One Enchanted Evening

"You're the last of your species because you ate the rest!"

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio

Released: June 2017

Series: The Lives of Captain Jack 1.03

Featuring: Captain Jack

Synopsis

Captain Jack Harkness – time-travelling con-man, saviour of the Earth, and intergalactic adventurer. He has lived many lives...

Captain Jack and Alonso Frame have only just met. But why did the Doctor want them to be together?

Verdict

One Enchanted Evening was a very good little audio to continue my way through the first series of The Lives of Captain Jack! I love how we get a continuation from the scene during The End of Time where the Tenth Doctors bids farewell to Captain Jack, whilst also setting him up with Alonso Frame who he obviously knew very well from the events of Voyage of the Damned. It was very good to have two familiar characters together for the first time and even though they ended up being split up quite quickly, they worked very well as a pair through their communication devices. The contained setting of the ship was good and the innuendo that the small elements of it provided for Jack and Alonso was great. It was clear that Jack was more experienced in any kind of act involving sexual innuendo, but it was still fantastic for the pair to be hitting it off. They were aiming for that to happen in more ways than one! Alonso's uniform making him out to be someone with authority on the doomed ship was fun and I loved how he was still feeling the impact of what occurred on the Titanic and how he wasn't set out to be captain or to save people. I thought the writing was very much in line with what the character was in his televised appearance and it's crazy to think that it has been fourteen years now since that Christmas Special! Reprising the role so long after was excellent. I thought Ginny was a nice character to come between Jack and Alonso and her taking a shine to the latter was a nice touch, especially with her getting to kiss him goodbye and the continued taking a shine to his smile. Jack was also very much impressed with the smile and that being the motivation he needed to defeat Mother Nothing was really nice. I thought the enemy was certainly unique and the speech which was very different and certainly stood out. Its desire for the giant diamond that powered the ship was amusing and it wanting it for no other reason than it being the 'shiny thing' was brilliant because that was no real reason, it was just evil. Hearing of Mother Nothing's nature and it being the last of its species because it had actually eaten all of the rest, even including its own offspring! The thought of that is just crazy. The bulk of the episode involving Jack and Alonso reuniting was nice and I thought the moment where they thought they were on the same level and coming to the same exit, only to find that Jack had made a mistake and was actually a level below. That was good, if not a little sad, but I couldn't quite believe how things ended with them ending permanently separated! It was a really touching moment for Alonso to stay behind and help Jack ensure that Mother Nothing was defeated, and him taking a little while to understand Jack's message about letting it go was terrific. The image of Jack riding a diamond in space and coming to Alonso was magnificent and certainly right up Jack's alley. The battle for the last remaining escape shuttle was a last moment of torment as there was no way for Jack and Alonso to escape together, so Alonso knocked Jack out and sent him away anyway without knowing that Jack was immortal. That was a big shame and just when it seemed that hope was restored and Alonso managed to reboot another pod, a meteor storm alternated their respective courses and they wouldn't meet. A big shame! Overall though, a very good audio adventure! 

Rating: 8/10