Enemy Aliens

"William Tell is the key to it all."

Writer: Alan Barnes
Format: Audio
Released: August 2013
Series: Destiny of the Doctor 08

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Charley

Synopsis

1935: a message from a Time Lord in trouble sends the Eighth Doctor and Charlotte 'Charley' Pollard to the streets of London's West End, in search of a mysterious alien adversary - unaware that something monstrous is already on their trail.

They soon discover that an insidious conspiracy is indeed at work, its tentacles extending the length of the British Isles. Proving its existence won't be easy, however, after a confrontation in a music hall ends up with the Doctor under arrest and Charley on the run, suspected of murder. All their hopes rest in a musical clue and a man named Hilary - neither of which are much consolation, with the two time travellers the object of a nationwide manhunt.

And all the while, the enemy aliens are drawing closer and closer still...

Verdict

Enemy Aliens was another very good audio story in the Destiny of the Doctor series of adventures to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who. When this series was announced some time ago now, I was very intrigued to see what they did for the Eighth Doctor release as the series wasn't really under the banner of Big Finish so to a lot of the potential audience, the Eighth Doctor had only appeared once in The Movie but this series would not see the actors to play the Doctor reprise their roles. So, would it be Grace with another adventure? Thankfully, sense was made and the decision to have India Fisher tell a new story with Charley was made. Now, the timing of my listening is probably a bit off having just listened to The Girl Who Never Was with Charley departing but it was nice to get one final adventure with the pairing as I have already listened to Solitaire. Now, onto the story itself and it was very good. I thought the 1930s setting was intriguing given Charley's connection with the R101 in Storm Warning and I liked how she was contemplating getting married to Hilary to get paperwork and possibly begin a new life when society would know her as dead. India Fisher's narration was superb, as expected, and I thought her impression of the Eighth Doctor was actually great! She managed to include all the traits and mannerisms of Paul McGann's incarnation on a pretty consistent basis and that always makes for better listening. I thought the cameo of the Eleventh Doctor occurring right at the start of the story was good and the Eighth Doctor's annoyance at the audacity of his future self including a message on the TARDIS was terrific. The story and plot surrounding William Tell was interesting but I thought one of the highlights was the confusion between the lock and key actually referring to a loch and quay in Scotland, rather than a door in London. That was very clever and when the Doctor realised the mistake, it put a smile on my face that's for sure. Hilary was a good character and villain and his double crossing for both sides was brilliant. He was uncomfortably into Charley but that fitted in well with the setting and his chauvinistic personality. The Rossini humming was another very good aspect of the story and the way Charley used it to see Hilary's demise was excellent. I wasn't sure if an actual monster was needed but the prospect of a worldwide invasion coming out of the idea of Germans being the enemy aliens was very good indeed. I'm intrigued to see how the series moves from here as the Eighth Doctor appears to have fixed the fuzz that caused trouble for the Eleventh Doctor to send messages into the past to his former selves. But we enter a new era with the series now and I'm excited for what lies ahead. Overall, a great story!

Rating: 8/10