Smoke and Mirrors

"It's always the Master..."

Writer: Steve Lyons
Format: Audio
Released: May 2013
Series: Destiny of the Doctor 05

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan

Synopsis

The Doctor answers a psionic distress call being sent from England in the 1920s. There, in the enivorns of a fairground, he is reunited with an old friend: Harry Houdini. To Adric and Nyssa the name means very little, but to the Doctor's companion Tegan he is a legend. Escape artist extraordinaire, Houdini's reputation will last for decades.

But how does Harry know so much about Tegan? Is it really just guesswork, as he says? Is Harry right to be concerned about the fairground's fortune teller, who claims to have supernatural skills? Both he and the Doctor suspect an alien influence they know of old.

What neither the Doctor nor his friends realise is that, somewhere in the shadows, a far more sinister and familiar presence is lying in wait for them...

Verdict

Smoke and Mirrors was a terrific audio story and a great continuation of the Destiny of the Doctor series. This was definitely the best adventure of the series so far which was a real treat. The fairground setting worked fantastically and I loved how it was set in the 1920s. Tegan got to see a bit of her planet's past and she also got to meet a quite infamous historical figure in the form of Harry Houdini! Now, the magician is no secret to Doctor Who stories as he has appeared in Theatre of the Mind with the Twelfth Doctor but it also seems like he had interactions with both the First and Third Doctors in his past. The mentions of Ben, Polly and Jo were lovely anecdotes to the past. The Doctor hinting at the existence of the Vashta Nerada when referring to shadows having teeth was fantastic and I really enjoyed the references to The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis and The Visitation. There was a lot of continuity which I always like. Janet Fielding gave a decent performance and I was quite surprised that Lyons chose to set his Fifth Doctor story at a time where there were three companions - that's a difficult task for one actor! She managed it well though, even if her Australian accent continued to creep through in her impressions. The cameo appearance of the Eleventh Doctor was done brilliantly and I wasn't expecting to come so early in the story. The way he spoiled the presence of the Master was pretty funny and perfectly typical of that incarnation. I liked how this story featured the Master in chronological placement after Castrovalva. I love that story and for the companions to think him dead was very good. He wasn't physically present and I loved how that allowed for this story to not contradict dialogue in Time-Flight. The laughter that's so typical of Anthony Ainley's Master was presented very well and I loved the prospect of him using Houdini against the Doctor. The magician perhaps being bitter for not being allowed inside the TARDIS is quite an unexpected but excellent concept but the alliance was not what he thought it was, as he would soon realise. The Master tormenting Nyssa and putting her under his control was great and I loved how Tegan pleaded with her to not do his bidding after all he's done to her. He'd taken her father's body and destroyed her home planet and that was enough for Nyssa to free herself from his grasp. Adric was quite quiet in this audio which was fine but I did like how he and Nyssa didn't understand the entertainment value of a funfair. The action-packed scenes with the tiger and leopard were very good and I thought the conclusion was very lively and just brilliant. Overall, a fantastic audio!

Rating: 9/10