False Coronets

"They promise power but only bring slavery."

Writer: Alice Cavender

Format: Audio

Released: August 2018

Series: Eleventh Doctor Chronicles 1.04

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Clara

Synopsis

On the trail of a temporal anomaly, the Doctor and Clara arrive in a London dungeon, where an unlikely prisoner awaits her execution. This is a 19th Century England where the King has been dethroned, and Republicans bearing false coronets hold sway.

While the Doctor seeks out the source of alien interference in the timelines, Clara recruits some local help – and gets invited to a party. 

History has gone awry, and Jane Austen must help rewrite it.

Verdict

False Coronets was a really fun conclusion to the Eleventh Doctor Chronicles! This has been a really good collection of stories for the Eleventh Doctor with him meeting up with a number of familiar characters, but I was glad that we had with a companion this time around and I like that we get an extra outing with the less common pairing of the Eleventh Doctor and Clara. It was a really good outing for them and I thought the writing of their partnership was excellent. Jacob Dudman did a stellar job as eve with his Matt Smith impression and I also enjoyed his calm take on Jenna Coleman's Clara. It was good all around from a narrative and performance aspect. The idea of this pairing going back in time and meeting Jane Austen was really good and I liked how that occurred whilst throwing in the problem of history being off the beaten track. Clara mistaking the execution bell from 1815 for the cloister bell in the TARDIS was great stuff and I loved how it was clear that history was not as it should be by the fact that Britain had been declared a republic. That little anomaly was terrific and I really liked how much Tom craved that for his country which displayed his patriotism. That was a good theme throughout the audio as a whole. Jane Austen being in jail was a contrast to what we might expect and the Doctor and Clara coming across her was a wonderful little moment. Clara being almost overawed by meeting the woman who was almost exactly like her portrait's likeness was brilliant and the links she had with the historical figure from her teaching of English was really nice. I thought the line about Clara reading all of her works only for Austen to state that she hadn't been published yet was marvellous. The Doctor teaming up with Tom was a fun pairing and I liked the hunt for the brain-turning-to-jelly device, even if it could have been referred to something better! Tom being a poor man and wanting to wage war on the politicians and rich who got richer and went to the theatre whilst he struggled for food was very good and a good way to capture the time period. Clara and Jane getting invited to the party was terrific and their relationship together was magnificent. It even appeared that they shared a kiss! Clara being referred to as Jane's new girlfriend was also fantastic and quite modern for the time period which was almost refreshing. The assassination attempt by James Attfield was a good injection of action and excitement with King George nearly taking out and the issue that stemmed from the Doctor's recollection of history and blurting out the would-be assassin's name was magnificent. That seemed really typical of this incarnation of the Doctor. Clumsy brilliance. Rutland taking a shine to Clara was hardly a surprise (I mean who can blame him!) and the dance and mouthy brunette comment that followed were both really good. Adastra actually turning out to be Rutland was an unexpected twist and she was actually an alien female! That was a sudden shift but her and the dodgy vortex manipulators explaining where history went wrong with the attempt to kill Jane by carriage was a greta little explanation. It tied things up very nicely. The Orientation Coronet resulting in things vanishing was nicely done and I enjoyed the snideness of the revelation that Tom was just tracking the Doctor on Adastra's behalf all along. Tom knowing that Adastra was just trying to use him was good and predictable and I liked how she exploited his desire for a republic. She was simply on a gap year which was amusing but she was shot, albeit not fatally and that allowed her inside the TARDIS as the Doctor looked to help her and send her on her way. Overall, a really fun story!

Rating: 8/10