The Flood

"It's been raining since 1982."

Writer: Lisa McMullin
Format: Audio
Released: September 2019
Series: Rose Tyler: The Dimension Canon 02

Featuring: Rose, Clive

Synopsis

Making another leap with a new companion, Rose finds a world suffering environmental change. The rain won't stop, and the government could be hiding the scale of the impending disaster.

While Rose connects with another version of Pete and a strangely compelling young man, Clive meets someone special of his own. In this world, there was no Clive for Caroline to meet, but love can cross dimensions.

Verdict

The Flood was another excellent episode in The Dimension Canon spinoff series for Rose Tyler! We continue Rose's search for any sign of the Doctor and this time she and Clive ended up in a really intriguing universe. It sounded like it must have been quite similar up until the 1980s and then stemmed off rather drastically. The idea of a technology ban dating back to the '80s was terrific and I really can't imagine going to a world where the modern population didn't have a clue about current tech. It must have been so strange for Rose to have people practically being inundated with her phone because of how advanced and sophisticated it was. Putting the technological revolution as the reason for global warming was good and I thought everything worked together really well. Rose meeting up with Rob and fancying him a little bit seemed a logical movement given how they were getting on, but finding out that he was actually the only child of Pete Tyler was just wonderful. Rose's reaction was fantastic and then we found out that Rob had a boyfriend – Mickey! Well, I really was howling at this revelation and Billie Piper did tremendously well in this scene. It was definitely a highlight of the audio. Clive had a strong story as well considering we don't know a huge amount about him after Rose, but of course this was a parallel version and it was nice to hear how much he loved his Caroline. The pair hit it off here very well and it was nice for them to get to know each other all over again around the book club that soon turned into UFO chat. Finding out that this universe's Jackie had been killed in a protest march against the government with the claim that they knew more than they were revealing about the true extent of global warming was sad to hear, but it was clear that Jackie didn't go out without a fight. Standing up to an armed guard would be the end for her. Rose and Clive searching for mentions of the Doctor, the TARDIS or a blue box was brilliant, but I do wonder why they stayed for so long when it was clear that this universe was so different to that of her Doctor's. Rose even admitted that she didn't think the Doctor could be duplicated, but I think that was more out of sentiment than science. Discovering that Pete and Rob were continuing to attempt to go against the government was great and I loved that Donna was their contact on the inside. The idea that the global warming and continuous rain for decades was perhaps construed was intriguing and it worked well that there would be something in the rain impacting the nutrients in the ground. It was pretty much a certainty that humanity had around seventy years before crumbling, with only fifty harvests left in the ground. That would send people into panic as this universe was all but doomed as far as Earth was concerned. The mentions of something coming from beyond the stars were very good and I love how this series is setting things up for The Stolen Earth. It's working wonderfully well. This Prime Minister was hiding the truth, but thanks to Rose and Rob and their secret recordings she would soon be exposed which was great. I'd love to know the fate of this Donna who had mysteriously disappeared, but this wasn't the right universe for that. Clive wanting to bring his Caroline back with him to Pete's World was an emotional moment as Pete nor Rose would allow it, and she wouldn't let him stay with her either. It was quite emotional and rather harrowing as well to then have Rose visit Jackie's gravestone. I'm surprised she would have wanted to do that! Overall though, another magnificent audio adventure!

Rating: 9/10