The Library of Alexandria (2013)

The latest Companion Chronicle is another First Doctor adventure featuring William Russell. The previous adventure was ‘The Flames of Cadiz’ which was a story that I struggled with and wasn’t a favourite of mine. This story was written by Simon Guerrier who has a great track record in the Companion Chronicle series having written the Sara Kingdom trilogy.

The Library of Alexandria takes place in the 5^th Century are like most stories from that era of the show, the TARDIS crew are suppose to be having a holiday but as always that plan doesn’t tend to last very long. The story is mainly a historical but has a few sci-fi nuggets thrown in for good measure.

There are many things that I like about this story but the main thing is the relationship between Ian and Barbara is given a lot of time here. In the Sarah Jane Adventures we learn that the pair have married and its clear during their near two-year time on the show that they would end up together and so its nice that its worked into the story. Something unexpected that crops into the story is a love-triangle between Ian, Barbara and Hypatia. I did find Barbara’s jealousy to be amusing and not something that we would associate with Barbara.

Ian is the only person out of the TARDIS crew to actually work and its nice and typically selfless of him to not really mind. The rest are looking at the scrolls and enjoying themselves. He likes to work so it gives him time to think, to try and work out all the strange and alien things that they have seen.

Story moves along at a good pace and then it suddenly introduces an alien threat which I must admit I forgot about because I was so engaged with the story. The aliens are called the Mim and they are very well realised creation and they are defeated in a way that is clever and well done.

I have not attempted to hide my enjoyment at William Russell’s performances in these stories. Even when the plot hasn’t been particularly good you can always rely on Russell to help get you through it. I got the feeling that the Ian we get in this story is a lot more calmer and relaxed than in previous stories. The dialogue helps to emphasise this and it means that the style of the story changes. The friendship between Ian and Hypatia was one that seemed to be built of respect and it was another thing that I enjoyed about this story. Susan Franklyn was very good as Hypatia. She could easily have been a bit of a of an unlikeable character who would be reluctant

There was a moment where I thought that I had missed something. At the end of one scene we are led to believe that Susan and Barbara have died and then it cuts to another  scene and there is a moment where their fate is left in the air but as we know they don’t die it’s just a case of waiting to see where they are and we learn that they were helping save the scrolls from the library.

The Library of Alexandra is a lovely story that restores my faith in the First Doctor Companion Chronicles.  It’s the second month in a row where I have been bowled over by the storytelling. Whereas with ‘The Scorchies’ it is because I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it turned out to be, with The Library of Alexandria it was a more traditional companion chronicles and as a result I would have to say that this is the strongest story in the series so far this year. Simon Guerrier has written a lovely story that feels like the era it comes from yet feeling more modern that previous First Doctor Companion Chronicles.