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'There are many places that most of us can never see: places that are sheltered, locked away, cordoned off from the outside world. But to the Doctor, and those who travel with him in his TARDIS, there is no such thing as a locked door. Anywhere in space and time is open to them to visit -- even if sometimes it might be better to leave such places well alone.
Steel Skies is a collection of stories based in enclosed and artificial environments: places constructed to keep the dangers of the universe outside, perhaps, or to keep their inhabitants locked in. It is divided into four sections, each exploring a different kind of confinement:
Section One, Flight, comprises four tales of travellers who left their homes for far-away destinations -- to explore, to start a new life, or to fight for the survival of their species.
Section Two, Frontiers, explores the corridors, living quarters and ventilation shafts of four futuristic environments -- designed to shelter men, women and children from harsh natural forces, or from the threat of nuclear war.
Section Three, Incarceration, tells four stories of punishment and imprisonment, from San Francisco's infamous Alcatraz, to the cage of a flightless angel in the dilapidated ruins of Heaven.
Section Four, Isolation, deals with the loneliness and despair of being cut off from the world outside, by physical or mental incapacity, by the ravages of war, or caught between destinations aboard the TARDIS itself.
A recurring theme in all four sections is the effect of the Doctor's arrival in these enclosed environments -- sometimes positive, sometimes less so.'
Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip8.htm). Sighted 20/5/11
Notes
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Contents indexed selectively.
Contents
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No Exit,
single work
short story
science fiction
'The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan answer a distress call from Earth colony F-four, which has been cut off from the rest of the galaxy for ten years. No children have been born in that time. Within a day, Tegan has come down with a terrible chill and fever, and when the Doctor runs tests he discovers that every colonist is carrying a lethal virus -- and that the last crop shipment sent to the colony was genetically engineered to render the colonists sterile. It seems that the planet was seeded with the virus by an alien species which feared that humanity would expand into its territory; the colonists are carriers, and if any of them get off-world, billions will die. The colonists refuse to accept this and try to force the Doctor to take their representatives off-world, but the Doctor takes Tegan aboard and dematerialise, tricking the colonists into believing that he has self-destructed the TARDIS rather than risk taking them away. The colonists realise that he would never have taken Tegan aboard if he intended to do so, but when they run their own tests they confirm the Doctor's findings, and release Nyssa, realising that they have no hope. The Doctor is able to cure Tegan, but the virus has embedded itself in the colonists' DNA; they will remain infected and unable to bear children, and the colony will slowly die out in isolation.'
[The Doctor is the Fifth Doctor.]
Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip8.htm). Sighted: 20/5/11
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Eternity,
single work
short story
science fiction
'Sarah learns just how difficult piloting a course through the ever-changing Time Vortex can be when the Doctor admits to her that their trip to the beaches of Geshtinanna will take nine weeks. At first she thinks she'll be able to cope, but as time wears on, even the infinite interior of the TARDIS becomes boring and she runs out of things to talk about with the Doctor. Over a month into the journey all of the clocks stop, even her watch -- and the Doctor notes movement on the scanner, a ghost-TARDIS whose crew miscalculated and set it on an infinite path through the Vortex. The crew are long since dead, and the TARDIS' physical structure has decayed to nothing, leaving only the bare fact of its existence, endlessly travelling. The Doctor and Sarah appear to be on a parallel course, but they won't know for sure until they materialise. This threat hangs over their heads for another two weeks, and Sarah finally snaps when she finds a tea kettle and an ordinary bag of tea but realises there's nowhere to plug it in. The Doctor fetches her a handkerchief as she cries, a small gesture which shows that he does understand what she's going through, in a way. Finally, the TARDIS reaches its destination, and, thankfully, materialises. They are in a jungle, nowhere near where they intended to be -- but it's a marvellous place to visit nonetheless.'
[The Doctor is the Fourth Doctor.]
Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip8.htm). Sighted 20/5/11
