Dead Media

"Nostalgia is a dangerous thing for a Time Lord."

Writer: John Richards

Format: Audio

Released: September 2019

Series: Short Trips 9.09

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor

Synopsis

Like everyone else in 2017, the Doctor is doing a podcast.

Named the 'People of St Lukes', the podcast is about the everyday lives of students at the university. Only, with the Doctor involved, the everyday is dangerous and extraordinary. 

Something's lurking in the A/V department, something that is trapped in old equipment... as the Doctor quickly discovers, outdated technology does have a role in the modern world. 

That role? Ending it.

Verdict

Dead Media was a really good little Short Trips audio adventure! It's always fun having a solo Twelfth Doctor outing just given the crude personality of the incarnation and that was no different during this story. The idea of the Doctor having his own podcast is fantastic and whilst it wasn't quite how I interpreted it, I still loved that he was guest hosting an episode of People of St Lukes. However, as we would later find out it wasn't the ordinary type of podcast. I liked how Petra had to convince him as there was just no way the Doctor, especially the incarnation portrayed by Peter Capaldi, would volunteer for one of those. Honestly, right from the off I could tell the characterisation of the Twelfth Doctor was brilliant and I also really liked Jacob Dudman's impression of Capaldi himself. It really did feel like a genuine story of the era which is obviously a huge bonus and just testament to all of those involved. The mention of the Doctor finding cassettes and thinking that his player was destroyed by either Ace or the Cybermen was a lot of fun, something we perhaps didn't see in Silver Nemesis? I was a big fan of a lot of the references in this one with the Doctor reflecting on his ages and ages punching a wall in Heaven Sent and also some humorous references to the likes of a Vortisaur stemming back to Storm Warning and also the line about young women giving birth to middle-aged archaeologists, which was of course a reference to River Song. I really did think that was a lot of fun. It was also good for the Doctor to have a new perspective on things after all of his time staying still at St Luke's University. He acknowledged that he had brought the Mandragora to Italy and the Family of Blood to England in The Masque of Mandragora and Human Nature/The Family of Blood which was really quite interesting to hear him reflecting and being quite content with staying still. The way that was reflected on the Third Doctor and the ties in with the Doctor's actions all those incarnations ago was terrific! The irony of the Doctor now being on Earth for a prolonged period with a working TARDIS was a really nice mention and also a timely reminder of how things can change. He wanted to leave so much then and travel, but now the Doctor was happy staying still which during his third incarnation he must have thought was unthinkable! Petra was a really good character and I loved the fact that she was from Port Talbot, but located in Bristol with the university. I am a huge Port Talbot Town Football Club fan and did my Master's at the University of Bristol so the connections there were really interesting from a personal perspective. The concept of something living in the tape wasn't too unique given what we know of the Wire from The Idiot's Lantern, but sadly there was no return. What we got instead was what was referred to as a trans-dimension cassette being which was quite fun to be dubbed. It was an idea of light and sound hovering and something that was difficult to comprehend, even for the Doctor. I'm a big fan of the incomprehensible manifesting if I'm honest so I liked that. It turned out that it wasn't trapped in the tape and the Doctor's guilt ended up meaning the being was now eating at reality. I found that fascinating and would love for it to be further explored in the future. We could see into other realities and even though the being was death with thanks to being captured on a polaroid, the dimensions were still in flux as it was actually the Doctor and Petra that had opened the gateway. The Doctor needing to reverse the polarity was a lovely connection with the Third Doctor and whilst he saved the day, he lost Petra and wasn't happy with that. The whole podcast was an apology to her and he wouldn't upload it but would have it on a cassette in the hope it would one day get to her. Overall, a great audio!

Rating: 8/10