Body and Soulless

"We're going into battle against the corpses of our families."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio 

Released: September 2021

Series: Missy 3.01

Featuring: Missy, The Monk

Synopsis

Stuck with a co-pilot, Missy has taken extreme measures. After all, she only needs the Monk's brain to fly his TARDIS. But when Missy and the bodiless Monk end up on different sides of a planetary war, they may need one another to survive...

Verdict

Body and Soulless was a decent start to the third series of the Missy spinoff, which is wonderfully titled Missy and the Monk! I think in my blog entry of Too Many Masters which concluded the second series earlier this year, I was hoping for a whole series of adventures with Missy and the Monk, and as luck would have it that's exactly what I got! I'm delighted by the prospect of further stories with this glorious Time Lord pairing, especially given how things were left last time out. The Monk's TARDIS could only be piloted with both Missy and the Monk present, and the idea of the Monk being bodiless and just a brain was delightful. Missy had fun with that and was able to have him in her own handbag which was a fun image. I do think the story perhaps didn't capitalise on the potential of these two characters as I felt that more interaction was required throughout, but what we did get was terrific. I wasn't a huge fan of the setting and the background of the war between the VAD and Kalvor, but having Missy and the Monk on opposite sides was fun and pitting them against each other would provide a lot of humour. Despite the Monk always appearing in control or to have a scheme up his sleeve and it playing out to perfection, there is never that air of confidence around him. That's testament to Rufus Hound's performance who I think is a great incarnation, and it's also a strength of Missy's character and her outright superiority. We never feel that the Monk seriously threatens the Doctor, but the same cannot be said for Missy. She's on top form here and having her contemplating helping and being a hero was nicely balanced with her reaction of thinking it was heavenly for soldiers to be fighting the corpses of their dead families. That was just a horrifying concept, but one I thoroughly enjoyed. Gasher was a somewhat good character and I liked Missy's appreciation of his name given the field he was involved in, but the choice of voice/the way the creature boomed didn't work for me. It felt a bit off for whatever reason. The Monk managing to get his TARDIS back and also revert back into his body was fun and I'm glad we're not going to have the whole series with the Monk bodiless! However, the highlight had to be the revelation at the end where Missy subtly revealed her plans all along and the realisation hit the Monk that once again he had been played. Everything with the VAD, the Monk becoming bodiless and their very presence was all a plan. And it had worked to perfection! That really was terrific. I loved the lines at the end where the Monk and Missy seemed to accept that they would now be travelling partners, and the prospect ahead for the next two episodes in the series really excites me. Whilst I thought the setting and overall plot here was perhaps slightly dull, it was brightened by the interaction of Missy and the Monk. Give me more! Overall, a decent adventure. 

Rating: 7/10