El's Reviews > Doctor Who: Time and Relative

** spoiler alert ** “(Maybe the Box is still at Home; what we stole might only be the Door.)”

Time and Relative is in the form of Susan Foreman's diary from 1963, set around six months before the events of An Unearthly Child. Susan and her Grandfather are trying to blend in, trying to pass unnoticed, and so Susan decides that she should attend school. The start of the book is mainly concerned with her attempts to fit in with the other children and avoid Detention. But there's something more going on. The winter has been especially hard and has lasted far too long - there is still snow on the ground on April Fools' Day - and it becomes apparent that the cold is not natural.

Susan has what she describes as fog in her mind, and she finds it difficult to remember home - but she finds that if she couches her memories in the setting of Coal Hill, she can see things more clearly. She and her Grandfather are truants, persued by the Masters. One particular of these (always the favourite where her Grandfather was a trouble-maker), possessed of a neat black beard and clever eyes, will make his career if he can bring them back. There are Rules. There is the Box.

The Doctor (never named as such, and Susan tells us she cannot remember his name, and that neither can he), is reluctant to help with the threat, because thus far he still has not broken the primary rule: Do Not Meddle. He is fully prepared to let the adversary destroy the human race, even prepared to sacrifice Susan herself, and in the end, it's only a toy that convinces him that we are worth saving. This is a Doctor at the very start of his love affair with humanity - are we worth it? For the first time, the answer is yes.