The Hidden Realm

"They don't conquer or destroy worlds. They exploit them."

Writer: David Llewellyn

Format: Audio

Released: November 2016

Series: Third Doctor Adventures 2.02

Featuring: Third Doctor, Jo

Synopsis

The Doctor and Jo journey to Bramfield New Town when the husband of Jo's cousin vanishes mysteriously. As magpies circle overhead, the Doctor discovers a terrifying alien plot...

Verdict

The Hidden Realm was a very good audio adventure to conclude the second volume of Third Doctor Adventures! This was quite different to any of the three adventures that came before it in the range and having a contemporary tale for the time was great stuff, especially with the £100,000 deposit that occurred as that kind of money would have been even larger than it is by today's standards! I really liked the setting of Bramfield and having a contained setting in an unfamiliar town or village like this one is definitely something I am a fan of and it worked very well here. Jo's cousin Stephanie being engaged in a terrible happening with her husband having gone missing whilst walking the dog near the local abbey was a very good basis for the plot and us actually hearing the moments where he disappeared was great. I thought the use of the magpies was excellently done and a chilling way to show that danger was imminent. The use of the popular rhyme of what each number of magpies entailed was good and I appreciated that as I don't salute a magpie or anything like that, but Gemma is very keen on ensuring she does anytime she sets eyes on a magpie so that made me smile and think of her as I was upstairs. Tim Treloar continued to be fantastic as the Third Doctor and after my initial thoughts being more than sceptical about the role being recasted, he has more than taken the role for himself in a magnificent way. He really is uncanny and I particularly enjoyed the relationship with Jo in this one. There's something so special about the simplicity of Jo and the Doctor chattering in Bessie en route to Bramfield. I also liked the development of Jo as a character and introducing us to a family cousin was nicely done. Stephanie was a good character and I was surprised that she was still going to work despite her husband being missing! That also rose the suspicions of the two police detectives who were handling the missing case. Finch and Joseph were superb characters and they brought a lot of fun and intrigue to proceedings. Their initial dismissal of the magpies was very good and I liked the dynamic of this being one of Joseph's first cases. His promising that they would find Peter led him to getting some good advice from Finch which I admired. I thought the pace was good and the slow build of the mystery surrounding Bramfield and its history of missing persons was terrific. The idea of Liz creating an archive of strange events in Britain over the last half-century was magnificent and definitely something I could see happening. The introduction of Overseer Zim was timed right and the Doctor deducing that it was the Achrillians (sp?) responsible for strange events in the town was good, although I'm never a massive fan of the Doctor having a past with enemies new to the audience. The concept of the mind transference is always something I enjoy and it was presented in a good way here, especially with Hans Vogel being transferred and the way the large bank deposit was tied in because that seemed questionable at the start. Things definitely got fun when minds were transferred and the likes of Finch, Stephanie and even the Doctor were replaced. Joseph testing Finch on the missing persons story he told earlier in the audio was a brilliant moment as he'd supposedly never forget the girl's name, but here he clearly had no idea and was uncomfortable. The Overseer doing what he did for exploitation and payment in the form of gold was a good motive and the Doctor's reaction to that was as great as I'd expect. I thought the ending was decent enough if not a little simplistic but it worked well enough and sometimes there's no need to overcomplicate things. Barnett as the owner of the hotel was a lovely character and the nature of her speech coupled with the revelation of her being Zim's accomplice was marvellous stuff and I liked how the Doctor knew her sentence would be the worst of all as she'd spent her life contributing to her eventual transference, only now to not have long left and live in regret. Overall, a really good audio!

Rating: 8/10