Quinnis

"I couldn't tell my tears from the rain."

Writer: Marc Platt

Format: Audio

Released: December 2010

Series: Companion Chronicles 5.06

Featuring: First Doctor, Susan

Synopsis 

Before Totter's Yard, before Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, before the chameleon circuit was broken... the Doctor and Susan travelled alone.

The planet Quinnis in the Fourth Universe appears at first glance, to be an agreeable, exotic refuge for the two travellers. But the world is experiencing a terrible drought, and the Doctor becomes its unwilling rainmaker.

Meanwhile, Susan makes an ally in a young girl called Meedla. But friends are not always what they appear, and the long-awaited rain isn't necessarily good news...

Verdict 

Quinnis was a fantastic audio adventure in the brilliant Companion Chronicles range! I really enjoyed this story and I thought it was nicely narrated by the terrific Carol Ann Ford as Susan. I loved the references to An Earthly Child with Susan describing how different Alex had become since meeting his great-grandfather and discovering about the TARDIS. The mentioned story was a superb subscription exclusive reuniting Susan with her grandfather only this time in his eighth and much younger looking incarnation. I really liked how Susan was telling this story to David, her husband of course. The references to The Dalek Invasion of Earth were delicately placed and with the Chronicles usually starting with the narrator after having left the TARDIS. I thought it was nice how Susan knew that the Doctor was right in leaving her from the TARDIS. She was now feeling the same for her son. She wanted Alex to socialise with people his own age and be in a time where there were no repercussions from the Dalek invasion which was still having a huge effect on society. But before she departed the TARDIS she travelled the universe with her grandfather as a young girl. This was even a time before Ian and Barbara stumbled upon the TARDIS in An Unearthly Child. I really love the idea of a story set before the TV series even started! It's almost not believable that an adventure should occur before the broadcast of the very first episode in 1963. But nearly five decades on and that's exactly what we got! The description of the TARDIS materialising into something the Doctor wasn't too happy was fantastic! Other than Attack of the Cybermen, we've not seen the TARDIS as anything other than a police telephone box so to have the Doctor react to his ship as something else naturally was quite unusual but the fact that it was so made it wonderful! It was nice actually having a story with just the First Doctor and Susan. It was lovely to see the family relationship between the pair and a visit to the Fourth Universe was interesting! Meedla was a unique character and I liked how she was messing with Susan and draining her whilst she was actually the bad luck bird that the town of Quinnis feared. The Doctor being forced to create rain was a good slant and when it came, things headed towards a decent climax which was done effectively I thought. The Doctor wouldn't allow Susan to be distracted by Meedla and her attempts to take off in the TARDIS. The Doctor explicitly telling his granddaughter not to allow anybody, in any circumstances, to enter the TARDIS was great as it seemed like immediately he didn't trust Meedla. Carol Ann Ford did her best attempting to show William Hartnell's Doctor but being who she is it was difficult for her to fully show the traits of the Doctor. The rainmaker he turned out to be worked out well, sort of, and then things came full circle for an intriguing finish. But overall, a very good Chronicle! 

Rating: 8/10