Ferril's Folly

"It was a single statute, with a dead body within it."

Writer: Peter Angheledis

Format: Audio

Released: May 2011

Series: Companion Chronicles 5.11

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana I

Synopsis

The search for the fourth segment of the Key to Time brings the Doctor and Romana back to Earth in the present day.

In a small village in Norfolk, former astronaut Lady Millicent Ferril has established an observatory, tracking a meteorite from the Cronquist System. It is a meteorite that almost killed her years before – and perhaps left her not entirely human.

As Ferris's power grows, so does her influence. She can control metal. And anything metal – from a suit of armour to a bicycle – is now lethal...

Verdict

Ferril’s Folly was a very good little audio adventure! I think was definitely one of Mary Tamm’s finest performances in a lead role as Romana I and I have to admit that probably because she is probably my least favourite Classic companion, I didn’t have high expectations going in and I was quite trepidatious about actually purchasing the Companion Chronicle when it was on sale as part of the televised broadcast of the fourth episode of Series 12. I am now very happy that I did! It started very well with the TARDIS tipping over facedown which is such a simple but brilliant problem! I really enjoyed that. Capturing the setting of mid-Season 16 and the search for the Key to Time segments was excellent and it felt like it fitted in effortlessly with the storytelling of that season. I was very impressed with that. I particularly enjoyed the characterisation of the Fourth Doctor with Tamm’s impression pretty decent as far as Companion Chronicles go. Lady Ferril was a really good character and the comedy coming at the end with how her folly was brought down by her own personal folly was terrific. I was quite surprised to find that Ferril was an astronaut and the whole story concerning the crash was really good. Everything was just rather intriguing which is great to have in an adventure because my interest was peaked throughout the story. That’s exactly what you want. Ferril being able to control iron or anything that was an iron alloy was excellent and it worked well that it would only be for one specific metal. That made her powerful but not almighty and unable to be defeated which I think is an important aspect in a villainess. The little spiders were a nice inclusion and just reminded me of Lady Cassandra’s little minions which was a nice thought and image in my head. The use of the statues was very good, particularly with them twisting around the TARDIS. I really enjoyed the Doctor and Romania’s arrival to the observatory and the latter giving away her extraterrestrial nature was hilarious. She couldn’t help but blurt out that she was on a level 4 civilisation despite the Doctor trying to shush her. That was a lot of fun. Their splitting up in search for answers and the segment worked very well for the format of the audio. The Doctor playing darts in the pub with the villagers whilst he was looking for equipment to lift the TARDIS was just magnificent. As a darts player myself, I found that just superb. Professor Erkip was a fun character and it was nice for him to know some things and then have Romana arrive and know all of the calculations surrounding the telescope was brilliant. I liked that a lot and it allowed Romana to shine in a way that perhaps her first incarnation wasn’t always able to do on television. The reveal concerning the Cronquist System was interesting and it was good to have the alien involvement come relatively late in the audio as that allowed for character development and investment. That race being pretty brutal was good and that definitely came around in the story once Ferril was fully under the influence. The scene with Stanford the postman being attacked in horrific fashion by the bicycle he was riding was quite something! It was a little disturbing during my early morning commute I have to say. The villagers disliking Ferril was very good and I loved the emergence of the Historical Reenactment Society. Ferril shutting that down seemed quite harsh but it explained the animated suits of armour so that was good. Their collapse towards the end of the audio worked very well and I also enjoyed the way the Cronquist were dealt with as Romana used the tracer to disperse the segment and repel them back into space and taking Ferril with them. K9 using the tracer to revert the TARDIS back to its upright position was good and I was just dying to hear the robot dog’s voice but it didn’t quite arrive sadly. The humour concerning the Doctor’s initial and hasty plan to convert the segment was brilliant because Romana pointed out that it would actually have provided the perfect pathway for them to take over. Overall, a great little audio adventure!

Rating: 8/10