BBC Children's Books Amy's Escapade/Rory's Adventure A Short Story

Author	Justin Richards
Published	2012

Synopsis: The story of an alien invasion of Spaceport One, told in two halves.

• The Baker is Invading the World! by Noe Geric

The Baker is Invading the World! by Noe Geric 14/1/25

Two small Doctor-lite stories connected by the same events. We follow Amy and Rory as they visit Spaceport One (terribly original), a leisure and shopping world where a Reptiloid baker is the first sentinel for an invasion. The use of the two interconnected stories is really good, I can't deny it. But even as a short story aimed at a younger audience (I won't say children because I'm one of these people who likes to read that sort of stuff), it could've been a lot more clever.

The inclusion of the Judoon at the climax is a nice touch, not too fanwanky. They appear at the end of both stories, but they're used as a sort of Deus Ex Machina, for the story to be dealt with when the writer is approaching the maximum word-count. As for what happens in the adventure itself: I found myself enjoying Amy's small escapade more than Rory's boring adventure. One is actually contributing to the events and doing some stuff, while the other stays mostly in one room and is the downfall of characterization. I can't remember Rory's story to have at least one in-character element other than a Judoon doing his usual ''Jo-Lo-Mo''. Amy gets more things to do, and I heard Karen Gillan's voice in my head with most of her lines.

Of course, what would a story aimed at young people be without a child in it? That's where we meet Paulus, the most cliched of all the small boys. I know that children don't have a perfectly defined personality until they grow older, but that doesn't mean a young boy, while being menaced by deadly aliens with guns, should screaming ''Cool!'' while throwing pie and cakes at the enemy.

Still, the experiment of a two-part same story is used well, but most of Amy's elements should go into Rory's one. Unlike Flip-Flop, you can't read them in whatever order you want: Rory's got the definitive conclusion to the story. I find it to be a bit dull, the last scene in the TARDIS wasn't needed, and both episodes could've ended on the same scene, from the POV of the principal character (Amy/Rory).

If I was to rate each of the story independently, I would give Amy a 6 and Rory a 5/10. The guy spends five pages hiding behind a desk and just watching what's happening! Still interesting to read... if you're bored. This is J. Richards more average than ever!