Doctor Who: Alternative Seasons - Season 3: State of Decay
This
is the third 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.
They've all gone.... None of them could understand....
Season 3: State of Decay
Hi there! Welcome back to another collection of Doctor Who reviews, as well as the next step in the timeline. This season is characterized by its darker tone and moral quandries, but more about that soon. First, let's look at the 42 stories we have this time:
· Galaxy 4 (DW serial 3.01; Missing: Animated Version)
· Upstairs (Companion Chronicles 8.3)
· Fields of Terror (Companion Chronicles 11.1)
· The Destroyers (The Lost Stories 2.02b)
· Mission to the Unknown (DW serials 3.02; Missing: Refilmed)
· The Myth Makers (DW serials 3.03; Missing: Loose Cannon)
· Frostfire (Companion Chronicles 1.1)
· The Daleks' Master Plan: The Nightmare Begins - The Feast of Steven (DW serials 3.04a; Missing: Doctor Who Reconstructions)
· The Little Drummer Boy (Short Trips 2.13)
· Home Truths (Companion Chronicles 3.5)
· The Drowned World (Companion Chronicles 4.1)
· The Guardian of the Solar System (Companion Chronicles 5.1)
· The Anachronauts (Companion Chronicles 6.7)
· An Ordinary Life (The Early Adventures 1.04)
· The Sontarans (The Early Adventures 3.04)
· The Daleks' Master Plan: Volcano – Destruction of Time (DW Serial 3.04b; Missing: Doctor Who Reconstructions)
· The Perpetual Bond (Companion Chronicles 5.8)
· The Cold Equations (Companion Chronicles 5.12)
· The First Wave (Companion Chronicles 6.5)
· Helmstone (Subscriber Short Trips 32)
· Peace in Our Time (Short Trips 9.12)
· Out of the Deep (Short Trips 10.6)
· O Tannenbaum (Short Trips 7.12)
· The Vardan Invasion of Mirth (Companion Chronicles 13.3)
· The Massacre (DW serials 3.05; Missing: Loose Cannon)
· The Ark (DW serials 3.06)
· The Celestial Toymaker (DW serials 3.07; Loose Cannon)
· This Sporting Life (Short Trips 6.5)
· The Secrets of Det-Sen (The Early Adventures 7.02)
· The Gunfighters (DW serials 3.08)
· Mother Russia (Companion Chronicles 2.1)
· Return of the Rocket Men (Companion Chronicles 7.5)
· The Savages (DW serials 3.09; Missing: Loose Cannon)
· The War To End All Wars (Companion Chronicles 8.10)
· The Founding Fathers (Companion Chronicles 9.3)
· The Locked Room (Companion Chronicles 9.4)
· The Outlaws (The First Doctor Adventures: The Outlaws)
· The Miniaturist (The First Doctor Adventures: The Outlaws)
· The Demon Song (The First Doctor Adventures: The Demon Song)
· The Incherton Incident (The First Doctor Adventures: The Demon Song)
· Fugitive of the Daleks (The First Doctor Adventures: Fugitive of the Daleks)
· The Horror at Bletchington Station (Subscriber Short Trips 0.26)
· The War Machines (DW serials 3.10)
Note: Stories in red are additions or changes from the existing template, as explained here. Stories in green are spin-offs, that might be reviewed on a later date. For missing stories, the best alternative is given. Reasoning for these alternatives is given in the individual reviews.
Changelog:
· 4/4/2023 - "The Demon Song" has been added! I am on a break from Doctor Who for a bit, but expect me to keep the past seasons updated :). "The Incherton Incident" is coming soon.
· 24/4/2023 - "The Incherton Incident" has been added! Happy reading!
· 15/2/2024 - "Fugitive of the Daleks" has been added! More Vicki! What could possibly go wrong?
Overview
Let's start the overview of this season with a little rewind to the previous season. What have we seen so far? In season 1, we've seen this Doctor gain a moral foundation from the people around him. We saw him become a better man. In season 2, we revelled in that better man. We now had a Doctor who skipped around planets and had the time of his life. The optimistic space grandpa.
So leave it to season 3 to completely flip the script and test if that optimism can last. Behind the scenes, new people were at the helm, who wanted to push Doctor Who into darker territory. Which is, honestly, a pretty good idea after the last season. Testing the Doctor's resolve after his period of blatant optimism is fun, but also allows us to see the cracks in his character. Cracks that were always there, but the overall tone of the previous season hid them. This season makes one thing very clear: Being optimistic doesn't make you a good man.
When this season isn't hindered by transitional hiccups between production teams, you get some really, really strong character moments and a pretty dire overall tone. It's not just fun adventures anymore. The Doctor now comes across the darker side of both time and space. Planets turn to dust. Massive slaughters happen right in front of our main characters. There's horrors, pain, loss and anguish. So the question quickly becomes: How does the Doctor deal with this?
And the answer is "Not gracefully". The Doctor's mindset is still very much in Season 2 mode. He has morals, but when the world turns morally grey, he is not able to adapt smoothly. Our Doctor, our hero, stands on a planet that has just decayed before his eyes and reacts with a giggle. Another victory! That right there is the mission statement of this season. And plenty of stories deal with the inherent problems of that scene.
For a while, we even step away from the Doctor as our main character. After all, he isn't fully trustworthy. So we instead follow Steven around as he has to deal with the fallout. All alone, as he has no one who understands his struggles. It's a different dynamic from previous companions. Several companions have been kidnapped to go on adventures, but Steven's the one who's really trapped. If he leaves, who will stop the Doctor? If he stays, he'll be miserable. If he leaves, the consequences would be dire. No wonder the Doctor and him bicker so much.
Even when the other new companion Dodo shows up, it is not the usual cheery entrance. Even her arrival hints at something deeper. She's not accepted on her own terms. She is a desparate attempt from the Doctor to recapture his glory days. But as she, too, leaves him behind, it becomes pretty clear that the moment has passed.
Which brings me to the title of this season: "State of Decay". Throughout the season, the concept of decay takes a major role. The Doctor is constantly put in situations that literally drain his life away. And on a meta level, his connections to others also constantly fall away, until everyone has left him behind. The glory days are over. It has all come to and end.
Individually, not every story tackles the subject gracefully. The difference in perspective between production teams is pretty clear. Some stories are noticably lighter than the overall tone. The same goes for the audio books. Most are lighter than the tone of the TV show. As for order, I consider "The Horror at Bletchington Station" to be the true ending to this season, as it contains the Doctor finally making a good moral choice against his toughest opponent. "The War Machines" therefore turns into a new beginning, which is also quite fitting. I hope the individual reviews show what I mean.
Reviews
Galaxy 4
3/10
Ahhh, a new season of Who. Let’s all sit down and watch our lovely cast land down as we explore the planet and discover the wondrous world of sexist fears towards feminism in the 60s. ………They just couldn’t start light, could they. This story is notorious for all the wrong reasons. I tend to not look into production issues, since I’m mostly interested in how the story actually presents itself. But how could I have avoided all this? Everyone involved in this story hated it. It almost fired Hartnell. It had a producer who had a bit of a power trip and we will feel the awful repercussions of this fallout for half of the TV season. That’s not to mention the blatant sexism this story is known for. I basically had an opinion before I watched it. But let’s move all that as far aside and really try to keep it fair. We’ll just look at this like any other story. Preconceived notions be damned. Afterwards, we will look at the larger implications hiding beneath. This is a story on an unnamed planet. This unnamed planet has 2 species on them. On one side, we have the Drahvins. Warrior women who are supposed to be beautiful. On the other, the Rills, who are supposed to be hideous. I say “supposed” because I don’t think its presented that well. The costume designs have aged a bit, and in my eyes, neither of them are presented as extremely as they are supposed to. The 2 species are in conflict, because the planet they are on will soon explode. Taking all of them with it. The Rills are preparing to leave, and have offered to help out the Drahvins as well, the Drahvins, however, have a very egocentrical world view and would rather take them down and leave on their own. On
paper, I do think this story does some
things right. If I recall correctly, the Rills are the first species
on TV
that are peaceful without ever being forced into violent situations.
The most peaceful creatures since the Sensorites. They are a purely good
and don’t feel the need to
throw punches, which I can appreciate. In fact, they are so polite and
accommodating, that they refuse to show themselves because they might
scare
people, instead sending out trolley robots. Vicki quickly calls those
Chumblies. Once again showing why she is the best. The Drahvins are on the other side of the spectrum. They look kind at first, but quickly show their ugly side. Most of them are braindead morons, while their leader is an evil schemer in the most traditional way. This turns the conflict very black and white after a very basic subversion of expectations. And
honestly, not only the subversion is basic. In total, this is a very
base level story, even for the children’s program
Doctor Who. There's no real depth to anything. Not the planet, our
main characters or the monsters. The Rills get away with this because of
their purely good image, since that's kind of new on its own. They're
an alien force that aren't taught the benefits of violence. It's almost
weird how rare that is. The Drahvins, however, should’ve been much more. And there are almost hints of what could be. There are a few moments in the story that feel like they’re prodding at a balloon that just won’t pop. Like a short moment where Steven almost gets through to one of the brain zombie Drahvins. Almost getting her to think for herself. There’s also a scene with the Drahvin leader contemplating about how she didn’t really want soldiers to explore the universe, but was forced to. We’re allllmost there, but we sadly don’t get the darn balloon to pop. Leaving us with pretty flat villains. Then there’s the resolution, where the kind Rills get to escape the planet, while the Drahvins get to drown in molten lava. That’s…. definitely something a story can do. Yep. Bit harsh there, Doc. They really weren’t established as evil enough to earn all that. Besides all the story stuff, though, I am glad to see this cast back in action. Some things have changed with them, some have stayed the same. The fact we now have a proper party of 3 instead of 4 puts more of a spotlight on each individual, so let’s look at what we’re dealing with: Steven feels more like his audio portrayals here. He's relatively calm and collected. Not as hyper as he was before, but still definitely himself. He does not really get any stand-out moments, but I’m glad he’s back. Vicki is practically unchanged. As mentioned, she’s the one that actually named the Chumblies. She also tries out the scientific method of throwing a rock at stuff and becomes the first person to talk with the Rills. Great stuff all around with her. The Doctor himself has changed a bit again. Season 1 saw him as a stubborn old man who learned a lot, Season 2 saw him as a new man who had learned to enjoy life again and now early Season 3 seems to present him as a sort of middle ground between the 2. He’s optimistic, yet a bit stately and stiff. Active, but to a point. I do think the new approach works, and I wonder if we get some more learning moments with it as well. And normally this is where I would summarize the story and call it quits. But we probably should talk about the elephant in the room some more. This story is widely known as a reactionary tale to feminism. The Drahvins were mostly written as an extreme of what feminism could lead to. Despising men, while only focusing on themselves. Meanwhile the Rills, with their manly voices, are presented as the better alternative by showing kindness instead. So before looking more deeply at that, which I do feel necessary. Let me reiterate my background, like I did for “The Suffering”: I am a white guy in my twenties, so I have inherent privilege, and am probably not the person people want takes about feminism from. Yet I suppose this story makes it unavoidable. Just know that I am completely on board with equal rights between all genders. Discrimination is not to be tolerated. Hate is always foolish, and love is always wise. The way feminism is portrayed in this story is eerily similar to the concept of “feminazism”. The gist of this term is that some women will take the ideas of feminism to such an extreme, that they will dismiss the male gender and strive for superiority over equality. In practice, the term is mostly used by bigots to spread hate and fear towards feministic beliefs. While all belief systems inherently have their extremes, improperly portraying those beliefs can lead to a large number of people being put in a bad light. Think of Muslims being compared to terrorists, for example. This story portrays feminism like a novelty and brings the most radical interpretation of it to the foreground (Kill all men, etc.), while not bothering to expand on the ideas that founded feminism in the first place. This makes the tale careless with its message, which is irresponsible and dangerous to the larger cause. That being said, I’m not inherently against the idea of Doctor Who tackling radical feminism. A contrast between radical feminism and other feminist philosophies could genuinely be very educational. In fact, Doctor Who has covered feminism before/after in the story “The Suffering”. Maybe the Rills could’ve been presented as an alternative feminist viewpoint, instead of kind, but male, dragons. This could lead to questions and discussions, just like The Suffering did. It would take some stellar writing to do this topic and comparison justice, however. And that’s not what we have. This script is, by all accounts, the work of an amateur. It has some good ideas, but it also had some perspectives that Doctor Who could’ve done without. Right now, it’s a simple children’s story with some sinister undertones. Yes, it has some ideas that land and some of the concepts it brings are worth exploring, but not like this. But who knows, maybe it will inspire better works in the future. A quick side note: If I've said something stupid or insensitive in this review, please contact me. Either via comments here, or /u/joniejoon on Reddit. I've really tried to handle this subject with care, because I do think this is important, but I'm also far from an expert. |
Upstairs
6/10
The party arrives at the most wonderful place on earth: Some random attic. After thoroughly examining the place, they discover that they’re in 10 Downing Street. On top of that, they also seem to be stuck in some sort of time loop.
Basically, anytime they enter a room in the attic, they arrive in another time period. It is discovered this is because of a fungus that grows through time. The staff of 10 Downing Street are loyal to this fungus, and hope to train it to one day become the perfect ruler. Hopefully inspired by all the presidents that live the house throughout the decades.
Small problem with that: You can’t train a mushroom, because it isn’t sentient.
Yet they are convinced. It’s like a cult that has existed through generations, so they ain’t stopping now. The party quickly realizes that might become a problem. Because what will happen when the shroom discovers the tardis? It will have infinite knowledge to feed on!
So they trick the butlers and maids by… acting haughty, which makes them obedient? And then they save the tardis and fly off.
It has no real solution. They just leave it alone. Same for the servants. They just leave them be. The moral being: all empires fall anyway, so there’s no need to worry about it.
Yet this took an hour! And there’s very much still a threat! Why just leave it alone?
Besides that massive Grand Canyon of a hole, the main cast is also a bit off. The entire story has a bit of a pessimistic vibe. The Doctor is rude. The companions are rude. There’s a lot of little snide remarks and insults. There’s no need for all that! It feels like they took the base idea people have of the Hartnell Doctor: Stern and rude, and just applied that to the whole group. Meanwhile other stories on both TV and audio have shown that they can be so, so much more.
Still, there is a deeper understanding in there. Little moments shine through, like Vicki calling Steven her brother. But the overall atmosphere ruins any fun those remarks could hold.
So yeah, there’s not much to gain from listening to this. It has no resolution, no real character moments and frankly, nothing else. Yet it keeps gnawing at me. Looking at the writing credits for Mat Coward, it seems this has been his only contribution to Doctor Who, besides a short trip. And honestly, some part of me wants him to have another go at it. The general idea is very, very out there and there is a fundamental understanding of the characters to some degree. Those are all the elements of a good Doctor Who story. I do hope he gets the chance. This might’ve been a misfire. But he’s very clearly creative, and it would be a shame to lose that. Let’s see what the future holds.
Fields of Terror
5/10
The Doctor, Steven and Vicki land in the fields of Revolutionary France. Soon, they meet with an army who are wiping out anything that even looks at them funny. However, what will happen when they come across a real threat?
As you can tell from the army description, this story tries to go for a pretty dark tone. Within 5 minutes, an injured soldier is shot through the head. Yet while it tackles a gruesome historical period, it never succeeds at engrossing the listener in its audioscape.
This is caused by a few things. First off, we’re missing in context. Yes, a sense of dread can be created by leaving your audience in the dark. However, most of the time, this is done by first establishing the surroundings and then introducing the threat. In this historical story, nobody takes the time to explain why this period of history is so grim. Who are the soldiers hunting for? What causes this kind of attitude within people? Hell, where exactly are we and where are we going? The story is never really clear about that. Which turns these soldiers into stereotypical “bad people”, who are just evil for evil’s sake. No reason needed.
The second reason this story fails to establish its tone, is our main cast. The Doctor, Steven and Vicki are never really engrossed in the history or the lives of the people they’re involved with. They act like observers, rather than being involved. This makes it hard to relate to the events the story presents. Why should I care about how scary the soldiers are if Vicki isn’t?
Compare this to a story like “Flames of Cadiz”, where Susan and Barbara are screaming and pleading in jail, while the Doctor and Ian are about to be executed. That’s involvement! That’s presenting an intimidating setting. The most we get here is short gasps from Vicki at her surroundings.
And since the scare factor in the story doesn’t really come across, the whole thing falls flat. It has very little outside of it. There is a second threat, but that one never really comes across as unique, interesting or scary. It has no big actions that shock, scare or intimidate. So that one becomes unremarkable as well, which is a shame, because the idea is solid.
And honestly, that last statement goes for the entire story. The ideas behind it are solid. Travelling with a group of soldiers doing nothing but evil deeds sounds like it could be really interesting, but the story makes no effort to really make that kind of setting land. It relies on its tone to carry it through, but there’s no tone to be found. Which makes for a really flat story.
The Daleks: The Destroyers
4/10
The pilot was written after the original split between Doctor Who and the Daleks happened in 1967. They tried divorce counseling, but it was just too late. But why am I reviewing this story in the 1965-ish era of the show? Well, because it features a character that'll return in upcoming stories. Some of the audios also consider it a prequel. So we might as well agree with those audio stories and use it as a prequel as well.
“The Destroyers” focuses on 3 characters, namely Sara Kingdom, Mark Seven and Jason Corey. Together, the three of them are looking into a recent Dalek invasion on a meteorite, while also looking for Sara’s brother.
The story presents itself very slow and static. A bit too slow and static for my liking. With every character introduced, we get expansive information on their looks and background, presented like a military report. While I can appreciate the attention to detail, it slows the story down to an absolute crawl. Combine that with the already quite formal presentation, and you get a story that’s not very engaging.
An example is this. In Sara’s introduction, she fights a mud monster. It’s not that interesting: She basically struggles in the mud until she gets free. A very simple premise, but it takes 8 minutes of story time because every move is described in excruciating detail. That’s almost 1/7th of the entire story, just for some opening moments of 1 character!
After this mud battle, the party comes together and looks for clues. They find that the Daleks have hidden themselves underground, so they follow. Just as they’re about to confront them, they fly off. The end.
That’s might seem like I’m cutting it down to hard. But that’s really all the story actually is. There is a few smaller encounters in between. 2 with daleks and 1 with a sort of spider monster, but those mostly feel like they’re there to pad out the run time.
And that’s the big problem: This story does not earn the 70 minute length it has. It seems to do everything it can to pad itself out. The whole Dalek invasion and discovery of their hiding place could’ve been 20 minutes. Yet we keep on stretching and stretching by describing details and adding small roadblocks.
In the meantime, some other aspects have received no attention at all. Our main cast, for example. Besides first impressions, these people have no defining character traits. I’ve listened to these people for 70 minutes, but I could tell you nothing about their likes or dislikes, except that Sara likes her brother. No connections or relations are established between them.
And that’s really all there is. An incredibly padded story with no saving graces. Some of the underlying stuff isn’t bad per se, like the scene where they have to be completely silent to escape the Daleks, but every scene is stretched to the breaking point. Even the small, fun moments aren’t allowed to fully land, because they can’t be small. This makes “The Destroyers” a sort of pretend-epic. Looking on the surface like a vast, massive story, while actually being incredibly simple and with a short-trip amount of content.
Do I think a Dalek-only spin-off can work? Definitely. But the Daleks are relatively simple enemies. They don’t really have the ability to develop or emote. That isn’t bad, but to engage the audience you need that emotional connection. So it’s up to the opposing force to give us that core.
The Doctor usually allows us that emotional connection, while this small military team does not. If there was another lead or a group that we could bond with, I do think a Dalek spin-off would work. You’re just not going to find that essential ingredient here, and that’s a shame.
Mission to the Unknown
7/10
This story focuses on Mark Cory, a secret agent for the Space Security Serivce. His team has landed on a small planet in our solar system, where they discover Varga plants. The thorns of this plant turn anyone who touches them into a mindless killer, before finally turning into a Varga plant themselves.
The problem is, these plants are native to only 1 planet: Skaro. Which means the Daleks are back in our solar system. We soon see them in action, discussing plans with other allies to take over and destroy all planets. Including, of course, Earth.
After losing his allies, Mark Cory is the only one left to warn the universe of the Daleks’ return. Sadly, before he can send a message into outer space, he is discovered and shot dead. The recording of the final message is left behind on the ground, and we end the episode.
There’re some really fun ideas in here, like Dalek allies, the Varga plants and the whole premise of a prologue episode to a bigger adventure. While not self-contained, it is a fun side story.
There’s also some joy to be found in the way this episode can be watched. There’s of course the Loose Cannon adaptation. And it got animated as well, but we get a rare third TV option.
In 2019, this story was remade by students of the university of Lancashire. While not exactly 1 to 1 (different actors after all), it feels almost exactly like a 60s story would and was apparently made on a 60s budget as well. This recreation is probably the most modern, definitive way to experience the story. I have to give them props for their work.
Since the character are all one-offs, there’s not that much development or interaction to be found here. But that’s not the intention of the story anyway. It’s a setup episode, while still doing some fun stuff on its own.
And it is that fun stuff that makes this worth watching. It has some unique circumstances as a recreation. It has some fun with ideas like Varga plants, and it is setup for something big! Definitely worth checking out.
The Myth Makers
8/10
The Doctor, Steven & Vicki land in Ancient Greece and meet up with Odysseus, who is planning to invade Troy. Soon, they are split up, with Vicki on the Troy side, and Steven & the Doctor on the Greek side. So how will this mythical conflict play out?
First of all, there are two outside factors which hold this story back. The first one should be pretty obvious: It doesn’t exist anymore. This story is, apart from some vague screenshots and second-long clips, completely missing. This is the first time I’ve really come across that. Marco Polo was similarly missing, but at least had some very clear screenshots, a fan-made recreation of episode 1 (look that up!) and a 99% faithful novelization. The latter being my pick for experiencing the story, as it captures the essence of it wonderfully.
This story does not have the same luxuries. So, for the uninitiated, let’s quickly go over the 3 main ways you could go about experiencing this story. The first is the Loose Cannon reproduction. These take the existing audio recordings of the episode and add screenshots and extra material to make the episodes as complete as possible. It’s normally a viable option, but since this story doesn’t have a lot of screenshots, it’s not as good as other recreations. Besides that, this recreation also doesn’t have a narrator who describes what’s going on. Instead opting for scrolling text, which is disappointing.
Your second option would be the BBC narrated soundtrack, narrated by Peter Purves. This basically contains the original audio for the episode, and does have a narrator over it who connects the scenes together. The clear downside of this one is, of course, that there are no visuals.
Your last option would be the Target Novelisation written by original writer Donald Cotton. This one also has an audiobook version read by Stephen Thorne. The upside for this one is that you have a clear, understandable story penned by the original writer. The downside is that there are clear changes from the TV episode, like the entire story being told from the perspective of Homer. You also miss out on the acting for this one, which was quite strong. Especially since we have a few important moments for our main cast.
For me, I swapped between option 1 and 2. I tried to listen to the narrated soundtrack, but found it hard to follow in places. Especially the last episode. So I watched that one in the reconstruction about halfway through. Why no one has made a definitive version by combining the narrated soundtrack and the reconstruction, is a mystery to me.
Anyway, enough of all that. On to the actual story. This story is a pure historical, and quite a creative one at that. Generally speaking, historicals in Doctor Who go one of two ways: They are funny, or they are dramatic. This one is a bit of a middle ground, while leaning a bit more to the funny side.
It has some great moments and interactions between the historic characters, which makes them very memorable. A standout being the scene where Steven convinces Troy soldier Paris that he should take him hostage, which leads to some fun, unearned pride on his side.
There’s also plenty of drama, though. The Doctor is forced by Odysseus to prepare a plan to attack troy. On the other side, Vicki is forced to prepare a plan to attack Greece. Steven is also in this story. Thrown in jail. I don’t know why you would expect anything else from him.
While this could’ve led to an interesting battle of wits between the Doctor and Vicki, the story seems to quickly chicken out and make it all look like a miracle on the Vicki side, so the Doctor can think out a plan and look smart. I wish it leaned on that conflict a little more.
Still, the Doctor’s plan is fun on its own. He first dismisses the horse infiltration idea and considers it stupid. Instead, he thinks up a catapult to launch soldiers into Troy. The Greeks are on board and all is well, until they want to launch the Doctor as a test subject. After that, he changes his tune real quick and goes for horse infiltration. Great stuff from a comedy perspective. When they actually enter Troy, it becomes a story of trust, betrayal and violence. Which is great stuff from a dramatic perspective.
And that’s why it is a massive shame that this story doesn’t exist anymore: It is a combination of the two halves of history stories. It is both dramatic AND comedic, and the two sides strengthen each other. This was tried before in the Romans, but there the comedy side and the drama side clashed, thanks to the constant switching between the two. They don’t do that here. In this story, one leads to the other. The comedy banter in Troy builds up the characters, so we later feel the hurt when we see them defeated. The comedy leads to the Trojan Horse, which is used to start the entire attack. Comedy pushes every piece into place, so that the drama can land. I genuinely believe there is no other historical (until now) that has combined the two so well. That’s why it's a shame this story doesn’t exist: If it did, it could genuinely be my favorite pure historical for the way it knows how to strike a balance.
But there is one other factor I’ve kind of neglected to mention about this. And it is the other outside factor I mentioned at the start. When reading the script edit for this story, Maureen O’Brien found out she was suddenly being written off of the show. And that puts a damper on the final product. It’s integrated fine. Not brilliantly. A little lower than Susan, if I had to compare.
But the entire idea of her being written off here is a bit problematic with her character. She had established a familial relationship with the Doctor and Steven. At the same time, both TV and the audio’s have pushed her even further by exploring her relationship with loss and her fear of being left behind. Yet, at the same time. In this story she’s suddenly decided to leave that family all behind. It undermines her bonds and growth in the ways it is presented. And I want to make clear: It is not only the audio’s that have pushed her this far, TV episodes very clearly had the same intention. To throw all that in the bin in what amounts to 5 minutes, is a disservice.
And yet I still love this story. While the decision was made for her, Maureen O’Brien clearly pushes it as far as it can go. Still leaves a mark on the show, even within the limitations the writing put on her. Massive props to her.
But yeah, how do I go about judging this? This story doesn’t exist, had some bad forced decisions, but its actual excellence still shines through and it achieves something other historicals never did as well. I’m torn. From what is shown, everyone very clearly tried. If this story is ever animated, or better yet, found, I’ll look at it thoroughly. Until then, I’m going to give this an 8 for all that was accomplished. Circumstances be damned.
Frostfire
5/10
We meet with Vicki in 1164 BC. After her separation from the Doctor and Steven. She’s going into a cellar and talks to a mysterious creature. She describes a story from her travels.
It’s a story about how she went to a frost fair and discovered a mysterious egg. It turns out to be the egg of a Phoenix, drawing in all the heat around it so it can hatch. So they have to stop it from freezing the earth. Jane Austen is also there, and she’s just as tacked on as this sentence.
After finding the egg. Everyone urges it to stop freezing the world, but it doesn’t listen. When it hatches, Jane Austen cuts off its heat source and it dies. Committing genocide on the last of the Phoenixes (phoeni?).
Except for one little cinder, which was left behind and stuck to Vicki. She keeps it alive, as she can relate to it. Both being lonely after they’ve left behind something grand. And there’s the start of something poigniant here, but the story doesn’t spend any time on it. After this, it’s over.
The biggest problem here is the writing. Sentences are very “curved”, that is to say, they never really quite know where the actual destination of the words actually lies, choosing instead to prolong and prolong until finding what they’re looking for.
See. Like that. The story has trouble getting to the point.
And it does that a lot, which detracts from its message. Especially when combined with the abrupt switches between time periods. I’m all for being challenged, but this is just obtuse without reason.
I’m also sad at missing out on an ending that could genuinely be something special, but it just isn’t there yet. It just adds to the aimlessness the story already suffered from.
So that leaves very little. Just some wandering through frozen England, which is fine, but not memorable in the least. Could have been much more. For now, it’s just the second time Vicki’s farewell has failed.
The Daleks' Master Plan
7/10
The Daleks’ Master Plan (DMP) is a lot.
I think that’s fair to say. It is the longest story in all of Doctor Who at more than 4 hours total! But it’s more than just length that makes this story stand out. It’s by far the largest in scale the show has ever gone. And with at least 7 audio adventures in the middle of it, it’s legacy only continues to grow. On top of that, it also feels like a mission statement for the rest of the season with a change in tone.
The story starts straight after the Myth Makers, with new companion Katarina and Steven still being poisoned by an arrow. The Doctor is trying to land the Tardis in a safe location and find Steven the help he needs. Sadly, he instead lands on the planet Kembel, which we have already seen in “Mission to the Unknown”. The Daleks are using the planet as a base to prepare for a massive attack on the solar system. They plan to use a mysterious weapon known as the “Time Destructor”. They’ve also allied themselves with several powerful figures, most notably Mavic Chen, Guardian of the Solar System.
Luckily for the party, the Time Destructor is not yet complete. It lacks 1 crucial element: a Terranium core, which the party has managed to get their hands on. This leads to a chase across different planets, time zones, the works.
And you might have noticed, that this bears a striking resemblance to “The Chase” the previous Dalek TV episode. You’d not be entirely wrong. What sets DMP apart, however, is the tone. Where the Chase was fun sci-fi shenanigans, DMP goes for a more serious story. Gone are the days of Daleks vs Dracula. This tries to put the fear back into the Daleks.
And I’d argue that worked. This story is remembered for its dark elements, like the deaths of several potential companions and the entire last episode. Those moments hit hard and are done wonderfully. They’re given the right amount of reflection from the main cast. Never taken for granted. It also leads to some possible future directions for the show, more on that later.
But while there is some clear ambition, it isn’t all sunshine and roses (or, considering the dark material, moonlight and lilies?). While the idea of “The Chase 2” with double the episodes sounds fun, at a certain point it maybe becomes too much. The setpieces overtake the overall narrative and we lose cohesion. We have some good initial setup, but what happens after that setup is basically a roll of the dice. We are in Egypt! Or a planet of invisible monsters! Or a prison planet! Or a volcano! It’s unbridled adventure where anything can happen, and while that’s exciting, I wish it all connected a little more.
It, of course, doesn’t help that most of the story is missing. Only 3 of the original 12 episodes are currently available. It also has no animated version. With all these locations, some visual excitement is part of the experience. But we don’t have that visual part, so some of the excitement is gone.
So how do we deal with that giant hole? Well, we do have 1 twinkle of hope. Youtuber Josh Snares has taken it upon himself to animate most of this story himself, using 3d models and photo stills to turn it into a really solid reconstruction. Consider it a “creative slideshow”, if you will. It’s probably the best way to experience the story, so I recommend you check it out.
But despite these fan efforts, the visuals we currently have are still very limited. That automatically puts the narrative and characterization under some higher scrutiny. If you don’t have visuals to look at, the other aspects of the story become more noticeable.
And those other aspects are… iffy. Like I mentioned, it suffers from a lack of overall narrative. For example, the central theme is stopping the creation of the time destructor, but what does a time destructor actually do? Sure, it has an intimidating name, but the story never takes a break to tell us why this is actually a weapon worth stopping.
The same happens to characters. We see Sara Kingdom shooting her brother on sight. Not a moment is spared. Meet him. Shoot him. Speaking 2 sentences with each other would have prevented this whole thing. Yet almost immediately afterwards, we are supposed to feel sorry for her and she becomes a companion for a bit. It’s incredibly erratic.
And we do get a glimpse of what the story could be like if it paced itself a little better. In episode 1, the story feels much more natural. The Doctor explores the dangerous new planet alone, while Katarina meets Bret and tries to save Steven from his poisoning. It’s much slower. Allowing us to meet both Bret and Katarina. Katarina is shown as out of her depth and not very proactive. She is a bit of an onlooker. She watches how others resolve the plot. It’s not like she’s pushed to the sideline. She just prefers to watch and learn. She’s is consciously written as a more passive character. Meanwhile Bret is shown as threatening at first, but he also cures Steven’s poison, showing the good guy underneath and allowing that initial bond of trust.
But these kinds of moments get lost in the later scramble. Sara has the least amount of characterization out of the 3 newcomers, because when she enters the story, we’re already planet hopping without standing still. I would’ve gladly given up 1 among the dozens of locations in this story, if it meant we got a bit more character. Instead, we’re just too busy.
And it’s interesting how “The Chase” didn’t have similar problems, because it already had a really strong main cast. Ian, Barbara and the Doctor were established 2 seasons ago, while Vicki had an extremely solid entrance in the second season. Yet even then, when Steven was introduced. We took a lot of time and really made it count. I can still remember his reaction when Barbara first said his name. The first time he heard it in 2 years and it showed. DMP doesn’t have those same luxuries. We know the Doctor and Steven well enough, but Katarina, Bret and Sara mostly pass us by. Our base characterization is not as solid as it was then, so our investment is lower.
But even with that lower investment, I think there are plenty of moments that still land. Like I mentioned earlier, the tone of this story is a massive shift from the previous season. Doctor Who got darker. I can’t put it better than Samuel Davis: The only icon of childlike innocence is ejected out of an airlock. It’s a brutal mission statement. And that brutality carries on in loads of places. This story has a massive kill count of main characters, which makes every mention of the words “exterminate” or “kill” hit that much harder.
And that’s not even mentioning the last episode, where the story hits its peak. In those last 20 minutes, the time destructor turns on. While late, we now find out why this is a weapon worth destroying. It turns the entire jungle planet into a desert wasteland. Everything decays before our eyes. Sadly, this includes Sara, who slowly turns old and grey, before later turning to dust. It is brutal and genuinely disturbing. Seeing Sara’s decayed skeleton blow away in the wind while the doctor is unconscious and half-buried in the sand is a sharp contrast from the doctor happily skipping around on new planets last season. A real mission statement. Let’s hope it gets found one day, because this is something that can’t be replaced.
It also leads to an ending which leaves so much room for further character exploration. We’re in a wasteland with nothing left standing. It’s all dust except Steven, the Doctor and the Tardis. Nothing but decay. So the doctor looks around, put his fingers on his lapels like we’ve seen him do so many times, and chuckles. He congratulates himself on a job well done. Another plan stopped. He only remembers the bad side when Steven counts up all the names of people they’ve lost along the way.
It's genuinely a bit shocking of first watch. And might even feel out of character. Our hero has destroyed a world and then chuckled to himself. But on lookback. It makes sense. This goes back to season 1. This is the same man who laughed at danger and forced his companions into the Dalek city so he could feed his own curiosity. This is the same man who in a comedic moment invented the great fire of Rome. The same man who left behind a group of women on a planet that was falling apart. He’s a complex character with a simple world view. This view has been tested a lot since then, and he has learned kindness and empathy, but those new skills have never been tested in such a dire environment. It has never lead to this amout of loss. Can he understand those kinds of scenarios?
I think that’s fair to say. It is the longest story in all of Doctor Who at more than 4 hours total! But it’s more than just length that makes this story stand out. It’s by far the largest in scale the show has ever gone. And with at least 7 audio adventures in the middle of it, it’s legacy only continues to grow. On top of that, it also feels like a mission statement for the rest of the season with a change in tone.
The story starts straight after the Myth Makers, with new companion Katarina and Steven still being poisoned by an arrow. The Doctor is trying to land the Tardis in a safe location and find Steven the help he needs. Sadly, he instead lands on the planet Kembel, which we have already seen in “Mission to the Unknown”. The Daleks are using the planet as a base to prepare for a massive attack on the solar system. They plan to use a mysterious weapon known as the “Time Destructor”. They’ve also allied themselves with several powerful figures, most notably Mavic Chen, Guardian of the Solar System.
Luckily for the party, the Time Destructor is not yet complete. It lacks 1 crucial element: a Terranium core, which the party has managed to get their hands on. This leads to a chase across different planets, time zones, the works.
And you might have noticed, that this bears a striking resemblance to “The Chase” the previous Dalek TV episode. You’d not be entirely wrong. What sets DMP apart, however, is the tone. Where the Chase was fun sci-fi shenanigans, DMP goes for a more serious story. Gone are the days of Daleks vs Dracula. This tries to put the fear back into the Daleks.
And I’d argue that worked. This story is remembered for its dark elements, like the deaths of several potential companions and the entire last episode. Those moments hit hard and are done wonderfully. They’re given the right amount of reflection from the main cast. Never taken for granted. It also leads to some possible future directions for the show, more on that later.
But while there is some clear ambition, it isn’t all sunshine and roses (or, considering the dark material, moonlight and lilies?). While the idea of “The Chase 2” with double the episodes sounds fun, at a certain point it maybe becomes too much. The setpieces overtake the overall narrative and we lose cohesion. We have some good initial setup, but what happens after that setup is basically a roll of the dice. We are in Egypt! Or a planet of invisible monsters! Or a prison planet! Or a volcano! It’s unbridled adventure where anything can happen, and while that’s exciting, I wish it all connected a little more.
It, of course, doesn’t help that most of the story is missing. Only 3 of the original 12 episodes are currently available. It also has no animated version. With all these locations, some visual excitement is part of the experience. But we don’t have that visual part, so some of the excitement is gone.
So how do we deal with that giant hole? Well, we do have 1 twinkle of hope. Youtuber Josh Snares has taken it upon himself to animate most of this story himself, using 3d models and photo stills to turn it into a really solid reconstruction. Consider it a “creative slideshow”, if you will. It’s probably the best way to experience the story, so I recommend you check it out.
But despite these fan efforts, the visuals we currently have are still very limited. That automatically puts the narrative and characterization under some higher scrutiny. If you don’t have visuals to look at, the other aspects of the story become more noticeable.
And those other aspects are… iffy. Like I mentioned, it suffers from a lack of overall narrative. For example, the central theme is stopping the creation of the time destructor, but what does a time destructor actually do? Sure, it has an intimidating name, but the story never takes a break to tell us why this is actually a weapon worth stopping.
The same happens to characters. We see Sara Kingdom shooting her brother on sight. Not a moment is spared. Meet him. Shoot him. Speaking 2 sentences with each other would have prevented this whole thing. Yet almost immediately afterwards, we are supposed to feel sorry for her and she becomes a companion for a bit. It’s incredibly erratic.
And we do get a glimpse of what the story could be like if it paced itself a little better. In episode 1, the story feels much more natural. The Doctor explores the dangerous new planet alone, while Katarina meets Bret and tries to save Steven from his poisoning. It’s much slower. Allowing us to meet both Bret and Katarina. Katarina is shown as out of her depth and not very proactive. She is a bit of an onlooker. She watches how others resolve the plot. It’s not like she’s pushed to the sideline. She just prefers to watch and learn. She’s is consciously written as a more passive character. Meanwhile Bret is shown as threatening at first, but he also cures Steven’s poison, showing the good guy underneath and allowing that initial bond of trust.
But these kinds of moments get lost in the later scramble. Sara has the least amount of characterization out of the 3 newcomers, because when she enters the story, we’re already planet hopping without standing still. I would’ve gladly given up 1 among the dozens of locations in this story, if it meant we got a bit more character. Instead, we’re just too busy.
And it’s interesting how “The Chase” didn’t have similar problems, because it already had a really strong main cast. Ian, Barbara and the Doctor were established 2 seasons ago, while Vicki had an extremely solid entrance in the second season. Yet even then, when Steven was introduced. We took a lot of time and really made it count. I can still remember his reaction when Barbara first said his name. The first time he heard it in 2 years and it showed. DMP doesn’t have those same luxuries. We know the Doctor and Steven well enough, but Katarina, Bret and Sara mostly pass us by. Our base characterization is not as solid as it was then, so our investment is lower.
But even with that lower investment, I think there are plenty of moments that still land. Like I mentioned earlier, the tone of this story is a massive shift from the previous season. Doctor Who got darker. I can’t put it better than Samuel Davis: The only icon of childlike innocence is ejected out of an airlock. It’s a brutal mission statement. And that brutality carries on in loads of places. This story has a massive kill count of main characters, which makes every mention of the words “exterminate” or “kill” hit that much harder.
And that’s not even mentioning the last episode, where the story hits its peak. In those last 20 minutes, the time destructor turns on. While late, we now find out why this is a weapon worth destroying. It turns the entire jungle planet into a desert wasteland. Everything decays before our eyes. Sadly, this includes Sara, who slowly turns old and grey, before later turning to dust. It is brutal and genuinely disturbing. Seeing Sara’s decayed skeleton blow away in the wind while the doctor is unconscious and half-buried in the sand is a sharp contrast from the doctor happily skipping around on new planets last season. A real mission statement. Let’s hope it gets found one day, because this is something that can’t be replaced.
It also leads to an ending which leaves so much room for further character exploration. We’re in a wasteland with nothing left standing. It’s all dust except Steven, the Doctor and the Tardis. Nothing but decay. So the doctor looks around, put his fingers on his lapels like we’ve seen him do so many times, and chuckles. He congratulates himself on a job well done. Another plan stopped. He only remembers the bad side when Steven counts up all the names of people they’ve lost along the way.
It's genuinely a bit shocking of first watch. And might even feel out of character. Our hero has destroyed a world and then chuckled to himself. But on lookback. It makes sense. This goes back to season 1. This is the same man who laughed at danger and forced his companions into the Dalek city so he could feed his own curiosity. This is the same man who in a comedic moment invented the great fire of Rome. The same man who left behind a group of women on a planet that was falling apart. He’s a complex character with a simple world view. This view has been tested a lot since then, and he has learned kindness and empathy, but those new skills have never been tested in such a dire environment. It has never lead to this amout of loss. Can he understand those kinds of scenarios?
It's an impasse in his development. He is a better man than he was before, but that doesn’t make him perfect. It’s interesting to put some pressure on that and I wonder if anything will come from it. A really interesting note to end the story on.
And that’s how the Daleks’ Master Plan ends. It’s a long saga with many characters, locations and iconic moments. And just to top it off, it also has a really interesting tonal shift that shows great promise for the future. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. It’s a very visual affair that no longer has it’s visuals, it’s so busy throwing stuff at the wall that it forgets to reinforce what actually sticks and it’s main plot is often forgotten in between. But the end product is still really fun, creative and memorable. Take your time with it, sprinkle some audio’s in between and you’re guaranteed a good time.
The Feast of Steven
2/10
This one is odd. Officially part of the Daleks’ Master Plan, but such an odd one out. That’s why it gets its own discussion.
First of all, like most of DMP,
this story does not actually exist anymore. It also hasn’t been remade like
the other parts. Reason being it really isn’t all that relevant to the other
episodes. However, youtuber DocMagister has made an animated version, which
is the definitive way of experiencing this story. If you must.
The story is basically a random series of events with the Doctor, Steven and Sara. There’s no real throughline. It’s just some sightseeing. We enter a police station and a movie set, with some adequate humor in between.
Part of this humoristic venture seems to be a lot of random screaming and yelling over each other. Presenting busyness as comedy. Can’t say my ears love that.
This episode is remembered for 2 reasons. First of all, this is a Christmas special, ending with the Doctor talking to the camera and wishing “A merry Christmas to all of you at home”. A sentence burned into the heart of many a Who fan, I’m sure.
The other reason this is remembered is a bit more notorious. This is the story where the doctor goes “It’s a madhouse! It’s all full of Arabs”. Which is a bit racist.
This story is probably not the best
place to talk extensively about racism in Doctor Who, but this sentence is
the one people always point to as the biggest example. I’ll just throw in
that, on average, I’ve not experienced the first Doctor as a racist. Granted,
I wasn’t actively paying attention to racist remarks. And I won’t deny that
there are clear 60s sensibilities at times. But I wonder if I’ve missed
something obvious. Are there really that many moments besides this one hidden
in a terrible off-shoot Christmas special? I wonder. Once again, not denying
them, but I’m curious what I’m missing.
But yeah, except 2 snippets, there really isn’t much this episode has going
for it. In fact, it’s quite bad as a whole. An indulgence of the time. Worth
watching? Nah. Feel free to miss it. We now have Christmas specials that
actually play with the Doctor Who premise, instead of a runaround that
happens to have the Doctor in it.
Little Drummer Boy
7,8/10
I have no idea why anyone would’ve uttered those 2 sentences, yet here we are. “Little Drummer boy” is a direct follow-up to the feast of Steven. In fact, it uses “Feast” as a direct jumping on point.
We start at the end of Feast, where the party of Doctor, Steven and Sara enter the Tardis and celebrate Christmas with all of you at home. After the celebrations, the Doctor puts the tardis in random destination mode to shake off the Daleks and keep the Terranium safe.
Except something is wrong. Their destinations are not random. Sure, the place and time are different. But they keep arriving on Christmas day. Every single location is a Christmas, whether it be 1982, 2069 or the famous 1914. This is too much of a coincidence.
Another oddity arrives when a young boy shows up at the different Christmases. Always the same age. Always the same boy. It turns out the young boy is a time machine in disguise. Inside him is a 30-year-old man in a comatose state, wired up to the time machine. He has been spending his entire life experiencing Christmases from within the time machine.
The man, Robert, lost his twin brother to leukemia when he was young. People around him had a hard time with the loss, making his current life absolutely miserable. By pure chance, Robert found the time machine and decided to travel to the only time everyone was happy: Christmas. Every Christmas.
But of course, the Doctor can’t just leave a young child travelling through time willy-nilly. Suddenly, Robert takes the Terranium from the Doctor, and turns back into his 8-year-old self. This offers a solution, as he can now take the place of his twin brother and become the twin, making everything allright.
It's an overall solid bit of storytelling. Bittersweet. It uses what came before and adds layers and layers to it, while also hitting that emotional core. All in 30 minutes. But while pacing is tight and snappy, it does come a bit short in the conclusion. The sudden use of the Terranium to de-age Robert is pure magic without an established base. And the sudden solution from the doctor also feels a bit too unnatural from a man who still very clearly wants to keep time in check to some degree. It’s the only part of the story that’s a bit flimsy, though.
Character wise, there isn’t much. There’s a fun scene with Sara having a hard time talking to children, which is fun. But that’s about all we’re really given. Could’ve been a bit more, especially considering how new Sara is.
But besides those 2 points, it’s really a joy to listen to. This belongs to one of the better Christmas specials within the show. I just wish it had gotten 10 more minutes or so to flesh out the ending and maybe the origin of the found time machine. Still, definitely one I will put back on next Christmas, and I recommend you do too.
Home Truths
9/10
This story is narrated by an older Sara, who meets with a detective. She tells him a story from her travels.
In her story, the Doctor, Steven and Sara arrive at a house with mysterious circumstances. Appliances seem to react to thoughts and a happy couple is found dead. Their smiling corpses found in different rooms.
I like a good mystery, and it is set up well here. Random events keep us engaged, but not informed enough to figure it out. We find that the well-dressed male corpse wears a jacket that is too large for him, but perfectly fits Steven. Steven suddenly disappears without a trace. And one of the corpses suddenly has its eyes closed.
From here on we get into deeper spoilers, so leave now if you want to experience it yourself! It turns out that the house is psychic, made to fulfill every need from its guests and inhabitants. The problem is that the house has no conscience. No limits. If you ever think a bad thought, like wishing your lover dead for a split second, the house will grant your wish. That;s how the people died and all the mysteries happen.
This leads to some great moments for Sara. Because the house is built on the wants of the characters, we get some real insight in what is happening. Even though she shouldn’t wish any further, Sara wishes that there was still a mystery to solve. Even when the house twist is revealed. There are several times where she could’ve taken the “easy way out”, but her pride doesn’t allow for that. She has to solve the mystery in earnest. Which puts the Doctor and Steven in dire situations.
Yet we keep rooting for her. Her situation is somewhat relatable and, while potentially foolish, we want her to succeed. She explains her inner thoughts and rationale, so we get on board.
And she does solve it. In the end, the house gets a conscience. Her conscience. The mental processes of the house have become a total copy of her own. Which leads to the twist that it wasn’t Sara who was interviewed by police, but the house itself.
This story is pretty notable. It found a way to add a lot of character to someone who had basically none. It made room for a lot of internal processes of that character, which built that character up well and it had a fun twist to round it all out. It’s a true piece of foundation that gets built on in later stories.
Is it perfect, though? No, I don’t think so. The copying of Sara to the house feels sudden and a tad unsatisfying. By no means a dealbreaker, or out of the scope of the story. But it happens quite suddenly and could’ve been presented better. For example, like an actual solution to the mystery.
But it is still darn good and puts in miles for Sara’s character. Considering this is a part of a trilogy, it really makes you wonder where we’ll go next.
The Drowned World
8/10
We have an interesting start. The detective from last time, Robert, is back in the house, and he wants to prove to the world that the house should remain. So, to prove the house has a conscience, he records it while it tells another story. Another adventure.
The party lands in a dank cave. As they get out of the ship, it falls into a lake and sinks to the bottom. After some exploring, it turns they’ve landed on an asteroid that was being used in mining operations. The mine collapsed, however, leaving the mining crew stuck. Awaiting their rescued.
While the situation may seem dire, the crew is not actually scared in the slightest. They have all the faith in the world that it will turn out all right. Which, while unique, can be a little distracting at times.
The party hopes to speed up rescue efforts by getting the Tardis back, but while they’re fishing for it, they get attacked by a mysterious monster made of living water tentacles.
After this the main story becomes a bit of a mess. It’s now a generic runaround with the water tentacles. Big monster, run away. You know the drill.
Eventually, Sara relates to the feelings of the water tentacle, and it retreats. Like the last story, this leads to some modern-day reflection. Although this time it feels way more disconnected and generic.
Instead, the real interesting stuff happens in the house. Robert interviews House Sara and leaves when she’s about halfway done. It turns out the tapes were empty. House Sara wiped them. Robert, furious with this, wishes for the personality of the house to go, and leaves. Just before he does, House Sara grants him one last wish. His wife is pregnant with his child. As he always wanted.
Many, many years later, Robert returns, and wishes the house to be alive again. House Sara returns. This time, Robert is not alone, as he has his daughter with him, who is suffering from a plague. Tensions are high, and, since the daughter requested it, Sara finishes the water story.
When she’s done, she grants Roberts wish and heals his daughter, however, in return he must live in the house for the rest of his life. He accepts this request. Leaving us with a bittersweet ultimatum.
Clearly the stuff on the house side is a bit more of a highlight in this one. Meanwhile, the water story takes more of a back seat. It is worth noting that, even though the focus has shifted more to one side, the sound design is still top notch. Shifts between stories are incredibly atmospheric. Very well done.
Character wise this story also shines. Sara is the obvious highlight, but we now also have some real insight in Robert. A man who wants the best, but doesn’t always know how to get it. It’s great stuff.
But sadly, the water tale is just incredibly generic. It has an interesting setting of its own, but the events are meager and cliché. We turned from the exploration of a mysterious house to a random monster of the week. But even then, the house sections manage to carry it. They’re all absolute, edge of your seat moments worth experiencing. Which leads to the story being both a 6 and a 10. Long live averages.
The Guardian of the Solar System
The last story in the Sara Kingdom Trilogy. Will it nail the landing?
This one continues right where the last one left off. Sara Kingdom is a house and now has someone living in her (I love this show). That “someone” is called Robert, together with his unnamed daughter. At the start of the story, the daughter leaves. This leaves us alone with our main characters and one last tale to tell.
This story has some good parts and some lacking parts. I wouldn’t call anything it does “bad” though.
Let’s start with the good. Thematically, this one is really strong. In the story, the Doctor, Steven and Sara discover a giant clock run by old men. It turns out to be a massive power source from Sara’s time, a bit before “Daleks’ Master Plan”. The overarching theme this connects to is predestination and one’s role in society. Sara feels like a cog in a giant machine. A chess piece in society, since she has her role as an SSS agent. But also in time, as she has pushed events into place, like killing Bret Vion.
And her part in the history continues now that she’s living it. She comes across a younger version of both Bret Vion and the evil villain Mavick Chen. Especially that last one is interesting. Maybe this meeting could stop his future part in the Daleks’ Master Plan. Maybe this time she can do more.
But of course, she can’t really change the future. The path is set. She isn’t able to make a real difference and loses all hope. It’s futile. And that sentiment has stuck with house Sara. She is never free. Everything was set in stone. Nothing has meaning. It’s really sobering and thematically strong.
But the presentation isn’t perfect. While all this thematic storytelling is done well, the actual connection between the clock landscapes and the themes of futility is quite barebones. At the tail end of the story, it turns out that the clock is being fueled by the hope of the old men, who are actually prisoners. They all hope to one day escape and try with all their might to stop the clock from running. The clock feeds on this hope energy, and even Steven and the Doctor fall prey to it. Only Sara can stop it, because as mentioned, she has lost all hope. That’s why she is able to break down the clock. Both her and we know this will lead to a search for alternative energy sources, like terranium. Resistance to the path is futile.
The problem I have with this setup, is the part where the clock feeds on human hope. This is technically established beforehand, as Bret mentions it in conversation with Sara. But that was 1 vague sentence that becomes extremely relevant 40 minutes later. So you’d better have caught that, or you’re going to be very, very lost near the end.
…Me. I was lost. I had to look it up mid story.
I do think that might be partially on me, but it also could’ve been more established. There’s plenty of room to reinforce it in the conversation with Mavick Chen, for example. Right now, all the information comes at you fast at the end with only one small sentence of warning earlier on. It’s like a baseball to the face. Catch it or break your nose. Would be nice if the story had given us a nice glove to catch all the information in. A little bit more prepwork for what to expect.
Let’s move to the house side of the story. In the house, Robert is tired of life, so he and Sara make a deal and switch places. It’s unclear if Sara now has Roberts body or a different one, but that doesn’t really matter. House Sara, after years of being alone and forgotten, is finally free.
Sara is, of course, extremely excited about her new freedom. But she’s also apprehensive. What if she just continues on a predestined path? what if she’s still just a cog? Her new lease on life hasn’t changed her attitude. So, Robert the House does her one last kindness. He knows he will be unable to give her life meaning. But he does know someone who could. And he arrives in a blue box. Sara steps inside, and our story ends.
It's an open ending, but it kind of has to be. We don’t know if Sara will have hope after this. Yet if we were to know, would that not continue the predestiny? We don’t know if Sara will have freedom, because knowing would remove that freedom. It’s poetic. The character can only gain freedom by no longer being in a story.
And that’s “The Guardian of the Solar System”. Thematically, I’d argue this is the one that gives us the most insight into Sara. The other stories did that in spades, but this one does it the best. Yet I can’t call it perfect, because the lacking setup of the clock does hinder it. Still, there’s a lot to love and the ending is gold. A great way to end the trilogy.
The Anachronauts
Very good story. Especially strong in the character department.
The Doctor, Steven and Sara are hit by a rogue timeship. It turns out they’ve clashed with the vessel of the first human time travellers. But when stranded on an island, can they trust their fellow ship wreckers?
This story is very split in two pieces. It’s basically 2 stories in 1. The first piece is the stranded story, where both parties try to figure each other out, while also trying to find the Tardis and escape the island.
This part is okay on its own. What shines here are the conversations between the Doctor, Sara and Steven. In a stroke of genius, we’re setting up for a romance between those last 2. With Steven being clearly interested, while Sara is a bit more withholding, since she would be allowing herself to be weak. Meanwhile the Doctor is on the sideline, but still very aware of the situation. As shown when he recommends Sara to go and sit with Steven in a moment of peace. It’s an incredible scene and it fits the new dynamic perfectly.
What’s less interesting, is the need for a villain in the story. There’s this very unnecessary time ghost on the island and the human time travel crew are really not that interesting. These are all just distractions from the actual interesting stuff. I would’ve preferred some unique environmental hazards instead. Maybe the Island is an endpoint for time travellers or something.
The second story/part is very different. After finding the Tardis, the human crew tries to take control. This causes mayhem in the Tardis. Steven gets knocked out, but wakes up with Sara dragging him off. Gunshots are heard from an unknown source. It turns out the tardis has made an emergency landing in Berlin, 1966. And they’ve just crossed the wall.
This is where the earlier character work pays off. We are aware of the current relationships between these two. So now we can test it and put some pressure on. Since the two of them stand out, they quickly get picked up by soldiers and interrogated. With the Tardis and Doctor at the other side of the wall, the situation seems dire. This is where Steven shows his secret bargaining chip. One that should never be used. He tries to buy his freedom with knowledge from the future.
It's a beautifully presented moment. The situation feels dire. About as dire as “Flames of Cadiz” from 2 season ago. This is Doctor Who at its darkest. So Steven does the worst thing he can do to escape it. To keep himself and Sara safe. They pay the price for this when they’re dragged and interrogated, but this also allows for them to grow closer. Until we reach the crucial moment.
Steven finds out what’s really going on. This isn’t Berlin. And he isn’t with Sara. It was all going too easy. Sara would never lower her guard, just because of a dire situation. Steven isn't saving her, it is all a dream. The human time travellers captured the party and put them in a sort of dream prison. But now Steven has escaped. It’s bittersweet and very tough, since this also means the death of Dream Sara, which is obviously a shame, because their dynamic was amazing. But Steven knows it just isn’t like that (yet?).
Afterwards, the human time travellers are quickly dealt with. As they’re put on the same island as the beginning of the story. And so we bring the story to a close.
And that’s “The Anachronauts”. It does a lot of things right, but some small things could be better. Most notably the flow between parts. While doing a 2 for 1 in your stories is totally fine, the transitions between the 2 feel rough. Like the fight in the tardis. It feels like it’s written as a connection piece, rather than standing on its own.
Other than that there’s stuff like the aforementioned monster in the first story. For the second story it can also be argued that the dream stuff comes out of nowhere. There’s no revelation moment. Steven has just figured it out and we are along for the ride. The lead-in for that could be a bit stronger. Other than that, we have the human crew which don’t stand out in any remarkable way. They’re just there.
But the good in this story massively outweighs the bad. The connections between the cast are truly something new for this Doctor and they connect to the existing narrative beautifully. But, much as I love what’s done on that front, there’s just too many little things to call this story perfect. So, instead, this story is just very, very good.
An Ordinary Life
Another story that puts a main cast we’ve barely explored into a new setting. Very exciting stuff. Sadly, this story quickly turns indecisive with some very important messages.
The party lands in 1950’s London. The Doctor seems to have gotten a mysterious illness, but luckily the group gets taken in by an old man. All seems to be well for a bit, until both the Doctor and the Tardis have suddenly disappeared. Did he leave Sara and Steven behind?
This story has 2 main subjects. First is the relationship between Steven and Sara, which builds on the previous story. The second is the racist attitudes of the 1950s. The old man and his newly arrived family members are from Jamaica, but have a hard time settling because of the racist attitudes the locals have. They are constantly harassed, while all they want is “An Ordinary Life”.
And the current premise allows for both points to get some attention. We’ve locked Steven and Sara in a time period, so they’ll have to be there for a while. They're all alone. No Tardis, no Doctor. This means all they have to rely on is each other. They take on jobs, cook together, discuss their future and their past. They really bond. It never gets as explicitly romantic as “The Anachronauts”, but there’s still a lot to love.
Being stuck in this location also allows for a more constant experience with racism, which makes that part hit harder. They’ve connected with the local family and often hang out together. Steven even works together with Michael, the man of the new immigrated family. This allows us to see more of the obstacles that show up in the pursuit of the “ordinary life”. There are bigots at work, their window gets broken. Michael gets stuffed in a wooden crate. It’s not pretty.
What holds this story back, though, is the presentation of the villains. We technically have 2 villains here. First is the British society of the 1950’s. The presentation of the racist notions is, frankly, barebones. All the trouble of society is mostly put on 1 man in this story. Dock worker Billy is our entire representation of society. We have some other character that show up and reinforce him, but those are unvoiced and mostly consist of some laughing people in the background.
While I get the need for a stand-in for the societal viewpoint, the fact that this is really only 1 person detracts from the messaging in the story. We get a pretty expansive look at the everyday life of the immigrants. We see their home, their work, their shopping and have loads of conversations with them in between. Yet when it comes to the racism they face, 90% of it comes down to 1 man with a grudge. It’s a disingenuous stance to take to a society that was far from accepting. Sure, you always have good people and bad people, but the proportions here are out of balance. This paints a picture of 1950s society as a pretty good bunch with some bad apples, which is not the reality of the time. And I get that stories like these always skew reality to some extent, but if you handle a topic to this extent, you have to be genuine. Societal racism was the problem. Not a random man named Billy.
The second problematic enemy is the usual sci-fi villain. This time in the form of changeling anemones, that try to replace humanity and take their places in society. They originally latched on to Michael’s desire for “An ordinary life” and want to fulfill that for themselves. So they’ve kidnapped several humans and stuffed them in a jelly-like pod, while they replace them in a sort of zombie state.
I’m conflicted on what the story wants to accomplish with these enemies and how they connect to the themes in the story. In general, they are mostly a mirror image for the immigration situation. The anemone have the same desires, but instead of keeping their head down like the immigrant family, they invade and replace. They basically mirror the fears society hold towards people with different origins. They are the new people will replace them and erase them. But what’s the message there?
Frankly, a lot of bad things can be read from this. Why present the mirror image of the immigrants as the villains? Are the fears society hold justified? Should immigrants not fight for their rights? Is there no such thing as an “ordinary life” for outsiders? Frankly, these come across as problematic and should really be condemned in the messaging, but they just aren’t.
And I’m not trying to take a “bad faith” stance here. I’m looking for what the story has to say for itself. What is the message it wants to make clear? It handles a tough subject, but stays weirdly ambivalent when it comes to the bottom line. When you make an exact mirror image of the immigrant situation and end your story by tossing those mirror images in the Thames. What message does that send?
What this story could really have used, is a stronger conclusion. I think a big problem is the open stance it has towards its issues. It talks about issues, has events surrounding these issues, but never nails down what message the audience is actually supposed to get from the story. At the end, we leave the immigrant family to their fate in society. The anemone threat might be gone, but nothing has been done towards the racist notions of the time. This is something that is barely reflected upon. The Doctor just says that “Their presence will enrich England”, which is about as minimal as you can go. They could take so many directions with this. Talk about how the real immigrants are better than the anemone. Talk about how the societal fears people hold don’t matter. Talk about what an “ordinary life” actually means and if that’s something worth striving for. Actual depth to the ending would’ve solved a lot of problems with this story. An open and ambivalent end is not always the right choice.
An Ordinary Life definitely gets things right, like the setting, the side cast and relationship between Steven and Sara. Sadly, it also has some crippling flaws. The more you think about this story the worse it gets. It doesn’t have the backbone to finish its messaging, which leaves us at an awkward middle ground of an ending. It's ambivalent, and that’s really not where you want this kind of story to end. Let’s hope other stories can be more decisive.
The Guardian of the Solar System
9/10
This one continues right where the last one left off. Sara Kingdom is a house and now has someone living in her (I love this show). That “someone” is called Robert, together with his unnamed daughter. At the start of the story, the daughter leaves. This leaves us alone with our main characters and one last tale to tell.
This story has some good parts and some lacking parts. I wouldn’t call anything it does “bad” though.
Let’s start with the good. Thematically, this one is really strong. In the story, the Doctor, Steven and Sara discover a giant clock run by old men. It turns out to be a massive power source from Sara’s time, a bit before “Daleks’ Master Plan”. The overarching theme this connects to is predestination and one’s role in society. Sara feels like a cog in a giant machine. A chess piece in society, since she has her role as an SSS agent. But also in time, as she has pushed events into place, like killing Bret Vion.
And her part in the history continues now that she’s living it. She comes across a younger version of both Bret Vion and the evil villain Mavick Chen. Especially that last one is interesting. Maybe this meeting could stop his future part in the Daleks’ Master Plan. Maybe this time she can do more.
But of course, she can’t really change the future. The path is set. She isn’t able to make a real difference and loses all hope. It’s futile. And that sentiment has stuck with house Sara. She is never free. Everything was set in stone. Nothing has meaning. It’s really sobering and thematically strong.
But the presentation isn’t perfect. While all this thematic storytelling is done well, the actual connection between the clock landscapes and the themes of futility is quite barebones. At the tail end of the story, it turns out that the clock is being fueled by the hope of the old men, who are actually prisoners. They all hope to one day escape and try with all their might to stop the clock from running. The clock feeds on this hope energy, and even Steven and the Doctor fall prey to it. Only Sara can stop it, because as mentioned, she has lost all hope. That’s why she is able to break down the clock. Both her and we know this will lead to a search for alternative energy sources, like terranium. Resistance to the path is futile.
The problem I have with this setup, is the part where the clock feeds on human hope. This is technically established beforehand, as Bret mentions it in conversation with Sara. But that was 1 vague sentence that becomes extremely relevant 40 minutes later. So you’d better have caught that, or you’re going to be very, very lost near the end.
…Me. I was lost. I had to look it up mid story.
I do think that might be partially on me, but it also could’ve been more established. There’s plenty of room to reinforce it in the conversation with Mavick Chen, for example. Right now, all the information comes at you fast at the end with only one small sentence of warning earlier on. It’s like a baseball to the face. Catch it or break your nose. Would be nice if the story had given us a nice glove to catch all the information in. A little bit more prepwork for what to expect.
Let’s move to the house side of the story. In the house, Robert is tired of life, so he and Sara make a deal and switch places. It’s unclear if Sara now has Roberts body or a different one, but that doesn’t really matter. House Sara, after years of being alone and forgotten, is finally free.
Sara is, of course, extremely excited about her new freedom. But she’s also apprehensive. What if she just continues on a predestined path? what if she’s still just a cog? Her new lease on life hasn’t changed her attitude. So, Robert the House does her one last kindness. He knows he will be unable to give her life meaning. But he does know someone who could. And he arrives in a blue box. Sara steps inside, and our story ends.
It's an open ending, but it kind of has to be. We don’t know if Sara will have hope after this. Yet if we were to know, would that not continue the predestiny? We don’t know if Sara will have freedom, because knowing would remove that freedom. It’s poetic. The character can only gain freedom by no longer being in a story.
And that’s “The Guardian of the Solar System”. Thematically, I’d argue this is the one that gives us the most insight into Sara. The other stories did that in spades, but this one does it the best. Yet I can’t call it perfect, because the lacking setup of the clock does hinder it. Still, there’s a lot to love and the ending is gold. A great way to end the trilogy.
The Anachronauts
9/10
The Doctor, Steven and Sara are hit by a rogue timeship. It turns out they’ve clashed with the vessel of the first human time travellers. But when stranded on an island, can they trust their fellow ship wreckers?
This story is very split in two pieces. It’s basically 2 stories in 1. The first piece is the stranded story, where both parties try to figure each other out, while also trying to find the Tardis and escape the island.
This part is okay on its own. What shines here are the conversations between the Doctor, Sara and Steven. In a stroke of genius, we’re setting up for a romance between those last 2. With Steven being clearly interested, while Sara is a bit more withholding, since she would be allowing herself to be weak. Meanwhile the Doctor is on the sideline, but still very aware of the situation. As shown when he recommends Sara to go and sit with Steven in a moment of peace. It’s an incredible scene and it fits the new dynamic perfectly.
What’s less interesting, is the need for a villain in the story. There’s this very unnecessary time ghost on the island and the human time travel crew are really not that interesting. These are all just distractions from the actual interesting stuff. I would’ve preferred some unique environmental hazards instead. Maybe the Island is an endpoint for time travellers or something.
The second story/part is very different. After finding the Tardis, the human crew tries to take control. This causes mayhem in the Tardis. Steven gets knocked out, but wakes up with Sara dragging him off. Gunshots are heard from an unknown source. It turns out the tardis has made an emergency landing in Berlin, 1966. And they’ve just crossed the wall.
This is where the earlier character work pays off. We are aware of the current relationships between these two. So now we can test it and put some pressure on. Since the two of them stand out, they quickly get picked up by soldiers and interrogated. With the Tardis and Doctor at the other side of the wall, the situation seems dire. This is where Steven shows his secret bargaining chip. One that should never be used. He tries to buy his freedom with knowledge from the future.
It's a beautifully presented moment. The situation feels dire. About as dire as “Flames of Cadiz” from 2 season ago. This is Doctor Who at its darkest. So Steven does the worst thing he can do to escape it. To keep himself and Sara safe. They pay the price for this when they’re dragged and interrogated, but this also allows for them to grow closer. Until we reach the crucial moment.
Steven finds out what’s really going on. This isn’t Berlin. And he isn’t with Sara. It was all going too easy. Sara would never lower her guard, just because of a dire situation. Steven isn't saving her, it is all a dream. The human time travellers captured the party and put them in a sort of dream prison. But now Steven has escaped. It’s bittersweet and very tough, since this also means the death of Dream Sara, which is obviously a shame, because their dynamic was amazing. But Steven knows it just isn’t like that (yet?).
Afterwards, the human time travellers are quickly dealt with. As they’re put on the same island as the beginning of the story. And so we bring the story to a close.
And that’s “The Anachronauts”. It does a lot of things right, but some small things could be better. Most notably the flow between parts. While doing a 2 for 1 in your stories is totally fine, the transitions between the 2 feel rough. Like the fight in the tardis. It feels like it’s written as a connection piece, rather than standing on its own.
Other than that there’s stuff like the aforementioned monster in the first story. For the second story it can also be argued that the dream stuff comes out of nowhere. There’s no revelation moment. Steven has just figured it out and we are along for the ride. The lead-in for that could be a bit stronger. Other than that, we have the human crew which don’t stand out in any remarkable way. They’re just there.
But the good in this story massively outweighs the bad. The connections between the cast are truly something new for this Doctor and they connect to the existing narrative beautifully. But, much as I love what’s done on that front, there’s just too many little things to call this story perfect. So, instead, this story is just very, very good.
An Ordinary Life
9/10
The party lands in 1950’s London. The Doctor seems to have gotten a mysterious illness, but luckily the group gets taken in by an old man. All seems to be well for a bit, until both the Doctor and the Tardis have suddenly disappeared. Did he leave Sara and Steven behind?
This story has 2 main subjects. First is the relationship between Steven and Sara, which builds on the previous story. The second is the racist attitudes of the 1950s. The old man and his newly arrived family members are from Jamaica, but have a hard time settling because of the racist attitudes the locals have. They are constantly harassed, while all they want is “An Ordinary Life”.
And the current premise allows for both points to get some attention. We’ve locked Steven and Sara in a time period, so they’ll have to be there for a while. They're all alone. No Tardis, no Doctor. This means all they have to rely on is each other. They take on jobs, cook together, discuss their future and their past. They really bond. It never gets as explicitly romantic as “The Anachronauts”, but there’s still a lot to love.
Being stuck in this location also allows for a more constant experience with racism, which makes that part hit harder. They’ve connected with the local family and often hang out together. Steven even works together with Michael, the man of the new immigrated family. This allows us to see more of the obstacles that show up in the pursuit of the “ordinary life”. There are bigots at work, their window gets broken. Michael gets stuffed in a wooden crate. It’s not pretty.
What holds this story back, though, is the presentation of the villains. We technically have 2 villains here. First is the British society of the 1950’s. The presentation of the racist notions is, frankly, barebones. All the trouble of society is mostly put on 1 man in this story. Dock worker Billy is our entire representation of society. We have some other character that show up and reinforce him, but those are unvoiced and mostly consist of some laughing people in the background.
While I get the need for a stand-in for the societal viewpoint, the fact that this is really only 1 person detracts from the messaging in the story. We get a pretty expansive look at the everyday life of the immigrants. We see their home, their work, their shopping and have loads of conversations with them in between. Yet when it comes to the racism they face, 90% of it comes down to 1 man with a grudge. It’s a disingenuous stance to take to a society that was far from accepting. Sure, you always have good people and bad people, but the proportions here are out of balance. This paints a picture of 1950s society as a pretty good bunch with some bad apples, which is not the reality of the time. And I get that stories like these always skew reality to some extent, but if you handle a topic to this extent, you have to be genuine. Societal racism was the problem. Not a random man named Billy.
The second problematic enemy is the usual sci-fi villain. This time in the form of changeling anemones, that try to replace humanity and take their places in society. They originally latched on to Michael’s desire for “An ordinary life” and want to fulfill that for themselves. So they’ve kidnapped several humans and stuffed them in a jelly-like pod, while they replace them in a sort of zombie state.
I’m conflicted on what the story wants to accomplish with these enemies and how they connect to the themes in the story. In general, they are mostly a mirror image for the immigration situation. The anemone have the same desires, but instead of keeping their head down like the immigrant family, they invade and replace. They basically mirror the fears society hold towards people with different origins. They are the new people will replace them and erase them. But what’s the message there?
Frankly, a lot of bad things can be read from this. Why present the mirror image of the immigrants as the villains? Are the fears society hold justified? Should immigrants not fight for their rights? Is there no such thing as an “ordinary life” for outsiders? Frankly, these come across as problematic and should really be condemned in the messaging, but they just aren’t.
And I’m not trying to take a “bad faith” stance here. I’m looking for what the story has to say for itself. What is the message it wants to make clear? It handles a tough subject, but stays weirdly ambivalent when it comes to the bottom line. When you make an exact mirror image of the immigrant situation and end your story by tossing those mirror images in the Thames. What message does that send?
What this story could really have used, is a stronger conclusion. I think a big problem is the open stance it has towards its issues. It talks about issues, has events surrounding these issues, but never nails down what message the audience is actually supposed to get from the story. At the end, we leave the immigrant family to their fate in society. The anemone threat might be gone, but nothing has been done towards the racist notions of the time. This is something that is barely reflected upon. The Doctor just says that “Their presence will enrich England”, which is about as minimal as you can go. They could take so many directions with this. Talk about how the real immigrants are better than the anemone. Talk about how the societal fears people hold don’t matter. Talk about what an “ordinary life” actually means and if that’s something worth striving for. Actual depth to the ending would’ve solved a lot of problems with this story. An open and ambivalent end is not always the right choice.
An Ordinary Life definitely gets things right, like the setting, the side cast and relationship between Steven and Sara. Sadly, it also has some crippling flaws. The more you think about this story the worse it gets. It doesn’t have the backbone to finish its messaging, which leaves us at an awkward middle ground of an ending. It's ambivalent, and that’s really not where you want this kind of story to end. Let’s hope other stories can be more decisive.
The Sontarans
6/10
It’s pretty rare for the first Doctor to interact with newer aspects of the show. Yet as someone who is doing the TV show and Big Finish together, I really enjoy these types of stories. They push the Doctor more towards the hero narrative his later incarnations enjoy, which is an open door for character development.
The party arrives on asteroid in a time close to Sara’s. She recognizes the location as a historic battleground between humans and Sontarans. When they meet the human SSS agents on the asteroid, it becomes painfully obvious that they are completely outmatched. Can the party make sure their historic victory comes to pass?
Let’s talk about main attraction first. In my experience, Sontarans are often inconsistent in their characterization. Their general concept is solid: a simple clone species who enjoy nothing more than battle in every form it takes. But often stories seem unsure and inconsistent in their further characterization. Sometimes there are funny, sometimes they are serious, sometimes they are ruthless killers, sometimes they fail a mission because of chocolate.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with using monsters or characters for comedy. But with Sontarans it seems to have slowly seeped into their DNA, and I feel this sometimes makes it tough for writers to get back to their general concept as war-lovers. Leaning too hard to one side can make it hard to adjust back.
And I think that’s why the Sontarans in this story feel slightly unnatural. As a first Sontaran story, this should present the base for future Sontaran encounters. Yet it feels like it doesn’t completely know what the base for a Sontaran is. Some things are done right, some things feel off. Let’s narrow it down.
The first traits they show are done well. The Sontarans in this story are very much part of their “scientific” endeavors. They try to gain knowledge about the different behaviors of other species, so they can use that knowledge on the battlefield. This involves studying culture, bodily functions, torturing subjects in interrogation, the works. This strikes the balance between the morbidly funny and the seriously threatening and also leads to some really interesting interactions between Steven and the Sontarans. Allowing for both to shine. For example, Steven mentions that it’s hard for Sontarans to understand humans because of ‘different cultures’, but the Sontaran dismisses this because he doesn’t know what culture is. This is great for their character and leads to new insights for the listener.
What doesn’t work is their strange obsession with honor. The Sontarans will basically drop their weapons in this story if someone asks “Yeah but is this really HONORABLE?”. Party stuck in a cave? Shooting them would be too easy! No honor! Instead, let’s take turns shooting each other! This could maybe work if it was presented as Sontarans playing with their prey, but in the current story they immediately give the others an easy out at every opportunity. It diminishes the stakes.
And besides the Sontarans, there’s not much going on in this story. The setting isn’t all that strong, since it mostly consists of caves and caverns. The same goes for the side cast, which are generic planks of wood with not much to set them apart. So your enjoyment of this story will depend on how much you like “Doctor vs. Sontarans” stories. If you like those, you’ll have an okay time. If you want something deeper, look elsewhere.
I myself am in the middle. I like a good fun romp with a famous villain, but they are very hit or miss in this. And although the hits are fun, I can’t ignore those constant misses that happen in between.
The Sontarans should be a story that establishes a base for the species, and you can really see some examples of that in this story. But at the same time it also has plenty of weird, illogical moments with a weak setting and side cast. If this had aired as their actual first story, I don’t think we would’ve ever seen the Sontarans again. Not because it is bad, but because it is completely unremarkable in totality.
-- The end of Daleks' Master Plan happens here --
The Perpetual Bond
3/10
The first part of the Oliver Harper trilogy. All of which contain a contrast between science and fantasy.
A little heads up: I listened to all of these in a row before reviewing, so I might reference some of the other parts that are coming up when relevant. I usually don’t do this, but reviewing Daleks’ Master Plan took a lot of time and I needed a break :p.
The Doctor and Steven are reflecting on the event of Daleks’ Master Plan, when the tardis suddenly gets dragged to the 1960s by a mysterious force. The Doctor and Steven see this as an opportunity to meet up with Ian and Barbara and regain their bearings after DMP. They quickly get sidetracked, however, when they spot a weird mushroom man in a business suit. After investigating for a bit, they meet up with Oliver Harper, a young business broker who helps them along the way.
First things first. The story starts off with both Steven and the Doctor in a depressed state. Which is fitting after the last story, but I believe it fundamentally misrepresents the ending that actually took place. It paints a picture of both the Doctor and Steven mourning the events immediately after they happen, but that was very clearly not what happened on screen. It ignores the interesting part, where the Doctor smiles and celebrates and instead decides both of them were sad from the start. That’s a huge loss of nuance, which kind of matters when you want to do a sequel story which explores the consequences of that ending.
What’s interesting is that the third story in this trilogy does refer to this. But at that point it’s too late to really focus on that piece of information. But we’ll talk about that when we get there.
In the current story, the Doctor and Steven are both in a period of grief. There are constant little remarks about how Steven could just be the next one on the list. How he’s on borrowed time with the Doctor. Which is interesting if you keep in mind that a change in companions was still a pretty new concept when Steven was around. Steven was the fifth companion ever. The template was still frail.
But enough of that, we do have a plot to solve! Basically, a number of mushroom people have entered the stock market and are looking to trade. What are they looking for? Human slaves. Ain’t that grand. Sadly, and a bit confusingly, they do have the proper papers from galactic law to make these kinds of deal and take random humans away from their home. So they're lawfully in the clear.
And that’s where the story gets a bit odd. Because what’s galactic law? It seems to be both understood by the mushroom people and the Doctor, but not by Steven. Yet at the same time we have a human ambassador from the 60s who actually signed those papers. So it’s something earth knows about?
And similar small problems like this keep me from enjoying this story. It keeps the rules it uses secret until you need to know, yet at the same time it wants to talk about changing those rules. Imagine if you’re trying to describe rocket science to someone who doesn’t even know what the sky is. That’s what it feels like. It knows what it is on about, but doesn’t think of taking the audience by the hand. We have a scene where Steven defeats a group of mushroom people by humming the Beatles. Why does that work? No clue! The story doesn't bother explaining it. It just tells us it works and leaves it at that.
At the same time the story has problems connecting its real-world economics theme with the sci-fi shenanigans. Sometimes it focuses on one, and sometimes on the other, but when the two themes meet, it quickly becomes a mess. Hearing a giant mushroom man yell about fungibility is not the most appealing.
What could’ve worked instead would be a closer connection between the monsters and the economics. Right now, they’re mushrooms, but why? What makes this whole scenario so mushroom like? Why not something more fitting, like literal loan sharks or monsters who use our money as food? Something that would make more sense in the current setting. That would make it easier for us to understand the motivation of the opposite side, which in turn can be used to bridge the gap between the two themes.
Besides all this, it’s worth noting that I haven’t mentioned new companion Oliver Harper once. That’s because he’s mostly just along for the ride without establishing himself. We know 2 things about him after this: He is a businessman and has a secret. That not the most expansive portfolio to start off with. Hopefully other stories take it a bit further.
And that’s “The Perpetual Bond” has to offer. It follows its own story rules, but doesn’t bother explaining those. It has a new companion, but barely gives him a chance to establish himself. It tries to balance the real and the surreal, but lacks connection between the two. And to top it off, it also massively misinterprets the ending of Daleks’ Master Plan. After all that, there’s really not much to like. Is it the worst? No, it touches on some themes that are worth exploring and has solid sound design with the 60s setting. but overall, it fails way more than it succeeds. Let’s hope the later stories pick up the slack.
The Cold Equations
The second part of the Oliver Harper Trilogy. "The Cold Equations" has a lot to tell in comparatively little time. Let's see how it pulls it off.
The Doctor, Steven and new companion Oliver land on a salvaging spaceship during a dark age of the universe. The ship has placed itself right between large amounts of debris, while mining on the planet below. Problems arise, however, when that planet turns out the be earth…
This is a story that has a lot of stuff going on under the hood. It tries to tackle a lot of subjects: The grief of the Doctor and Steven, what makes someone a human, the science of space, who is Oliver and what is his secret?
And that’s a fair bit of ambition. Let’s talk through them. First, we have the grief aspect. We mostly focus on the grief Steven feels in his episode. He copes with his losses by taking a scientific approach, something he learned in the space academy. He describes space as an uncaring void. Not evil, not out to hurt you, just there. In the same way, he describes his current relationship with the Doctor: Every time we step out of those doors, our odds of returning become slimmer. It’s a grim approach, but fitting.
At the same time, we have someone who’s out of the loop here: Oliver. He comes a bit more into his own in this story. Sneaking in character beats which are subtly presented, but add up to a nice early personality. There’s also his secret, which he protects for quite a while. Steven and the Doctor are aware he’s hiding something, but it’s only when facing death that the truth finally comes out: Oliver is gay. Which isn’t a big deal to Steven at all! “Why would it be?” he proclaims while laughing. All the time he was worried for Oliver, yet in his eyes its something incredibly small. It’s a real bonding moment and a bit of lookback on our growth as humans throughout the years. We get better.
In the main story, we meet with space salvagers who collect human trash to look for usable parts. They sell the profitable stuff and toss the junk into space. This creates a huge web of garbage which could lead to a big domino effect if hit. Yet thorough calculations prevent this from happening.
The problem is that there are still humans living on earth, who now constantly get their stuff stolen. The salvage captain does not seem to worried about this and barely considers those people humans. After all, humans were creative juggernauts! How can those junk rats possibly be humans? It’s an interesting question on human nature.
But we don’t really have time for that, as one of the calculations goes wrong and the spaceship gets blown to pieces. This leaves Steven and Oliver stranded with very little air. This leads to the space calculations, which I won’t repeat in detail here. Just know they are complicated, go on for a while, and should probably be a bit more naturally integrated (In the interview afterwards, Guerrier admits he just copied an email he got from a professor). I have my problems with the explanations that are presented here. Mostly because it forgets to explain some small parts. Steven and Oliver are in this luckily airtight container, and Steven decides to use an air cannister to blast them towards the Tardis. So far so good. So he does this by making a hole in the ship and sticking his hand outside, then blowing air out of the cannister.
This raised some questions with me. I considered this unrealistic. I’ve seen movies. A hole in a spaceship immediately sucks everything out. A bare hand in space would explode from the pressure. After reading up on this, it turns out that Steven should be all right. Since the hole was adequately plugged, there would be no risk of air loss. And Steven’s hand would swell up, but could survive a few minutes in space.
So yay, I learned something new, but I can’t help but think this should’ve been in the story. The vacuum of space is described quite a few times and this story has a huge focus on scientific correctness. Why not keep going and describe the finer details of the process? In story form, it would be way more interesting than the information dump we got now.
Which leads me to a bit of an overarching point on all these subjects. Most of them could do with a little bit more time. The human nature aspect is barely touched. The scientific approach could be more expansively integrated. Oliver is in his second story out of 3 and only has the beginnings of a personality. Even the grief is something that could do with a bit more oompf. It’s a lot of moping, and while we do get insight in Steven’s grief processes, I think it could’ve gone even further. Make it a bit more desperate.
Right now, "The Cold Equations" has a lot on its plate, but limited time to do it all. What’s there is definitely good, but a jack of all trades is a master of none. A bit more time could’ve given each of these aspects the depth they needed, which could've lead to something really special. Still, what’s there now is still good and it has plenty of likeable moments. Worth a listen.
The First Wave
The last part of the Oliver Harper trilogy. Sadly, it seems the story now finally has found what it wants to talk about.
The party lands on the spaceship “Grace Alone”, which the previous story hinted at. They find the crew of the spaceship electrocuted and discover that Vardans, aliens consisting purely of energy, have infiltrated the ship and are planning an invasion. Can they stop these radiowave rascals?
What’s noticeable at the start of this story is the incredible amount of similarity to the last story, The Cold Equations. The setup is the exact same. Oliver and Steven are separated from the Doctor with not chance of rescue and discuss their plan of action while also doing a flashback. I know it’s not an unheard of presentation, but two stories in one trilogy do the exact same thing in a row. It almost feels like self-plagiarism.
Besides that little oddity, this feels like the story that finally knows what it wanted to do with it’s character and setting. Just in time for it to not matter anymore, since we're out of time. This is the story that finally talks about that awkward moment at the end of Daleks’ Master Plan. This is the story where the grief in Steven and the Doctor is most pronounced. This story finally decides what role Oliver takes in this new dynamic.
And sure, I’m glad this storyline finally found it’s footing, but it’s just too late to be satisfying. All this stuff should’ve been established in part 1. Because right now, it has to do so much setup and course correction that it barely has any room to resolve it all.
We start off with the party registering themselves as criminals in the computer system. A detail that is necessary to make the last story happen. Time travel. After this, we quickly meet with the Vardans, a noncorporeal species feeding on any kind of energy wave, like radiowaves or brainwaves. They quickly capture the Doctor and read his mind before killing him. Steven and Oliver escape.
The death of the Doctor allows Steven to confide in Oliver about how it all feels meaningless sometimes. He repeats the statement from last time, where he mentions that “Every time they get out of the Tardis, the odds of them coming back becomes slimmer”. They also finally talk about the Doctor’s embrace of victory in Daleks’ Master Plan. It’s well written, but as mentioned, we’re in part 3/3. This all comes too late for us to really explore.
At the tail end of the story, it turns out the Doctor is still alive and the Vardans are defeated. But there’s some bad news. The report they registered themselves in stated that the Doctor, Steven and Oliver died in this location. Steven and the Doctor accept this as their fate, while Oliver objects.
This is where that lack of time for resolution comes into play. A few things hold this scene back. First off, why would a sentence in a report be objectively true? Could it not be a mistake? Yes, the screen in the future mentioned they were dead, but they were alive in the future to read that screen. There’s really no reason to make the report come true. It's paradoxical.
Second is the overall approach of the Doctor. It has always been the case that this Doctor is against changing history. That is believable. But we’ve only seen this happen in the past. It has never translated to the future. The Doctor has interfered with Daleks on 3 occasions. The Doctor has saved Marinus, the Rills and countless other planets and people. The general rule has always been that it’s fair game, as long as it happens in the future. So why is that rule out of the window now?
In Steven’s case it is understandable. He has a huge amount of survivor’s guilt and has condemned himself to death for a while. I believe he would be willing to sacrifice himself. But we have not had the same insight in the doctor and the excuse of not changing time is incredibly flimsy when compared to the entire approach the story has had until now.
The story should have centered around this moment. This self-sacrifice out of sheer depression. But it didn’t have the time to do it right, because it had to patch up the holes the last 2 stories left. So this decision is left to 5 minutes in the stories hour long runtime.
Because of it’s short length, this now feels like nothing except a quick way to get rid of Oliver. His sacrifice is reduced from a heroic moment of salvation to a random act that seemingly happened in a minute. Oliver didn’t want all of them to die, so just died himself on a whim.
In my eyes, it’s a weak conclusion to a weak trilogy. It ends now that it has finally found its footing. We finally get to a point where we could go somewhere with the premise of exploring the party’s grief. The bridge to deeper character exploration is built. Only to immediately explode, having served no purpose.
The Oliver Harper trilogy could have been something truly special, but it spent so much time dawdling and skirting around it’s subject that it has no time left to meaningfully explore its genuinely interesting themes. Right now, it has given us some insight in Steven, but has no time to look at that insight on a deeper level. It could've been so much more.
Helmstone
A pretty generic story. You’ve heard this setup a million times before, but here it is again.
The Doctor and Steven have landed on an interesting spaceship called “Not-Home”, which is made out of an hollowed out asteroid. Within the ship is a giant natural world which is completely unaware of the spaceship and its inner workings. Sadly, this ship has also drawn energy away from the Tardis, forcing Steven and the Doctor to hang around for a while. The Doctor spends this free time painting scenery, while Steven decides to meet with the locals. A moment of respite after tough days.
After staying for a while, Steven regularly meets up with Korra. A young woman who one day gets picked as a “chosen one” by the god of her civilization. And that's where it all falls apart. Now it's a sacrifice story to a mysterious god. A concept that has been done to death even within this very show. You immediately know what to expect the moment she gets chosen. The people will rejoice, but something will feel wrong. She suddenly will have to be sacrificed and so on and so on. And this story follows that path like any others would. There’s no real subversion of the trope.
It clearly tries to go for more in certain places, like hinting at a possible romance between Korra and Steven, which doesn't really land. Or by bringing up a onflict between the Doctor and Steven. They discuss when interfering with time is justified and when they should just back away. I appreciate that the story tries to tackle interference in a future context, since other stories tend to ignore discussions around that ("The First Wave" comes to mind).
But the explanation we get here is short and doesn’t actually clear anything up. It’s mostly there to set up a conflict and nothing more, which is a shame. In the end, the predictable conclusion is reached and our party moves on.
Helmstone is a story you’ve heard before, which isn’t a crime, but that makes it incredibly predictable. Nothing is really gained from listening to this story. No character moments, no new concepts and no new threats. It is filler. Harmless filler, but filler nonetheless. It lacks a life of its own.
Peace in Our Time
A story that does some things right, some things wrong and some things decently, which adds up to a package that can be labeled as “Okay”.
The story focuses on a maid called Ruby, who works for the mysterious Gledhill family. This family sometimes shows odd behavior, like freezing in time. Everything becomes clear, however, when the Doctor and Steven arrive.
This story is a bit of an outside perspective. A Doctor Who adventure where we have the perspective of the side cast. Luckily, the maid Ruby is a pretty interesting woman with a sharp and pragmatic mind, which helps our enjoyment.
The overall threat, though, is a bit too half baked for my liking. We see exactly 2 of the weird family behaviors before we get definitive proof that they’re aliens. They once freeze in time and once walked into a room together. I would prefer something a bit meatier than that.
Their plan is also a bit too vague, though that might be because I’m not that familiar with English history. The evil family tries to steal the plans for a warship called the “Dreadnought”, which I know nothing about. The explanation in the story is also pretty meager, however, so I felt a little left behind when we get this big revelation. Apparently stealing the blueprints for the Dreadnought would crumble the arms race between humans, which will lead to weaker weapons in the long run. Sure, I’ll take your word for it, story.
But yeah, it kind of strikes a middle ground. The villains and their plan are pretty weak, but the side character and her interactions with the party are really enjoyable. That adds up to a story that’s pretty middle of the road. By no means bad, but could’ve been a bit more fulfilling if there was an actual threat.
Out of the Deep
Continuing our unexpected string of 5/10 short stories with "Out of the Deep". A story with loads of great ideas, but a presentation that doesn’t make them shine.
The Doctor and Steven land in Mesopotamia in the 1850’s, the site of one of the first human cities. They are just in time to meet with it’s discoverer, Professor Wood. However, something might be lurking within the city ruins….
A fairly standard setup, but with a lot of potential. The monster within turns out to be a locked-up alien which wants to push human progress by giving them weapons from the future. He’s never seen, but could be freed if the party breaks the seal that hold him.
The Doctor is reluctant. What good would more weapons do. The professor, however, takes the bait. This is where all the interesting questions start to rise. Two in particular come up:
The seal is ancient, but the professor still partially breaks it for queen and country. Should loyalty to one’s country be above scientific knowledge?
What good would future weapons bring? Yes, they can put one party ahead of another, but would it not lead to ruling through fear? Would that fear benefit the human species?
Yet exploration of these questions are left to the wayside. Soon after these questions start to pop up, a third force interferes and locks the creature and himself away forever. Ending the story.
And that’s a massive shame on loads of fronts. The creature gets stopped before we really see more of its true nature. Making what the story describes as a “terrifying encounter” fall flat. We were just getting started. The professor, meanwhile, never gets the chance to take a stand for either science or his country. The Doctor never gets the chance to discuss the ramifications of ruling through fear, even though he was clearly leading up to that. It all stops too early to be interesting.
Yet I don’t think the story should be longer. It should just be harder and faster. If it were me, I would immediately push the creature as a massive threat. Think Lovecraftian. Inexplicable, unexplainable. Raise the fear. Then, add in the allure of future weapons. Show future victory after victory with no end in sight. Make it truly seem perfect. Make it high risk, high reward.
And then push the 2 main questions in the story. And make to make the professor answer them clearly. No third party to give an easy out. No cutoff from the Doctor’s speech. There is room for ambivalence in some stories, but I think this one would stand stronger with a message. Anything to make this story more decisive. Make it count.
Of course, I’m not saying I could do better. But I think this story is slowly building up to something special, until it suddenly quits and calls it a day. And I really want to see what the story could talk about. Right now, it feels like it hits around 40% before it stops. So show me 200%!
Out of the Deep is not bad as it is now, but its just very flat. It is preparation for a second half that literally caves in. It has loads of potential to do something unique, but it just stops when it’s getting there. It’s like a sentence that leaves out the last
O Tannenbaum
Babe, wake up. It’s time for your third Hartnell Christmas special.
I don’t know why everyone keeps putting this Doctor and Steven in Christmas specials, but I’m all for it. Hartnell famously described his Doctor as a combination of the Wizard of Oz and Father Christmas, so let’s capitalize on that interpretation and enter some winter wonderlands.
The Doctor and Steven step outside the Tardis to discover a tranquil, snowy landscape. Straight off of a Christmas card. After taking in the sights and smelling the pines, they head towards the only sign of life: A small cottage with the lights on.
Inside the house, they discover a young girl and her sickly grandfather. The father of the girl has gone out and is missing, but that’s the least of their worries as the house suddenly gets surrounded by Christmas trees.
It’s a simple story with a heartwarming ending. What you expect from a holiday special. A bit predictable in places, maybe, but presented well. A particular highlight of that presentation is the music, which goes for a combination of chiptune and Christmas music. It does loads for the cold, mysterious, yet heartwarming and jolly tone the story has throughout.
But what truly makes this story interesting, is that it does remember what characters it contains. It doesn’t shy away from the current relationship Steven and the Doctor have, which is less than friendly. After everything that has happened, they've both run out of patience for a while now. They bicker to the point of insults and are at least 50% dysfunctional, yet the narrative accommodates this dynamic and still manages to make it a sweet story when all is said and done.
It's also surprisingly funny. It isn’t often these stories make me audibly laugh, yet this short trip managed it three times. Stuff like the Doctor saying that a man with a tree for an arm should become a “branch manager” just got to me. Maybe I’m just easy to please.
But the jokes never clash with the tone. There’s still a serious tale behind it all and the story knows when it can afford to be light and when it shouldn’t. It takes its own threat seriously.
Although, despite doing a lot of things very well, I wouldn’t consider it perfect. There’s few too many moments where we just keep moving in and out of the small cottage, which drags down the pace. Especially when the grandfather is involved. But to be honest, I don’t have it in me to hate in this story any more than that. I’m no Scrooge. It’s charm easily carries it over those hiccups and its relatively short length makes it so that this story is never actually boring or tedious.
O Tannenbaum oozes charm, but is still very aware of its main characters and its position in the show, which is genuinely admirable. It’s light, sincere and heartwarming. I already have it lined up for a relisten at Christmas, and I suggest you do the same. So far, it’s easily the best Christmas special.
The Vardan Invasion of Mirth
You can love this story, you can hate this story, but one thing is indisputable: That title is a work of art.
The Doctor and Steven land in a place that looks exactly like earth, except there seems to be no breathable atmosphere. The Doctor goes to check it out, but doesn't return. After a while, Steven goes after him. Only to find himself in a BBC studio in 1956. What’s happening? And where’s the Doctor?
What surprised me in this story is our one-time character. After a bit of initial exploring, Steven meets up with Teddy Baxter, a comedian. If you know Doctor Who, this is where they would normally drop the ball. Giving him accents, making him the epitome of pantomime and hoping to squeeze in some quick laughs at all costs.
The surprise is that he totally isn’t any of that. Teddy is a comedian who has just lost his double act in an ever-changing media landscape. He has worries about being able to make it on his own. He has worries about television as a medium. He is quippy, but also genuine, educated and has passions. It surprised me how well rounded he was. He jokes to hide his deeper character.
And that vulnerability matches nicely with our Steven, who is fairly stoic and a bit grumbly at this point in time. He makes for a very natural straight man. I kind of wish they took time to deepen this bond. But the story has other plans.
After this very well done setup of a new comedic duo, the story shifts directions hard and kind of unnaturally. While Steven and Teddy are practicing, they discover a door to a spaceship called the Mediasphere, where they enter Teddy’s past.
This is where it drops the ball in my eyes. This shift in tone and setting is so hard it feels unnatural. I have listened to the second part of this story 4 separate times, because it’s a lot of barely cohesive events stitched together. Let me describe it to you. Full spoilers. Because this is the only way I can find any kind of structure in this story. I’m 50% doing this for review. And 50% doing this to finally get a grip on what’s going on here.
Without repeating the details, Steven and Teddy are stuck in a recreation of Manchester from Teddy’s past. It’s filled with comedians. They enter a house and find a girl laughing non-stop until she transforms into electricity. This is where the Vardans are revealed as the villains.
Steven and Teddy manage a short conversation with the Doctor through a television. After that, Manchester fades and it turns into a spaceship. Teddy tries to open a door, but it instead shows him his future as a successful solo TV comedian.
This is already a lot of info for half an hour. We are thoroughly introduced to a setting, only for it to suddenly fade. We meet Vardans for 10 seconds and now we have introduced elements of time travel to this story. That’s not even mentioning detailed stuff this story puts in, like how the Vardans edit video signals, how Steven got separated from the Doctor, Teddy’s fading in and out of existence, what happened to Teddy’s double act. All that these threads get stuffed in and it is just a mess. It’s an info dump. It’s a story with too many ideas for half an hour, so it has to rush through all explanations at record speed.
Want to know the fun part? We don’t even know the villain’s plan yet. So add that to the pile. It turns out the Vardans had a plan to turn humans into Vardans by infecting them with a disease that reacts to laughing. A literal “laughing is contagious” plot. The spaceship they’re on is made to find the perfect comedy routine to take over the earth.
Except the ship is faulty. The Vardans can’t use it anymore, because there is a negative waveform that cancels them out. It turns out this anti-wavefrom is Stan, Teddy’s former double-act, who transformed into the waveform when looking through a telescope. No, I don’t know why looking through a telescope turns you into anti-radio waves. At this point, just roll with it.
The second problem for the Vardans is that Teddy has now seen his own future in the spaceship, which turns the entire place into a paradox where Teddy can’t be killed. Time travel. The Vardan, however, kills him anyway. But the paradox allows Steven to bring him back by repeating their routine together. Again, at this point, just roll with it.
But, surprise surprise. Bringing back Teddy also brought back his buddy Stan, who sacrifices himself to make the future come to pass and destroy the Vardans. We look at Saturn with Teddy for a bit, until the story abruptly ends.
At this point in time, I’m considering life as an alcoholic. I look back at this story and wonder what happened. We had a fun tale about Steven and a comedian, but the second half turned into pure script goop. I believe this to be shockingly incomprehensible on first listen. It’s like a foreign language. Only on repeat listen can you get the gist of the chaos before you.
But let’s look at the details. First, the villains. The Vardans are the main antagonists in this story and I believe them to be a bad choice. Why? Because their previous encounter with Steven and the First Doctor killed a companion. They were mind-reading, unkillable threats. But now we’re supposed to buy this plot filled with an arbitrary use of comedy to kill all humans. It’s like a crocodile putting on clown make-up. You wonder what went wrong in that creature’s life.
A fair critique would be to point to other encounters with the Vardans and their portrayal there. I know that, eventually, they show up on TV. Maybe this story completely matches their MO from there. But currently, I don’t have the luxury to compare that. I only have what’s given to me with the First Doctor, which is 1 story where they are entirely different creatures. A story that, like this one, takes place in the Companion Chronicles range. I would’ve appreciated a bit more consistency. But that might be me.
A second point would be the giant plot contrivances that fill this story to the brim. I genuinely don’t think I have to point them out any further. I think they show themselves well enough in my summary. But to be sure I make my point: Why do the Vardans have time travel technology that can show the future? Why can this Vardan enter a spaceship that others can’t? Why is Teddy the key to entering the spaceship? Why does the Spaceship initially look like Manchester? How does looking through a telescope turn you into radio waves? How did the Doctor move Steven away from the spaceship? For that matter, how are they going to get Teddy back if the Doctor can’t fly the Tardis? These are just the questions that popped out off the top of my head. I’m sure I could keep going if I wanted to.
But frankly, I don’t want to. I’m done. I’ve been deciphering this story for weeks now and I don’t want to see it anymore. I only have one question left. And it’s genuine:
What happened here?
There was a beautiful, emotional and simple story in the first half hour of this. But as soon as we enter the second half, it’s all gone. It’s replaced with a mess. I genuinely want to know what happened between these 2 parts. Is it because there are 2 writers? Did they have different ideas? Did they write themselves in a corner? I wish we had some answers there.
But we don’t. We just have this story. And I wish I loved it. Teddy was so well written, he could have been a companion. Steven is put in new places and it's a joy. But in the end, it feels like the title of this story came first. We had a plan for Vardans and Mirth, but the story fails to deliver on either. No joy. No “real” Vardans. The only thing it delivers is the one aspect that a story should never have: Loads of missed potential.
The Massacre
A surprisingly strong historical tale! Combining drama with character and just a drop of main character development. But what a drop it is!
The Doctor and Steven land in Paris, 1572. Where conflict between the Catholics and Huguenots is driving the country towards breaking point. They arrive in the calm before the storm, before they get split up.
This episode is one of the currently lost episodes in season 3. Your options for watching it are limited. Considering the ending section of this story, it would be a shame to read this. It is very performance heavy and those performances are worth hearing. That leaves you with either the Narrated Soundtrack, or the Loose Cannon Reconstruction. In this case, the Reconstruction is very visually solid, so I would take that route. Anyway, on to the review:
Let’s talk about our main characters first. For the Doctor and Steven, this is the story that reaffirms that their dynamic has changed. From the moment Katarina got shot out of an airlock a few episodes back, the pressure was put on their companionship. The Doctor’s victory speech at the end of Daleks’ Master Plan dealt the finishing blow: It’s not about the fun anymore.
In audio, we’ve continued this strain on the relationship. While the Doctor and Steven trust each other, they can’t get used to their new 2 person dynamic. Especially since they have some big moral differences and traumatic events behind them. There is a constant distance. They try to keep up a superficial relationship, but it only leads to constant insults.
It's fundamentally broken: The Doctor can’t trust that Steven keeps up with his plans and ideas, while Steven can’t trust on the Doctor to do the right thing.
Why do I bring all this up here? Because this story makes them give up. This story is Steven once again not being involved in the Doctor’s ideas. He disappears after episodes 1 and only returns in episode 4. At the same time, when he finally shows up, he immediately flees for the Tardis and leaves a young woman behind. Nothing has changed.
This makes Steven give up on him and leave. Leading to the pretty famous “They’re all gone” speech. The beauty of the Doctors' speech is not in the incredible vulnerability he shows, but in the fact that he still completely misses the point. It isn’t about companions who couldn’t understand him. It’s about them expecting more from the Doctor, and him not willing to live up to it. He is not a hero and he doesn’t think he can be. It goes against his principles to interfere in history. So what does that make him? Who is the Doctor? Is all this travelling really worth it?
It's a beautiful, beautiful piece that was sorely needed. After these last few stories, the Doctor begins to look like a bad guy. Leaving people behind without a care or consideration. This speech turn the black outline into morally grey. It’s not malice, it’s fear and misunderstanding of himself. A man who always chooses the flight response when it comes to fight or flight, because he cannot bear the weight of a fight. If you start fighting, when does the fighting ever stop?
After almost 60 years, we probably start to understand it a little. The Doctor is right. The companions couldn’t understand the massive will it takes to start a never-ending fight. How many incarnations have begged for a break? An end to the fighting? That starts here. This Doctor has gained a morality in the last two seasons. He knows good from bad. He knows there are things in the universe worth protecting. He just isn’t ready to be the protector that others want him to be. He sees the burden he'll have to carry if he decides to step in.
Let’s stop right there for now. Otherwise I’ll keep gushing for hours. Just know that these 10 minutes might already be the most important event that happens in this entire season. But I should probably start talking about the other 90 as well.
I’ve mentioned before that the most important part of a dramatic historical is making us care about the characters it present. This story mostly succeeds on that front. An interesting change is that, without the Doctor, Steven becomes a very central part of the drama as well. He’s not some bystander or observer of history, he’s completely engulfed between the two factions.
Other members of those factions, sadly, aren’t as interesting. Maybe it would’ve helped if we had some sliver of footage, but that’s speculation. The problem is that there are probably too many people around. We have 14 important named characters to keep track of, and that can be too many. Their interpersonal relations become a bit muddled at times. Still, they do have their moments. And while I can’t remember all their names, I can remember most of the personalities.
Besides that, it still wasn’t entirely clear to me how the Massacre actually came to be. For example, it was pretty clear the queen was involved, but I don’t know in what way or exactly why. I wish some of the interpersonal banter had a bit more historical meat to it, so the main event became a bit more “looming”.
But even with these small trip-ups there’s plenty to love here. The introductory scenes in the bar are great character work and know how to set the scene for the entire city of Paris. Great use of location. There are also some really memorable scenes. Especially when Steven flees from a mob, which lands even though we have no footage. The story succeeds overall as well. While details might be missing here and there, the genral conflict and reasons for conflict are pretty clear. The important parts hit.
Having said that, I would have loved more details. I think they would have raised the story to a higher level. Why does the priest look like the Doctor? Where was the Doctor anyway? Where is Preslin, the man who was with the Doctor? Add to that the earlier questions about the exact nature of the massacre, and I feel like this story could have had a tad more meat on its bones. It certainly had the time to answer these questions.
Other than that, we have a new companion to talk about. Throughout the story Steven is accompanied by a girl named Anne Chaplet, who eventually gets left behind in the Massacre. She survives, however, and we meet her great great great great granddaughter Dodo Chaplet.
What’s interesting about Dodo is that we know nothing about her. We know her name and she looks like Susan. That’s it. No year, no likes, dislikes, personality, anything. You can take this 2 ways. Either it’s bad because she should’ve been presented more carefully, or she was presented this way for a reason.
Dodo is the most randomly aquired companion up to this point. She stomps into the police box and is kidnapped shortly after. The Doctor mentions how she looks like Susan and has a smile on his face. Dodo doesn’t seem to care about any of it.
I think the Doctor sees Dodo as a way to recapture his glory days. His days of a grandfatherly traveller. A way to grab towards something familiar. It does not matter who Dodo is. It only matters what she reminds him of. A potential tool for better travels. Let’s see how this turns out in the long run.
Steven’s reason for returning is less solid. He did not know about Dodo, but he joined after he saw officers heading towards the Tardis. Apparently some part of him still cares the Doctor, but details are vague. I hope future stories go into this reason for return some more. For now, we have a new party of three, consisting of 2 dysfunctional individuals, a random third person and a lot of room for moral discussions. I can’t wait to see where it goes.
“The Massacre” is, apparently, a tale of two halves. That kind of surprised me. Those last 10 minutes do a lot and are beautiful, but you can’t judge a story purely on that. Besides it stands a well crafted and well realized world with its own characters and events. Some of those characters and events could use more focus, but what’s there is still great. This makes for an overall solid adventure which could lead to all kinds of things in the future. An absolute classic.
The Ark
A story with some clever ideas and a strong identity, but that doesn’t make it an automatic masterpiece.
The Doctor, Steven and new companion Dodo land in a weird jungle landscape. They soon discover they are on a spaceship that has collected all of earth’s population and is on its way to a new home. But it seems Dodo wasn’t the only new companion aboard the Tardis. There’s something living in her nose….
Structurally, this story is split right through the middle. We have one plot in the first two episodes and another in the last two. Between the two plots, the tardis has travelled 700 years into the future. I love this idea. It allows for great worldbuilding around a location, since we’ve seen it in different times. But from a practical point of view, it is also a great excuse to get more out of the used sets and locations. If used well, I can only see benefits. I wouldn’t mind it if Doctor Who tries this approach more often.
After leaving the jungle, the party discovers the crew of the spaceship. They have shrunk the entire population, except for themselves. Allowing them to easily move a large quantity of life to their new home.
The crew does not only consist of humans, however. With them are the Monoids, who basically serve as slaves. We’ll come back to them later.
Problems arise however, when we discover that Dodo is sick and has brought germs with her on the spaceship. Since the advanced human civilization has long wiped out the common cold, they have absolutely no resistance to it. Both human and Monoids quickly fall ill, and the party is blamed for the sickness. After a bit of back and forth, the Doctor saves the day by killing the virus. Big party moment. Soon after, the party takes off again.
On its own, this story is fine. The threat of a viral infection is interesting and all the setup is done well (Although I wish we could've had a small nod to Preslin from last time, since he discovered germs). The problem lies mostly in the back and forth that follows. You might’ve noticed that in my short summary, I jumped pretty quickly from problem to eventual solution. That’s because not much happens in between those moments. It’s the usual “can we trust them?” shenanigans you’ve definitely seen before. And that’s pretty boring.
There’s one moment in the bickering that doesn’t quite sit right with me, however. Eventually, the fate of the party is put to a vote. And the crew votes to throw them off the spaceship. I am heavily resisting an Among Us joke. But this vote is overruled when the sick leader comes on the speaker and announces that they should just let the Doctor solve the problem. All of them quickly accept this.
I can’t say that I really like the implications of that moment. That the ideas of one leader overrule the vote of the majority. There might be some elements of mob mentality in the vote, and I think that could be tackled, but I don’t think having one leader announce his opinion is the right way to go about it. I realize I’m probably thinking too deep about it, but it felt very off when I was watching it. Maybe if the leader had made a stronger case about the trusting nature of humans, or if he called for a revote after his plea, I wouldn’t feel so irked.
Other than that, the story is fine. An original threat and a cool location. The only real problem is the dawdling in the story and maybe the resolution.
So, with our party once again celebrated as heroes, we leave for the Tardis, only to end up in the same location again. But how much time have we covered? An answer is soon presented thanks to a giant statue the humans were building. It was supposed to be finished when they were nearing the new planet, and it is now done! So we should be close to the end. Except for one little oddity: The statue does not look like the original human design. It looks like a Monoid.
So what happened in those 700 years? Well, apparently Dodo’s viral infection had some long term consequences, which allowed the Monoids an opening to take over the ship and reverse the roles. The humans are now the slaves.
Like I mentioned previously, I like this way of storytelling. It builds up the location. And the information about the statue we got in the first part servers as a solid connector between the two parts. It is a fun setpiece.
But sadly, it although the concept is solid, I don’t love the execution. The Monoids are bad and push the party around while we land on the new planet. A planet inhabited by an incorporeal species that is very welcoming and has even build homes for the new inhabitants of their planet. But the incoporeals are worried that the new inhabitants will be violent. Which makes the Doctor and co immediately vouch for the human race as the worthy creatures to live in this new land.
And that, again, doesn’t sit right with me. The Monoids are currently in charge, yes. But in the past, they were enslaved by the humans. So why are the humans presented as a more peaceful option, when they have done the exact same thing as the Monoids. On top of that, it was only in the previous episode that we almost saw them throw innocent people into space because of mob mentality. So why is it so easy to accept them as the initially superior survivors on the planet?
One of the reasons I’m so hung up on this, is that we’ve seen similar concepts before. Think back to “The Sensorites” where the doctor was a diplomatic mediator between the humans and the alien Sensorites. Looking to cover both sides and make the right arrangements for both to thrive. A similar solution is not found here. For 99% of the story it is “Monoid bad, human good”. It is only at the end that the Doctor mentions that both should live in peace together. Which is way too late and basically a footnote.
What I would’ve liked is a more similarity between the two species. In the first part of the story, the enslavement of the Monoids is barely touched upon. It is accepted and not questioned. It is only when the roles are reversed, that it becomes a problem.
But let’s be real, we’ve seen these humans in the past. They were dicks. They tried to throw innocent people into space. Several of them were clearly malicious during the trial as well. They were never perfect. So let’s make slavery a problem in both halves. Show that both sides aren’t perfect and make the similarities more obvious. Make them use the same weapons against each other. Make them degrade and look down on each other. Hell, make it so the humans can only speak using sign language, just like the Monoids in the past. Make it completely equal.
Then, in the second part of the story, you can talk about how slavery is always bad. That revenge can be understandable, but that cruelty against cruelty is the wrong approach. I know that might sound ambitious for 60s Doctor Who, but I would not mention it if I didn’t think it would be realistic. Similar topics have been tackled. Again, look at the Sensorites, or the incredibly flawed Galaxy 4. Tackling topics like this has been part of the show since the start, even if it is sometimes flawed. I wish it had been done here, because now the story looks incredibly hypocritical.
It's not like there isn’t time to do this properly either. Like the first part of this story, the second part can also feel really padded in places. Just moping around on location without getting to the point. At times, it feels slower than “The Massacre”, which currently can only be watched as a series of stills.
On the character side, things are a bit more interesting. The one-off cast isn’t that noteworthy, but we get some fun moments with our party. Mostly revolving around Dodo.
Both the Doctor and Steven get pushed into a more parental role. The Doctor because he wants to, Steven because he has to. Steven is now a worn traveller with loads of experience under his belt. Meanwhile Dodo is kind of oblivious. It’s an okay dynamic for now. But I do hope we get to a bit more fallout from the last few stories. This currently feels very temporary.
The Doctor, on the other hand, tries to be a grandfather again. But it isn’t as warm and loving as it was with Vicki. He’s a bit more hardened. A bit sterner. He’s clearly trying, but most of the time, it’s just complaining. Yet sometimes he gets it exactly right, which makes it feel like he’s not being mean, but unsure. Again, let’s see what the future brings.
As for Dodo herself, if I had to describe her in one word, it would be “oblivious”. She doesn’t seem to care about what’s going on and isn’t easily impressed. Still very two dimensional. Like I said last time, that might be the point, but I need a bit more time to pin her down.
And that’s all “The Ark” has for us. A clever concept with a mediocre main story and some story points that just keep gnawing at you. It could’ve been more, but I don’t consider this one to be all that bad. It’s just not all that good either. For the characters, this feels like a midpoint. For the viewers, it mostly feels like a mediocre break from the darker elements.
The Celestial Toymaker
What does it mean to be young?
Poet Samuel Ullman once wrote that being young is a state of mind created by imagination. That being young means choosing courage and adventure over a love of ease. We only grow old by deserting the ideals of comfort.
Having said that, should we desire to be young? From a societal perspective, the loss of youth is always a focal point. Look at advertisements around you for every possible solution to stay young as long as you can. Youth is not only the world of imagination or the world of adventure. Youth is the memory of days when everything looked better.
So think back to all those ads for anti-aging creams, sprays, massages. Those hook themselves on an innate human desire. Not to look young, but to feel young. To be in the days where everything was better. We want things to be better, so we want to feel young again.
At the same time, being young means exclusion. There is a gap between our human society and the kids. Kids take a different role in society than grown-ups do. Kids are in possession of the youth that many desire. A world of budding potential and wonder for everything around them. An innate curiousity that can never be regained when lost.
But we don’t consider our world safe for that curiousity. We fear dangers of all kinds. Dangers exists, and while we grown-ups know how to deal with that, we don’t want our kids to. Not yet. We don’t want fear to rule their lives. We shield them from the bad in hope that happiness and safety may rule their lives for just a little while longer.
But what does that do to that curiousity? We want kids to wonder about the world, but on the terms of adults. Safely. We will pick out what to learn, kids. So you just follow along. This reverberates throughout the life of a child. We even go so far as to create artificial, small scale societies for them to practice in.
The concept of “Active Citizenship” is part of many schools across the world. Sometimes it is seen as its own subject. Sometimes it is seen as an inherent part of education. Schools often mention in their curricula how the little world they set up is a “Small scale version of society”. The idea is that this lets children prep and learn in a safe environment before going into the harsh reality. Again, the idea that children take up a different role in society prevails. It's unnatural for children to be in our adult world without practice.
A little heads up: I listened to all of these in a row before reviewing, so I might reference some of the other parts that are coming up when relevant. I usually don’t do this, but reviewing Daleks’ Master Plan took a lot of time and I needed a break :p.
The Doctor and Steven are reflecting on the event of Daleks’ Master Plan, when the tardis suddenly gets dragged to the 1960s by a mysterious force. The Doctor and Steven see this as an opportunity to meet up with Ian and Barbara and regain their bearings after DMP. They quickly get sidetracked, however, when they spot a weird mushroom man in a business suit. After investigating for a bit, they meet up with Oliver Harper, a young business broker who helps them along the way.
First things first. The story starts off with both Steven and the Doctor in a depressed state. Which is fitting after the last story, but I believe it fundamentally misrepresents the ending that actually took place. It paints a picture of both the Doctor and Steven mourning the events immediately after they happen, but that was very clearly not what happened on screen. It ignores the interesting part, where the Doctor smiles and celebrates and instead decides both of them were sad from the start. That’s a huge loss of nuance, which kind of matters when you want to do a sequel story which explores the consequences of that ending.
What’s interesting is that the third story in this trilogy does refer to this. But at that point it’s too late to really focus on that piece of information. But we’ll talk about that when we get there.
In the current story, the Doctor and Steven are both in a period of grief. There are constant little remarks about how Steven could just be the next one on the list. How he’s on borrowed time with the Doctor. Which is interesting if you keep in mind that a change in companions was still a pretty new concept when Steven was around. Steven was the fifth companion ever. The template was still frail.
But enough of that, we do have a plot to solve! Basically, a number of mushroom people have entered the stock market and are looking to trade. What are they looking for? Human slaves. Ain’t that grand. Sadly, and a bit confusingly, they do have the proper papers from galactic law to make these kinds of deal and take random humans away from their home. So they're lawfully in the clear.
And that’s where the story gets a bit odd. Because what’s galactic law? It seems to be both understood by the mushroom people and the Doctor, but not by Steven. Yet at the same time we have a human ambassador from the 60s who actually signed those papers. So it’s something earth knows about?
And similar small problems like this keep me from enjoying this story. It keeps the rules it uses secret until you need to know, yet at the same time it wants to talk about changing those rules. Imagine if you’re trying to describe rocket science to someone who doesn’t even know what the sky is. That’s what it feels like. It knows what it is on about, but doesn’t think of taking the audience by the hand. We have a scene where Steven defeats a group of mushroom people by humming the Beatles. Why does that work? No clue! The story doesn't bother explaining it. It just tells us it works and leaves it at that.
At the same time the story has problems connecting its real-world economics theme with the sci-fi shenanigans. Sometimes it focuses on one, and sometimes on the other, but when the two themes meet, it quickly becomes a mess. Hearing a giant mushroom man yell about fungibility is not the most appealing.
What could’ve worked instead would be a closer connection between the monsters and the economics. Right now, they’re mushrooms, but why? What makes this whole scenario so mushroom like? Why not something more fitting, like literal loan sharks or monsters who use our money as food? Something that would make more sense in the current setting. That would make it easier for us to understand the motivation of the opposite side, which in turn can be used to bridge the gap between the two themes.
Besides all this, it’s worth noting that I haven’t mentioned new companion Oliver Harper once. That’s because he’s mostly just along for the ride without establishing himself. We know 2 things about him after this: He is a businessman and has a secret. That not the most expansive portfolio to start off with. Hopefully other stories take it a bit further.
And that’s “The Perpetual Bond” has to offer. It follows its own story rules, but doesn’t bother explaining those. It has a new companion, but barely gives him a chance to establish himself. It tries to balance the real and the surreal, but lacks connection between the two. And to top it off, it also massively misinterprets the ending of Daleks’ Master Plan. After all that, there’s really not much to like. Is it the worst? No, it touches on some themes that are worth exploring and has solid sound design with the 60s setting. but overall, it fails way more than it succeeds. Let’s hope the later stories pick up the slack.
The Cold Equations
7/10
The Doctor, Steven and new companion Oliver land on a salvaging spaceship during a dark age of the universe. The ship has placed itself right between large amounts of debris, while mining on the planet below. Problems arise, however, when that planet turns out the be earth…
This is a story that has a lot of stuff going on under the hood. It tries to tackle a lot of subjects: The grief of the Doctor and Steven, what makes someone a human, the science of space, who is Oliver and what is his secret?
And that’s a fair bit of ambition. Let’s talk through them. First, we have the grief aspect. We mostly focus on the grief Steven feels in his episode. He copes with his losses by taking a scientific approach, something he learned in the space academy. He describes space as an uncaring void. Not evil, not out to hurt you, just there. In the same way, he describes his current relationship with the Doctor: Every time we step out of those doors, our odds of returning become slimmer. It’s a grim approach, but fitting.
At the same time, we have someone who’s out of the loop here: Oliver. He comes a bit more into his own in this story. Sneaking in character beats which are subtly presented, but add up to a nice early personality. There’s also his secret, which he protects for quite a while. Steven and the Doctor are aware he’s hiding something, but it’s only when facing death that the truth finally comes out: Oliver is gay. Which isn’t a big deal to Steven at all! “Why would it be?” he proclaims while laughing. All the time he was worried for Oliver, yet in his eyes its something incredibly small. It’s a real bonding moment and a bit of lookback on our growth as humans throughout the years. We get better.
In the main story, we meet with space salvagers who collect human trash to look for usable parts. They sell the profitable stuff and toss the junk into space. This creates a huge web of garbage which could lead to a big domino effect if hit. Yet thorough calculations prevent this from happening.
The problem is that there are still humans living on earth, who now constantly get their stuff stolen. The salvage captain does not seem to worried about this and barely considers those people humans. After all, humans were creative juggernauts! How can those junk rats possibly be humans? It’s an interesting question on human nature.
But we don’t really have time for that, as one of the calculations goes wrong and the spaceship gets blown to pieces. This leaves Steven and Oliver stranded with very little air. This leads to the space calculations, which I won’t repeat in detail here. Just know they are complicated, go on for a while, and should probably be a bit more naturally integrated (In the interview afterwards, Guerrier admits he just copied an email he got from a professor). I have my problems with the explanations that are presented here. Mostly because it forgets to explain some small parts. Steven and Oliver are in this luckily airtight container, and Steven decides to use an air cannister to blast them towards the Tardis. So far so good. So he does this by making a hole in the ship and sticking his hand outside, then blowing air out of the cannister.
This raised some questions with me. I considered this unrealistic. I’ve seen movies. A hole in a spaceship immediately sucks everything out. A bare hand in space would explode from the pressure. After reading up on this, it turns out that Steven should be all right. Since the hole was adequately plugged, there would be no risk of air loss. And Steven’s hand would swell up, but could survive a few minutes in space.
So yay, I learned something new, but I can’t help but think this should’ve been in the story. The vacuum of space is described quite a few times and this story has a huge focus on scientific correctness. Why not keep going and describe the finer details of the process? In story form, it would be way more interesting than the information dump we got now.
Which leads me to a bit of an overarching point on all these subjects. Most of them could do with a little bit more time. The human nature aspect is barely touched. The scientific approach could be more expansively integrated. Oliver is in his second story out of 3 and only has the beginnings of a personality. Even the grief is something that could do with a bit more oompf. It’s a lot of moping, and while we do get insight in Steven’s grief processes, I think it could’ve gone even further. Make it a bit more desperate.
Right now, "The Cold Equations" has a lot on its plate, but limited time to do it all. What’s there is definitely good, but a jack of all trades is a master of none. A bit more time could’ve given each of these aspects the depth they needed, which could've lead to something really special. Still, what’s there now is still good and it has plenty of likeable moments. Worth a listen.
The First Wave
5/10
The party lands on the spaceship “Grace Alone”, which the previous story hinted at. They find the crew of the spaceship electrocuted and discover that Vardans, aliens consisting purely of energy, have infiltrated the ship and are planning an invasion. Can they stop these radiowave rascals?
What’s noticeable at the start of this story is the incredible amount of similarity to the last story, The Cold Equations. The setup is the exact same. Oliver and Steven are separated from the Doctor with not chance of rescue and discuss their plan of action while also doing a flashback. I know it’s not an unheard of presentation, but two stories in one trilogy do the exact same thing in a row. It almost feels like self-plagiarism.
Besides that little oddity, this feels like the story that finally knows what it wanted to do with it’s character and setting. Just in time for it to not matter anymore, since we're out of time. This is the story that finally talks about that awkward moment at the end of Daleks’ Master Plan. This is the story where the grief in Steven and the Doctor is most pronounced. This story finally decides what role Oliver takes in this new dynamic.
And sure, I’m glad this storyline finally found it’s footing, but it’s just too late to be satisfying. All this stuff should’ve been established in part 1. Because right now, it has to do so much setup and course correction that it barely has any room to resolve it all.
We start off with the party registering themselves as criminals in the computer system. A detail that is necessary to make the last story happen. Time travel. After this, we quickly meet with the Vardans, a noncorporeal species feeding on any kind of energy wave, like radiowaves or brainwaves. They quickly capture the Doctor and read his mind before killing him. Steven and Oliver escape.
The death of the Doctor allows Steven to confide in Oliver about how it all feels meaningless sometimes. He repeats the statement from last time, where he mentions that “Every time they get out of the Tardis, the odds of them coming back becomes slimmer”. They also finally talk about the Doctor’s embrace of victory in Daleks’ Master Plan. It’s well written, but as mentioned, we’re in part 3/3. This all comes too late for us to really explore.
At the tail end of the story, it turns out the Doctor is still alive and the Vardans are defeated. But there’s some bad news. The report they registered themselves in stated that the Doctor, Steven and Oliver died in this location. Steven and the Doctor accept this as their fate, while Oliver objects.
This is where that lack of time for resolution comes into play. A few things hold this scene back. First off, why would a sentence in a report be objectively true? Could it not be a mistake? Yes, the screen in the future mentioned they were dead, but they were alive in the future to read that screen. There’s really no reason to make the report come true. It's paradoxical.
Second is the overall approach of the Doctor. It has always been the case that this Doctor is against changing history. That is believable. But we’ve only seen this happen in the past. It has never translated to the future. The Doctor has interfered with Daleks on 3 occasions. The Doctor has saved Marinus, the Rills and countless other planets and people. The general rule has always been that it’s fair game, as long as it happens in the future. So why is that rule out of the window now?
In Steven’s case it is understandable. He has a huge amount of survivor’s guilt and has condemned himself to death for a while. I believe he would be willing to sacrifice himself. But we have not had the same insight in the doctor and the excuse of not changing time is incredibly flimsy when compared to the entire approach the story has had until now.
The story should have centered around this moment. This self-sacrifice out of sheer depression. But it didn’t have the time to do it right, because it had to patch up the holes the last 2 stories left. So this decision is left to 5 minutes in the stories hour long runtime.
Because of it’s short length, this now feels like nothing except a quick way to get rid of Oliver. His sacrifice is reduced from a heroic moment of salvation to a random act that seemingly happened in a minute. Oliver didn’t want all of them to die, so just died himself on a whim.
In my eyes, it’s a weak conclusion to a weak trilogy. It ends now that it has finally found its footing. We finally get to a point where we could go somewhere with the premise of exploring the party’s grief. The bridge to deeper character exploration is built. Only to immediately explode, having served no purpose.
The Oliver Harper trilogy could have been something truly special, but it spent so much time dawdling and skirting around it’s subject that it has no time left to meaningfully explore its genuinely interesting themes. Right now, it has given us some insight in Steven, but has no time to look at that insight on a deeper level. It could've been so much more.
Helmstone
5/10
The Doctor and Steven have landed on an interesting spaceship called “Not-Home”, which is made out of an hollowed out asteroid. Within the ship is a giant natural world which is completely unaware of the spaceship and its inner workings. Sadly, this ship has also drawn energy away from the Tardis, forcing Steven and the Doctor to hang around for a while. The Doctor spends this free time painting scenery, while Steven decides to meet with the locals. A moment of respite after tough days.
After staying for a while, Steven regularly meets up with Korra. A young woman who one day gets picked as a “chosen one” by the god of her civilization. And that's where it all falls apart. Now it's a sacrifice story to a mysterious god. A concept that has been done to death even within this very show. You immediately know what to expect the moment she gets chosen. The people will rejoice, but something will feel wrong. She suddenly will have to be sacrificed and so on and so on. And this story follows that path like any others would. There’s no real subversion of the trope.
It clearly tries to go for more in certain places, like hinting at a possible romance between Korra and Steven, which doesn't really land. Or by bringing up a onflict between the Doctor and Steven. They discuss when interfering with time is justified and when they should just back away. I appreciate that the story tries to tackle interference in a future context, since other stories tend to ignore discussions around that ("The First Wave" comes to mind).
But the explanation we get here is short and doesn’t actually clear anything up. It’s mostly there to set up a conflict and nothing more, which is a shame. In the end, the predictable conclusion is reached and our party moves on.
Helmstone is a story you’ve heard before, which isn’t a crime, but that makes it incredibly predictable. Nothing is really gained from listening to this story. No character moments, no new concepts and no new threats. It is filler. Harmless filler, but filler nonetheless. It lacks a life of its own.
Peace in Our Time
5/10
The story focuses on a maid called Ruby, who works for the mysterious Gledhill family. This family sometimes shows odd behavior, like freezing in time. Everything becomes clear, however, when the Doctor and Steven arrive.
This story is a bit of an outside perspective. A Doctor Who adventure where we have the perspective of the side cast. Luckily, the maid Ruby is a pretty interesting woman with a sharp and pragmatic mind, which helps our enjoyment.
The overall threat, though, is a bit too half baked for my liking. We see exactly 2 of the weird family behaviors before we get definitive proof that they’re aliens. They once freeze in time and once walked into a room together. I would prefer something a bit meatier than that.
Their plan is also a bit too vague, though that might be because I’m not that familiar with English history. The evil family tries to steal the plans for a warship called the “Dreadnought”, which I know nothing about. The explanation in the story is also pretty meager, however, so I felt a little left behind when we get this big revelation. Apparently stealing the blueprints for the Dreadnought would crumble the arms race between humans, which will lead to weaker weapons in the long run. Sure, I’ll take your word for it, story.
But yeah, it kind of strikes a middle ground. The villains and their plan are pretty weak, but the side character and her interactions with the party are really enjoyable. That adds up to a story that’s pretty middle of the road. By no means bad, but could’ve been a bit more fulfilling if there was an actual threat.
Out of the Deep
5/10
The Doctor and Steven land in Mesopotamia in the 1850’s, the site of one of the first human cities. They are just in time to meet with it’s discoverer, Professor Wood. However, something might be lurking within the city ruins….
A fairly standard setup, but with a lot of potential. The monster within turns out to be a locked-up alien which wants to push human progress by giving them weapons from the future. He’s never seen, but could be freed if the party breaks the seal that hold him.
The Doctor is reluctant. What good would more weapons do. The professor, however, takes the bait. This is where all the interesting questions start to rise. Two in particular come up:
The seal is ancient, but the professor still partially breaks it for queen and country. Should loyalty to one’s country be above scientific knowledge?
What good would future weapons bring? Yes, they can put one party ahead of another, but would it not lead to ruling through fear? Would that fear benefit the human species?
Yet exploration of these questions are left to the wayside. Soon after these questions start to pop up, a third force interferes and locks the creature and himself away forever. Ending the story.
And that’s a massive shame on loads of fronts. The creature gets stopped before we really see more of its true nature. Making what the story describes as a “terrifying encounter” fall flat. We were just getting started. The professor, meanwhile, never gets the chance to take a stand for either science or his country. The Doctor never gets the chance to discuss the ramifications of ruling through fear, even though he was clearly leading up to that. It all stops too early to be interesting.
Yet I don’t think the story should be longer. It should just be harder and faster. If it were me, I would immediately push the creature as a massive threat. Think Lovecraftian. Inexplicable, unexplainable. Raise the fear. Then, add in the allure of future weapons. Show future victory after victory with no end in sight. Make it truly seem perfect. Make it high risk, high reward.
And then push the 2 main questions in the story. And make to make the professor answer them clearly. No third party to give an easy out. No cutoff from the Doctor’s speech. There is room for ambivalence in some stories, but I think this one would stand stronger with a message. Anything to make this story more decisive. Make it count.
Of course, I’m not saying I could do better. But I think this story is slowly building up to something special, until it suddenly quits and calls it a day. And I really want to see what the story could talk about. Right now, it feels like it hits around 40% before it stops. So show me 200%!
Out of the Deep is not bad as it is now, but its just very flat. It is preparation for a second half that literally caves in. It has loads of potential to do something unique, but it just stops when it’s getting there. It’s like a sentence that leaves out the last
O Tannenbaum
10/10⭐
I don’t know why everyone keeps putting this Doctor and Steven in Christmas specials, but I’m all for it. Hartnell famously described his Doctor as a combination of the Wizard of Oz and Father Christmas, so let’s capitalize on that interpretation and enter some winter wonderlands.
The Doctor and Steven step outside the Tardis to discover a tranquil, snowy landscape. Straight off of a Christmas card. After taking in the sights and smelling the pines, they head towards the only sign of life: A small cottage with the lights on.
Inside the house, they discover a young girl and her sickly grandfather. The father of the girl has gone out and is missing, but that’s the least of their worries as the house suddenly gets surrounded by Christmas trees.
It’s a simple story with a heartwarming ending. What you expect from a holiday special. A bit predictable in places, maybe, but presented well. A particular highlight of that presentation is the music, which goes for a combination of chiptune and Christmas music. It does loads for the cold, mysterious, yet heartwarming and jolly tone the story has throughout.
But what truly makes this story interesting, is that it does remember what characters it contains. It doesn’t shy away from the current relationship Steven and the Doctor have, which is less than friendly. After everything that has happened, they've both run out of patience for a while now. They bicker to the point of insults and are at least 50% dysfunctional, yet the narrative accommodates this dynamic and still manages to make it a sweet story when all is said and done.
It's also surprisingly funny. It isn’t often these stories make me audibly laugh, yet this short trip managed it three times. Stuff like the Doctor saying that a man with a tree for an arm should become a “branch manager” just got to me. Maybe I’m just easy to please.
But the jokes never clash with the tone. There’s still a serious tale behind it all and the story knows when it can afford to be light and when it shouldn’t. It takes its own threat seriously.
Although, despite doing a lot of things very well, I wouldn’t consider it perfect. There’s few too many moments where we just keep moving in and out of the small cottage, which drags down the pace. Especially when the grandfather is involved. But to be honest, I don’t have it in me to hate in this story any more than that. I’m no Scrooge. It’s charm easily carries it over those hiccups and its relatively short length makes it so that this story is never actually boring or tedious.
O Tannenbaum oozes charm, but is still very aware of its main characters and its position in the show, which is genuinely admirable. It’s light, sincere and heartwarming. I already have it lined up for a relisten at Christmas, and I suggest you do the same. So far, it’s easily the best Christmas special.
The Vardan Invasion of Mirth
3/10
The Doctor and Steven land in a place that looks exactly like earth, except there seems to be no breathable atmosphere. The Doctor goes to check it out, but doesn't return. After a while, Steven goes after him. Only to find himself in a BBC studio in 1956. What’s happening? And where’s the Doctor?
What surprised me in this story is our one-time character. After a bit of initial exploring, Steven meets up with Teddy Baxter, a comedian. If you know Doctor Who, this is where they would normally drop the ball. Giving him accents, making him the epitome of pantomime and hoping to squeeze in some quick laughs at all costs.
The surprise is that he totally isn’t any of that. Teddy is a comedian who has just lost his double act in an ever-changing media landscape. He has worries about being able to make it on his own. He has worries about television as a medium. He is quippy, but also genuine, educated and has passions. It surprised me how well rounded he was. He jokes to hide his deeper character.
And that vulnerability matches nicely with our Steven, who is fairly stoic and a bit grumbly at this point in time. He makes for a very natural straight man. I kind of wish they took time to deepen this bond. But the story has other plans.
After this very well done setup of a new comedic duo, the story shifts directions hard and kind of unnaturally. While Steven and Teddy are practicing, they discover a door to a spaceship called the Mediasphere, where they enter Teddy’s past.
This is where it drops the ball in my eyes. This shift in tone and setting is so hard it feels unnatural. I have listened to the second part of this story 4 separate times, because it’s a lot of barely cohesive events stitched together. Let me describe it to you. Full spoilers. Because this is the only way I can find any kind of structure in this story. I’m 50% doing this for review. And 50% doing this to finally get a grip on what’s going on here.
Without repeating the details, Steven and Teddy are stuck in a recreation of Manchester from Teddy’s past. It’s filled with comedians. They enter a house and find a girl laughing non-stop until she transforms into electricity. This is where the Vardans are revealed as the villains.
Steven and Teddy manage a short conversation with the Doctor through a television. After that, Manchester fades and it turns into a spaceship. Teddy tries to open a door, but it instead shows him his future as a successful solo TV comedian.
This is already a lot of info for half an hour. We are thoroughly introduced to a setting, only for it to suddenly fade. We meet Vardans for 10 seconds and now we have introduced elements of time travel to this story. That’s not even mentioning detailed stuff this story puts in, like how the Vardans edit video signals, how Steven got separated from the Doctor, Teddy’s fading in and out of existence, what happened to Teddy’s double act. All that these threads get stuffed in and it is just a mess. It’s an info dump. It’s a story with too many ideas for half an hour, so it has to rush through all explanations at record speed.
Want to know the fun part? We don’t even know the villain’s plan yet. So add that to the pile. It turns out the Vardans had a plan to turn humans into Vardans by infecting them with a disease that reacts to laughing. A literal “laughing is contagious” plot. The spaceship they’re on is made to find the perfect comedy routine to take over the earth.
Except the ship is faulty. The Vardans can’t use it anymore, because there is a negative waveform that cancels them out. It turns out this anti-wavefrom is Stan, Teddy’s former double-act, who transformed into the waveform when looking through a telescope. No, I don’t know why looking through a telescope turns you into anti-radio waves. At this point, just roll with it.
The second problem for the Vardans is that Teddy has now seen his own future in the spaceship, which turns the entire place into a paradox where Teddy can’t be killed. Time travel. The Vardan, however, kills him anyway. But the paradox allows Steven to bring him back by repeating their routine together. Again, at this point, just roll with it.
But, surprise surprise. Bringing back Teddy also brought back his buddy Stan, who sacrifices himself to make the future come to pass and destroy the Vardans. We look at Saturn with Teddy for a bit, until the story abruptly ends.
At this point in time, I’m considering life as an alcoholic. I look back at this story and wonder what happened. We had a fun tale about Steven and a comedian, but the second half turned into pure script goop. I believe this to be shockingly incomprehensible on first listen. It’s like a foreign language. Only on repeat listen can you get the gist of the chaos before you.
But let’s look at the details. First, the villains. The Vardans are the main antagonists in this story and I believe them to be a bad choice. Why? Because their previous encounter with Steven and the First Doctor killed a companion. They were mind-reading, unkillable threats. But now we’re supposed to buy this plot filled with an arbitrary use of comedy to kill all humans. It’s like a crocodile putting on clown make-up. You wonder what went wrong in that creature’s life.
A fair critique would be to point to other encounters with the Vardans and their portrayal there. I know that, eventually, they show up on TV. Maybe this story completely matches their MO from there. But currently, I don’t have the luxury to compare that. I only have what’s given to me with the First Doctor, which is 1 story where they are entirely different creatures. A story that, like this one, takes place in the Companion Chronicles range. I would’ve appreciated a bit more consistency. But that might be me.
A second point would be the giant plot contrivances that fill this story to the brim. I genuinely don’t think I have to point them out any further. I think they show themselves well enough in my summary. But to be sure I make my point: Why do the Vardans have time travel technology that can show the future? Why can this Vardan enter a spaceship that others can’t? Why is Teddy the key to entering the spaceship? Why does the Spaceship initially look like Manchester? How does looking through a telescope turn you into radio waves? How did the Doctor move Steven away from the spaceship? For that matter, how are they going to get Teddy back if the Doctor can’t fly the Tardis? These are just the questions that popped out off the top of my head. I’m sure I could keep going if I wanted to.
But frankly, I don’t want to. I’m done. I’ve been deciphering this story for weeks now and I don’t want to see it anymore. I only have one question left. And it’s genuine:
What happened here?
There was a beautiful, emotional and simple story in the first half hour of this. But as soon as we enter the second half, it’s all gone. It’s replaced with a mess. I genuinely want to know what happened between these 2 parts. Is it because there are 2 writers? Did they have different ideas? Did they write themselves in a corner? I wish we had some answers there.
But we don’t. We just have this story. And I wish I loved it. Teddy was so well written, he could have been a companion. Steven is put in new places and it's a joy. But in the end, it feels like the title of this story came first. We had a plan for Vardans and Mirth, but the story fails to deliver on either. No joy. No “real” Vardans. The only thing it delivers is the one aspect that a story should never have: Loads of missed potential.
The Massacre
8,5/10
The Doctor and Steven land in Paris, 1572. Where conflict between the Catholics and Huguenots is driving the country towards breaking point. They arrive in the calm before the storm, before they get split up.
This episode is one of the currently lost episodes in season 3. Your options for watching it are limited. Considering the ending section of this story, it would be a shame to read this. It is very performance heavy and those performances are worth hearing. That leaves you with either the Narrated Soundtrack, or the Loose Cannon Reconstruction. In this case, the Reconstruction is very visually solid, so I would take that route. Anyway, on to the review:
Let’s talk about our main characters first. For the Doctor and Steven, this is the story that reaffirms that their dynamic has changed. From the moment Katarina got shot out of an airlock a few episodes back, the pressure was put on their companionship. The Doctor’s victory speech at the end of Daleks’ Master Plan dealt the finishing blow: It’s not about the fun anymore.
In audio, we’ve continued this strain on the relationship. While the Doctor and Steven trust each other, they can’t get used to their new 2 person dynamic. Especially since they have some big moral differences and traumatic events behind them. There is a constant distance. They try to keep up a superficial relationship, but it only leads to constant insults.
It's fundamentally broken: The Doctor can’t trust that Steven keeps up with his plans and ideas, while Steven can’t trust on the Doctor to do the right thing.
Why do I bring all this up here? Because this story makes them give up. This story is Steven once again not being involved in the Doctor’s ideas. He disappears after episodes 1 and only returns in episode 4. At the same time, when he finally shows up, he immediately flees for the Tardis and leaves a young woman behind. Nothing has changed.
This makes Steven give up on him and leave. Leading to the pretty famous “They’re all gone” speech. The beauty of the Doctors' speech is not in the incredible vulnerability he shows, but in the fact that he still completely misses the point. It isn’t about companions who couldn’t understand him. It’s about them expecting more from the Doctor, and him not willing to live up to it. He is not a hero and he doesn’t think he can be. It goes against his principles to interfere in history. So what does that make him? Who is the Doctor? Is all this travelling really worth it?
It's a beautiful, beautiful piece that was sorely needed. After these last few stories, the Doctor begins to look like a bad guy. Leaving people behind without a care or consideration. This speech turn the black outline into morally grey. It’s not malice, it’s fear and misunderstanding of himself. A man who always chooses the flight response when it comes to fight or flight, because he cannot bear the weight of a fight. If you start fighting, when does the fighting ever stop?
After almost 60 years, we probably start to understand it a little. The Doctor is right. The companions couldn’t understand the massive will it takes to start a never-ending fight. How many incarnations have begged for a break? An end to the fighting? That starts here. This Doctor has gained a morality in the last two seasons. He knows good from bad. He knows there are things in the universe worth protecting. He just isn’t ready to be the protector that others want him to be. He sees the burden he'll have to carry if he decides to step in.
Let’s stop right there for now. Otherwise I’ll keep gushing for hours. Just know that these 10 minutes might already be the most important event that happens in this entire season. But I should probably start talking about the other 90 as well.
I’ve mentioned before that the most important part of a dramatic historical is making us care about the characters it present. This story mostly succeeds on that front. An interesting change is that, without the Doctor, Steven becomes a very central part of the drama as well. He’s not some bystander or observer of history, he’s completely engulfed between the two factions.
Other members of those factions, sadly, aren’t as interesting. Maybe it would’ve helped if we had some sliver of footage, but that’s speculation. The problem is that there are probably too many people around. We have 14 important named characters to keep track of, and that can be too many. Their interpersonal relations become a bit muddled at times. Still, they do have their moments. And while I can’t remember all their names, I can remember most of the personalities.
Besides that, it still wasn’t entirely clear to me how the Massacre actually came to be. For example, it was pretty clear the queen was involved, but I don’t know in what way or exactly why. I wish some of the interpersonal banter had a bit more historical meat to it, so the main event became a bit more “looming”.
But even with these small trip-ups there’s plenty to love here. The introductory scenes in the bar are great character work and know how to set the scene for the entire city of Paris. Great use of location. There are also some really memorable scenes. Especially when Steven flees from a mob, which lands even though we have no footage. The story succeeds overall as well. While details might be missing here and there, the genral conflict and reasons for conflict are pretty clear. The important parts hit.
Having said that, I would have loved more details. I think they would have raised the story to a higher level. Why does the priest look like the Doctor? Where was the Doctor anyway? Where is Preslin, the man who was with the Doctor? Add to that the earlier questions about the exact nature of the massacre, and I feel like this story could have had a tad more meat on its bones. It certainly had the time to answer these questions.
Other than that, we have a new companion to talk about. Throughout the story Steven is accompanied by a girl named Anne Chaplet, who eventually gets left behind in the Massacre. She survives, however, and we meet her great great great great granddaughter Dodo Chaplet.
What’s interesting about Dodo is that we know nothing about her. We know her name and she looks like Susan. That’s it. No year, no likes, dislikes, personality, anything. You can take this 2 ways. Either it’s bad because she should’ve been presented more carefully, or she was presented this way for a reason.
Dodo is the most randomly aquired companion up to this point. She stomps into the police box and is kidnapped shortly after. The Doctor mentions how she looks like Susan and has a smile on his face. Dodo doesn’t seem to care about any of it.
I think the Doctor sees Dodo as a way to recapture his glory days. His days of a grandfatherly traveller. A way to grab towards something familiar. It does not matter who Dodo is. It only matters what she reminds him of. A potential tool for better travels. Let’s see how this turns out in the long run.
Steven’s reason for returning is less solid. He did not know about Dodo, but he joined after he saw officers heading towards the Tardis. Apparently some part of him still cares the Doctor, but details are vague. I hope future stories go into this reason for return some more. For now, we have a new party of three, consisting of 2 dysfunctional individuals, a random third person and a lot of room for moral discussions. I can’t wait to see where it goes.
“The Massacre” is, apparently, a tale of two halves. That kind of surprised me. Those last 10 minutes do a lot and are beautiful, but you can’t judge a story purely on that. Besides it stands a well crafted and well realized world with its own characters and events. Some of those characters and events could use more focus, but what’s there is still great. This makes for an overall solid adventure which could lead to all kinds of things in the future. An absolute classic.
The Ark
6/10
The Doctor, Steven and new companion Dodo land in a weird jungle landscape. They soon discover they are on a spaceship that has collected all of earth’s population and is on its way to a new home. But it seems Dodo wasn’t the only new companion aboard the Tardis. There’s something living in her nose….
Structurally, this story is split right through the middle. We have one plot in the first two episodes and another in the last two. Between the two plots, the tardis has travelled 700 years into the future. I love this idea. It allows for great worldbuilding around a location, since we’ve seen it in different times. But from a practical point of view, it is also a great excuse to get more out of the used sets and locations. If used well, I can only see benefits. I wouldn’t mind it if Doctor Who tries this approach more often.
After leaving the jungle, the party discovers the crew of the spaceship. They have shrunk the entire population, except for themselves. Allowing them to easily move a large quantity of life to their new home.
The crew does not only consist of humans, however. With them are the Monoids, who basically serve as slaves. We’ll come back to them later.
Problems arise however, when we discover that Dodo is sick and has brought germs with her on the spaceship. Since the advanced human civilization has long wiped out the common cold, they have absolutely no resistance to it. Both human and Monoids quickly fall ill, and the party is blamed for the sickness. After a bit of back and forth, the Doctor saves the day by killing the virus. Big party moment. Soon after, the party takes off again.
On its own, this story is fine. The threat of a viral infection is interesting and all the setup is done well (Although I wish we could've had a small nod to Preslin from last time, since he discovered germs). The problem lies mostly in the back and forth that follows. You might’ve noticed that in my short summary, I jumped pretty quickly from problem to eventual solution. That’s because not much happens in between those moments. It’s the usual “can we trust them?” shenanigans you’ve definitely seen before. And that’s pretty boring.
There’s one moment in the bickering that doesn’t quite sit right with me, however. Eventually, the fate of the party is put to a vote. And the crew votes to throw them off the spaceship. I am heavily resisting an Among Us joke. But this vote is overruled when the sick leader comes on the speaker and announces that they should just let the Doctor solve the problem. All of them quickly accept this.
I can’t say that I really like the implications of that moment. That the ideas of one leader overrule the vote of the majority. There might be some elements of mob mentality in the vote, and I think that could be tackled, but I don’t think having one leader announce his opinion is the right way to go about it. I realize I’m probably thinking too deep about it, but it felt very off when I was watching it. Maybe if the leader had made a stronger case about the trusting nature of humans, or if he called for a revote after his plea, I wouldn’t feel so irked.
Other than that, the story is fine. An original threat and a cool location. The only real problem is the dawdling in the story and maybe the resolution.
So, with our party once again celebrated as heroes, we leave for the Tardis, only to end up in the same location again. But how much time have we covered? An answer is soon presented thanks to a giant statue the humans were building. It was supposed to be finished when they were nearing the new planet, and it is now done! So we should be close to the end. Except for one little oddity: The statue does not look like the original human design. It looks like a Monoid.
So what happened in those 700 years? Well, apparently Dodo’s viral infection had some long term consequences, which allowed the Monoids an opening to take over the ship and reverse the roles. The humans are now the slaves.
Like I mentioned previously, I like this way of storytelling. It builds up the location. And the information about the statue we got in the first part servers as a solid connector between the two parts. It is a fun setpiece.
But sadly, it although the concept is solid, I don’t love the execution. The Monoids are bad and push the party around while we land on the new planet. A planet inhabited by an incorporeal species that is very welcoming and has even build homes for the new inhabitants of their planet. But the incoporeals are worried that the new inhabitants will be violent. Which makes the Doctor and co immediately vouch for the human race as the worthy creatures to live in this new land.
And that, again, doesn’t sit right with me. The Monoids are currently in charge, yes. But in the past, they were enslaved by the humans. So why are the humans presented as a more peaceful option, when they have done the exact same thing as the Monoids. On top of that, it was only in the previous episode that we almost saw them throw innocent people into space because of mob mentality. So why is it so easy to accept them as the initially superior survivors on the planet?
One of the reasons I’m so hung up on this, is that we’ve seen similar concepts before. Think back to “The Sensorites” where the doctor was a diplomatic mediator between the humans and the alien Sensorites. Looking to cover both sides and make the right arrangements for both to thrive. A similar solution is not found here. For 99% of the story it is “Monoid bad, human good”. It is only at the end that the Doctor mentions that both should live in peace together. Which is way too late and basically a footnote.
What I would’ve liked is a more similarity between the two species. In the first part of the story, the enslavement of the Monoids is barely touched upon. It is accepted and not questioned. It is only when the roles are reversed, that it becomes a problem.
But let’s be real, we’ve seen these humans in the past. They were dicks. They tried to throw innocent people into space. Several of them were clearly malicious during the trial as well. They were never perfect. So let’s make slavery a problem in both halves. Show that both sides aren’t perfect and make the similarities more obvious. Make them use the same weapons against each other. Make them degrade and look down on each other. Hell, make it so the humans can only speak using sign language, just like the Monoids in the past. Make it completely equal.
Then, in the second part of the story, you can talk about how slavery is always bad. That revenge can be understandable, but that cruelty against cruelty is the wrong approach. I know that might sound ambitious for 60s Doctor Who, but I would not mention it if I didn’t think it would be realistic. Similar topics have been tackled. Again, look at the Sensorites, or the incredibly flawed Galaxy 4. Tackling topics like this has been part of the show since the start, even if it is sometimes flawed. I wish it had been done here, because now the story looks incredibly hypocritical.
It's not like there isn’t time to do this properly either. Like the first part of this story, the second part can also feel really padded in places. Just moping around on location without getting to the point. At times, it feels slower than “The Massacre”, which currently can only be watched as a series of stills.
On the character side, things are a bit more interesting. The one-off cast isn’t that noteworthy, but we get some fun moments with our party. Mostly revolving around Dodo.
Both the Doctor and Steven get pushed into a more parental role. The Doctor because he wants to, Steven because he has to. Steven is now a worn traveller with loads of experience under his belt. Meanwhile Dodo is kind of oblivious. It’s an okay dynamic for now. But I do hope we get to a bit more fallout from the last few stories. This currently feels very temporary.
The Doctor, on the other hand, tries to be a grandfather again. But it isn’t as warm and loving as it was with Vicki. He’s a bit more hardened. A bit sterner. He’s clearly trying, but most of the time, it’s just complaining. Yet sometimes he gets it exactly right, which makes it feel like he’s not being mean, but unsure. Again, let’s see what the future brings.
As for Dodo herself, if I had to describe her in one word, it would be “oblivious”. She doesn’t seem to care about what’s going on and isn’t easily impressed. Still very two dimensional. Like I said last time, that might be the point, but I need a bit more time to pin her down.
And that’s all “The Ark” has for us. A clever concept with a mediocre main story and some story points that just keep gnawing at you. It could’ve been more, but I don’t consider this one to be all that bad. It’s just not all that good either. For the characters, this feels like a midpoint. For the viewers, it mostly feels like a mediocre break from the darker elements.
The Celestial Toymaker
1/10
Poet Samuel Ullman once wrote that being young is a state of mind created by imagination. That being young means choosing courage and adventure over a love of ease. We only grow old by deserting the ideals of comfort.
Having said that, should we desire to be young? From a societal perspective, the loss of youth is always a focal point. Look at advertisements around you for every possible solution to stay young as long as you can. Youth is not only the world of imagination or the world of adventure. Youth is the memory of days when everything looked better.
So think back to all those ads for anti-aging creams, sprays, massages. Those hook themselves on an innate human desire. Not to look young, but to feel young. To be in the days where everything was better. We want things to be better, so we want to feel young again.
At the same time, being young means exclusion. There is a gap between our human society and the kids. Kids take a different role in society than grown-ups do. Kids are in possession of the youth that many desire. A world of budding potential and wonder for everything around them. An innate curiousity that can never be regained when lost.
But we don’t consider our world safe for that curiousity. We fear dangers of all kinds. Dangers exists, and while we grown-ups know how to deal with that, we don’t want our kids to. Not yet. We don’t want fear to rule their lives. We shield them from the bad in hope that happiness and safety may rule their lives for just a little while longer.
But what does that do to that curiousity? We want kids to wonder about the world, but on the terms of adults. Safely. We will pick out what to learn, kids. So you just follow along. This reverberates throughout the life of a child. We even go so far as to create artificial, small scale societies for them to practice in.
The concept of “Active Citizenship” is part of many schools across the world. Sometimes it is seen as its own subject. Sometimes it is seen as an inherent part of education. Schools often mention in their curricula how the little world they set up is a “Small scale version of society”. The idea is that this lets children prep and learn in a safe environment before going into the harsh reality. Again, the idea that children take up a different role in society prevails. It's unnatural for children to be in our adult world without practice.
So we strive to protect the owners of youth from the dangers of society. Yet those who have entered society long for youth. Does that mean that society and youth cannot co-exist? A pessimist would say yes. Yet maybe an obvious misconception has been overlooked: Once youth is gone, can it be regained?
People often mention how things “weren’t as good as they remembered” or that “This product was better in the past”. These are reactions to grasps at the past. But they are not the only possible reactions.
Sometimes, things we remember do live up to our idealized versions of it. Maybe that children’s book we loved had a hidden layer. Maybe that toy we played with still looks as cool now as it did then. Shimmers of youth will always remain. We just have to find those shimmers.
Yet sometimes we can’t find those shimmers ourselves. Maybe someone needs to push us a little to remember why we liked something. What made it special? Why were in intrigued with it? What made us wonder? What sparked our curiousity?
It is at times like those that we should remember that there are millions of experts of wonder and curiousity among us. Experts untampered by modern struggles. Experts who want to know all they can. So open societal doors and create an opportunity for both to discover something. Either something forgotten, or something new.
Regaining youth is not impossible, but it is not done through salves. It is done by respecting children and appreciating the skills they bring. Feed their curiousity. Let them learn new things, and don’t be afraid to show them the whole picture. Every single human starts out as a kid, so it's only natural that we as a society integrate children in our everyday, instead of shielding them or clustering them away with other kids.
Don't get me wrong. You don’t have to shock them, but you can challenge them. Don’t make them settle for comfort over adventure just yet. Take them by the hand and let them discover, and through their imagination, you might discover something about yourself as well. Don't lock the doors and pretend it's for their own well-being. Instead, challenge them and let them take us by the hand, so that both can grow as people.
That being said. Don’t challenge them with “The Celestial Toymaker”, because no amount of imagination can make up for the lack of it here.
This Sporting Life
1/10
The party arrives in 1966, where the world football cup has just been stolen. After a quick look around, someone shoves a weird envelope into Steven’s hands. It’s a ransom note for the cup, but this story might be more extraterrestrial than it seems.
In general, this story seems very uninspired. At times it almost comes across as if it didn’t want to be written. As soon as we go looking for that cup, weird leaps in logic are being made. Like we’re skipping past parts of the story, just so it can be over.
2 examples make this pretty clear. First is the initial search for the thief. There isn’t one. The Doctor apparently knows what’s going on immediately and steps right into a goldsmith’s shop, where the cup is hidden. This is waved away by there being some kind of radiation on the ransom note. Steven literally says "You know Doctor, sometimes I feel like you're making this stuff up". And boy, it sure feels like that. Acknowledging the problem isn't an excuse.
The second example comes a bit later. It is discovered that the cup was stolen by the goldsmith, so he could use its parts to help stranded aliens flee to safety. The aliens have escaped a war and are looking for refuge. The Doctor, of course, is determined to help them out.
….And then they're gone. As soon as the Doctor says “We will help”, we skip to the end and all is well. I was actually baffled and rewinded, but no. This is it. We focus on some quick aftermath about how the cup was rediscovered and that’s it.
It feels like this story is on autopilot. Someone was scrolling down Wikipedia, saw that the world cup was stolen in 1966 and realized there wasn’t a Doctor Who story about that yet. And considering it takes place in 1966, we have to use the Doctor belonging to that time period. So let’s stuff in some aliens, make it a small adventure and call it a day.
That’s not even mentioning the problematic undertones you’re not supposed to think about. These aliens are stranded after escaping a war. They escaped in a ship that is literally compared to a small life boat in-universe. So the Doctor patches up the lifeboat and sends them on their way. Surely he can do better than that.
Imagine coming across a refugee who escaped from a war. He wants to travel far away, but his bike has a flat tire. So you grab your keys, go to your car…. And open the trunk to give the guy some duct tape.
That’s what our hero does in this story! Our leading man who we have seen learn kindness and understanding. The bare minimum. It feels incredibly undoctorish. This is what happens when a story isn’t thought out.
“This Sporting Life” is the worst kind of short trip. The kind that doesn’t care. The kind that feels written to hit a quota. It skips its own story beats with no larger purpose, It has no real message or larger point and it is careless in its portrayal of both the Doctor and its own created characters. The short trips have the biggest opportunity to do something unique and out of the box, but this story instead to go the blandest and most generic route. A waste of time.
The Secrets of Det-Sen
5/10
The party lands in Tibet, high on the Himalayan mountains. Soon after they leave the Tardis, they meet up with a group of pilgrims, and decide to join them on their travels to a nearby monastery. Trouble arrives, however, when the monastery is attacked by bandits.
The best part about this story is definitely the start. The party hangs around the pilgrim camp and has some interesting conversations. Dodo gets to talk with a girl her age off-screen (off-speaker), while we explore a potential relationship between Steven and the girl Pema. At the same time, we hear the Doctor talk with the wise pilgrim Oddiyãna about the principles of Buddhism.
And especially that last part is really interesting. The Doctor mentions how the beliefs of his own people are very similar to Buddhism. This comparison works on multiple levels. We explore the concept of energy and we are all made from it. It connects us. This can be linked to the Doctor Who concept of regeneration, where energy is also key. Later on in the story, we also come across the ideas of pacifism, which is of course similar to the “No interfering” mentality of the timelords.
It also works on a meta level. Key figures in the Doctor Who mythos, like Barry Letts and Christopher Bailey, were Buddhists themselves. So yes, Doctor Who and Buddhism are quite linked in places. And that’s genuinely really interesting to explore. Especially with such an early incarnation, which generally allows for more time to touch on these kinds of elements. It’s very engrossing and explorative in an understandable way.
But after episode 1, it all completely stops. Not the introduction of Buddhist concepts, but the explanation of them. When we enter the monastery, we still come across pacifism, mysterious bells and the ability to reach a high plane of existence, but these are no longer explained, just mentioned. And this becomes a bit of a problem once the real conflict of the story starts.
Bandits arrive and take over the Monastery. However, due to the pacifist nature of the monks, they just let it happen and don’t fight back. The story draws a lot of attention to this, with monks praying while chaos is happening around them.
Now, I’m far from new to this Doctor. You know how he would handle a similar situation in the past. He would inspire the locals to fight for their rights and take back what is rightfully theirs. The British attitude!
But usually, the reason others don’t attack is because of fear. Or ineptitude. These people don’t attack because it is their religious belief that all life is equal, thus no life should hurt other life. And the story draws very little attention to this difference in beliefs. It goes about it like it would any other time.
And that kind of gnaws at me. It would help if the concept of pacifism and the ideas behind it were explored as in-depth as the other concepts in part 1. Those barely show up at all now, but got much more attention.
Instead, we’re just supposed to be on board with our regular crew. The Doctor keeps repeating how they have to fight. The monks and pilgrims keep repeating that that is not their way. This continues until Steven has somehow convinced the monks to fight off-screen. The only one left to convince is Oddiyãna, who the doctor keeps degrading by calling him “My boy” every single time they speak. And I mean every other sentence, not every now and then like he usually would.
There’s an underlying tone of superiority, which is slightly disturbing. Like the reasoning for fighting doesn’t even have to be made. That it is just the natural way to handle this kind of situation, no questions asked. Even we, the audience, shouldn’t ask questions. It happened off-screen, deal with it.
At the same time, the early exploration of Buddhist concepts now shows the contrast with what could be. It kind of hurts the story now. Imagine that kind of depth in the central conflict. If the story had gone that route, it could have been an all time classic. But it feels too bound to the regular structure to take that step back, which is a massive shame.
But before we wind down, I should probably also mention that big fluffy thing on the cover. Technically, the Yeti are in this story. They are basically not plot relevant and serve no real purpose. I assume this is somehow linked to the story “The Abominable Snowmen”, but that’s speculation on my side. I’m not there yet.
They really have no reason to be in this story, though. They mostly look cool on the cover. They do eventually come in and help free the monastery, which the monks were already doing, so…. cool, I guess. They’re a distraction, nothing more. Let's move on.
“The Secrets of Det-Sen” takes a closer look at a religion that is still practiced today. Yet the actual concepts of that religion are only used as set dressing for a basic base-under-siege tale. It almost reaches for something truly magical, but then quickly decides to play it safe instead. While still okay, it could’ve been so, so much more if it had just taken that leap.
The Gunfighters
10/10⭐
🎶 In The Last Chance Saloon. 🎶
Tell me, what do you consider your enjoyment Achilles’ heel? What’s that guilty pleasure you can’t help but love, no matter what?
And don’t hit me with “Oh I love it when a character is deep” or “I love a story with loads of worldbuilding”. Of course you do! So do I! But what superficial aspect of a show immediately makes it ten times better for you? We all have that somewhere deep inside!
Maybe you like body swap stories. Or stories with pirates in them. Maybe you specifically love stories that have aliens with three eyes! It doesn’t have to make sense, it’s just something that brings a smile on your face as soon as it appears! Enjoyment on a base level.
Mine? Well, as you might have guessed by now. I absolutely love comedic westerns. Stories about cowboys on the prairie, livin’ the tough life day by day, while still taking the time to make you giggle.
So yes, as soon as we hit the first shot of the episode, it was almost a given that I was going to love this.
The party lands in a small western town called Tombstone, where they disguise themselves as a travelling group of musicians. After some early exploration, trouble starts brewing when the Doctor gets mistaken for a local criminal. Steven and Dodo are quickly held hostage. While the people are preparing to shoot the Doctor down.
That might sound pretty dark if you don’t know the context, but don’t get it twisted. This is a comedic historical, like “The Romans” from last season. Yes, Steven and Dodo are hostages, but while they’re being held, they have to sing songs to survive. The Doctor meets with the people that want to shoot him, but he thinks they invited him for a glass of milk. Sure, it isn’t all fun and games. People get shot throughout the story, but that’s standard fare for a western. It always makes sure to keep its comedic tone front and center.
When I reviewed “The Romans”, I noted how I didn’t like the hard shifts between the funny moments and the serious moments. While the Doctor and Vicki were having the time of their life, Ian and Barbara were fighting for theirs. It felt jarring to me. This story sidesteps that issue by having a consistent tone throughout.
One particular element of that tone stands out, and is apparently quite notorious. At times, a song will play called “The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon”. Sometimes this is just to randomly set the mood, sometimes it narrates what happens on screen. Many people seem to hate the song and say that it appears to often. And yes, it does pop up pretty frequently. But you should probably keep in mind that these episodes were never made to be binged. The original release had a week between every 20 minutes. If you remember that context, it really isn’t overbearing.
The show also clearly has fun with the song. Adding special verses for deaths and letting Steven in on the action by having him sing a few verses at gunpoint. And since the show is having fun, I’m having fun.
Character wise, the story is also pretty good! The one-off cast is well presented and memorable. Special highlights include Doc Holliday, the criminal who the Doctor is mistaken for, and Johnny Ringo, the intimidating criminal sent to hunt Holliday down. Both parts are great on screen. Holliday has some fun moments, like when he’s held at gunpoint by Dodo or extracting the Doctor’s tooth. Ringo, on the other hand, only has one strong moment. Luckily, it is really strong. In one conversation with the bartender, he is immediately a well-established, hardened criminal.
Our main cast also gets plenty to work with. Dodo and Steven immediately get absorbed in the setting, which leads to fun moments, like the aforementioned singing under gunpoint.
Steven’s role in the episode varies a lot, but it is mostly comedic hostage situations. There’s no real deeper moments, but that’s okay every now and again. He’s still clearly himself.
Dodo also gets what I consider to be her first memorable moment. As she very idiotically pulls a gun on Doc Holliday. He plays it straight however, which is kind of sweet in a weird way. He completely indulges in her "victorious gunslinging", like a dad that just got hit in the imagination of a child. It’s funny, kind of sweet, and fits Dodo’s character as an oblivious young girl.
The Doctor mostly gets tugged along this episode. He has absolutely no idea what is actually going on, but he is enjoying the ride. Whether it’s being “invited for a glass of milk” or getting his tooth pulled, he is just rolling with the punches in a light and comedic way. The façade of a bitter old man completely fading. It’s great to see.
Am I being biased towards this story? Absolutely. I really tried my best, too. I looked at some of the critiques for these episodes, but I just can’t see them. I love the song and never found it grating. I am not English, so the problems with fake accents were mostly unnoticeable to me. I never found it pantomime, superficial or unfunny, either. I couldn’t identify any real flaws. I just had a great time.
And that’s what the story is for me: a great time. A fun side cast, loads of funny and memorable moments, our main cast in new situations and a setting that's well put together. It does not really add to a larger narrative, but it really doesn’t have to. It’s just… Fun. And sometimes, that’s all you need.
Mother Russia
7/10
The party lands in a Russian village, 1812. After meeting the locals, they decide to just hang around for a while. However, two invasions are coming. One is a small man from France, the other is a bit more… otherworldly.
As soon as this start, you can tell this is one of the older Companion Chronicles. In fact, it is the first Steven Taylor centered Companion Chronicle. And for a first outing, it kind of asks a lot from him.
Peter Purves has to do Steven’s voice, of course. But he also has to do the Doctor, which he has clearly not pinned down yet. On top of that he also has to play his own Russian friend and several other French voices. Aside from one other role. He is everyone.
And on top of all that, this is also a story with a shapeshifer, that tries to imitate almost everyone Steven comes across. So now he also has to do subtle differences in presentation for each of the character. Like an angrier, more irritable Doctor.
And that kind of pushes it all past the breaking point. Peter Purves can act brilliantly, but this is his first go and he basically has to do everything. Amidst all the voices, some nuances and emotions get lost. Sometimes an accent slips. And while I understand why this happens, it does still take away from the experience.
What really would’ve helped, was one more voice actor. Any actor would do. Let Purves do the Doctor and companions, and let someone else tackle the Russian friend or the side roles. I’m sure that would’ve really supported the actual narrative.
Which is pretty good, by the way. The party settles down and enjoys life for a bit. Steven in particular just gets to rest for a while. No job, no mission, just… Steven. Which is really nice! He goes fishing, gets some new hobbies, he makes a friend. He lets slip some of his doubts about travelling with the Doctor. It fits the tone of the first half of season 3, while still being calm and relaxing.
But like I said, it all gets a bit more complicated when the shapeshifter gets introduced. And it feels a bit contrived at times. The story opens with an interrogator saying “I’m Steven Taylor”, followed by actual Steven correcting him: “No, I’m Steven Taylor. After that, several moments happen where characters act irrational and distinctly out of character. If you’ve seen any sci-fi in your life, you now know exactly what’s going on. There is an impostor among us.
But the story doesn’t want you to actually know that yet. It keeps that a secret until the final 10/15 minutes. So get used to Steven asking “What’s going on?” over and over again, while you’ve already known for ages. It gets a bit tiresome.
Overall, the story just drops in quality once the shapeshifer is introduced. This is mostly because of the aforementioned nuances asked from Peter Purves, which he just can’t deliver on yet. He hasn’t even gotten a full grip on the Doctor yet, but now you ask him to play a fake Doctor.
And the early performance hurts other moments as well. Like the interactions between Steven and his Russian friend. Nuances in the friendship are lost because of a performance that can’t capture them yet. How can someone express deeper emotions for someone if they can’t even handle their accent?
And I do feel a bit snobbish about it. It’s early work. I know that things get better. I’m used to things being better. Purves is a brilliant performer. But when judging this on its own, you can’t ignore that the presentation harms the storytelling. Details get lost in the scuffle.
But hey, what’s there is still pretty decent. There are no huge gaps in the writing. And while struggling, the performance is certainly trying. On the writing side, it could do with some tidying up in places. When exactly does the writer want the audience to know about the shapeshifter? On the performance end, just add another person. Lighten the load between actors a little. That way, this story gets more room to breathe and explore characters.
“Mother Russia” would be a prime candidate for a modern rerecording. It’s age and the inexperience of its leading man hinder it in places. Polish it up with some modern experiences, tighten up the script a little and you might have something great! But currently, it isn’t. It’s just decent. A sign of good things to come.
Return of the Rocket Men
6,5/10
This is a sequel story to “The Rocket Men”, which is a story I absolutely adored. What’s interesting is that this story is written by a different writer, yet it still uses many elements from the original. But does it use them well?
The party lands on an earth colony that’s under constant attack from the malicious Rocket Men. As soon as the next attack hits, Steven realizes something important: He is in his own past.
This story basically presents itself as a retelling of the original Rocket Men story, but where that story focused on Ian and the discovery of his love for Barbara, this story focuses on Steven and the discovery that it is time to leave the Tardis behind.
It’s a bold mission statement for a story to use. This is the story that will fill in the potential gaps. This will make it all clear. If nothing else, that determination is admirable.
So how does it go about this goal? And how does it compare to the previous story with the exact same premise? Well, that second question can be answered rather quickly, so let’s start there.
In my memory, Rocket Men 1 stood out for two reasons: Its huge amount of characterization and its spectacularly interwoven narrative. It jumped around its own timeline to fill in its own blanks when it needed to, which made for a kind of storytelling that I’ve never seen since. It was something completely unique.
So it is a bit of a shame that this story has dropped that kind of storytelling. While the past and future intermingle, it is much more straightforward and “safe” than last time. It is not as tight and woven together. Instead choosing a more linear route.
But hey, that doesn’t rule out a nice story! It would’ve been nice to see other writers attempt that style, but I can understand that it can be a huge challenge. It requires an incredible amount of perspective on your own work, your audience and your characters. I do not blame the writer for playing it a bit safer, even if this is a direct sequel. I just want to point out what could’ve been.
But what does this story actually do on its own? It gives us a glimpse at Steven’s past. The days before the Doctor. Before Mechanoids, even. When he was just starting out as a pilot on a freight ship.
The freight ship gets attacked by Rocket Men, and Steven is in danger. Until a Rocket Man called Rodriguez shows up and saves his life, getting shot in the progress.
Cue future Steven, our Steven, arriving at the exact same time and exact same location. He discovers that he was actually his own savior, as he takes over the rocket suit from the dead Rodriguez. He knows what happens next, but has to face up to it. He has to make his own future come to pass and save the people the Rocket Men have captured.
It's a decent setup, and while a bit overly complex at times, it does what it sets out to do and it does it well. Except for just one question, which I feel the story leaves too open:
Where in the story does Steven actually decide that it is time for him to leave the Tardis?
While the story is engaging, it never really addresses this point. Even though that was the exact question it asked at the beginning. It’s a great heroic little Steven tale, and there’s some quick words from the Doctor who says “I don’t want to limit your potential”, but that’s it. It forgets to answer the question it picked for itself.
What this story could’ve done more with, is the thought processes and feelings that go on within Steven. The guy has been through a lot. He found a family, he had a lover, he lost it all and hated the Doctor. He has left the Tardis, only to come back. This is a character with more depth than any of our previous companions. His only match in this category is the Doctor. Steven has been our main character for this season. So use those experiences.
And yes, some of these moment and experiences get a name drop. But it could do more. There are very clear reasons already available for Steven to leave the Doctor behind. Take your pick. Instead, it just kind of dances around the question, while pretending to answer it. Like me during a job interview.
When you really, really look at Steven, there is way more than what is presented here. There is way more to capitalize on. This is written to be the definitive Steven story. The one that answers all the questions before his final goodbye. But it just isn’t. It tickles some ideas, and is and admirable portrayal of him. But it does not meet its own goals. If you have the gall to present your story as the end point of a character, with this big goal for character progress, you set the bar high for yourself. If you then don’t reach that bar, it immediately becomes a big disappointment.
“Return of the Rocket Men” is not a bad story at all. In fact, it’s very good! But it also hypes itself up to be way more than it actually is. It is not the definitive tale it clearly wants to be, and that’s an absolute shame. It is well worth a listen, but temper your expectations. Hard. This story will try to hype you up, but it can’t deliver everything it should.
The Savages
5/10
"The Savages" sees our party land on a planet that houses 2 groups of people: Scientific and prosperous futuristic folk that live in a domed city, and scraggly savages that live in the nearby caves. The future folk have long tracked the movements of the Doctor, and are delighted to have him finally arrive. However, something is brewing under the surface. How have these people built their advanced society? And what role do the savages outside play?
First off: watchability. This story is missing with no animated replacement, so your options are either the target novel, the narrated soundtrack or the Loose Cannon reconstruction. For a companion exit, I usually like to go with the most visual option. In this case the Loose Cannon reconstruction, which isn’t brilliant, but does the job pretty well. Anyway, moving on:
The pitch for this story is pretty solid! Very sci-fi! I’m always down for a good commentary on inequality. The problem with this story, however, is in its presentation. Within the four episodes, there is mostly a focus on intrigue: Is there something going on? What is going on? Oh, maybe nothing is going on? Or is there? Most of the focus is put on deepening the feeling of mystery.
Problem is, this is a Doctor Who episode. Of course something is going to happen. In general, I’m not that excited by the concept of “Something is going to happen”, but rather “What is going to happen?”.
And the story only answers that second question very flatly. It turns out the futuristic people are stealing the savages’ life force to fuel their way of life. Capturing them, sucking them dry, then releasing them again.
But they don’t really play around much with that concept. The entire idea raises quite a few questions, but the story had no answers. This is apparently all we needed to know. I would’ve liked to know exactly how the life source was used. Or how one group became so advanced, while the other became (or always was) primitive. Some history on this society would've helped loads.
Another angle would be a harder focus on the scientific side. What method are they using to drain life force? Why let the people go after capturing them? What are the long term effects of sapping life force? Are they ever going to run out of savages? Is there a plan for that?
But the story never gave any answers. We leave it at absolute base level knowledge. After that, it is running around to both sides until compromise is reached. Which quickly makes the story very generic.
Because it has no deeper focus, it has nothing to really call its own once the twist is revealed. The setting is a jungle and a hi-tech dome, just like The Ark from 3 stories ago. It uses the idea of a doctor duplicate, which was done in The Chase last season. It’s all stuff we’ve seen before. Interesting ideas, but ideas that have already had their spotlight. Some as recent as 5 episodes ago.
Maybe it would’ve been better if we still had the full visuals for this story, but that’s speculation. What’s available now mostly looks like the Ark, but without any memorable setpieces like the statue or elephant. Sure, visuals will always help an originally visual performance to some extent, but I doubt it would turn this story into a hidden gem.
Still, even though it does present it very flatly, the story does come up with interesting ideas it can call its own. Stealing the Doctor’s life source to inspire morality in the villains is a clever way to start a revolution. Even if his morality has been particularly twisted this season. The light guns that work as freeze rays are pretty new for this show as well. So there are ideas that do work. The overall presentation is just not very inspired.
Before all is said and done, though, let’s pay some attention to the ending. The savages and future folk come together to destroy the laboratory, which is the source of their inequality. This is fine, if a bit questionable. Certainly a society so advanced that they can track time travel has heard of ‘Backups’ before? Then again, this episode itself is missing, so….. maybe not.
As they’re destroying the lab, they decide they’ll need a leader to unite the two groups together. They ask the Doctor, but he’s not interested. He instead recommends Steven for the job. Leading into his exit.
While I do have no doubt in my mind that Steven could do it, I don’t love the way this story presents this ending. First of all, the main villain has basically gained the personality of the Doctor, so there’s no reason he couldn’t do it himself. Second, I don’t like how the Doctor makes the call to leave it to Steven.
It's a bit reminiscent of the ending of “Return of the Rocketmen”. The same thing happened there. Steven described that he made a choice, but when we’re finally shown the choice, it was actually the Doctor that made it. Like he wants to get him out of the way.
Meanwhile, Steven has been a very important character in this season. He has been our connection to the show. He has had more screen time than the Doctor. So this really should’ve been made his call. Or maybe it should have been presented as a last heroic deed.
That would work great in context! Steven was shown as very capable when with the Savages. Managing to steal a light gun from a soldier, which had never been done before. This could’ve been a great moment to call back to. Make the savages choose him as a leader, based on their earlier experiences with him.
Same goes for the other side. The leader of the future folk has the Doctor’s personality and memories, so play with that a little. Make it shimmer through that the Doctor always saw Steven as capable, but never really said it out loud. Maybe this copy version doesn’t shy away from saying it.
The story could’ve chosen to be a bit more bombastic about his departure. Because this is a big moment. Not “They need a leader! Steven, you do it.”, but “Steven, we want you as our leader”. That little difference would have done so much.
Compare this farewell to those of earlier companions. Let’s skip on Vicki, because there’s really no footage of her departure left. Susan got a speech, one of the most famous ones in the show. Ian and Barbara got a montage that is still memed on to this day. I can’t think of a clearer sign of quality.
But Steven….. he just gets a handshake. That’s it. Goodbye. Shaky shake. Done. Left behind. And for someone of his caliber, who carried the show this season, that’s absolutely not enough.
As a whole, “The Savages” is like a puddle of glitter. It looks good at a glance, but has absolutely no depth in any aspect. It has a spark, and some unique traits, but it barely plays around with anything it offers. This not only comes to the detriment of the story, but also damages Steven’s departure. I’m still glad I’ve seen it, but there’s absolutely no reason to go back to this.
The War to End All Wars
8,5/10
We meet back up with Steven, long after the events of “The Savages”. He’s an old man now. A grandfather even. His granddaughter Sida comes over to visit him. We learn he has been a king to this world for many years. But now, he has been dethroned, and is being kept in a cell. Content to live out his days.
Yet Sida is not done with him yet. She wants to know why he let it all tumble down. Why did Steven Taylor give up the throne? How did it all come to pass? And will he change his mind about his imprisonment when he learns the people are ready to use a mind copy of the Doctor as his replacement? Like many old people, Steven decides to answer these questions with a story from his past.
So, similar to the Sara Kingdom trilogy, the writer goes for a “story in story” approach. After the initial king Steven setup, we move over to a separate story, with the connection (hopefully) becoming clear later.
The past story is about Steven, the Doctor and Dodo visiting a planet called Comfort. When arriving, the Doctor quickly gets taken away to be shot. Steven and Dodo, meanwhile, get tested on their physical prowess. Afterwards, they too get separated. That leaves us with Steven alone.
Steven soon finds himself drafted into the army. The planet is at war with an unknown, monstrous enemy. Steven quickly gets assimilated into a squadron, where the main objective is to survive.
And I have to admit, the presentation of the war scenario is incredible. The assimilation and accustomization of Steven into this war scenario is quick, efficient and unquestioned by him. It’s a picture of how war turns individuals into simple parts of a larger machine. And that picture is wonderfully painted and spares not a single detail. It’s absolutely chilling. It’s not presented as a big evil, or as unjust. It is just presented as normal. This is how it goes and it is not questioned. Absolutely phenomenally presented.
Honestly, this story is worth listening to for just this part. Steven is not Steven here. He is a soldier, and he doesn’t question that. He’s not hypnotized or controlled. His individuality just isn’t important. And it is written so fantastically that we almost don’t question it either.
It’s only when most of his platoon is wiped out, that the control is broken. Steven gains a bit of his overall perspective back. An outsider’s perspective, where the idea that the war should end is central. Yet to the people who’ve grown up in this system, that viewpoint is unreasonable. Their loyalty is unquestioned.
But Steven can’t bear it, and when sent back into action, he escapes. In the dark of the night, he tries to reach the enemy lines, but when sneaking past, he discovers Dodo in their trenches.
And this is where the excellent storytelling starts to dip. Steven and Dodo decide to tackle the current scenario from a political perspective, and Steven start campaigning, while trying to lure out the mastermind behind the two-sided war. This never happens and an eventual small scandal sends Steven back to the front lines.
I can’t figure out what part of this political section didn’t click for me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of intrigue, but I think it just went too fast. The first part spent a lot of time on creating this vivid, war-like scenery where you’re either part of society, or you don’t exist. Yet this political chapter seems to rush through the highlights. I think it would’ve worked better if the political side of this society was just as explored as the battlefieldd. What attitudes do the leaders have? What problems arise during campaigning?
It could be argued that it is this brushed aside because it doesn’t matter. Because war is not about politics, but about people. And that’s a fair point to make, but from a plot perspective, the political side is eventually used to resolve both the war story and the “King Steven” story. So it really should’ve been a bit more expansive and deeper, otherwise you rush past the key you created for your own story.
And that leads to the eventual conclusion where the day is not saved by Steven and his campaigning, but by the Doctor who decides to randomly chime in and end the war. On top of that, it also turned out the mastermind behind the two-sided war was just a computer that assigned everyone roles automatically. All the people on this planet are former prisoners and the computer does it all to keep them busy. Australia with extra steps.
And this feels very, very cheap. Both the Doctor showing up and the computer bit. I get the message, we get so stuck in our systems that we lose perspective. But I don’t agree with the idea that the only thing that helps is an outside perspective.
Maybe it’s blind optimism on my side, but I believe human resilience can overcome tough situations. Still, I can’t really fault the story for taking a different moral viewpoint for me. That’s actually really interesting to explore.
If it were explored, that is. After the initial, incredible worldbuilding, we barely focus on the politics that are ultimately the solution. It just feels too barebones.
What I would’ve liked, is a third part in this two-part story. Present the warzone reality in the first one, the politics in the second one and then round it out with a deeper, more moral look in the third part. Because with such a reliance on both politics and morals around perspective, it really should have more room to expand on these essential concepts. Otherwise, they feel half-hearted and don’t land as hard. Which is the case here.
Still, even then, the message carries over to the “king Steven” plotline. Because Steven wanted to make sure people made their own choices and he wasn’t stuck in another societal perspective, he made sure that his throne would be overtaken by the people. He let democracy bloom and did away with the supreme leader status he held, deciding instead to live out his days in this cell. With the given context, it’s an understandable conclusion. He wanted people to think for themselves, so he made sure they got rid of him as their moral guide. This leaves us with a nice bit of perspective to end on, just before the cliffhanger: The people have created a mind copy of the Doctor and he’s put himself up for election. Time for Steven to get out of hiding…..
“The War to End All Wars” is a story of layers. There’s the king Steven Layer, the war layer, the political layer and the moral layer. Sadly, not all layers are created equally. The war layer on its own is one of the strongest settings I’ve heard in a Big Finish story, but the other layers don’t get nearly the same amount of attention, while being just as important to the overall narrative. Maybe even more important. Still, the overall plot lands, so it does succeed as a story. But I can’t help but wonder what could’ve been. When you’re presented with moments of such high quality in one layer, you can’t help but wonder what the other layers would look like with the same amount of attention.
That brings an end to my 100th review. I’ve now written 100 of these. But don’t worry, I’m still having a blast. Even though they somehow keep getting longer and longer. I try to keep myself in check, but sometimes I just have more to say than other times. Still, live and learn. I try to stay critical of my approach and my writing. So who knows what the future will bring. For now, I’m gonna celebrate this milestone. At least it was a good story this time.
The Founding Fathers
4/10
Last time, Steven learned from his granddaughter Sida that a mind copy of the doctor was going to take part in his country’s election. Disgusted by this idea, Steven meets up with the brain in a jar that calls himself “The Doctor”. Soon, it turns into story time again.
If that short synopsis felt a little jarring to you, that’s the point. I’ve listened to five different “story in story” tales by this writer, but it has never felt as tacked on as it is here. Steven sets out to prove that the mind copy is not like the Doctor, so he launches into a tale of Benjamin Franklin that basically has no relevance at all instead of one sentence at the end. Let’s talk about that Franklin story first.
Our party of Doctor, Steven and Vicki (my beloved) land in London, 1762. They accidentally lock themselves out of the tardis by leaving the key inside. The Doctor knows he can build a solution, but he will require the help of the sharpest mind in this time period: Benjamin Franklin.
They meet the man in question in talks with a woman called Abigail. Franklin is apprehensive, since his romantic relationship with Abigail is extramarital. They soon convince him, however, by expressing how much they love science and his work. Even proposing to set up a new experiment with another kite.
It's an okay premise on its own, but by no means brilliant. Like the Savages, it feels like it does not really want to question the scenario it creates. For example, it does not question Franklin’s infidelity once. A quick Google showed me that Benjamin Franklin was far from loyal and had several affairs in his life. Some sites even describing the amount as "countless”. That kind of breaks the image this tale is going for. We are only supposed to look at the scientific brilliance of the man. A true hero. Yet at the same time this story brings up his infidelity and makes Abigail a major part of the story. It feels disingenuous.
Eventually, we reach the point where our party has tied a kite to a machine the Doctor has built to open the lock. This leads to our party’s escape and off into space they go.
It’s all just passable really. Nothing really stands out. It doesn’t help that we really only have the voice of Steven to tell this story. He’s our only narrator. This causes character like Franklin to not have as much depth as he would have had with his own voice. Same for Vicki. It’s still okay without them, but maybe a few more voices would have helped it.
It's not like this would have broken the narrative either, because the character of Abigail is voiced. So a step has already been set in that direction.
So, as we move back to our “King Steven” plotline, how does this story prove that the mind copy isn’t like the real Doctor? Well, the key is Abigail, who wasn’t remembered in the history books. Some would call her unimportant, but the Doctor never would.
Yet the mind copy has sacrificed a life when he tried to gain a physical body. The copy considered someone unimportant enough to sacrifice. This goes against the principles of the Doctor, which is why Steven can’t accept him. The mind copy, upon hearing this, accepts Steven’s viewpoint and decides to shut himself down and turn into computer code instead. Because apparently that’s something he can do.
It doesn’t really stick together at this point. The fact that Abigail was forgotten in history is given no focus in the Franklin story except for a few sentences. Yet that’s the big revelation we had to get from it. It feels very separate. Not connected at all.
That lack of connection also shows in all the connective moments between the storylines. There are short moments where we stop telling the Franklin story to get some quick banter between the mind copy Doctor and Steven. But this banter is also inconsistent. There are moments where Steven calls the mind copy “The Doctor” and other moment he gets angry and says the copy will never be the doctor. And it isn’t presented as some kind of inner conflict. It is just something that happens without any attention being paid to it. I think there are just moments where the writing forgets the two aren’t supposed to like each other.
That’s not even mentioning the resolution where the mind copy turns into computer code. It feels incredibly arbitrary and isn’t set up at all. It just happens and is accepted by everyone. This just raises questions for me. Why not just “shut off” the mind copy? why take this route into code that has absolutely no basis in the storytelling at all?
And I mean, I know the answer: because there is a part 3. But if this is all just setup, it could’ve been handled way better. Moments should happen as logical consequences of earlier moments. Not because random future storytelling calls for it.
It’s all just becoming a mess at this point. It feels like separate ideas were created, before being duct taped together. The two stories don’t connect in any logical way, the whole deal with Benjamin Franklin leads to nothing in the grand scheme of things and the Mind copy turning into code is nothing but setup. Meanwhile, the story just hopes you don’t pay attention to the holes it tears in its own plot. Whether it is Franklin’s infidelity, the connection between Steven and the mind copy or the resolution with computer code.
“The Founding Fathers” is a mess of ideas. While it does have intriguing moments and setups, it never quite comes together as a well thought out, cohesive whole. At the same time, none of the separate pieces are strong enough to stand on their own either, which leaves us with very little. You can look at every element and wonder how it could’ve been better, but that doesn’t change what it currently is. A failed attempt at “story in story” composition.
The Locked Room
4/10
After the events of the previous part, Steven and Sida have gone their separate ways. Sida has used her reputation to become the president and lead the people, meanwhile Steven has focused on his special research project, which seems to be in his final stages.
Thankfully, this story decides to break the “story in story” format these trilogies keep using. While there’s nothing directly wrong with the way it’s used, it has become a bit too routine. Especially for this trilogy, where the added value of the format got a bit lost.
Aside from the obvious advantages, like fewer worries about timelines, the main appeal for this kind of storytelling is that it can use the past to inform the future. We look back at what has happened, so we know what will happen next. Which, if used well, can feel like a subtle, yet surprising twist. Like the obvious answer was always bubbling just below the surface. Look at the Sara Kingdom Trilogy, where the stories informed every choice made by the main characters. Every decision those characters made were based in the stories that were told.
Except this trilogy never seems to have gotten the memo on those possible benefits. In this trilogy, the format mostly feels like it was expected, rather than a choice made from a creative standpoint. At best, Steven’s motivations are loosely based on the story he tells. At worst, it feels like it is completely irrelevant to what’s going on.
So good on “The Locked Room” for dropping it, because it has more than enough to stand on its own. We have already spent three stories in his former kingdom. Yet we know absolutely nothing about it. We also haven’t really explored the deeper emotions of our main characters. We haven’t peeked below the surface. So let’s grab that spade and dig!
Except, well, we still don’t know anything. At the start of the story, we follow Sida as she meets up with her dear old granddad Steven. He has built a room out of lead and is using it in his experiments. If the stars are in the correct position and he locks the room, he can make contact with the Doctor. The real one. But only barely. So he locks himself and Sida into the room and locks the door, which will only open when the night is over.
Now we have a setting where our 2 main characters are literally locked in a box together. Nothing around them except the other person. But the focus on character is still not there. We move right on to the plot, rather than just letting them talk a little bit. We wait for the Doctor to appear, so Steven and Sida can catch him out of midair. Which doesn’t work. So they try again the next night and it works.
They have managed to grab the Doctor out of time and space and pulled him into the room. We learn this version of the Doctor is at the end of his life. On the North Pole awaiting the inevitable. But how did Steven manage to find him there? After all, there was quite a bit of time and space between them.
It turns out there was a Vardan partially living within both Steven and the Doctor. The same Vardan that killed Oliver in the previous trilogy. It needed them together to be whole again. This twist didn’t really land for me.
Let’s rewind a little bit. First off, Steven was apparently possessed by this Vardan, which inspired him to build the room and find the Doctor. It says something about Steven in this trilogy that we never noticed this possession. We never experienced the older Steven on a deep enough level to know that anything was wrong with him. So when the Vardan pops out of him, we don’t see it as a revelation. There’s no sense of the pieces falling into place. It just feels random.
Instead, we kind of saw the opposite in Steven. He was planning and scheming for the good of the people in part 1, and proved he was still a moral hero in part 2. So where did this “evil influence” factor in? We have had absolutely no indication that we should worry about his behaviour.
So out pops the Vardan. The same Vardan that killed Oliver. The identity of this Vardan is so unimportant, that I didn’t even mention it in my original Oliver Harper review. It isn’t a Vardan with an interesting character or desire, it’s just one in a million. The fact that it is the same one again is completely insignificant.
You know what would’ve made it better? If the Vardan was the former Oliver. There would even be a precedent for that. The Oliver Harper Trilogy describes his journey as a piece of energy in the time vortex. It even describes a final meeting between him and the Doctor on the North Pole. All the pieces were in place to use him as the primary villain. Corrupted by his new Vardan transformation.
We know Oliver relatively well. We know his personality, his life before the Doctor, his secret. Compare that to this Vardan, which doesn’t even have a name! It’s just “The Vardan that killed Oliver”. It shows precisely why it is important to have depth in your characters. Why would we care that this is a recurring Vardan?
Eventually, the Vardan escapes, only to be locked up in the computerized mind copy of the Doctor, as was hinted at in the last story. So yeah, that odd bit of storytelling was setup for this. Not natural in the slightest, but it does the trick. All is well again, the Doctor is sent back, and the story ends.
I think I’ve made my problems with this trilogy pretty clear. It does not focus on the actual characters it presents. Only showing superficial, flat sides of both its protagonists and its antagonist. Because of this, the listener’s investment is pretty low and events that should feel impactful, feel random instead. We listen to the Doctor and Steven reunite, which does nothing to them emotionally. We learn that Steven was apparently acting out the will of an enemy, but it was unnoticeable because of his lack of character. We see Oliver’s killer return, but it has no impact because that killer has no personality.
As a whole, the “Reign of Taylor” trilogy is like a blank puzzle. All the pieces do fit together well enough, but once all is said and done, it has nothing to show off. Regardless of quality, the previous trilogies always had a goal to work towards. Whether that be exploring Sara Kingdom as a character or learning how Steven and the Doctor dealt with trauma. This one does not have a goal. Nothing it really wants to show itself. So instead, it tapes some stories together, calls back to what came before, and calls it a day. And since this is the final Steven Taylor story, it leaves him behind on a sour note. And that part hurts the most.
The Outlaws
5/10
The Doctor and Dodo land in 13th-century Lincoln, where they soon meet with robbers, sheriffs and a familiar, robe-wearing foe…. How will they deal with these peculiar circumstances?
Let’s start off with the first thing you will hear: a new voice for the Doctor. This is the first time Stephen Noonan takes on the role of the First Doctor, which was a bit controversial when this set first came out.
William Hartnell, of course, never lived to do Doctor Who audio plays of any kind. So his presence in audio has always been done by someone else. For companions, this is very much based on how they remember him. William Russell always plays him as a bit of a gaspy old man, a combination of dignity and flimsiness. Peter Purves, on the other hand, plays him more energetically and clownish. It is very interesting, because it almost allows you to hear the growth the character went through in the stories. Russell saw the stricter, meaner Doctor from season 1, While Purves plays a gigglier incarnation that mostly matches season 2 and a bit of 3. It very clearly matches what the character would’ve been like in their eyes, which makes their impersonations believable.
Other than that, we have of course David Bradley, who has a bit of a unique position. He first came into proper contact with Doctor Who by playing William Hartnell in drama documentary “An Adventure in Space and Time”. In it, he played a very dramatized William Hartnell, which fit the style of the documentary splendidly. But when he moved on to do the First Doctor on audio, that dramatic tone came with him. Bradley’s performance is notably more melodramatic and emotional than Hartnell himself ever was. Causing some moments that felt unfaithful to the character, even though the overall performance was still really good.
But Bradley is quite an old man himself, so I get why it might be a good time to get another actor to play the role. Which brings us to Steven Noonan. From the get go, it is clear that Noonan knows exactly what he’s doing. All little nuances in his performance show he is trying less of an interpretation, and more of a imitation. And I must say, I think he’s brilliant at it. By far the most accurate to the TV performance we’ve had so far.
He captures all of Hartnell’s little habits, whether that be stumbling over words, the iconic high-pitched “hmpfs” or the smaller sighs and breath patterns you would barely even miss if they were left out. It’s astoundingly good, and as the behind-the-scenes material clearly shows, he did his homework. Going as far back as the 1920’s to listen to Hartnell’s original mentor, who inspired how Hartnell tackled the role. This is clearly a guy who has nailed the nuances.
But in totality, it isn't perfect just yet. You can tell he hasn’t completely found his footing with the role. Especially when dealing with situation the original Hartnell wasn’t used to, like extremes in happy emotions. He sometimes slips out of the role, but always manages to get back into it. It’s clearly just him getting used to the role. Give it some time, and I guarantee it will be perfect.
But enough about that, let’s talk about the actual story. This story is a pure historical, which usually go in one of two directions. They either go dramatic, or they go comedic. So it is kind of off-putting to see this one go for neither. It leaves the story a bit formless.
Don’t get me wrong, the story clearly has picked a tone, but while trying to present itself as comedic, it just never really was. There’s barely any jokes or truly funny characters. Which makes this feel like a failed comedy movie.
Yes, I think that’s the tone we’ve reached here. You know those comedy movies that present themselves as really funny, but no joke actually makes you laugh? That’s what this one is like. The most comedic thing this story has going on is referencing Robin Hood, which isn’t exactly the funniest concept I’ve ever head.
And I know I’ve already talked a lot about performance, but man, the monk really isn’t helping this story either. This is my first experience with the Rufus Hound Monk and I did not get a good first impression in the slightest. He comes across like a muppet. Like he is halfway through eating cookie monster. It’s cartoonish and annoying. Add on a lot of conversations with Dodo, who’s performed well but has dialogue that absolutely fits her oblivious and childish character, and this story quickly becomes a bit of too grating at times.
And on the monk side, I don’t really understand where this dynamic came from. I get the idea that this is a later incarnation meeting a previous Doctor, but there’s no real indication of shock on either side. The Doctor should be surprised that the Monk has regenerated, yet he doesn’t give it the time of day. On the other side, the Monk should be surprised to meet such an early incarnation, but he doesn’t say anything either. It feels very inconsequential, even though it totally shouldn’t be.
On top of that, I’d argue this is the first time I’ve seen the Doctor-Monk dynamic as morally corrupt. I know this is a common complaint, but I’ve met the monk twice, and it wasn’t an issue then. One was his introduction story, where he was changing the course of history to extreme amounts. Bringing a gramophone to the Middle Ages and changing an important battle. The second time was during Daleks’ Master Plan, where he was mostly, to use a professional term, fucking about. Basically just trying to survive, while still messing with the Doctor, their dynamic being like an older and younger sibling.
This time, however, we are immediately presented with the image of the Monk as an irresponsible meddler, which causes a really hateful reaction from the doctor. Like he doesn’t even want to breathe the same air as him. It feels too intense. The Monk mostly keeps his old attitude, which feels more fitting, even in this new incarnation. But like I said, the performance still left a lot to be desired. Muppet voice.
At the same time, this story almost decides to tackle the interesting dynamic between the two. It mentions how the Doctor is no better, because he invented the Trojan horse. Which is totally true! Yet within one sentence the Doctor shoves it aside and we’re not talking about it anymore.
And that’s a straight up failure in writing. If you’re going to bring that kind of stuff up, you can’t then immediately stuff it away with the idea that we should believe the Doctor, because he’s the main character. That on its own is not enough to justify the animosity between the two, which hurts a story where the two of them take center stage.
Other than that broken dynamic, there really isn’t much to talk about either. It’s a story without a real central hook or anything that draws attention to it. It’s mostly the Doctor, the Monk and Dodo running around a Robin Hood-esque world for 2 and a half hours. It sometimes feels padded as well, like when the Doctor talks to the sheriff about being her guest, then a prisoner, then her guest again and then being captured again. Being aware of it doesn’t make it better. Without clear ideas, this story has very little to tell.
The Miniaturist
8,5/10
The Doctor and Dodo land in Yorkshire, 2019. They find themselves at the Zechstein mine, which is famous for containing a laboratory with a geological quiet space. A place of pure silence. But who’s making that humming noise?
This whole story is very reliant on the threat it contains. Some inexplicable creature is messing with reality. Making people disappear, causing strange visions and randomly teleporting objects around the city. The source is traced back to a weird shell-like fossil. While the Doctor goes to investigate, Dodo gets distracted by the visions.
And within that last sentence is both the good and the bad of this story. The Doctor’s investigation is sublime. He soon comes into contact with the transdimensional being. It’s presented in an almost eldritch horror kind of way. We can’t understand the scope of this being. At the same time, this horrifies the creature, who looks for understanding and connection.
All this leads to a conversation with the Doctor. Just him and the inexplicable. No outside world, no companions. All that’s left is him and the creature, whispering in an empty void.
It’s stunning, really. Yet also hard to explain after you’ve heard it. It’s almost ASMR-esque, but instead of relaxing, it consists of incredibly dense dialogue and loads of character. It’s fun territory to explore.
At the same time, I do feel like the soundscape around the dialogue could’ve been even better. All these conversations take place within the geological quiet space, so maybe they could’ve played with silence more, rather than the blubbering and vworping of the unknown creature. I think that would’ve made it land even harder. Truly make it feel isolated.
But the dialogue itself is perfect and, as mentioned before, really dense. I’ve listened to this story twice, because the conversation with such an ambiguous being can definitely be hard to follow. But that’s a bit of a given, considering we’re talking about the interests and wants of a being beyond comprehension. I don’t fault the story for it.
What I do fault the story for, is the use of Dodo. The creature takes the shape of an older Dodo and manipulates her to hear stories of her travels. This is also where the story’s namesake comes in, since the creature makes miniatures out of relevant details in the story, as well as from objects and people that live near the mine. It’s presented as the creature just messing around for fun. I don’t really get anything from this. It feels like it is there to give her something to do, rather than being plot relevant. It adds no new layers to Dodo or the creature and has no impact in the long run. If they needed something for Dodo to do, I would’ve preferred it if they used this time to build on her character in a meaningful way. For example, maybe she could’ve seen visions of different futures for herself. A ghost of Christmas futures, so to speak. I think that would mean more in the long run.
Don’t get me wrong, what’s there is still decent filler. But this really should not be a story that should be filled up. That distracts from the core conversation the doctor has. The tales Dodo tells have no relevance. Which turns them into distractions from the main plot, which is already packed on it own.
But “The Miniaturist” does still keep its strong main appeal. A new type of connection this Doctor has never made. A friend in the unlikeliest of places. Sure, the story factors outside of that friendship kind of detract from it, but they never destroy it. Which is why it is a story I can still fully recommend. If you’re a fan of confronting the unexplained, it is absolutely unmissable. If you’re not, you'll still see the Doctor tested in a new way, so give it a go anyway.
The Demon Song
5/10
The Doctor and Dodo are exploring London, 2020-ish. Soon after their arrival, Dodo seems to be entranced by a weird song, which leads her away. Soon, it is discovered that Dodo is far from the only one. Can the Doctor find the missing people? And can he let them march to a different tune?
Structurally, this story is fine. Nothing standout, but nothing harmful either. What bothers me, is mismatch between presentation and reality. Let’s go through what I mean.
Let’s talk audio presentation first. I feel like I’m starting to notice an odd pattern: For an audio play studio, Big Finish never really seem to nail music in their stories. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not talking about soundtracks. Those range from decent to good. I’m talking about music as a concept or force.
That might sound a little far-fetched, but allow me to elaborate a bit. This story reminded me of other times when sound was the antagonist. Specifically two ‘future’ stories: “Soul Music”, a tenth Doctor short trip. And “Fright Motif”, a ninth Doctor adventures story.
I’ll review those stories eventually, but for now, it is good enough to know that both of them fell a bit flat for me in very similar ways. Their overall ideas and narrative were fine, but they failed to express the concept of sound in a meaningful way. Sound is presented as a very central part of the story, but the presentation doesn’t commit and hopes the dialogue carries it instead.
‘The Demon Song’ falls in the same category for me. We have a weird, alien song that can infiltrate the mind and hypnotize people. It is also described in dialogue as a real earworm. Yet the actual song used in the soundtrack to represent this is a garbled mess. In reality, the song is completely unmemorable. I listened to the last parts an hour ago, and I couldn’t tell you how the song actually goes. It’s a disconnect between the presentation and the reality.
And while I get that the story goes for an unnatural sound, I think that misses the point. It is sung and hummed by people. It is played by buskers on the street. It is described as catchy. It is, for all intents and purposes, an everyday song. Dialogue-wise, it sounds closer to Rihanna’s Umbrella, but in execution, it is presented as a 2-year-old’s recital of Mozart’s Lacrimosa.
…Please someone edit the soundtrack to consist entirely of Umbrella.
My point is that I find it odd that one of the last audio play companies seemingly fails to accurately catch the concept of music within their tales. I won’t make any sweeping statements, but three relatively recent stories have struggled, which is not a great showing.
Other than the soundtrack, The story doesn’t really do anything all that special. The modern-day setting is barely used and isn’t really relevant after the first 4 minutes. Sometimes, they make a little joke, like the Doctor not understanding the word “Yo”, but those often clash with the more serious tone of the overall story.
There’s also some mind power shenanigans, with the Doctor solving a problem by mind controlling an entire room full of people at once. I wish it used intellect, instead of some random power the Doctor now suddenly has. Otherwise, why not use that power every time there’s a problem?
So what’s left after all that? Honestly, not much of value. A basic plot with no real character work and no surprising twists along the way. It’s a very safe, standard story. Comfort food at best.
Yes, I think that’s the best way to describe it. “The Demon Song” is like comfort food. It’s safe, doesn’t rock the boat and has a muddled execution all around. It’s most interesting aspect is how it reinforces a problem other stories also had. It’s is by no means terrible or insulting, but it really isn’t surprising or interesting either. Decent at best.
The Incherton Incident
3/10
The Doctor and Dodo crash into something while flying through the time stream. This causes the Tardis to land near the small town Incherton, 1947. When they arrive, they are quickly swept up in a local emergency: Something alien has crash landed on the town, destroying everyone who lived there. What could it be?
I’ve thought long and hard about the best way to describe this story, but I think I have found it. Do you remember those annoying little slidey puzzles? The ones where you just constantly smash little pieces together in the hopes of ending up with something worthwhile?
That’s what this story is. The characters are the small little pieces. They are all insignificant, flat and really not detailed enough. Yet they keep confronting them with each other in the hope that one of the clashes leads to something meaningful. Yet realistically, all you end up with is frustration.
Let me explain. Each character can be described with 2, maybe 3 words: The traumatized commander, The snarky spy, the traitor, the hypnotizing alien. All of them are flat as a board. Sadly, the same thing goes for our main cast, as they are reduced to their most stereotypical traits: The grumpy know-it-all and, well, Dodo.
And all these characters seem to do is bicker. The Doctor argues with the spy. Dodo gets the commander. They fight and fight, maybe swap some dynamics around if you’re lucky, then we continue fighting.
It doesn’t help that the overarching plot has nothing new to offer either. The threat is an alien who was hidden deep underground, but is now awakened and using hypnosis to influence people. This is basically the exact same premise as “the miniaturist”, which was 2 stories ago… So realistically, this story has nothing. No themes, no unique setting, no memorable characters, nothing.
And frankly, I have nothing more to add. I am doing Doctor who mostly chronologically, and yet I feel like I’ve already seen this story a million times. It’s completely bland, unoriginal and way too long. Hopefully the next story will throw something engaging into the mix, like characters or a plot.
Fugitive of the Daleks
6,5/10
A grip at the past that can’t quite recapture the same magic as the original.
This story starts in ancient Greece. We sit down with Vicki, now an old woman, reminiscing about her travels with the Doctor. Her past seems to catch up with her, however, when the Tardis lands in a shrine near her home. She finds a wounded Doctor inside and they quickly escape together. However, soon they discover the Daleks are hot on their trail!
I didn’t really see it coming, but this story quickly turns into “The Chase 2”. The Doctor and Vicki travel through all kinds of time periods to lose the Daleks that are close behind.
And on paper, it should work. The areas they visit are unique. The scenario’s they come across are interesting. Yet it doesn’t really recapture the magic of the original chase. It’s missing something the original had in spades: Character.
The original Chase was more than just a collection of locations. It was also a collection of character moments. Our Tardis team was chilling in a desert with 2 suns. They were goofing around with a man from Alabama. They met Steven in an incredibly moving character introduction. There were loads of little moments that made you believe in our little team of 4. Which also strengthened the heartbreak when they split up at the end.
Except this time, we don’t have that team. This time we have Vicki, a few decades removed from her last appearance and we have the Doctor, who is presented very flatly by design for story reasons. Later on, Dodo gets added to the mix, but let’s be real: No one is bringing Dodo to a character depth party.
Let’s look at every character in a bit more detail. Starting off with our main attraction: the return of Vicki. Overall, I think Vicki is one of my favorite first Doctor companions. Because she defined the era she was set in. Vicki was bright and optimistic as the travelled with her found family. The grandfather-granddaughter dynamic with the Doctor is obvious, but even outside of that, she always had a close relation with the other companions around her. She was the glue that made our team stick together as they went on fun adventures through time and space. When she eventually left, the show immediately grew very dark and strained. People died in cruel ways and Steven and the Doctor could not stand each other.
Now of course, not all of that rests on Vicki alone, but the point stands: Vicki was a bit of an optimistic force. So my question is: What has decades of life done to this person? What has become of her? What has changed and what has stayed the same? That’s why you bring back a character when they’re older, right? Because you want to see how they’ve grown.
But the story doesn’t really have answers to those questions, because we have to keep on running. The Daleks are close! We can’t stand still for a minute! So Vicki becomes stereotyped very quickly as “old woman”. None of what she originally brought to the table returns. Nothing new takes its place. We learn nothing about her life, except that she had children and grandchildren. There wouldn’t be much difference if we replaced her with, say, the old cave woman from “an unearthly child”.
And the same goes for the other main member of our crew, but in a way that was, oddly, by design. The Doctor in this story in a fairly flat character. Yelling a lot (a LOT), grumping, the whole spiel. Again, the depth is missing, except this time there is a story explanation, as this turns out not be the Doctor, but the Doctor Duplicate from the end of “The Chase”. He is superficial because he was just a copy. Which makes for a decent story twist, but at a cost. The Doctor went through a lot after Vicki, but this can’t be addressed, because this clone only has the Doctor’s memory up to “The Chase”. On top of that, all the new interactions with Vicki now lack impact, because this fake Doctor cannot react appropriately. In his mind, this woman never disappeared from his life, so how can this be a touching reunion?
Of course, at the end, the real Doctor does show up and we get exactly one moment of connection. A short thank you between the Doctor and Vicki, who helped each other at a time they both needed it most. It is beautiful, but also sort of depressing. Imagine if this stuff was sprinkled in, instead of being limited to one short section at the end. We would have had an all time classic.
Outside of the character work, the story is pretty competent. It could have gotten a bit more creative with it’s locations (as there’s no Dracula in this story), but it is all passable. I did think the last location, Brussels, was a bit of a weak spot. The character goals got a bit confused as both Dodo and Vicki didn’t really know what they should be doing and were contradicting each other a little, but it’s one segment among many. The last twist surrounding the Doctor Duplicate made up for it.
But as it stands, this story reinforces a frustrating trend among the recent First Doctor Adventures, where they refuse to explore or expand the characters in their stories. Something all their previous stories used to do in some capacity. I wish I could like this story more, but it’s complete lack of depth brings it down hard and makes the whole package forgettable. Let’s hope this is not the last time we see Vicki, as she deserves so much more.
The Horror at Bletchington Station
10/10⭐
When Dodo was first introduced at the end of “The Massacre”, the intent of her character was very clear: she was an attempt for the Doctor to escape his days of responsibility. Longing for the days of optimistic time travel, he took her with him to fill a void. Going as far as to directly compare her to his granddaughter. As a character, she is meant to just plug a hole. A means to an end.
After that ending, none of the stories that followed really played with that concept. On TV, this was because of a transitional period between production teams. On audio, this was because Dodo never really got a spotlight, most likely since Jackie Lane is no longer with us.
I did notice this, since character is something I personally find very important. I usually make sure to mention some fun, interesting or important character moments as I come across them. But ever since the Massacre, I haven’t really done that, since there has been very little. Especially for Dodo.
Yet now I finally come across a story that gets it. That plays with their odd relationship and the darker elements that hide behind the surface. I’d go as far as to call this the true sequel to the Massacre. I’ll go into more detail now, but I recommend you stop here and have a listen for yourself first. This is worth experiencing for yourself. Believe me, when I give a spoiler warning, it’s because I truly think you should go in without knowing the story.
The Doctor and Dodo land in England, sometime during the 19th century. After going to a local inn, Dodo notices that the Doctor is lacking his normal sense of adventure. He seems disturbed, like something is looming over him…
After settling in and spending the night, Dodo wakes up to find the Doctor missing. The innkeeper tries to calm her down a little. After all, he wouldn’t leave her behind, would he?..... Would he?
This is where it starts! Dodo’s naivety is breaking. How well does she actually know this man? What is she to him? What is he to her?
That’s what’s been missing these past few stories. Character dynamics. The façade is falling apart, and that’s unsettling for both. Dodo decides to shake it off and look into a local monster sighting, along with some workers on the nearby railroad.
As they go, we shift to the Doctor in his Tardis. Considering just leaving Dodo behind and running away. Yet he’s fighting with his own morality. He actively looks back on who he’s met and what he has learned: Ian, Barbara, Susan, Vicki, Katarina, Sara, Steven and Dodo have left their traces. They’ve spurred on his kindness, yet also shown the consequences that kindness can have. The Doctor curses himself for his new morals, and goes after Dodo.
After dealing with the threat, the cause is shown to be some kind of time and space surveillance machine, which has crashed on the planet. The Doctor sends it back into the vortex, and quickly pushes Dodo back into the tardis. As they leave, the sound of another tardis is heard outside the doors. They had left just in time.
The Doctor almost gave himself away, just to do the right thing. With a show that’s almost running for 60 years, you might even forget he was officially on the run for quite a while. Yet here is his past, almost catching up with him. But it was worth it, because he did the right thing.
This is where the Doctor has redeemed himself for his earlier actions in this season. After being morally questionable for a while now, he has, on his own, made the right moral choice. He has done the right thing. Even with his own freedom at stake. Imagine if this was the template from now on. Just imagine exploring the Doctor and Dodo further in this manner. Testing the Doctors' resolve now that he has to be his own moral compass. Testing Dodos' trust in this man she doesn't know. The illusions breaking away and their roles slowly becoming clear. Wow. I can only dream.
Yes, this story officially has a larger plot, but that’s not what’s important here. This story works because of its deep understanding of the characters. It’s tense, not because of a bear-like creature running around, but because we don’t really know what these characters can expect from each other anymore. Especially on the Doctor’s side. If author Chris Wing can so thoroughly understand the character dynamics on his first attempt at writing the First Doctor, imagine what he could do with a boxset!
The only bad thing in “The Horror at Bletchington Station” is that it ends. In just half an hour, it has shown a deeper and more complex understanding of the characters than any other audio’s with this duo. I could’ve listened to this for hours. If you’re a fan of “The Daleks Master Plan” or “The Massacre”, this story is a must. A true step forward in darker First Doctor storytelling, while still having a sparkle. I can’t recommend it enough.
The War Machines
7,5/10
“The War Machines” sees the Doctor and Dodo land in London, 1966. After landing, they meet up with professor Brett, a scientist who’s building a sentient, hyper intelligent computer called WOTAN. His plan is to hook up the computer to all the others in the world. However, WOTAN himself has other plans.
My first thought when going through this was “Doctor Who has just invented the internet”, since we’re talking about a computer that’s connecting to all others all over the world. However, as the story goes on, that thought changed a little. It’s less about connecting to others and more about WOTAN having thoughts and influencing those of humans. So, by modern standards, it’s a bit more like AI. WOTAN is literally an artificial intelligence gone mad. Which I’m kind of impressed by, considering its age. This was released 2 years before 2001: A Space Odyssey, which features the famous killer AI HAL 9000.
That’s not saying the idea is new, since other movies like the famous “Metropolis” from 1927 featured similar ideas (Which Doctor Who will eventually also play with), but still, It’s notably early for this kind of concept.
But I think it works! And what makes it more impressive: It works in a very kid-friendly fashion. This story has a very noticable child-friendly tone and knows when to take its time. When computer concepts get explained, we give the explanations room to breathe. They never feel rushed. Sure, the concepts explained here might feel basic nowadays, but I assume this was quite helpful for children back then. We know what the big ambitions behind WOTAN are, even when he turns evil.
But the child-friendliness also shows in other moments. Like the introduction. There’s a silent bit of acting from Dodo and the Doctor when they first get out of the Tardis. Like 2 mimes that aren’t allowed to speak. There’s probably a clever acting word for it that I don’t know. Still, it’s presented as a funny and light-hearted scene. Something made to bring a smile on your face. These moments are spread throughout the story. For such a serious threat, it stays notably light hearted.
Another noteworthy aspect of this story is the introduction of new companions Ben and Polly. Before watching, I didn’t have the most favourable impression of these two. They’re always sort of lumped together. Oh yeah, those two who hung around a bit during Hartnell’s last stories. But I’ve got to say, the first impressions are pretty good! Polly is smart and noticeably snarky, but still has a heart of gold. She can dish out some sarcastic comments, but will also pay the taxi fare for a homeless man. Sarcasm is something we haven’t really seen in a companion yet and could be fun.
Ben, too, is clearly different from Ian and Steven. All of them can be labelled as “The Muscle”, but Ben’s first go at it is noticeably clumsy. He falls over, gets captured and honestly, kind of fails at the action. Personality wise he’s also a bit of a loudmouth, rough type. Less composed than his predecessors, which could lead to fun moments.
After we’ve met our two new companions, it doesn’t take long for WOTAN to begin his plans. He hypnotizes people to do his bidding, the big idea being that the human race has long reached its evolutionary peak, and should be wiped out. His pure logical thought has lead him to the conclusion that the world can only prosper if the stagnant humans are thrown out. That kind of plan hits kind of different nowadays, huh? Other than that, it is interesting to see logic without feelings presented as the big bad. Especially since some familiar cyber-faces might pop up next season.
Using hypnosis, WOTAN brings people under his control and puts them to work, making them build tank-like machines he can control. The designs of these war-machines are kind of interesting. Way bigger than other threats. Like small cars. To improve his designs, WOTAN is looking for the Doctor (who he actually calls “Doctor Who”. Interesting). He has hypnotized Dodo to fetch him, which leads me to her “fate”.
The Doctor and friends soon discover that Dodo is hypnotized. Using his psychic abilities and ring, the Doctor is able to snap her out of it. She will have to recover for a while, though. So one of the characters sends her off to his vacation home. This is the last time we see her.
Wow. Talk about unceremonious. Polly later tells us that Dodo is having a great time, doesn’t want to travel anymore and sends her love. I genuinely have no words. The departures have definitely not been as strong this season, but this is a new low. The companion didn’t show up for her goodbye, what the hell?
Yet this, somehow, in a weird way, feels exactly in character for Dodo. The oblivious, impulsive idiot, who’s so out of touch she didn’t even show up for her own ending. That doesn’t make it a good ending, mind you. But I can’t imagine any other ending for her. At least she didn’t get married. We can finally lay that trope to rest, right? ……. Right?
But enough about Dodo, let’s talk about the final showdown with the War Machines. Frankly, I didn’t care for it. It turns into an army showdown that mostly feels like filler until the Doctor comes along and actually takes them down. At this point, Ben is resting up, Polly is hypnotized and Dodo is out of commission. The only character of our main cast left to care about is the Doctor, who mostly watches the action from the back. And I don’t really care for all these random army men and their stupid faces when their guns don’t work. I didn’t find it exciting at all.
Which is a bit of a bummer, because the story definitely held my attention during the first 3 episodes. But the last episode really doesn’t have much to care about. I wish we had something smaller scale and more personal. Maybe our main team could’ve faced only one War Machine. The first one built. Maybe the Doctor learns how to deactivate all the other ones from that first encounter. That would’ve been more entertaining than soldier #12 looking afraid and pulling the trigger on his fake gun with no bullets.
Yikes, I hope I’ll like the Pertwee years.
But after the War Machines and WOTAN are taken down, we head back to the Tardis and end as our 2 new companions enter. The end of a season being the start of a new beginning.
So that was the War Machines, which was pretty good except for the final episode. Neat concepts for a villain, companions and enemies, but also a really odd companion departure and a weak final part. Is it worth a watch? Yeah! Its fun, light-hearted tone makes for some great moments and our new duo is surprisingly endearing. I’m looking forward to seeing more from them!
Overview
And those are all the stories in season 3. In terms of consistency, this season probably the lowest so far. There are some straight tens, but also some hard drops in quality. Still, the directions it takes are new, exciting and could still be explored for decades to come. This season is still very much worth your time.
Now that this season is over, we are rapidly approaching a big change for the show. However, before we get there, it might be nice to look back at the change this Doctor has gone through. So we will be taking a slight detour and look at his earliest adventures, before we go to his last. "Season 0", so to speak. Let's see what the pre-TV Doctor was like! See you next time!
Art Sources:
Any other artwork is either from official sources or made/edited by myself.
Now that this season is over, we are rapidly approaching a big change for the show. However, before we get there, it might be nice to look back at the change this Doctor has gone through. So we will be taking a slight detour and look at his earliest adventures, before we go to his last. "Season 0", so to speak. Let's see what the pre-TV Doctor was like! See you next time!
Art Sources:
The Founding Fathers - Hisi79:
https://www.deviantart.com/hisi79/art/The-Founding-Fathers-540447770
The Gunfighters - Hisi79:
https://www.deviantart.com/hisi79/art/The-Gunfighters-wallpaper-425583997 The Locked Room - Hisi79:
https://www.deviantart.com/hisi79/art/The-Locked-Room-542660920
The Massacre - Hisi79:
https://www.deviantart.com/hisi79/art/The-Massacre-wallpaper-402280643The Vardan Invasion Of Mirth - CosmicWanderer42:
https://www.deviantart.com/cosmicwanderer42/art/Doctor-Who-The-Vardan-Invasion-of-Mirth-CvRems-881560393
The Miniaturist - David Burgess:
https://twitter.com/CloisterOfDoom/status/1519713080023867395O Tannebaum - PEJ72:
https://www.deviantart.com/pej72/art/7-12-777664417
Any other artwork is either from official sources or made/edited by myself.
Why isn't Daughter of the Gods (Early Adventures 6.2) included? It features the First Doctor and takes place between The Myth Makers and The Daleks' Master Plan.
ReplyDeleteGood question! Daughter of the gods will feature once we arrive at the "other side" of that story. It was written as an unofficial 5th anniversary story for the show, after all. I also think it'll be more fun if you know both sides of the cast, but time will tell if that's right. Otherwise I'll just add it here later and mention it in a changelog.
DeleteThanks for responding, and that makes perfect sense.
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