Tales from the Vault

"People aren't ready for the truth."

Writer: Jonathan Morris
Format: Audio
Released: July 2011
Series: Companion Chronicles 6.01

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana I, Third Doctor, Jo, Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe, First Doctor, Steven, Dodo

Synopsis

Welcome to The Vault – jokingly known as 'The Museum of Terrors' – a high security establishment where UNIT keeps all of its alien artefacts.

New recruit Warrant Officer Charlie Sato is given a guided tour by Captain Ruth Matheson, and the archive reveals some dark secrets. An army jacket, a painting, crystal and a wax cylinder all hold a grave significance, and their stories are told by the Doctor's companions: Steven Taylor, Zoe Heriot, Jo Grant and Romana...

Verdict

Tales from the Vault was an excellent Companion Chronicles audio! I really enjoyed this one and the concept right from the start was just tremendous. The introduction of Ruth and Charlie was fantastic and it was very intriguing to have Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso return to Doctor Who, but playing different roles from those of The Movie. They were both great and I liked how Ruth was a UNIT Captain and Charlie was being offered a job. The nature of the Vault, or the Museum of Terrors as it was also referred, was wonderful and hearing of Charlie's decontamination and precautionary checks just to get in the premises were very good. There were references in abundance for this one which I always enjoy with Terror of the Zygons in particularly getting a funny mention. Ruth explaining the nature of the Vault and how her division of UNIT was responsible for putting out disinformation to the public once an alien event occurs on Earth, something that has occurred en mass through Doctor Who's history. It was an important element of explaining a constant lack of knowledge of humanity towards extraterrestrials. It ties things up nicely that they were the ones tidying up the truth and removing evidence where necessary. Charlie being offered a job and the chance of the memory-taking antidote was terrific and he would soon become Ruth's assistant curator. Quite the role! The humour that came with the comments of the night watch and keeping things in as well as people out was wonderful. The sighting of a Krynoid pod along with parts of a Sontaran scout ship in the Vault was brilliant and I liked how there were recordings of some items that were part of the Museum. That was a neat way of telling an adventure of this nature which I thought was very clever. Charlie knowing of Jo Grant was lovely and her report being on a cassette was a nice touch. She was told by the Brigadier to put her reports in recorded format instead of paper which was good and the legend of the haunted uniform being told was excellent. Katy Manning was just wonderful in telling us about Roddy and the man from a different time. I thought it was hilarious that her impression for this story was incorporated into her doing the voice for her report! From there we went to a small interview recording by Ruth with the first incarnation of Romana as she recalled the events with the Fourth Doctor and encountering a great lost treasure of the universe in the form of a painting that held the eye of the beholder's moment of death. That was a scary concept and I liked how Romana didn't seem too thrilled with having to document events to UNIT, nor of the Doctor's desire to visit an art gallery instead of their mission to locate the segments of the Key to Time. It was a nice added touch that anyone who did look and witnessed their death went mad, and who could blame them? The next item was an intriguing one as we saw a crystal that contained the memories and voice of Zoe! I wasn't expecting that but it was a good way of keeping the way items were documented fresh. The mention of this crystal being captured early on in UNIT's reign was marvellous and I liked how it was used to wipe memories amidst a planned bank robbery. The references from Charlie regarding The Invasion and The Web of Fear were fantastic and I liked how this crystal had fallen from the stars. The Doctor tricking Dalglish into a plan to rob the Bank of England and revealing the true intentions of the orchestrator to also wipe the memories of those in on the robbery with him so they wouldn't get a share of the loot was brilliant! I can just imagine the Second Doctor being right at home with that. The final item was one Ruth hadn't planned on being a part of Charlie's tour with the wax cylinder, the earliest form of audio recording, opening from its case after a pre-set timer from the Doctor himself. It was fun for Ruth to not know which incarnation had set it and we were soon hearing the voice of Steven Taylor giving a warning from South Africa in 1900. The Doctor, Steven and Dodo had answered a distress call from the stars with a creature having a systems failure and an escaped prisoner who they found at the source. It sounded very much like an Ice Warrior which would have been interesting for the First Doctor to encounter prior to The Ice Warriors! The concept of the prisoner occupying different forms was good and it wanted the means the Doctor had to leave the planet. I really liked that Charlie wanted to react to the Doctor's warning and put on the uniform against orders and he was soon taken over by Tommy Watkins who was confused to find a lady as Captain. The way everything concluded by linking all of the items we had learned about during the story was magnificent and our Watkins turned out to be Kali Carash all along! That was somewhat expected, but it still worked well with him taking advantage of someone's curiosity and hoping to escape and guide the human race in way that would lead him to conquer and be immortal. The combination of the crystal and artwork was superb and we had the Zoe crystal absorb the consciousness of Carash before Ruth smashed it into smithereens. Overall, a terrific audio adventure!

Rating: 9/10