Doctor Who: The Guardian of the Solar System

A First Doctor story from the perspective of the late Sara Kingdom.

This is the last part of Simon Guerrier's “Sara Kingdom” trilogy of Companion Chronicles, and it might be the weakest... but only because it's up against some remarkably stiff competition. Here, Sara recounts a tale of the TARDIS arriving on a space station just a year before she met the Doctor. The space station takes the form of a giant mechanical clock, maintained by slave workers, and somehow responsible for Earth's FTL technology.

The clock, however, is a metaphor for predestination, and this is the theme that runs through the story. Sara is understandably keen to reverse her past mistakes before they happen, but the world just keeps on ticking inexorably forward. “I had no choice” is a common refrain, reflected in the framing device for the story. This time there's no real sense of the world outside, as in the previous two parts, but that only emphasises how trapped Sara and her interlocutor are.

This does make the story somewhat grim, although it's worth noting that the ending is intentionally left open, in counterpoint to the main theme.