are proof of that), and the resulting story was, for me, just a little too... well safe would be the best way of describing it. I like the idea of Missy having a crazy plan to take over the world, and using a sentient teddy bear to achieve it. However, the story plays the scenario a little too seriously, and, as such, Magrs' doesn't really revel in the absurdity that the premise is crying out for. Out of all the stories, this could have been the one that was played as the broadest farce, but I just don't get that from the piece at all. It also doesn't help that Missy's scheme is undone by a huge deux ex machina that doesn't really feel earned, and leaves Missy a helpless observer in her own story. I will say that, in this story's defence, some of the absurdist humour of having Missy as a governess is some of the best in the collection, and Missy's interactions with Teddy Sparkles are brilliantly written. Margs does get a lot of fun out of Missy working with someone who disapproves of her plan, but goes along with it anyway for the sake of convenience. However, its hard to really like the bratty child characters who are the main focus of the story, and the fantastical elements it introduces are rather unceremoniously dropped from the narrative when its convenient. It's a shame, because that premise with that writer should have produced something wonderful, and it was a worthwhile story to tell in this set. However, this doesn't follow through on its promise, and, as such, is probably the weakest of the stories in this set. While younger fans will probably enjoy this story, I'm afraid it did little for me, and ended up feeling disappointing as a result.
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| The very first promotional photo for Missy, taken during Series 8. |
Story 4, "The Liar, the Glitch and the Warzone", is probably the craziest story in the set, and the one with the most absurd premise. After a collision with a Gryphon time ship in the vortex, Missy finds herself stranded in present-day Venice, and, as the city starts to fall apart, she must try to rebuild her broken time machine, all the while being dogged by Gryphons and two human thieves who may just accidentally thwart the Time Lady... In many ways, "The Liar, the Glitch and the Warzone" is the story that is most like a standard Doctor Who adventure, particularly for the new series. It has some crazy, over-the-top ideas that collide together to make something far more outrageous than "Teddy Sparkles Must Die!". Unlike that story, this plays out more like a series of unlikely events into which Missy must weave together a complicated plan for survival. Unlike a lot of the other stories, this is a bit thin on the ground when it comes to characterisation, even regarding Missy herself, but it makes up for that with fast-paced, high stakes action. Missy and her new 'companion' leap from one life-threatening scenario to the next, all the while trying to repair her TARDIS and escape the Gryphons, all of which is told at break-neck speed. This story never lets up for a single moment, and crams an awful lot into its very short run-time. While this approach does mean that a lot of the detail in the story is glossed over, it is a lot of fun that packs a big punch. In this story more than any other in the collection, Missy has to fulfil the role usually taken by the Doctor, as she has to deduce her way out of the situation, all the while fighting off the Gryphons and trying to keep the character of Antonia alive. Of course, the ending doesn't play out the way you would expect of the Doctor, but that is the point of these stories: if Missy wasn't different in her resolution of the events than the Doctor, then you may as well just put the Doctor in there, and have done with it. "The Liar, the Glitch and the Warzone" then makes for a fun, exciting, action-packed story, even with (or perhaps despite) its flaws. And, eagle-eyed fans may even spot a surprise cameo in there too...
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| The Doctor and Missy: two sides of the same coin? The Series 9 two-parter "The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar" examined that very question... |
The next two stories move very firmly into Series 10, and tie heavily into the arc Missy went through across the season, as well as the themes of that year's adventures. First up is "Girl Power" by Jacqueline Rayner, which is the only story in the collection to feature the Twelfth Doctor in any form. Told through correspondence between the Doctor and Nardole, and Missy and various historical figures, Rayner's story sees the Doctor attempt to see how far Missy has developed by letting her get in contact with women throughout history. But to what end? Is it to emancipate the women of history, or is it for some more sinister purpose? This duel motive is played around a lot in this story, as we walk the tightrope of wondering whether or not Missy has some scheme for fooling the Doctor or not. Rayner cleverly leaves this conundrum unanswered, so you are never quite sure what Missy was actually trying to do, something helped by the story's format. The epistolary form really helps this story to stand out against the others, all of which basically maintain the same format, and help to make this feel very different. It also fits with Steven Moffat's love of unusually shaped narratives and interesting storytelling, adding to that pitch-perfect Series 10 feeling, especially the later half of the series. Rayner totally gets Missy's character too, and, like Goss' story before it, means that this gets to the heart of Missy more than any other story. Despite the potentially heavy subject matter, this is probably the funniest story in the collection, and it made made laugh out loud several times, especially at the Doctor's reactions to Nardole's frantic letters. This feels like a vital Missy story, one that, perhaps, should have been told on TV at the time, but it never was, and it explores what its like for the Master to now be in the form of a woman. Because, on TV, other than a few jokes about getting an upgrade and being a Time Lady, the idea the Master had changed gender wasn't brought up at all. It was just accepted, and, therefore, its nice that a story has actually decided to look at it in terms of how it alters the way she plans to dominate the Earth. Like "Dissassembled", it challenges our perceptions of a 'female villain', and shows both the similarities and the differences Missy has to other Masters of the past. She's still the same character, but, in many ways, uses her gender to put people off their guard, especially with regards to how ruthless she is. "Girl Power", therefore, is one of the strongest stories, possibly the strongest story in the collection, and it makes for compelling reading for anyone who is a fan of Missy, the Twelfth Doctor's era or Steven Moffat's storytelling. And I am a fan of all three.
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| Missy and her previous incarnation in a promotional photo from "The Doctor Falls". But are they on the same side? |
The final story, "Alit in Underland" is set during the events of Missy's final story, the climactic "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls", and sees Missy accompany her former self on a scouting mission to try and find his TARDIS, accompanied by a young girl from the farm where the Doctor is recovering. But, even one level down, the Cybermen are waiting... I love the finale of Series 10, and, as such, any chance to tell a story related to the events of the Twelfth Doctor's battle with the Cybermen was always going to be welcomed by me. And "Alit in Underland" is a fantastic story to close out the collection. Focusing on the Alit of the title, we get to properly compare and contrast Missy with the John Simm Master, and draw out the differences between the two. In many ways, this story acts as a contrast to "Lords and Masters" earlier in the collection, with regards to Missy's interactions with a 'companion' character. Whereas in that story, Missy was resistant to the traditional Doctor role, here she embraces it much more, with Alit becoming, to all intents and purposes, her companion. By contrast, the Master coopts one of the very primitive Cybermen as a puppet and shield, and this helps to draw the differences more broadly. It's also nice we get an explanation as to why we never saw the 80's Cybermen in the climactic battle in "The Doctor Falls", and why it took so long for the Cybermen to reach them on Floor 507, which just fill in a couple of tiny niggles in a pretty perfect story. Writer Richard Dinnick clearly knows this story inside out, as he nails both versions of the Master (and never diminishes either: the Saxon Master features in a substantial role, but this is still very much Missy's story), and brings Alit to life as a likable character who would play well with younger readers. The world of Floor 508 is also an interesting contrast with the small farming community of Floor 507, and I wouldn't mind seeing more levels of the ship explored in more stories in the future: I think there's a lot of possibilities there for some interesting storytelling. Ultimately, "Alit in Underland" functions as a perfect capstone to the collection, with a story that shows the vast contrast between where Missy was at the end of her life to where she was at the beginning through the Saxon Master. It adds detail and colour to one of the best stories of the revived Doctor Who series, and, as such, it's an instant success with this reader. It's isn't particularly novel, but who cares when its this well written?
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| Missy, together with a number of her previous incarnations in a promo piece for the official Doctor Who website. |
Overall, then, "The Missy Chronicles" is an qualified success, in every sense of the word. The stories are perfect and the characterisation of Missy is spot on. While one is not quite as strong as the rest, I still love this collection, and there's plenty to recommend about it. Each story is nice and short, and they make for a compelling anthology of tales that peel back some of the layers of one of the most intriguing incarnations of the Doctor's arch-enemy. "The Missy Chronicles" is one of the finest releases from BBC Books in recent times, and is essential for anyone who's a fan of Missy.
"The Missy Chronicles" is available from Waterstones Online, as well as book stores and other online retailers:
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