Peace in Our Time

"A chase around the streets of Edwardian London is to be savoured!"

Writer: Una McCormack

Format: Audio

Released: December 2019

Series: Short Trips 9.12

Featuring: First Doctor, Steven

Synopsis

A family meal, interrupted. Government papers, stolen. Social etiquette, ignored.

Ruby Watkins is the over-worked and unappreciated maid of the Gledhill family. Answering the door midway through serving dinner, she finds Mr Gledhill's junior at the War Office, Mr Taylor, is here to see him on urgent business. For some unknown reason, he's brought a doctor with him...

Verdict

Peace in Our Time was a decent little Short Trips audio adventure! I thought this was a solid historical tale that had a good level of mystery and alien involvement whilst staying true to the time period in which it was set. Unless I misheard, I don't recall any specific year being given as the setting for the story but an Edwardian era adventure is definitely a good place to go with the First Doctor and Steven! For whatever reason, they just seem very well suited to that era and the pair really did revel in their disguise to try and obtain the secret government papers that would go some way to protecting an alien invasion in the future. The very idea of that is good whilst convoluted and one of my worries was that something like that wouldn't have the room it needed to breath in the Short Trips range. Thankfully, that was no trouble at all and what we had was a good audio story. Peter Purves was excellent as the narrator which is the standard for him now and he brings a genuine feel to the adventure with his impression of the First Doctor. It always helps when the take on the lead character is reminiscent of William Hartnell in this case, and it was nice for the Doctor to appear to be having some fun! He was really liking the chase around Edwardian London which was amusing, and even more so considering Steven didn't quite share those feelings. The companion being referred to as Taylor throughout the story was a little strange but it fitted in well with the guise that was taken to try and gain access to the papers. However, that did seem a little off when it was used in narration. Regardless, it didn't really take anything away from the story! Ruby was a very fun character and I thought she was very sweet in liking the fact she had a job and could take home annual earnings of £30. How times have changed! Her stance at the end when her former employers were no more was a big shame because now she had no job and no references to get a new one! She was stuck. Her being picked up by the Suffragette Movement was good though and it's nice to know that she'll be doing good. Elizabeth was also a decent character within the Gledhill family and I liked her role in the temporal business that was occurring. The prospect of changing the past to make the future easier to invade was brilliant and something I thought more could have been made of. The Doctor mentioning visitors constantly was good and a reminder that there was business at hand, and Steven having to front that was terrific. The use of the Dreadnought was good and I should also mention my enjoyment of the title and the era that the story takes place in. That's a neat connection. Overall, this is a solid little audio adventure to close out the ninth series of Short Trips!

Rating: 7/10