Doctor Who: Alternative Seasons - Season 2: Past and Future

This is the second part of an ongoing look at Doctor Who as a whole. It also tries to reframe stories to include audio stories and other media. More details can be found here.

One day, I shall come back........

Season 2: Past and Future

Here we are again! Welcome back! It's about time for season 2. A lot has happened this time. We've left some people and met some new ones. We've a Doctor who's now changed to his very core. More on that later. For now, here are the 33 stories for Season 2:

 

·         Planet of Giants (DW serials 2.01)

·         The Dalek Invasion of Earth (DW serials 2.02)

·         After the Daleks (The Early Adventures 7.01)

·         Here There Be Monsters (Companion Chronicles 3.1)

·         The Revenants (Companion Chronicles Special)

·         The Rescue – The Romans (DW serials 2.03-2.04)

·         Starborn (Companion Chronicles 8.9)

·         The Web Planet (DW serials 2.05)

·         1963 (Short Trips 2.1)

·         The Fifth Traveller (The Early Adventures 3.02)

·         The Rocket Men (Companion Chronicles 6.2)

·         The Crusade (DW serials 2.06)

·         The Dark Planet (The Lost Stories 4.01)

·         The Space Museum (DW serials 2.07)

·         Daybreak (Companion Chronicles 13.2)

·         The Doctor's Tale (The Early Adventures 1.02)

·         The Unwinding World (Companion Chronicles 9.2)

·         The Chase (DW serials 2.08)

·         The Sleeping City (Companion Chronicles 8.8)

·         The Time Museum (Companion Chronicles 7.1)

·         The Time Meddler (DW serials 2.09)

·         The Bounty of Ceres (The Early Adventures 1.03)

·         The Suffering (Companion Chronicles 4.7)

·         Etheria (Short Trips 5.9)

·         The Ravelli Conspiracy (The Early Adventures 3.03)

·         The Dalek Occupation of Winter - The Crash of the UK-201 (The Early Adventures Series 5)

·         Across the Darkened City (Companion Chronicles 11.2)

 

Spin-offs for this season:

·         The Peter Cushing Movies

 

Note: Stories in red are additions or changes from the existing template. Stories in green are spin-offs, that might be reviewed on a later date.

 

Overview

 

Compared to season 1, Season 2 is a bit less varied in its storytelling. The development the Doctor had in the previous season, is basically completed. This leaves us with a way more active and friendly figure, that's almost unrecognizable at a glance. While it is sad his development has mostly finished, it allows us to revel in this renewed man. He’s an absolute joy to watch on screen, especially when later combined with Vicki. Their dynamic compared to Susan shows how much growth has taken place.

Vicki in general is an absolute joy to see/listen to. She has a way clearer personality than Susan, with a bit more temperament and knowledge. Yet she still has room to learn and grow, which her travels allow her to do. Development wise, she has the most going on this season. With her lost family and finding a place in a new one. There are also smaller threads, like Ian and Barbara falling in love and Steven settling in after 2 years of isolation (we can all relate nowadays), but those events mostly stay in the background, and are (almost) never the full focus of an episode.

Since the character growth takes more of a back seat, the stories themselves come under a bit more scrutiny. You still need to enjoy yourself, after all. Compared to season one, these stories are a bit more of a mixed bag. Since there are less character moments, generic stories become more noticeable in a bad way. I notice these mostly seem to happen in the latter half of the season, and especially in the “early adventures” range. I wouldn’t necessarily say that stories are less creative, as there’s still some real highlights, but sometimes, they do seem to be coasting on what came before. Sometimes literally and sometimes conceptually.

General themes throughout the season seem to be a large focus on hiveminds and similar collective societies. While this feels natural after ending last season on ‘Domain of the Voord’,  the concept is never really expanded upon. It just shows up a lot. There’s no real final or surprising new ideas around the concept. Which is a bit of a shame. The idea of the strengths of groups vs individuals could lead to some clever, new and exciting places if done well. Maybe a story will capitalize on this later.

But there’s one other concept that shows up loads. Daleks. Oh boy. It’s clear which enemies were the most popular ones last season, because they are back and back again. From the 33 stories in this range, the Daleks show up in 7 of them. The tv stories are especially guilty of this. It does lead to some interesting places in the end though, with “The Chase” and “Across the Darkened City” being absolute highlights in showing what these foes can do. Especially that last story adds layers upon layers to them, that could be explored for years. They show this enemy still has potential, even after all this time. For that reason, ‘Across the Darkened City’ will be our finisher this time. After seeing the Daleks in several outings, it shows that they’re still far from generic.Since this season very much borrows elements from the last one, like character developments and enemies, I want to represent that in its title. Yet there’s also hope for something more, since we end on new members of the tardis crew, that could lead to new and interesting places for the show. This feels like a midpoint. Because of that, I’ve labelled this season “Past and Future”. With all that being said, let's look at the individual offerings in this season.

Reviews

    Planet of Giants - 7

      We’re back on TV! With some of the best setwork the show has had up till now.

We start of with a faulty materialization of the Tardis to get us back in the traveling mood. I started out a bit worried, as the Doctor sounds rather stern and yell-y. Have we gone back on the character development? Turns out that worry was misplaced, after his anger, he immediately apologizes and shows us that we’re still in good hands.

The faulty landing leads to the party being shrunk down in size. As said, the set design for this is wonderful! All kinds of objects are displayed in massive sizes. When we go exploring, the cast feels very confident. It’s clear their curiosity and wanderlust has grown, which feels completely natural after all the previous adventures. It gets you in the mood to join them.

      The gist of the story is that, while exploring this gigantic world, the Doctor and company try to catch a murderer and stop the production of an insecticide that could poison humans as well.  In general this plot is a good idea. Sadly, the way they interfere with the evil plan is pretty minimal and does not feel important to the actual resolution. It’s mostly dealing with small consequences of the poison, which is less interesting. I feel like it could get a bit more creative in the way it put the pressure on the party.

Personality wise, the cast is as strong as ever,. Ian and Susan show some action. Barbara still has her pragmatic intelligence and the Doctor has become a bit more involved and action-oriented than before. It’s good stuff. A highlight is the moment where the Doctor and Susan realize that they’ve shrunk at the same time. It makes them look like equals and strengthens the familial theme a little.

This episode is an interesting novelty. There's not really any time- or spacetravel. Instead, we get a new twist on the everyday. Which is nice. That said, how successful this episode is overall, will depend entirely on how much you enjoy the novelty of the shrunken cast. The main story is on the weaker side, but if you like the party interacting with a massive world, you’ll still have a good time. Otherwise, it doesn’t stand out that much, but isn’t necessarily weak either.

    The Dalek Invasion of Earth - 6

I’m very conflicted on this one. The Daleks are back! And this time, it’s personal!

Well, not really. Since apparently, these daleks are older models that haven’t met the Doctor yet. At the same time, they’re also more advanced and can move without magnets. So, they’re both older, and newer…?

Putting that aside, this keeps in line with the “bigger species” thing that classic who has going on. In modern who, it is pretty safe to assume that, once a species has been met, they’ll remember the Doctor in every future encounter. I like this apporach a little better, since it makes the universe feel bigger. At the same time, maybe this story is a story taht could do with a more personal touch.

      The Daleks being on earth is a bit of a stretch for the same robots that wouldn’t function if they didn’t touch the ground anymore. So they put a satellite dish on their backs and called it a day. I wish their drive for invasion was a bit stronger. What if these daleks wanted revenge on the Doctor and his companions for overthrowing their civilization? So they decide to go for earth, the planet these outsiders came from, and that’s why they upgraded. It would be in context with their nazi-esque behavior and aesthetic (which is stronger than before), and it would allow for more investment.

Instead these daleks are mining for the magnetic core of the earth and are trying to turn the earth into some kind of spaceship. That’s fine. They decide to do so with the help of robo-men and some kind of strange pet. That’s… less fine. A lot of time is spent on these superficial foes instead of the main threat. Sadly, they aren’t all that interesting, and they distract from the enemy we all want to see. They’re like obstacles for the actual entertainment. Just look at how this story is remembered. It’s with Daleks walking across London, not with robo-men marching through the streets.

That’s enough complaining for now, let’s look at the character work. Ian does not get a lot to do this time, that’s okay. Something I noticed in this story and the previous one, is that he seems more stern and strict. Not sure why, but it isn’t too distracting. The Doctor gets some nice moments, and still feels very energetic. I like the direction they’re taking with him. Let’s see where that goes.

Barbara gets a lot of the limelight, maybe even too much if we consider what’s coming up, but she handles it well. A highlight is her distracting the Daleks with random history facts. Who said those don’t come in handy?

However, then we come to Susan. This is her last episode. Let me start out by saying that her leaving the Tardis was heartfelt and very well presented. It felt natural and understandable. It was more than I expected. These Dalek stories might not always be the best, but they know how to do their endings for sure.

Susan’s motivation for leaving can be arguable, since it isn’t presented that strongly either here or in previous stories. Sadly, the audio’s haven’t really bothered to expand on it either. There just isn’t that much setup towards it. Even within this tale.

What they could’ve done, was swap the roles of Barbara and Jenny with Susan and her new husband, David. This would show them interacting a bit more and could build up to them creating a place for themselves to call home. It would also show Susan as being more capable thanks to her travelling (Instead of one of the most childish portrayals she’s had in quite a while, which is kind of awkward). Oh well, at least I still believe to romance and conflicting emotions are heartfelt. It could’ve been worse.

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is a lot. At the same time, it doesn’t feel like it reaches for much in its storytelling. It’s pretty mundane stuff with very little actual Dalek, and an ending that could be seen as half-hearted. Still, it hits some nice personality beats and ends on one of the most famous, sweetest notes in the entire history of the show, so it scrapes by because of that. I’m glad I’ve seen it, but I’m never gonna watch it again (except for that ending).

After the Daleks - 3

     This story takes place immediately after the last one.It focuses on the role Susan plays in rebuilding the earth.

Sadly, it wastes the potential this unique setting and cast offers.

It’s a story that feels very hollow. Like it’s going through the motions. It has several concepts and ideas, but seems unsure in how to actually handle them. The biggest plot thread it has is Susan deciding her role in this new world. This story tells us that Susan is conflicted in how to continue now that she’s stuck on earth. Sadly, it does this not by introspection on Susan’s end, but by making the side characters push her to the  front when she doesn’t want to. It feels very impersonal and quite distant.

This uncertainty also continues in the main conflict of the story. It feels unsure in how to present it’s plans, which clashes with the world that we know from the original story. This can be shown with a simple question: If earth was freed from invasion after 10 years, what is the first thing you would do? What would have your attention first? Food? Water? Helping the converted or grieving? Or… would it be immediately reinstating the democratic process and allowing the nation to vote again?

Because this story picks that last option and it feels so incredibly forced and unrealistic. It’s a poorly chosen means to an end. We want to show Susan as capable, so we put her in a political race. But also, we want to be the first story after Dalek Invasion of Earth, so everything has to bend aside for that election. One moment we are in a field, harvesting crops for a minute, the next, voting machines are put back online. It’s feels incredibly odd.

We get our main threat in the way of a almost cartoony ex-mayor, who tries to claim victory in this political race. His introduction is fine, not mindblowing, but interesting. After that, he quickly dwindles and becomes routine. Trying to win by campaigning and destroying the competition, while people around him struggle to survive.

On the other side, Susan isn’t doing that much better. She gives a speech that inspires people, but sounds awfully Trumpish, to the point of actually using the term “Make the UK great again”. The people eat it up though, so I don’t know what to think of that. She’s our hero, meant to present her case from the heart, but I am just reminded of some of the worst politics the world has seen. Politics that were also definitely a factor when this story was released in 2019.

David also mingles hard in the political side. He is never shown as a love interest, but as a campaign manager. There is 0 romantic interest between him and Susan. Just some situational talk and politics. Considering how close it all is to their original meeting, the story could stand to show them a little more involved with each other. It, once again, feels impersonal.

The other parts of the story are mostly focused on a robo-man trying to restore to his human self and a kind of burrowing slug with memory powers. These are, in the grand scheme of things, presented quite wishy-washy. They play second fiddle to the main story and feel like padding to the larger narrative, rather than adding on meaningful in any way. They didn’t do much for me. Even once the robo-man gets restored, I feel nothing. We’ve seen better conversion stories.

So that makes “After the Daleks” a rather weak recreation of elements from the original. It wants to connect to the previous story so hard, but also do its own thing. Sadly, it fails to connect and its own thing is rather unrealistic and weirdly impersonal. It’s all a neat idea I guess, but its focus is so off that it feels insincere and flat. Listening to this, I got the impression that Carol Ann Ford was bored, which I have never experienced with her before. If that was actually the case, I’ll join her in her boredom, because this story is not exciting in the slightest.

 

 

     Here There Be Monsters - 3

This story is quite boastful. It’s a story Susan tells after she has left the Tardis. She hypes it up quite a bit too. Basically telling us that this story contains her reasoning for leaving, while at the same time explaining a mysterious voice Susan hears in her head.

Too bad the story doesn’t live up to the lead in. Not even a little.

It’s a very standard story about the party meeting a vegetable that tears holes in reality to create points of navigation for humans. That sounds intriguing, and it starts of well, but it quickly falls apart.

At the start, we talk a bit about the history of navigation. The party’s curiosity is peaked and they try to rationalize their situation a lot. This is good! It’s fun, has some nice lessons in there and makes sense to do. It also helps us understand our surroundings. We talk with a plant about compasses. It’s nice!

After that though, the story kind of writes itself in a corner. It wants to add a mysterious figure to the vegetable ship that we don’t understand, but that also makes it hard for us to care about him.

The general gist is that there is a species from another dimension that has taken human form. He’s not evil, but a consequence of the spatial instability of the story. They try to portray him as somehow very important to Susan, but it doesn’t really back that up. Why is he so important? We spend a lot of time on him, and even make him a voice that Susan has in her head ever since, but he really does not come across as important. He acts a bit gruff, slightly mysterious, and then explodes. Not really leaving a long-lasting impression.

Which is a shame, because the second half is completely about him. The vegetable ship is nothing more than set dressing at this point.

What they could’ve done to make him more important, is make him someone from Susan’s timeline. That would explain why only she sees him at first, and would add some personal stakes. Make him her future husband. Or a future child. Maybe even go all the way with it, and make him a possible future incarnation of herself. One that continued to travel with the Doctor and regrets it. The story desperately needs a way to make me care about this random guy, because he is constantly mentioned as her reason for leaving.

It's a shame too. As mentioned in the previous review, Susan’s reason for leaving is barely touched on in other audio or TV stories. In a way, this story is the first to do it in any capacity. And I want to understand her. It’s a reason that could be expanded so much, and it could build on her character in interesting ways, but it is left to the wayside. All we have really learned is that Susan has a random voice in her head, and that somehow contributed to her leaving. I really wish I cared more than I do.

    The Revenants - 5

Okay story. Nothing much of note happens.

This story takes place just after Susan leaves. Before Vicki. The party of Ian, Barbara and the Doctor land in a swamp on earth. They might be close to Ian and Barbara’s home, so they rush out to check their surroundings. But when they step out, the tardis suddenly disappears.

From what I’ve seen of Ian Potter, he tends to put stories in pretty unique positions timeline-wise. He’s also the one who wrote several stories before “an unearthly child”, but now he has a rare moment where the Doctor is alone with Ian and Barbara. This approach can be a bit of a gimmick. But this is actually a great location for some extra tales, since it allows for new dynamics, while not inherently undermining aspects from the TV show.

After a little exploration of the Swamp, Ian and Barbara get taken in by a woman called Janet McKay. She is often seen as a good witch by locals, so magic is her jam. It turns out the Doctor is also with her!

Apparently the tardis landing went awry, and the Doctor landed a few years before Ian and Barbara. He actually waited a few years for them, reading some books and generally just killing time until they’d show up. It’s a rather sweet note, that doesn’t get as much attention as it should. The Doctor will eventually be rather reluctant to let Ian and Barbara go in “The Chase”, so it would be nice if this built on the idea of leaving them behind.

Instead, we’re focusing on another local threat. Mud monsters are appearing in the swamp and homing in on the party. A discussion arises. Should these monsters be fought with science or magic? Or are those two actually the same? It turns out the story doesn’t really have any interesting takes to add onto that discussion.

Mud monsters in a swamp is hardly an original concept too. And I know this story bases that concept on Scottish myths, but that doesn’t make it less standard. It’s just living mud, and that concept has been done to death. Adding some very, very slight real-world mythology does not make it original, even if it fits. There’s no real layers to the threat, even if they’re given some alien origins.

And that’s true of the whole story really. No layers. While it touches on some interesting points, both characterwise and storywise, it refuses to expand. It’s really flat and has no real sense of threat. It feels like this story is written to be a 6, rather than something completely new. It was made to be passable.

And I suppose it is passable. But should you really listen to a story if it's just “fine”? Shouldn’t it show a little more spunk? Look at how many stories this show has. Why go for the complete middle of the road stuff?

The fact that it has the tiniest of good ideas in there makes this even worse. We could have had some real new ground covered here, if the story decided to have a real goal. But it doesn’t. It takes some ingredients, but doesn’t use a recipe. Just throwing it all in there. And sadly, that hasn’t led to anything of value. This story is, fittingly, completely bog standard.

        The Rescue - 9,5

Another shorter story from the same writer as “Edge of Destruction”. One thing is clear: David Whitaker knows these characters inside out.

We land on the planet Dido and start off with a small rescue ship. After a huge explosion, 2 passengers are the only ones left alive on the entire planet, but something might be lurking nearby....

This story introduces us to Vicki, the new companion that will replace Susan. In some ways, it might be justified to call her a bit of a Susan clone, but I think this story makes the differences quite clear.

Vicki seems, at first glance, different from Susan in a few ways. She’s quite temperamental, way more than Susan was, and at the same time isn’t as knowledgeable as the girl that was there from the start. This connect wonderfully to the changes our main character has had in the last season. He always had a parental role, but with Vicki, he has to take more time, take her through the steps way slower than Susan and make time for emotions. It’s lovely, because it allows him to use the skills he has now learned through his travels.

The other characters shine bright as well. Ian and Barbara get some fun moments together, which is surprisingly rare. Their dynamic is great. Ian still has a little sternness, but it is less pronounced this time. Maybe the Doctor rubbed off on him a little. I wonder if we get back to that.

The Doctor, as mentioned, also gets some new stuff to do. There are several highlights for him in this episode. He gets a fantastic opener, where he dances around the tardis, gets a bit forlorn about Susan, and immediately pick himself back up when he gets help. His more energetic self is a joy. That energy also gets channeled later on. For the first time, it is the Doctor that gets an actual fight scene, which is great.

The best moment by far, however, is the meeting with Vicki. He’s the grandpa who just lost his granddaughter and meets the girl who just lost her parents. It’s a great dynamic and immediately feels comfortable. Like a family has already been formed. I can’t wait to see more.

The overall story is fine too. It’s clearly a character tale first and foremost, but it is serviceable. Has a neat mystery that allows for fun moments, more than being strong on its own. That’s completely okay!

The Rescue and Edge of Destruction are like two peas in a pod. Both are small scale, short, but with leaps in character growth that are some of the best moments in the show. I hope we get tons more of this, because it is fantastic.

           The Romans - 5

Small side note before we begin: This episode is available in color on archive.org. Worth looking into if you like that sort of thing.

A pure historical written by Dennis Spooner. I don’t plan on bringing up writers every time, but it is notable how you can sometimes recognize the writer without seeing his name.

This story shares a lot of DNA with ‘The Reign of Terror’ from last season, which was my least favorite in that range. Spooner apparently likes to take a historical setting and mess around it, almost to the point of comedy. Dressing the Doctor up, meeting some funny historical people, having some fun at the setting’s expense.

That’s fine I suppose, I’m open to a more comedic tone, but he seems to also want to add some drama, so his division of the cast and choice of setting are sometimes a bit skewed.

This time we’re in the ancient Roman Empire. We start of relatively light (And with a really weird transition from last time’s cliffhanger), but that’s a nice change of pace. It quickly becomes mingled however.

The Doctor decides to travel to Rome with just Vicki. He’s bored of sitting still. An odd choice, but okay. After that, Barbara and Ian quickly get captured as slaves. This is where the issues in tone begins.

We switch often between light and dark settings. We have the Doctor and Vicki on one side, disguised as a lyre player and generally having a jolly, comedic time. And then we go back to Ian and Barbara, who are drowning, forced to fight, sold to a lustful emperor and generally just not having a good time.

This is very jarring and detracts from both parts that are going on. The Doctor is having a laugh, and the story wants us to laugh with him, but we don’t because we just want to know if Ian and Barbara will be safe. It slowly becomes a tangled web, but the stories never quite meet each other and it becomes more worrisome and frustrating than intended.

The story does have highlights though. The Doctor in his energetic good mood, while unfitting, is fun to watch. Even getting another fight scene. The lyre performance he gives is also entertaining. At the start, Ian and Barbara are also flirting in a Roman villa, which is a blast. Vicki does not add much on her own yet, but she still brings about a more positive Doctor that wants to explain stuff, which is fun.

Some other notable moments are the emperor Nero, who is a bit of a buffoon, and the fire of Rome, which causes some nice introspection in the Doctor, before he laughs it off. We’re getting closer to interfering…..

I haven’t learned that much about the history as the story assumes though. I’ve learned something about the slave trade and the habits of the Roman people, but I don’t really have any new insights in the actual fire or Nero, because both are played for laughs. It still feels very odd to me to do. The fire is by all means a tragic event, but we’re supposed to laugh at it. Doesn’t really land for me.

This story feels at times like a bunch of shorts stuck together. It’s fun in bursts, but the bursts don’t link together all that well and more often than not detract from each other (Let’s all laugh at the silly emperor who burned an entire city). The huge differences in tones make this one pretty weak, switching too quickly from comedy to slavery. That said, there are definitely some parts that are diamonds in the rough, like the lyre-based comedy.

            Starborn - 5

The first audio adventures with Vicki. First things first: Maureen O’Brien acts very well. She can convey a lot of emotions in the way she presents her voice. This was already somewhat clear in the way she talked on screen, but it gets reinforced here.

The sound design in general is very strong in this story. From the ticking clock in the medium’s room, to the little piano flourishes throughout. It really adds to the whole.

On to the actual story. Vicki gets interrupted just before leaving in the Tardis. A medium wants to speak to her. The medium channels Vicki from a future where she died, when visiting a planet filled with stars. She warns her about the risks her future holds

This premise alone is very good, but I will mention that the story gets a bit out there once it starts to mention the star-planet adventure. The setting in the beginning is very small and very personal. Vicki is alone with the medium in a small room, and the shift to the star planet is pretty rough. We suddenly and unexpectedly have to deal with a much larger scope. It's still fine, though. Maybe I just really liked the small setting. It allowed for a real closeness to the character and was at the same time mystical and horrifying. It was like sitting in a magical circle with just the 2 characters. Oh well.

The actual presentation of the star planet was pretty good at first. It’s a planet that lives and dies by its giant star network, which shine like suns in the sky. If a star dies, however, a local with starblood will have to sacrifice himself to take the place of the lost star. A understandable concept as a whole. Pretty sci-fi, but in a good way. I love it when we establish a society that aren’t just enemies.

This is all told to us from future-Vicki, who died on the planet. She tells the story of how she sacrificed herself because people were trying to steal the star-energy during the local sacrifice. She plugged the hole in the star-network, so to speak. This is where the story lost me. It suddenly goes pretty quick and raises a lot of questions.

How can Vicki sacrifice herself to the stars, if she doesn't have starblood? The Doctor's ring also suddenly gets used as an energy absorber, but how does that actually work? And what does this ring now actually mean for the person who is getting absorbed by the stars?

And the story is not willing to give those questions and answers room to breathe. It’s very weird. We have just established the rules for this world, and now we are breaking them in all kinds of ways with this sacrifice. Stuff just happens.

Now, it turns out the ‘Future Vicki’ was not actually Vicki, and she figures this out. Future Vicki describes herself in the third person every now and again, and that’s a pretty clever way to go about it. But that still doesn’t answer any of my questions.

Instead, we get a really long monologue about Fake Vicki’s origin and plans, which is fine, but we still miss insight in her death and the circumstances around that. That clashes with the next part, where we’re supposed to feel sorry for her. How are we supposed to feel sorry for a character if we don’t know what she’s going through? It falls a bit flat.

Then the story ends by concluding in the small setting and we move on. We go back in the Tardis and the events are forgotten.

Starborn has a lot of moving pieces and layers in its story, but fails to keep those pieces connected. It feels like throwing rocks through a spiders web. It is very cohesive and builds its world well, but tries to throw some really random stuff in that tear it apart.

It has plenty of good parts. Vicki’s characterization is on point. Being more headstrong and stubborn than Susan ever was (even if we’re not completely past comparison yet). It also has, as mentioned, clever twists with third person storytelling and some solid initial worldbuilding. But the introduction of random elements tears apart any overall narrative it had going on. With a bit more internal consistency and maybe a little bit more time, it could have been something truly special. For now, it sadly just misses out on being passable.

            The Web Planet - 5

This episode is a lot, yet also very little. It’s a difficult one to pin down.

We land on the Planet Vortis, which looks completely desolate. But there is more going on than meets the eye. Without the party noticing, there is a battle of survival between 2 species: The Zarbi and the Menoptra. Let's talk about them first.

This is an aspect of the story that immediately hinders it a bit. We have two kinds of creatures, which are unique and interesting at a glance, but their abilities and underlying motivations are not presented as well as they could be.

Part of it might be the costume design. This is an episode that is notorious for its clash between ambition and budget. I have to say, it is mostly harmless. I don't think this story looks particularly bad. It's just that it has way more to tell with the same amount of resources. The only real problem that it leads to, is on the Zarbi end. Their designs are fine and definitely look the part, but they have no expressiveness. They don't talk much either, so it is very hard for them to 'earn their place' so to speak. They have no real way of showing us what makes them special. Other characters often have to tell us their deal, which can be distracting and come across as exposition.

The Menoptra fare a little better on that front. Their design is relatively strong. The black and white of the screen gives them a very distinct look. Especially in their faces. They also have the benefit of being humanoid and able to speak, which makes them easier to understand.

After their introduction, the story tries to build up a lot of different aspects and ideas onto the foundation of these two species: There's the Carnisome, the Operta, the Animus, the larvae gun and more. Problem is, the foundation of this story wasn't all that strong and needed a lot of explaining on the Zarbi side. All these elements add another aspect that needs to be explained. This can turn into a bit of an infodump at times. Like building a house on sand, it starts to slip.

It turns into a lot of unnecessary "Tell, don't show" moment. Those can be linked to budget, but I don't think that's necessarily the case. It's more a matter of dividing time. The story is 2 hours long, and can feel quite padded. What if those padded parts we're more explicit showcases of the elements we have in the story? Show us how the Zarbi are controlled, and how they act without control. Reinforce the prior relationship between the two species by giving them a conversation. These events would establish this planet a little more. The extra aspects can be added after that. Instead we have some neat things like the larvae guns, which are fun I suppose, but does not add much to the story. It takes up time that could be used better.

Characterwise the story has a minor snippets. The Doctor running around the planet in the first episode is a treat. It shows some newfound joy and establishes the planet, which is a treat to the eyes anyway. The banter with Ian is fun too. Barbara and Vicki connect a bit and talk about their different origins. Good stuff, but nothing really new or interesting.

A small highlight for me was the cliffhanger with the Doctor at the end of episode 1. We've seen him worried about the loss of his tardis in the audio's a few times, but it doesn't happen on screen that often. It's just a snippet, but it adds layers.

Other than that, there's not much more to say about this story. It's a very divisive one, and I can see why. I do think the production issues are overstated. It looks fine. Great at times even. It's just a story that comes with a million ideas, that should've been a bit more picky about which ones to show and which ones to talk about.

Maybe it'll come across more clearly in the novel, which I just got a few days ago, but that's a story for another time. For now, we have a flawed but ambitious story. And while I can look down on flaws, I can't ever shun ambition. There are true, unfiltered ideas here. That doesn't necessarily make the story good, but at the very least, it makes it interesting. And that's worth something.

            1963 - 3

It’s happened. The Tardis finally lands in 1963! Ian and Barbara are home! But…… everything is frozen into place. Time isn’t moving.

And if that isn’t one of the most exciting story premises for this party, I don’t know what is. They have all they wanted back in reach, but it is unwelcoming and cold. Not even noticing they are there. This should be character defining.

But this doesn’t live up to it. Ian and Barbara have a stroll around all they knew. They talk about recent events from their time. But it is shockingly emotionless. It’s very static “Do you remember that JFK died”  remarks. No personal touch is shown.

And dangit, I was so ready for this. It has Barbara in the lead, which hasn’t happened in ages. It has the biggest opportunity to do something with this cast, but it is just nothing. This is not the moment to make these characters stoic. This is the moment to let them experience all that you can. Make Ian and Barbara angry! Make them be unreasonable! Make the Doctor show some regret for what he has put them through in the first place! Instead. It is nothing. Absolute objectivity in one of the most subjective settings imaginable. No “Why does this happen to us?”, but “hmmmm, who could have caused it, was it Russians? America is weak in this political climate after all.”

And there’s just the smallest, tiniest glimmer of what could have been. Barbara decides to visit her aunt, who she was planning to meet. And just for a moment, it feels like she, in her frozen state, is looking at Barbara.

MORE OF THAT PLEASE. It’s sooooo close to getting there. To getting that emotional reaction a story like this deserves. But it is too afraid to take the leap. And that’s thoroughly disappointing. This story is given the world, but decides to make do with a pebble. An utter disappointment.

            The Fifth Traveller - 7,5

An intriguing story that has a lot going on. Maybe even too much.

Our party lands in a jungle, where apes with mental abilities live. That starts us off pretty solidly. It’s interesting seeing how each member reacts to the jungle setting. Vicki and Barbara are assaulted by some birds, while Ian, the Doctor and Jospa discover the acidic nature of the planet.

…..Wait what’s a Jospa?

This story has 2 storylines that mesh and mingle along the way. First is the heated discussion among telepathic apes about the way they should live. Should they connect their minds, or should they live on their own? It’s a relatively standard adventure for Doctor Who. Nice for what it is.

But the second storyline is the one that makes it intriguing. The party suddenly has a fifth member, one that they all remember. Yes, this is very much like that one Torchwood episode, if you’ve seen that. He’s mixed in with the regular adventure, but slowly the party realizes something is amiss.

“Mind battle” stories are always a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they usually allow for a deeper look at the main cast and their drives, since those are usually used in the manipulation. On the other hand, winning the mind battle is very hard to justify. How does a character earn the defeat of a mind manipulator. How do they break free?

Sadly, both those ups and downs do come back in this story as well. We learn some neat stuff about Vicki’s approach to travelling and her relation to the party, for example. But the party first breaks free, because Jospa loses his grip. It’s not a clever realization or an adding up of weird events. They were just out of range for a bit.

Maybe these downsides are the consequence of the monkey plot. It’s quite substantial in its own right, and has a lot of events. This gives the actual mind battle less room to breathe. It could have helped if the monkey plot was a bit simpler, so we can give more attention to the more interesting bit. Flesh it out just that little more.

For now it very much feels 50/50, and while that works, I feel like 60/40 would make it a bit more unique. Make it a more personal tale. Now we switch from mind controlled party to telepathic monkeys and it makes the story feel wobbly. It just didn’t have the foundation to build either concept as much as it would’ve liked, and that makes it crumble when the finale hits.

Performance wise, it is also not the strongest. The voices are all fine, and Maureen O’Brien continues to be one of the best storytellers, but I feel like William Russell slips up a bit in this one. His Doctor and his Ian voice sometimes become too alike. This hasn’t happened before. Maybe it’s the writing? I can’t really tell.

Still, it’s far from bad!  And that goes for the whole story. I genuinely like the monkey characters and their abilities, which is hard to do if something else is going on. And the story wraps up neatly enough for my liking.

We also get plenty of character moments. Ian shares his old home-memories with a monkey. Vicki gets some nice backstory material about how her parents fell in love. It all adds up well.

It just feels like it should’ve had one final push to be something truly special. Maybe it should’ve been longer, although I doubt that would’ve helped. But it’s still a really neat idea with a decent execution. Not a 10, but still worth your time.

            The Rocket Men - 9,5

"When do you know?....."

This is a Ian story. We haven't had one of those in a while! So it's very welcome!

The party lands at a sky hotel in a world filled with purple hues and sparkling stars. The setting is presented wonderfully! The story takes a lot of time to get this right. Describing loads of details about how the colors in the sky blend together, how dreamy it is and what the characters think of it. It really makes us care for it.

After the setting is introduced, we get the disruption in the form of the rocket men. A relatively simple to understand group of space pirates. Their signature is, surprise surprise, that they all have a rocket taped to their back. They take control of the hotel and want to farm the planet of its resources. A basic affair, but that's not a bad thing.

The story around the rocket men invasion is told slightly out of order, and slowly the pieces catch up with each other. For example, we start with the party being held hostage and only later learn how they got in that situation. It's like hearing 2 different parts of the story and swapping between them.

That's not necessarily anything new. Plenty of stories start in the middle, then go back (In Medias Res, if you need a term). But this story weaves it all together in some really interesting ways. 2 of those stand out.

First of all, we have the word connections. To signify swaps between the 2 parts, we often get a phrase that is used in both contexts. For example, say Ian is looking at the sky and saying "It's a sight to behold". After he has said, we immediately switch to the other storyline. The enemy captain looks at his invasion and says "What a sight to behold". Same words, different context. This story really likes to play with that.

The other notable thing about the weaving, is how this story withholds information. For example, we hear at the start how the party is held captive. Barbara and Vicki are in a corner, and Ian is across from them. The story lets us know that much. What we don't know at this point, is that Ian is disguised as one of the rocket men. We make the assumption he's also a hostage, then get surprised when he had an ace up his sleeve all along. It binds the pieces together nicely and is a creative use of storytelling. It keeps you on your toes.

This interwoven narrative mostly works, but duds a little at the end. At a certain point, we swap from a "past-storyline and a present-storyline" to a "present-storyline and a future-storyline". Basically, the story starts acting like it already told us the resolution and is reaching its ending. Talking about how difficult it all was, and how we're glad it's over. Meanwhile we haven't seen that resolution yet and it's still going on for us. That's a bit jarring. We cut out of the final battle quite a few times, and I think it would've been stronger if we stayed in the fight. Especially since the story has earned that fight quite well.

As for the actual content of the tale, it's mostly a character piece. The main enemies are not that complicated, and don't get any more focus than they need. Instead, we focus on Ian. The story never explicitly states it, but this is the story where Ian realizes he's in love. We get a small, mental speech from him. A realization he has while Barbara gets pushed out of an airlock, into the open sky. It's a fantastic bit of writing:

"When do you know? When do you know....
Not the first moments, not then.
Not in the early, heady joys.
(.....)
When you see it torn from your hands.
And it's never coming back.
That's when you know.
The moment you risk losing it forever, you know.
And sometimes, you have to take a chance."

After that brilliantly performed mental speech, Ian makes his usual heroic moves. And. it. has. never. been. more. earned. He jumps after her, into the open. Saving what matters to him. It's unbelievably well executed. Ian at his absolute best.

As for the other characters, they get some minor stuff. Vicki has some childlike wonder, which is cute. The Doctor shows of his cleverness, and Barbara gets the moments of wonder about the world. Small stuff, not that important, but enjoyable. It keeps the focus on Ian though, as it should be. This is his tale.

The Rocket men is a simple story with layers and layers of character work inside. At the same time, it tries a new way of storytelling that is refreshing and keeps surprising. It's tightly written, and knows exactly what it wants to achieve. Even though it has the slightest of missteps at the end, it is an absolute powerhouse of a story. One of the most insightful tales into Ian. Making him remember why he fights at all. A must listen.

 

            The Crusade - 5

A mediocre story. We have a dramatic history setting, with several smaller conflicts. But sadly, they lack connection.

The party lands in the 1190s, where a Barbara quickly gets captured. The rest of the group goes looking for the help of king Richard to get her back.

After that the story has a lot of smaller storybeats with different characters. Ian gets knighted, Barbara has to hide a child in a plundered home. The Doctor talks to Richard about a marriage plan and Vicki pretends to be a boy. And these are just some of the events. The story just keeps stacking them on.

And I think that’s the problem. The individual small parts are all fine, but it misses a bigger picture tale. Except for Ian, the rescue of Barbara seems almost forgotten. Instead we become quite aimless. Stuff just happens, and it can be interesting stuff, but why should it keep my full attention? How does it all tie together?

What could’ve helped, is a better explanation of the time period we’re in. Why are these things happening? Who is ‘Richard the Lionheart’? What does history have to say? We even have a character tailor made for this kind of stuff! But she gets shoved aside real quick and no one fills her role. With a better established time period, it would be easier to understand character motivations and plans. It would all connect just that little bit better. We could even know the end result in advance, if that would help! The only thing we get here, is some small hints from the Doctor, but it’s so minimal it’s basically a footnote.

And that leads to a lack of foundation. A mismatch between the history knowledge of the writer and the audience. We have the smallest inclination of where we are, but the story acts like we’re supposed to know it all. Since this is still, at the most basic level, a kids show, I consider that a flaw in the storytelling.

It is, however, a story that makes me look back at its writer. This is the 3rd story by David Whittaker. And while I like his character work a lot, he seems to struggle with making a spread out main plot. I look back at his other tales, “The Edge of Destruction” and “The Rescue”, and similar problems prop up: He has a very cluttered and oddly random main story, but with some great character beats. Those beats always show he completely gets these characters.

But even those are mostly absent in this tale. It’s his longest one yet, at four episodes, but there’s really only one good, introspective character moment. It’s between the Doctor and Vicki, and she shows separation anxiety from the party, who are her only family. It’s a very nice moment for both. Great as always, but it's 2 minutes in 100 minutes of storytelling. And that's not enough.

This is a story that lacks foundation. A reason to keep you hooked to the separate moments on screen. Historical knowledge could’ve filled that void, but it is just not there. And the main appeal of this writer, character defining moments, are sadly lacking as well. So that leaves the story very fractured and unfocused. It’s not the worst or unsalvageable, but it could have been more.

            The Dark Planet - 4

A very, very dull story. The party lands on a planet where light and darkness are at war. We spend some time with both, but neither wants to change their way, so it ends in tragedy.

That’s the whole story. It took me 2 sentences to explain.

It’s three hours long.

This story has an okay premise. Nothing outstanding. 2 fighting forces with the Doctor in the middle is nothing new, even for the first Doctor. Yet it has nothing to call its own. I guess the 2 forces are a bit more alien, since they’re non-humanoid concepts, but there is nothing that truly sets them apart in the end. They fight and bicker like any other species would.

In the meantime the Doctor is there. Yelling about how they’re stupid and should try to communicate. They don’t listen. Repeat that 12 times to fill the time, and we’re done.

I think this story would be a lot stronger, if it used the medium it was in a bit more. The party is blinded quite a few times throughout, so they can’t see. We’re in audio land. That should be a match made in heaven. Describe feelings, thoughts, make it so intense that we almost feel blind with them. Stimulate the listener! Make them want to close their eyes. Then use that tension and experience to make the difference between the two species more pronounced. It would require some really good writing, but I think it can be done.

Something else they could do, is end the conflict earlier. Maybe even halfway through the story (It could do with the shortening). Create a period of reflection for the characters. What did they do wrong? What lessons do they take for this? I don’t think there’s a single party member in this tale that doesn’t make some sort of mistake. Maybe focus on that. It would add layers to a really flat tale. Make it similar to “The Edge of Destruction”, in a sense.

Or, as a last suggestion, remove the war and focus on the society. Show them as living some sort of symbiotic relationship. Maybe introduce the party as a threat, while they explore the different civilizations. That would bring the focus on expanding their societies and creature concepts. It would allow for more “Out there” sci-fi ideas. Anything would be better than the dull, unoriginal tale on display.

But, although the end product is very dull, there are shimmers of character. The whole cast is involved, even though they don’t have a specific voice actor for each, so that really helps. Vicki gets the most interesting stuff to work with. At the start, her and Ian set up an old camera and develop photo’s in a dark room. Vicki, being from the far future, finds this prehistoric. This shows one of the strengths of her character: The more we and the writers are removed from her 1964 appearance, the easier it is to writer her as a unique character. We know exactly why this method for photo’s is outdated. We can relate to Vicki in her knowledge of computers. We ourselves are now, in a sense, more like Vicki than we are like Ian. Even though at the time of the TV show, that might have been switched. Throw on Vicki’s standoffish nature, and there’s a character with a different perspective in the show. A modern character stuck in a 1960’s mentality. The potential is there!

Anyway, moving of from that Vicki tangent. She also gets the closest to understanding one of the creatures, since she befriends a creature of light. There’s some nice moments there. Nothing mindblowing, but fun. Otherwise, there’s not much more to talk about.

And that’s the problem in a nutshell. Nothing to talk about. I give suggestions based on what’s given, since there’s the slimmest of potentials there, but I don’t have anything more substantial to say other than the 2 sentences at the start.

This story is like stale bread. Structurally, it is still fine. It does the trick, nothing outrageous. But it is tasteless, dull and uninspired. Anything else would be better. I mention ideas, because I never want a story to fail, but ideas from another do not make the actual product better. Although it’s not offensive, insulting or unfair, It’s also not fun, engaging or unique. An utter snoozefest.

            The Space Museum - 9,8

This episode is an absolute blast! Great concept! Great character work!

The party experiences what can best be described as a “hiccup in time”. They’ve arrived at the end of an adventure they haven’t had yet. One where they end up as exhibitions in a space museum. They now get a chance to redo their adventure. It’s up to them to change their timeline, so that this exhibition future does not come to pass. But how do you change your timeline if you don’t know what you did before?

This type of story is hard to explain, but it is shown well on screen. The concept is clear. Prevent the future from happening. It’s kind of baffling to me that Doctor Who is already trying deep, complicated time travel shenanigans in its second TV season. This feels on par with something the 11th Doctor would go through.

Aside from the premise, this story is great fun. The setting is unique and our main cast is having all kinds of fun. The Doctor is running around like giggly child and I’m almost giggling along with him.

It also contains something we don’t see with these characters all that often. This might even be the first: There’s a full blown argument within the group (except Doctor). It’s kind of unique, and while it isn’t necessarily plot related, it makes them all feel so human. They just had a bad moment, but it’s all good. I could watch these people for days.

Other highlights of character are sprinkled through the story. The Doctor gets interrogated by a machine that can look into his mind, and it made me laugh out loud. That hasn’t happened before.
Vicki also gets some strong moments, by showing some knowledge that only someone from the future could know. She even has some hackers skills. I feel this is earned for her. She has always acted a little haughty towards the other for being “primitive”, and this shows she can back up what she says. She also gets to incite the revolution this time, and her hype for it all is really contagious. Makes me wanna protest something.

Apart from the argument, Barbara and Ian get less stuff to do, and I’m starting to see a pattern. Maybe we’re winding down on them a bit. I know we don’t have much time left. And I feel that there are still some developments (Ian still has that new sternness, like he’s a bit disillusioned with it all). But I don’t think we’re going to get much more new stuff from them. A shame, but that’s not purely on this episode.

Plotwise, the stuff on display is fine. All the non-party characters feel a little wimpy, but I feel like that’s intentional. The characters are very much the strongest force on this planet, which is good. If other forces were totally overpowering them, it would be hard to change their own future. The Moroks are speed bumps in this challenge, but they serve their purpose. The only problem I see is that the bumps can feel a little long.

Other than that, I really can’t find many flaws with this story. It’s a story that pits our characters against time itself, and does so quite well. Character moments are there in spades and it all just works great. Even the next time teaser is cool! Maybe it could be a bit shorter, but honestly, I wasn’t ready to leave yet anyway.

            Daybreak - 4

A great premise with mediocre writing. We have Vicki confronting a societal leader 1 to 1. Like she will do in later stories.

Except this time, the story clearly tries to have a message. But it’s not sure what.

This story focuses on the history lessons Vicki has had in her future education. This evil society will, according to history, be overthrown and all will be set right. Except, now that she’s being interrogated by the evil society, history’s changed, and she wonders what side she should root for.

It sounds intriguing at a glance. And plays with the ideas other stories, like the Aztecs, have had. But it doesn’t really know what it wants to add to those ideas. What concepts could be expanded with this new perspective.

It just feels disconnected. The story tries to mingle the responsibilities of a time traveller with the responsibilities of a societal leader. But it has no real viewpoint on the matter and both subjects fizzle out. After that the conclusion happens. And Vicki comes across as disillusioned with it all. Shocked by her own choices. But to the listener, that feels entirely unearned, as she has barely done or considered anything.

And it could have been more. There’s ways to make it all work better. Make the connection between the responsibilities in different ways.

For example, make the examiner, who interrogates Vicki, have similar experiences to her. Vicki started a revolution. Vicki lost her parents in a massive attack. Vicki has a certain loneliness and a fear of losing it all, yet is also clever beyond our comprehension! Play with that! Make this man a mirror for Vicki, so that both sides can reflect on their deeds and draw new conclusions.

Another approach is to really make this Vicki’s “Aztecs”. Ian has had one in audio form, but Vicki hasn’t really had the lesson yet. So play with that. Vicki is stubborn and childish, yet she’s also smart. Push that to the front and make her learn a lesson.

And this might be pushing it, but this could even be a realization moment for the Doctor. History is always going to be changed, just by you being there, is an angle the show hasn’t tackled yet. There’s always going to be an influence from you. It’s the butterfly effect. That might’ve been a good way to push this story into new directions (or maybe ones the future will tackle. I don’t know that yet).

Once again, if I do these kinds of recommendations for a story, I’m not judging it on what I want it to be. I just look back at the promise it shows, and reflect on what I’d do differently. I’ll always rate a story on its own grounds, not my own imaginary ones.

So that’s what I’ll also do here. While I love the idea of just having to character talking in a room for an hour, and have seen it succeed before (The Unwinding World is coming up), this story fails because it lacks contrast between its main themes and is very vague about what it actually wants the characters and audience to feel. It needs way, way better writing for this plot to succeed. Because as it is now, the dialogue is like a old, broken car. It tries to go in a certain direction, but it isn’t sure why it even bothers.

….Okay I’ve had better metaphors, but I’m sticking to this one.

          The Doctor's Tale - 4

In 1 word: Generic. In more words:

This story feels like the epitome of all problems that the historical stories can to have. If you were to play “bad trope in a pure historical” bingo, this story would win.

This story takes place in 1400. During the overthrowing of king Richard. The party arrives when tensions are high, but the news is yet to break.

As said, this story hits a lot of tropes along the way. Clearest of all is the bad characterization of characters. They have very little personality traits or drives. I talked about this in my review of “The Phoenicians” as well. If you want a historical drama, you need to have good, understandable characters. Otherwise the drama won’t land. We need to relate to them through personality, since the difference in time period makes them somewhat unrelatable. This story gives them some small personality traits, but never goes deeper, even though it clearly has the time to do so.

Another pitfall it hits, is the assumption that every listener know exactly what this period in history looks like. I assume the writers do research before writing, but we were not there for that process, so it wouldn’t be wrong to take us by the hand a little. Granted, I’m not English. So my knowledge is of these events is comparatively low.

In the TV show, I don’t think the knowledge gap in writer-watcher knowledge is reasonable, since the show’s primary target audience is children. For audio’s, I suppose that’s less true, since these are general for older audiences. I get that it can be hard to go into deep discussions of the society if you have to establish it from the ground up.

Still, there would be a difference between giving some knowledge and no knowledge, and I feel this story gives you almost nothing. And that can feel alienating. And since this story has no real deep discussions, I don’t see why we couldn’t have a bit more background. Tell us what makes this setting special. Why is this a historical turning point? That would make the story stand on its own a little more.

The last noticeable pitfall, is the distraction with side activities. The main focus of the stories often gets shoved aside for little side adventures, that aren’t all that relevant. I’m all for having some fun in the time period, but not at the expense of coherency. We really don’t need a scene where Ian goes hawking, for example. It’s neat, and sort of fun, but it is distracting us from the main plot. And if stuff like that happens a few times, the main story gets very muddled.

Character wise the story does not have much either. Vicki gets some time with someone the same age, which is fine, but not too special. The others don’t get anything noteworthy.
And that’s a bit of a shame, since Barbara’s love for this period and the Canterbury Tales is mentioned a few times. Even compared to Ian’s obsession with Sir Francis Drake from last season. But very little is done with that, most of it happens off screen. The lack of a voice for Barbara doesn’t help there.

And that’s “The Doctor’s Tale” really. Structurally, it’s okay. It does the trick. But it hits every roadblock a dramatic historical can hit in this show. It also has very little that makes up for it, if anything at all. So this one is a dud. “The Dark Planet” might the most basic a sci-fi story can get, but “The Doctor’s Tale” is the most basic a historical story can get. You could listen to white noise for 2 hours, and you have a very similar experience.

          The Unwinding World - 8,5

A small note before we start. This review contains a lot of explanation and retelling of the plot from the story.
I did this, because it would otherwise be impossible for me to tell what I liked about it and how it suprised me, which it does in a unique way. That being said, I think it is better blind, which puts me in a weird spot. So if you're even vaguely interested in this, have a listen. Maybe come back afterwards and see if you agree if you feel like it.

Moving right along...

This story is way, way smarter than it lets on. It takes huge risks in its structure, but those pay off and then some.

It’s primarily told in the form of a dialogue between Vicki and an investigative AI. There are some other side moments where we listen to the other characters, but those aren’t even voiced in any way. They’re basically sound effects with some descriptive dialogue over it. This feels odd at times, but also puts way more pressure on the conversation we actually get, which works in the long run.

This story takes place in a very structured human society. Everyone does their part and lives their lives. The Tardis lands in a square, and is quickly removed by local authorities. Apparently it resembles a symbol that leads to revolt and revolution across the universe (foreshadowing?). This leaves our party stranded on the world, where they’ll have to live amongst its society. But something feels…. Odd…. So they’re investigating while living amongst them.

This is the lead-in for the main dialogue in the story. Turns out the party has discovered that this society is built to be a “path of least resistance” for the human race. It’s using mindwipe tech and slowly phasing out harmful technology to remove all flaws in humanity, so they’re a more open, welcoming race.

The dialogue describes how the party has noticed the decay of certain, very specific societal parts. Like certain technology and behaviors. This doesn’t really reflect what we know of their earlier experiences in the city, so this felt like a cop-out for me. A unfounded reason to suddenly start conflict, without building it up.

I was wrong. It turns out this isn’t just Vicki telling the AI what has happened. Or the story forgetting some steps. This is Vicki manipulating the AI. It’s being hacked and altered without realizing it. She’s giving some illogical information that fills in blanks. The dialogue was intentionally unfitting. She’s slowly drawing out information while keeping her cover going.

Frankly, that twist was amazing. I didn’t see it coming at all. Suddenly it all clicks, just because we now understand what was truly going on. It’s all creeping up in the background, until the bubble bursts. Which is incredible. A twist hasn’t landed for me that hard in ages.

It's very difficult for me to describe how it works and how it makes you feel when it happens. Its pretty complicated stuff that suddenly challenges the listener real hard, but it has a great payoff. It’s all on purpose. Every single line suddenly feels masterfully crafted. A real “holy shit” moment. It almost makes you feel like the AI.

Sadly, the story also has some flaws, although they’re comparatively minor. As you may’ve noticed, this is all done by Vicki, and although I like her from what I’ve seen, I do not think she’s this capable. Even after stories that have shown her hacking skills.

The story also ends with a speech from Vicki, and it is meant to be a little clumsy. Perhaps it succeeded a bit too hard, because it did not really feel that meaningful. The message is nice: Learn to live with your mistakes instead of forgetting, but it doesn’t really come through cleanly.

And, although useful for reinforcing the main dialogue, the segments focusing on the unvoiced characters are a bit too jarring. There’s some neat stuff, like Ian and Barbara not being able to handle computer interfaces because they’re from the 60s, but they don’t really add all that much in the long run, and could perhaps be done in a better way.

Those issues, while noticeable, fall away though. The storytelling is the main drive here, and that succeeds on almost all fronts. This story is smart, thought out and surprising. It deserves to be listened to.

             The Chase - 8,5

A massive story that combines the most successful elements of the show into one big saga. If Doctor Who had stopped after 2 seasons, this would’ve been the finale.

The Daleks are back! Again! But this time, they have mastered time travel and are chasing after the party. The party might be a little ahead, but their lead is slipping….

First of all, I mentioned in my review of “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” that I wish there were more personal stakes between the Doctor and the Daleks. This story decides to go that route. The Daleks have a clear goal: Revenge. Revenge on the Doctor for stopping 3 of their previous plans (How that works timeline-wise, I leave up to you).

Before the titular chase, we have an adventure like any other. The party has some great moments in the tardis with each other. And I just love these party relations. Vicki has fully earned her spot by now too. Everyone reacts to each other in fun way, but there can still be some tension. It’s like a family in a sense.

After some random squabbling in the tardis, we land on a sand planet. It’s fun! Not outstanding, but the party is having a blast, so we join them! Some standard Doctor Who fare happens. 2 party members get lost and hurt and all that stuff. The usual. But this changes once the Daleks come into view. The party has to leave! And quick!

It's a great subversion. All is well in the world. Another adventure with Doctor Who, but then that message is heard, and a Dalek rises from the sand. Very exciting stuff. Especially that dalek appearing in the desert. It’s a great visual.

The next episodes spends some time with the locals. Nothing too noteworthy. Their concept is interesting, but no time for all that! We bring the party back together in the tardis, and we RUN! We flee through time and space from the most famous enemy. Peak Doctor Who. We go to New York, the Mary Celeste, a horror house and a fungus planet. And it’s a blast! All of Doctor Who is happening in quick succession and this is the most alive the TV show has ever felt. Showing us all the show has done, while at the same time showing us it has loads more potential.

And it is just some great visual variety. We meet an Alabama guy on a roof, We throw a Dalek off a boat, Dracula is there and a monster dunks a dalek on the ground. It’s dynamic, surprising and just plain fun.

The Daleks even decide to make a robot clone of the Doctor, which leads to some fun shenanigans. The way they discover who the real Doctor is, is really fun too. The robot suddenly calls Vicki “Susan”, and everybody knows what’s up. And it makes sense! How would the Daleks know she left? Great callback that makes sense in context.

Sadly we are running out of steam a bit though. Even with the fun Doctor duplicate, the last location is a bit of a dud. It’s a fungus planet and we spend a lot of time in a cave. Not the most exciting. The show has just hyped us all the way to Mars, so having to slow down is a bit sad and could be a bit smoother. Suddenly going back to being captured and locked up feels like a downgrade.

It's not all bad though! We meet Steven! A guy who has been left alone in a cage for 2 years. They present him really well. Barbara says his name and he almost begs to hear it again. Lovely stuff. Makes him immediately endearing.

Sadly, the appearance of Steven also marks the end of an era for the show. Ian and Barbara will be leaving. They’ve been with us for over 50 adventures, and it will be a shame to see them go. While I will miss them, I do think they could’ve been handled a little better this story. Nothing hints at this being their final story, and the goodbyes feel a bit too short. We get a slideshow of them being back, but I’d rather have a more clear throughline in the story. Some hints along the way. Oh well, it was nice for what it was and we do get some emotional moments with the Doctor. Those do feel earned.

And that’s “The Chase”. It’s breakfast, lunch and dinner in one. Everything happens. It’s up to you to keep up. And it’s a joy. While I have my qualms with it, like the last location and the final moments of Ian and Barbara, I still had an amazing time. It's not perfect, but it's one of the most Doctor Who episodes ever. That’s worth seeing.

          The Sleeping City - 7

Pretty good. This story takes the form of a police interview, but transitions into a separate tale throughout. A story in a story. Told by Ian after his return to earth.

Ian is interviewed about his return. To convince the cop that he really travelled through time and space, he tells the story of the planet Hisk, where the people have pretty harmonious lives. The party is exploring the local market there.

After this short exploration, some kind of break takes place throughout the city. Everyone gathers in big halls, where they all join digital dream sessions. Think of it like limitless VR chat, if that helps. These sessions help the people understand each other and make the more aware of the society they live in.

Vicki is immediately on board with this, since she knows the technology from her own time. Ian and Barbara join later on. But something quickly goes wrong, as a harbinger appears in someone’s dream, which means that person will soon die.

The party is quickly on the case, and to make a long story short. It turns out the system is the problem. Society unconsciously decides who is allowed to live, and makes sure that the people unknowingly destroy anyone who doesn’t fit.

To solve this problem, Ian and Barbara set up a private session, and slowly other people join in. They see Ian and Barbara’s dreams and will slowly turn into good people again.

So, far that’s pretty okay stuff. The setup for the society is pretty good and I like the way it is all presented. It’s a friendly location, and that’s surprisingly rare. The fact that we’re listening to a story that basically talks about VR chat about 3 years before it actually came out, is pretty neat. It all works, but it isn’t necessarily massively appealing yet.

Then the conflict and resolution happen and it all feels a little run off the mill. Society is the problem. Unconscious criminal activity. Nothing we haven’t seen before. The resolution especially is pretty weak. Ian and Barbara thinking of home saves the day, and that’s not really well established or explained beforehand. It just happens.

After that the story decides to throw in one quick twist: The police interrogation is actually part of the dream scenario they’re building. And that’s a shame. Because really getting to know what their own period thought of their disappearance would be a lot more interesting. Oh well, it’s harmless I suppose.

And then it ends. And I don’t really have more to say. It has some neat concepts in the dream sharing. And it has great setup at the start, but it uses all that to tell a pretty standard story. Could’ve been more, but it works I suppose. I wouldn’t recommend it, but I would also not be offended by anyone who likes it.

          The Time Museum - 6

A great lookback on Ian as a character. It’s very fun, but it has a major flaw: This story chooses to be confusing.

We meet up with an old Ian in recent times. Long after his time travel days. He’s woken up by the curator of a time museum, who takes him to see his own past.

The time museum itself is built out of memories from time travellers, and Ian is one of the exhibits. But memory-eating monsters are attacking the museum, so Ian and the curator have to run through Ian’s memories and find a solution.

And this is a great premise, but it is squandered by a few flaws. They’re not necessarily fatal flaws, but they drag it down hard.

The first flaw is that Ian’s memories are completely jumbled. He does not remember much of his adventures or the locations within the museum. This takes away any real reflection and introspection for the character. There’s no real way to look back on it all. This turns it into mostly name-dropping. And that can be fun. Ian suddenly yelling out “The Doctor is getting married’ gives me a grin, but it is so fleeting and doesn’t leave you with anything afterwards.

The second flaw is that the actual threat of the plot is clear incredibly quick. Yes, there are memory-eating monsters after Ian and the curator, but at the same time the curator keeps going on about how delectable Ian’s memories are. Hmmmm. I wonder if there’s more going on there. And there is, but it is unclear how Ian actually found all that out. He’s constantly muddling up memories, and suddenly he has all the answers out of nowhere. It’s a bit jarring.

A third flaw is comparatively small, but the sound design of this story is pretty bad. I don’t notice sound design all that often. But it feels really unbalanced and blown out here. And that distracts from the actual events that are happening. Not a dealbreaker, but noticable in a bad way.

The last flaw in the story is the circumstances of it all. While told in a jumbled order, it never becomes completely clear why Ian is in the time museum. The curator, while being an unreliable source, tells us that Ian gave permission to become an exhibit. That’s kind of hard to believe, considering he’s non-stop talking about how he wants to go home. Yet it is also clear that Ian is indeed a part of the time museum. He has his own annex as the first human time traveller. There is a section for him. So, what’s going on there? Did Ian actually decide to become a part of the museum? The signs point to it being the case, but why would he? And if not, how did they get an entire annex with his memories. It's a bit confusing and hard to keep track of.

And that’s what drags down “The Time Museum”. It is interesting, and as someone who has now experienced all Ian stories he could find, quite a fun lookback. But it is hindered by incoherency, inconsistency and, at the same time, a very obvious twist. It makes the story not really excel in anything other than namedropping. It could have been truly special and a great farewell for the character, but it is just okay. And that hurts a little.

Also my homegirl Vicki isn't mentioned at all. Ian my dude, get your memories straight.

          The Time Meddler - 4

The TV finale of season two. Sadly, it feels just as generic and ambivalent as the last one.

The Doctor and Vicki land in 1066. They discover Steven managed to climb aboard the Tardis in the last episode. After a few fun character shenanigans, they decide to check out their location.

While they are exploring, we focus on a suspicious looking monk, who is clearly scheming, so what’s going on?

This premise is fine. A mysterious character can be fun. The problem here is that very little plot actually happens. We walk, we talk, then we walk and talk some more. The actual reveal of the Monk is saved until the final 20 minutes in an 100 minute story. After that we have to rush to some conclusions and we’re done.

The Monk is a member of the Doctor’s people. But unlike the Doctor, who believes you can’t rewrite history, the Monk goes all out. Frankly just having a great old time. But we don’t really get a lot of insight in what his meddling actually is, or what it does.

The Doctor is quite uppity with him about it. This is about as stern as he gets in this entire season. And it feels contrary. Of course, the Doctor will eventually make the leap to meddling himself, but we’re not there yet. It makes sense for him to defend time here.

But it could be a great moment of introspection. Has the Doctor actually never meddled with time? What about all those dress up games and long travels with Marco Polo? It also seems that every time we move past 1965, it doesn’t matter all that much. But even in this story, he told the English the Vikings were coming. Is that meddling?

And that’s why this story feel like the first half to something bigger. Where does the Doctor, in this period of his life, draw a line? I know that can feel like a question that is not reasonable for the show to have right now. It’s not a hero show yet.

But I think it is a valid question to ask. And the Monk could be a good contrast. Show us what makes him wrong and the Doctor right. The Monk comes across as a quite reasonable fellow, so it could be a really fun battle of wits. Right now, we just have to take the Doctor’s word that he is a baddy, and that’s weak sauce.

Show us consequences! Show us the contrast in literally any way. Now there is nothing. If an audience can handle the clear meddling in “The Chase”, then they can handle an explanation on what should and shouldn’t be done. They shouldn’t take anyone’s word for who’s bad, let alone the Doctor’s.

Character wise, this story is not very notable either. As mentioned, Dennis Spooner sets himself apart as a writer of separate moments, instead of stories, but those are lacking here as well. The best part is Vicki and the Doctor in the Tardis, talking about the loss of Ian and Barbara. My heart melts every time this Doctor shows vulnerability and heart. But it’s the only real moment in these 4 episodes.

And that’s kind of weird. Considering we have a new crewmate! Steven Taylor establishes himself as a bit of a himbo this story, and that’s about it. He’s kind of stupid, but good hearted. It’s a bit flat, but we have time. We know this character can show vulnerability. He did so last episode. He also was alone for 2 years, so there’s room for good stuff there. It’s just not here yet.

But yeah, that leaves “The Time Meddler” with no big plot, no small moments and barely any character work. It’s a shame. It could have been better if they just talked about the implications they’re dropping here, but they decide to fluff it up until we have no time left for good stuff. It’s a shame.

And that’s a wrap on the TV season as well. Alternative Seasons still has some audio’s to go, though. Last time, when we ended the TV season on “The Reign of Terror” (another Spooner script, take that as you will), and I mentioned how it was the first real dud in the TV season. This time, we aren’t as lucky, as there have been more duds, but it still has plenty of winners! It’s mostly the stories in the middle that don’t quite do it for me. Oh well, the passion and drive is still clear on screen and I’m still looking forward to the next one! But first, some more audio's!

          The Bounty of Ceres - 5

Middle of the road. This story has some really good moments, and some less impressive parts. But it is never truly bad.

The party lands on the planet Ceres, which has nothing on it instead for loads of dust. While they are wandering about, we meet the three people in charge of mining operations on the planet. We have the jokey one, the paranoid one and the leader (not that good with names, sorry). But which one is actually of sound mind?

This story spends a lot of time on the one-off cast, and that’s great. You care for these people and it almost feels like a pure historical. I was convinced for a little while that there wasn’t going to be an actual threat.

These people have been stuck together for about 6 years in pure isolation. When they meet the party, though, they are out of their depth. They lock them up and some long interrogations follow. It is still really fun though. The banter between the 2 groups is great.  However, it becomes clear that something is brewing in the background. The paranoid one is convinced that the planet is alive and out to get them. And the Doctor has reason to believe he might be right. The party investigates.

And this is where the fun part ends, sadly. The mining robots on the planet are possessed and start killing, which immediately turns this story in a rather basic base-under-siege tale. There’s also suddenly a lot of fast technobabble, which makes it hard to keep up with what’s happening. I had to rewind a few times to re-listen, but it was still kind of hard to grasp when the party splits up and swaps guns and all that stuff. Noticeably distracting.

The leader of the group also gets killed in action, and while we have quite a bit of backstory on her, the story never really takes time to look back on her. It’s just boom. Gone. Run run run. A bit sad considering how well she was written.

After that, we reach the conclusion. Turns out jokey man secretly loathed paranoid man, and decided to mess with him and make him paranoid by reprogramming the ship. He hoped he would eventually kill himself. The story presents this a bit too natural for my liking. Maybe they could have focused a bit more on the consequences of isolation, to hammer this point home. Isolation can drive you mad. We even have a character that could add something here, since Steven is with us. Right now it feels out of left field.

And that’s the main plot out of the way. There’s still one glimmer left at the end though. Something that might be a sign of what is to come.

After everything is said and done, and the paranoid guy can be renamed to “guy”, the party leaves. But the Doctor does something interesting. He hands the guy a little stack of documents. And says that he should read them to be prepared for the future.

That interfering! Conscious, time-related interfering. Of course, we’re still in the future and the lines are already blurred, but this is telling someone about what the future holds. This Doctor has never concretely done that. And that’s real cool to see.

Steven and Vicki get some moments too. This is their first “sci-fi” adventure together, so they relate stuff to their own time and knowledge. It’s an interesting new take, and since they compare with each other, there’s plenty of room to sneakily catch us up as well. It’s neat! They also have some banter with each other and the Ceres crew. A good time.

And that’s “The Bounty of Ceres”. It has some really good character work, and really makes you care about everyone involved, but its threat and resolution are really weak, confusing and unsatisfying. If this story was just the first half, and we just focused on the discussion between the two groups, it could have been a 10. Instead it stuffs in a generic threat that feels like it is written by a different writer altogether. This leaves the final product smackdab in the middle of the scoring list. Oh well.

          The Suffering - 9

Quite a varied story that has a lot of tones, but knows how to nail them all.

First things first, this is the first audio I’ve listened to with Peter Purves. I’m glad to say that he’s just as good at storytelling as Maureen O’Brien, which is a great sign for the audio’s that are coming up.

The banter of our two main characters also feels very natural and different now. We now have to future-people in the lead. That changes the way we look at history. A lot of comparatively recent history for us, is centuries away for them.

And this story hooks right on that fact. We land in the middle of the suffering, where women are pleading for the right to vote. Vicki and Steven are unaware of women ever having fewer right than men, and are baffled by the primitivity of it all.

Shortly after landing, the party finds a skull in the sand, but it seems to react quite strangely to Vicki and other women. Bringing out a strong, innate hatred for men.

It turns out the skull can create a psychic link for a creature that suffered in a society where men ruled, and she wants revenge. She does this by creating a web experiences among women (and Steven) and driving up the hate.

It’s a decent concept, although psychic links and webs are getting a bit routine now (The unwinding world, The fifth traveller and the web planet come to mind). But the way it is used here allows for some great insight in the history of both our main characters. Looking back on their own suffering as they remember their separate crashes and loneliness. They actually have a lot in common there, so that helps too.

The overall handling of the topic is done well too. This is a 60’s doctor, so feminist movements were not as widespread as they would later be. But the story never decides to take the ambivalent route. The doctor is completely in favor of equal rights, and that’s a good call. He takes people at face value, regardless of gender.

Of course our other leads do so too. They’re far more advanced than we, the listeners, are. And yet the story still makes it very clear why this subject matters. It’s a very serious topic that is handled astoundingly well. I dare to say it’s one of the most nuanced portrayals of a topic yet. Making clear what matters, while giving its own take without sounding preaching or disingenuous.

Frankly it has a lot more depth than I can explain. I am a white guy in my twenties. I have inherent privilege, and am probably not the person people want takes about feminism from. Just know that I am completely on board with equal rights. Hate is always foolish, and love is always wise, after all.

But the topic does have a lot of nuance here. It asks several important questions. Why equal rights instead of women above men? What should the role of violence be? What’s the difference between equal rights and complete equality? Tons of important questions are asked and answered. It genuinely makes me feel more aware of the topic.

And that’s what makes this story special. It has so many things it wants to do, and manages them all while giving them the layers they deserve. It hits emotional notes, is informative about the time period and gives its own perspective. It’s one of the deepest stories so far, but still has some fun sci-fi elements. The only downside, is that it is dragged down a little by the threat. Its powers of psychic links are generic, and the twist the story has about her origin falls a bit flat. This is relatively minor, though. It is still absolutely worth a listen for all it adds to the characters and the history of the event. It’s wonderful.

          Etheria - 4

An unremarkable story. The Doctor and Vicki, after escaping a pirate attack, wander in a jungle with dangerous dream mist.

And that’s about it really. We wander for 25 minutes. Then the realization is comes that the jungle isn’t real and it is all a dream. We wake up and problem solved, basically.

It’s just not very unique. It tells us very little about the dream mist, yet we have to understand all these twists about it. The connection to the dream and Steven is still not quite clear to me, and I don’t think that’s a fault on my side.

Maybe it would have helped if the guide-character in the dream had a bit more of Steven’s personality and quirks. Maybe he has a giant pet panda. Maybe a fear of being alone, maybe the enemies could be Steven-related. Something that hints more to it being Steven’s dream. That wouldn’t entirely fix the twist, but make it a bit more fulfilling.

For now, It’s just a bit of wandering with an unearned twist. Nothing too special. Let’s move along to the next one.

         The Ravelli Conspiracy - 6,5

A pretty good story that has a lot of fun, memorable characters, but it also has wayyyy too many events.

The party lands in Florence and are immediately split up. While the Doctor meets with Machiavelli, Vicki spends some time with the pope. Oh, Steven is also there. He’s behind bars. 3 different times. Get used to that.

The story is mostly about the pope’s brother, who has been given some power. Sadly, he’s quite bloodthirsty and the pope often has to step in. Meanwhile Machiavelli is plotting all over the place to get a position of power for himself.

And that’s what the story consists of mostly. Some smaller plots moving back and forth while the party meets with these characters and gets to know them.

That mostly works, since the characters are well written and interactions between them and the party are always a joy, but the overall story is not notable at all.

What is fun though, are the main cast moments. Like Vicki convincing the pope she’s a poet by reading the song “Daisy, Daisy” out loud. This is also a good moment to mention Peter Purves’s first Doctor. He’s way more jolly and energetic than William Russell’s. Which is fitting for this era of the show, so that’s quite a treat. Steven as a character gets absolutely nothing here, though.

While it really is a collections of moments, the biggest event it has, is a potential poison in the wine. This causes confusion and controversy among everyone. Who did the poison? Does the poison even exist? It’s quite a web. And while fitting of Machiavelli, gets the story a bit too deep in its own conspiracy.

And that’s all frankly. Loads of moments with a fun cast of characters, but the moments themselves are not that strong. Worth a listen? Probably. The cast carry it well and are enjoyable. If you have any interest in the time period, this would be pretty cool I imagine. But it is no hidden masterpiece. It’s a collection of webs and threads that aren’t all that solidly constructed, but well-presented and reacted to.

The Dalek Occupation of Winter - 5

In general, when I review a story, I try to avoid looking up how well a story is liked. I want to judge it on its own terms, without outside influence.

For this story, I saw the score when I was about halfway through, by accident. But it is kind of shocking. This isn’t just a high rating story, it is in the top 3 for this doctor.

And I try to see why, but I really don’t. This is a very standard Dalek tale, which has some notable moments at its end, but really isn’t a standout for me in any major way.

The party lands on the planet Winter. It’s a planet with a large focus on work. Turns out that work isn’t exactly pleasant though, since they are building Dalek casings.

And the original concept behind this is solid. Winter is a barren, cold wasteland. The Daleks provide food and other necessities, while the people build the cases. Of course, that still strengthens the Dalek army. So it’s not really something we want.

But the way this story goes about changing this, is as standard as it can be. It really doesn’t alter or play with the formula seen in most First Doctor stories. We arrive, meet the locals and the threat, cause a revolution and leave again. We go through the pattern just like any other time.
To expand on that pattern a little: We meet the society and learn it is mostly ruled by a military woman and a president. They are aware of the Dalek’s true nature, but also see the benefits, so they roll with it. Power over justice, in a sense. After this meeting, we see all the benefits the Daleks get from this society. Then we overthrow them, with help from the president.

Then the only really unique moment happens. After all is said and done, the president points a gun at the party and forces them to leave. While corrupt, he’s still in charge. The party accepts this and leaves. After they’ve gone, it turns out one more dalek is alive and has formed a pact with the military woman. They shoot the president dead and start a new reign.

And okay, yes, that’s truly unique. The party has lost. But it feels unearned for multiple reasons. First of all, this is in the last 5 minutes, making it some sort of cliffhanger and not really giving us a chance to show the impact. Second, it has some major, major character flaws. How often has the Doctor had a gun pointed at him? How many times has that stopped him?

Exactly. Why would he leave, just because there’s a guy with a gun? It undermines all his efforts in the story up to that point without any good reason. It’s running away with your tail between your legs. And I’m not against that entirely. Getting overwhelmed can be interesting. But it has to be earned. One old presidential guy with a gun does not earn that at all. It leaves the party in a depressed state, but just think about what has happened to the planet because of this writing snafu. The party flees before they were done, which leaves room for the Dalek and military lady to take over. The people on this planet are now absolutely fucked. And this is not something the story earns by being clever or breaking the mold.

While it is unique for a story to not end on a hopeful note, this story decides to do it in the most cowardly and out of character way possible. The rest of the story is as standard as it gets, with no new ideas or expansion on old ideas. Everything this story does before the ending, can be found in better stories. It’s far from insulting though. It’s just very standard, but with poor ending. I wish I was on the hyped side. The side that loves this story and thinks its perfect. But I just see a rehash of old ideas and a bad twist.

Oh, and as a final tangent: the Doctor hypnotizes someone with his ring, which also feels cheap. The Doctor wins because he’s clever, not because of something like that. Otherwise, why would he not just hypnotize his opponents every time?

         An Ideal World - 5

Very much a tale of two halves, but not all halves are created equal. This story seems to have boundary issues.

The party lands on a calm planet full of forests and small wildlife. Although it might look like it at a glance, the Doctor deduces this is not earth. After this discovery, things quickly go south when the oxygen levels start to drop.

This creates a different kind of tension. Steven is quickly scooped up by human explorers (locked up again. He should get a stamp card.), but Vicki and the Doctor have to find oxygen before it is too late.

It feels very survivor-esque, and is kind of new ground because of it. The threat is the world in it’s natural state. Which is fun. I doubt the scientific side of it a little though. Aren’t there trees on the planet? Don’t those produce oxygen? Why is it suddenly less? Is it just a matter of amount or size? I wouldn’t notice this usually, but this story takes the time to talk about chlorophyl, so it kind of comes up naturally. Feels a bit odd.

After finding an air bubble within a cave. The Doctor starts acting odd. Sending Vicki out to find Steven on her own. It later turns out he’s infected with some kind of  illness and it feels pretty crushing in the way it progresses. He first tries to deny it and divert attention from it. Then he has to let Vicki explore alone, then he tries to write instructions for the Tardis, so Vicki and Steven can escape on their own. But sadly, at this point, he’s so worn down that the notes are completely illegible. It feels like a combination of sweetness and patheticness, and I mean that in the best way. It feels very definitive, even though it obviously isn’t. Troughton isn’t up just yet.

We deal with the disease once Steven’s captors reunite the party. This is also where we enter the second part of the story, when a more active threat is introduced in the form of a zombified spacesuit corpse. Think Vashta Narada from “Silence in the Library”, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what they’re like. As per usual for this season, they’re a hivemind. Themes I guess.

While the Doctor is recovering, We learn little bits about the threatening force. They’re apparently connected to all life on the planet below, and come from an earth spaceship that never launched. I’ll be honest. Their characterization and description is incredibly vague, and it hinders the final setting the story goes for. This threat is pretty poorly laid out. I wouldn’t be able to tell you what its intentions are, how it exactly got here, or how it functions. The story hints at some stuff, but seems to have no clue itself.

And that blocks the moral conundrum that comes up. The captain of the human crew feels threatened and wants to destroy them. Meanwhile the party and other crewmembers are against this. This leads to what can very, very loosely be interpreted as a moral discussion. But since the boundaries of the monster are so undefined, it quickly becomes another moral speech from the Doctor. Disappointing.

One of the crewmembers decides to take matters in her own hands, kill the captain and send everyone away so the planet is safe. The Doctor is against killing, so condemns her and no longer wants to help. Although Steven and Vicki complain, they leave in the tardis and that’s all she wrote.

While the first storyline is very well written and adds something new. The second part, where the story tries to be moral, falls utterly flat. It does not set up its problem, then covers that up by making the problem onesided. It tries to come across as clever, but it is morally flat. There is no sides. You’re either good or bad.

What could’ve fixed this, would be the removal of the zombie monsters. They don’t add anything. Instead, make it about the weight of a life. Maybe something like this:

Imagine the crewship we’re on is out of fuel. They’re stuck in place. Luckily, all party member will be able to warp away, but there aren’t enough resources to teleport everyone. One person will have to stay behind.

Now the crew is stranded at this nature planet, and it turns out its core of it is made of the warping resource needed. They can mine the core of the planet, and get that last person home, but the planet will die.

Now you have something to talk about! Is the life of one person worth the life of a planet? Even if some would consider it “uninhabited”? If the crewmember now decides to kill the captain, she has a clearer reason. Killing someone solves the problem, since now we don’t need to mine. At the same time, it can be seen as a mercy killing. But it would still give the Doctor someone to condemn. Difference is, now this person’s perspective is understandable and would make the listener think. They would side with someone. Either the leader or the crew. Either the Doctor or the companions.

I’m, of course, not saying my story is better. This is just a random thought. But it would have focus. Right now, it is like the trolley problem, but without knowing what a trolley is. And that ruins the ending.

So yeah, this story starts of fantastically. A new kind of threat, but a very natural one for space travel. Space diseases and oxygen shortage are not some big evil to overcome, and that changes the status quo. But then the second half comes along, and we get a half-assed threat that makes very little sense, and that crumbles the foundational problems the story tries to tackle. Right now, the “villains’ only really serve to fill up the box art. And if that happens, maybe it’s time to rethink your story.

        Entanglement - 6

A fine story, that could play with its setting a little more.

The party lands in 1930’s Cambridge, on university grounds. When they step out of the tardis, they find two boys fighting on the roof. After putting a stop to it, it turns out to be no ordinary scuffle….

First of all, the setting. Although be bureaucracy is shimmering through, I love a good college tale. There’s a lot of room for interesting interactions here. Think of later Doctors, who have disguised themselves as teachers before (10 and 12 come to mind). Combine that with our 2 companions from the future, and we could have an interesting look at how learning should work and knowledge should be spread.

Sadly, the actual academic nature of the location is nothing more than very faint set dressing. The Doctor does go undercover as a teacher, but it leads to nothing. I was really hyped and curious about this too. What would a lecture from the Hartnell Doctor look like?  But instead, it is a bit more setup for the main plot, by making the class act aggressive. No interesting new dynamic.

The same goes for Vicki and Steven. They barely interact with the setting at all, save for 2 students. Instead, the focus is on these sudden outbursts of anger. Those don’t feel all that threatening, though. Aside from some rudeness and a bit of rough behavior, we see very little indication of this being an actual danger. The only really strange part is that the students and teachers often seem lose their short term memory. But it never feels immediate or dire. Just…. soft. I think that’s the word. It’s a soft threat.

It gets shoved aside pretty quickly too. Turns out its all the work of 3 head teachers. Each of them part of an alien observation group, looking into human behavior. So….. they’re scholars. In an earth school. There has to be something there, but this story never decides to make a real connection between these two paths.

The alien professors are kind of fed up with humans, which leads to a lot of infighting in the last act. Which is kind of hard to follow. Imagine 3 old men yelling the opinions of others in quick succession, and you get the gist. It’s a viewpoint drop for 3 character within as few sentences as possible. The gist is that they’re angry because humans will ruin stuff. You’ve heard this before. The only logical solution is to blow them all up, so they won’t ever be a threat.

The way they want to blow everyone up deserves some attention too. The 3 professors make use of robot scholars called “Bulldogs”, that seemingly just roam the halls at random. They’re kind of an odd element, and just like last time, seem to only exist to add something to the cover. They are robots in academic garb, but somehow no one ever questions their existence and they only serve as a bomb at the end. They’re there for the aesthetic.

Anyway, the Doctor stops the blow up plan and locks the 3 professors up in a machine. Forever. This feels like a weird place to not have a moral discussion. Especially since the last 2 stories were pretty insistent on those. But no, we move on. The end.

And to me it feels like a waste of our surroundings. We have alien scholars in the most famous university worldwide. This could be a great foundation of some deeper storytelling. What about a reflection on the academic method of research?

Research, in case you’re unfamiliar, is usually done by asking a question, giving a possible answer (hypothesis) and then doing an experiment to check if your answer was right. It’s a very strict and narrow guideline that’s still upheld after generations. Otherwise, misinformation would spread (or spread faster, depending on your perspective).

These aliens do not follow this guideline and just decide to use their hypothesis on human behavior as the truth. One experiments for a little bit beforehand, but this ruins the human timeline, so he’s stopped. Why does this way of working not get any attention? How should knowledge be gained instead? That would be a way to link the location and opponent closer together, while also having a more central theme, instead of just “Students are acting improper. What’s up?”

And that makes this another flat story in the early adventures range. I am noticing that this range seem to be very flat. The connections between theme, location and opponent all seem very minimal. Which is odd, considering that they also have a tendency to end on a moral point (and failing miserably).

Another point is that these stories often don’t have great character beats. I always make sure to write down any character moments I enjoyed in a story, whether that is growth, an interaction or just something funny. But these stories give me very little to write about. There are basically no character dynamics.

We have one more early adventure to go in this ‘alternative season’, and it seems to be a story that will need a lot of character. So let’s see what we’re signing off with, but after 3 “passable” stories in a row, I am not very hopeful.

For now however, we have one of those “passable” tales. Structurally, it is sound. There’s no gaping holes or flaws. But it’s also not really exciting, challenging or new. It’s cookie cutter Doctor Who, and I wish we had a bit more to chew on.

         The Crash of the UK-201 - 5

An interesting character tale for Vicki. Think of it as a combination of “Father’s Day” and “Turn Left”, with her in the lead.

After something goes wrong in the Tardis, Vicki wakes up on the UK-201. The spaceship that she crashed on before she met the Doctor. She still has all her knowledge from after that time, so she tries to stop it.

This is an amazing premise. Vicki has grown very subtly throughout her adventures and now has a chance to use all she’s learned to save her own father. But doing so will erase all the adventures she’s had in the first place.

Steven is also here for some reason. But he gets captured. Steven capture counter this season: 8 in 11 stories. Jeez man. Get a new hobby. Besides being someone for Vicki to talk to, he has a pretty big role in saving the ship. More on that later.

After the ship is saved, we spend a lot of time on Vicki’s alternate life. She lives with her father, gets married, has two daughters. Yet she also has several big tragedies in her life. Mostly losses among the aforementioned loved ones.

It’s intriguing to see this alternate life play out. It feels real. Steven sometimes pops up at random moments in her life. He’s a sort of audience surrogate. A reminder of what could’ve been, had the ship originally crashed.

Not all is well, though. As time goes on in this alternate timeline, monsters come to feed on the paradox energy. Like the last two stories, this foe feels really unnecessary. These stories keep adding a monster to an external threat that doesn’t need one. Anyway, because of the monsters, Steven and Vicki figure out that this timeline is wrong. We zoom back and forth through Vicki’s life to see where she could’ve made alternative choices, until we end back on the ship, where Vicki knows that the crash must happen.

I think this way to get back to the original timeline is pretty weak. Vicki never makes a conscious decision to go back. It is never a choice for one timeline over the other. It’s a necessity because of arbitrary monsters. It’s a run-of-the-mill threat.

And that run-of-the mill carries over in the way the story handles its climax. Vicki has to, in essence, kill her own father and all people aboard. But this is never shown as an emotional resolution, no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. It is treated as a time puzzle. How do we make sure the right future happens?

And this shouldn’t be the focus! This is not some standard adventure! This is Vicki’s personal timeline. This is one of the biggest shifts that has ever happened in her life! Why are we treating this like your average monster-of-the-week shenanigans. Vicki not only loses her father here, but the entire potential future she could have had. Her new family. Her children. Yet that gets no attention. We just go running, gasping and problem-solving, like any other story. Come on! That can be done better!

Look back at how Vicki is presented this season. We know the basics. She’s from the future, is a bit of a wiz-kid and is pretty stubborn. Okay. Good. Now the next level. What are the relations to the characters around her?

Vicki seems to care a great deal about the people around her. She considers the tardis crew her family. She gets scared at the thought of Ian and Barbara leaving, as this would break her family apart again (The Fifth Traveller and 1963). Her and the Doctor have had a parent-child relationship from the moment they met in the Rescue. Steven has quickly gotten the role of an older brother, as mentioned throughout this range. She has lost everything, but built a new family from the ground up. And she has shown a fear of being left behind on several occasions, because it has happened before.

And we are now in that original moment. The moment Vicki got left behind for the first time. This is Vicki, in a sense, confronting her biggest fear, so she can reach her new family. This is an absolute peak for her character. And it is played straight. No emotion. Facts and running. That’s blasphemy.


That’s not even mentioning Steven, who is also here for some reason. With a bigger role than Vicki herself. He is the one that “safely” crashes the ship and corrects the timeline. Shouldn’t that be Vicki’s job? Isn’t this her story? Shouldn’t she have the big moments where it all goes the way it’s supposed to?

And so the timeline is restored and Vicki is back in the tardis. The end.

This story is just dry. It has an amazing premise and it does play with it a little. That’s fun to see. But it fails to emotionally commit to what it is presenting. It is a lot like the short trip “1963” in that sense. It brings the characters to a peak of emotional confrontation, but decides to play it stoic for absolutely no reason. While it does clever things, the absolute wrecking of the emotional climax drags it down too much for me to consider this “good”. A shame.

         Across the Darkened City - 10

Our first look at Steven alone, but this is not a character piece. This is a story of threat.

Stranded after a dalek invasion, Steven and a dalek called “Two-One-Zero” are the only survivors of a crash on the planet Shade. To reach the teleporter and escape, the two need to work together.

That’s right. This is a team up story with a dalek. And I’m kind of surprised we haven’t done this before. It feels inevitable. Teaming up with the enemy is a cliché as old as time itself. But for Doctor Who, as far as I know, this is new ground.

And the need to team up feels very natural. The planet Shade is completely dark, but the Dalek has infrared vision. It is also immobile though, so it needs Steven to move it around. It’s a great way to force these two together.

The dalek feels almost relatable and human at points. Being fearful when surrounded by the local monsters, being kind as it lets Steven turn off its lantern when they walk into a warzone. Even opening it’s case and letting it be carried by Steven near the end.

And it works wonders. Steven softens up to it, even though he knows their horrors. And so do we. Daleks are irredeemable, but we almost consider this one to not be a dalek. It’s a slow transition of perspective, but it is never forced or unnatural. We are on the exact same page as Steven. The score builds it up as well. With a lot of soft piano parts that reinforce the weakness both parties show to each other, while keeping us on edge in this scary, dark terrain.

The reactions from Steven to the dalek are by far the most interesting. Steven doesn’t have any real “character moments” in the classic sense. We don’t see new aspects of him, or learn about his backstory. But we are in his head, and maybe that’s just as effective. The whole time we hear his thoughts and opinions and it’s so well done. We take his perspective as our own. Which is needed for this story to work.

At this point, this is one of the rare moments where I give a spoiler warning, as I feel like it is best to experience this yourself. If you don’t want to know the ending, leave now.

The ending is real good as well. Feeling shocking, but not as shocking as it possibly should be. And I mean that in the best way. Of course the Dalek betrays him. Why wouldn’t it? It’s a Dalek. But dang, this whole experience still fully convinces you that maybe this one is different. This one feels human. This one might be that one special one. But it isn’t. And that’s heartbreaking. Using every tool it has to try and kill Steven. Expected, maybe. But painful too.

And that’s where the story ends. ‘Across the Darkened City’ is about forming and testing a bond with the most famous enemy this show has. And it completely works, which almost turns this into a tragedy when you look back. I have very little to complain about here. Maybe the final confrontation between Steven and Two-Zero-One could be a bit longer. Lead to a few more blows. But honestly, that’s just personal preference. It’s still perfect as is. And has a nice cliffhanger to boot.

‘Across the Darkened City’ is just one of those stories that basically can’t be improved. It takes the most predictable of enemies, but makes you believe in more. But more never comes. And that hurts, even though it shouldn’t. It’s a rare perfect 10. With no serious hangups in any way. It is flawless.

Next Season:

And that's all for season 2. While more mixed than the previous season, there are still plenty of stories that are worth your time. My overall opinion is still positive.
After a break, I will do the first bonus post, with a look at the Cushing movies and a lookback on the characters we've left behind. We will be looking at their highlights, developments and relationships.
When that's done, we will look at Season 3. See you then!

Art Sources:

1963 - PEJ72:

https://www.deviantart.com/pej72/art/2-1-777643541

 

Across The Darkened City - Si Hodges:

https://twitter.com/i/events/878161291977916416

Daybreak - CosmicWanderer42:

https://www.deviantart.com/cosmicwanderer42/art/Doctor-Who-Daybreak-Remastered-Cover-881560334

 

Etheria - PEJ72:

https://www.deviantart.com/pej72/art/5-09-777661912

 

The Revenants - Gileskent:

[Account no longer available]

 

The Romans - Tyrannus1: 

https://www.deviantart.com/tyrannus1/art/31-DOCTOR-WHO-The-Romans-456278035

 

The Time Meddler - SoundsmythProduction:

https://www.deviantart.com/soundsmythproduction/art/Doctor-Who-The-Time-Meddler-738304639

The Unwinding World - Hisi79:

https://www.deviantart.com/hisi79/art/The-Unwinding-World-540057719