Shadow of a Doubt

"One night in the mirror appeared a little girl with a balloon."

Writer: Paul Cornell

Format: Audio

Released: 24 April 2020

Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Bernice

Synopsis

Someone has found something on an alien world...

Verdict

Shadow of a Doubt was a very good little audio story! This serves as an intriguing middle piece in what has turned out to be a Shadow Trilogy of lockdown adventures to coincide with the watch-along of Human Nature/The Family of Blood. That two-part story is a sensational tale and is probably my favourite Tenth Doctor adventure and I was disappointed at being unable to take part in the Tweet-along. However, I don't quite feel that I am missing out as now I am catching up on the bonus release stories to go with it which is just wonderful. I love the idea of the Thirteenth Doctor feeling guilty for what she did to Daughter of Mine at the end of the second episode by trapping her in every mirror. Having a full story, even if it was barely three minutes, with Bernice Summerfield tying in with a Tenth Doctor tale was very intriguing and I liked how characters and plot threads from different eras can be meshed together. It's a lot of fun! Bernice being on Andromeda and finding an old Earth mirror was very good and I just loved how she had been having a conversation with the strange girl within it. If I saw a young girl with a red balloon in the mirror, I think I'd start questioning my sanity rather than start speaking to her! The details of the conversation recalled by Bernice were very interesting though! She seemed to think she was being hunted which was strange given that she is literally trapped in a mirror. Daughter of Mine was always asking Bernice, who seemed to have come and gone for conversations on numerous occasions, if she was the Doctor. That wasn't exactly a shocking thought given the knowledge the Family of Blood had on the Time Lords so they were surely aware of their regenerative abilities. The talk of how 'she', presumably meaning the Thirteenth Doctor, had kept visiting was good and I liked how she was acting on her guilt we learned of in The Shadow Passes. There were apparently further visits from the likes of the Twelfth and Seventh Doctors which is intriguing, especially for the latter incarnation as he hadn't yet trapped her! There were also a number of unknown incarnations apparently visiting, a window into the future perhaps? Or after The Timeless Children, the past? I really liked the idea of Daughter of Mine continuously being asked if she was sorry for her actions. She was being punished which I think was important to remember. It was always the same question and all she had to do was say she was sorry. That seemed like an easy way out of the mirror, but she claimed she was incapable of apologising. Bernice wasn't sure if that was the case though which was a good thought to ponder. As the daughter of the family, was she perhaps just going along with the wishes of her parents and older sibling? Was she really evil? It's something we haven't really stopped and thought about. I liked the ambiguity of the ending with Bernice not letting her out and leaving the mirror back where it was on Andromeda as the place where the Doctor could find her again. It set things up quite nicely for the final instalment in this makeshift trilogy and I very much look forward to seeing how things play out! Overall, a terrific little audio that actually did an awful lot in just three minutes or so. Very impressive!

Rating: 8/10