The Apocalypse Mirror

"A city that's effectively the capital of the entire world."

Writer: Eddie Robson

Format: Audio

Released: May 2013

Series: Companion Chronicles 7.11

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe

Synopsis

The TARDIS lands in the city of Tromesis on Earth – but it's a world far from the one that the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe recognise.

The buildings are ruined, the streets deserted. And against the devastation they see a ghostly mirror image of another place – the city as it was before disaster hit.

People vanish here, and huge metal birds attack from the sky.

Can the Doctor find the future, in a place that doesn't have one?

Verdict

The Apocalypse Mirror was a great Companion Chronicles audio! Any adventure that starts with the Second Doctor and Jamie doing kick ups and having a competition in the TARDIS is terrific in my book and just having that image was a delight as a huge football fan as I can just picture the clumsiness of the Doctor's efforts. The tide soon changed though with an emergency landing and being surrounded by vast buildings upon arrival. This was a good introduction to Tromesis which was a deserted city in Switzerland. It was certainly a unique setting which I liked! The Doctor being taken thrust us into some action and it was a decent introduction to Miss Petzel who turned into a good character. The idea of people fading in like ghosts around the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe was intriguing and the contrast between crumbling grey buildings in the same place as cleaner and bright architecture in the same place was very interesting. It was a cool presentation of another world. The Doctor telling the truth about their time travelling when questioned by the locals was brilliant and I liked how they were clearly afraid of the state which gave us a good indication of the hierarchy of this enigmatic city. Ninan was a good character as the head of the citizens and the explanation that came of the nostalgia sickness was magnificent. That was such a cool name! It was an indication of being taken away if you saw how the city used to be. Zoe being fascinated by the Flood that caused environmental catastrophe was understandable and I loved that this was the last inhabited city in the world. That was daunting! Paul going missing and Miss Oakley being his wife and on the hunt to find him was great. The Haukas as the metallic birds were an interesting element of the story and the use of transmat to take away those chosen worked well. Their method of the cube box capturing was excellent. I liked how Oakley being taken put suspicions on the Doctor and Jamie, but Zoe got the story going into danger as we found that a meteor was coming for the Alps in 5 hours and she had vanished! The Doctor having a Hauka trapped was fun and the use of short circuiting to defeat was really good. The suggestion that Zoe was taken because she knew of the meteorite was fantastic but I was a little taken aback by how quick the citizens turned in favour of the Doctor and Jamie. Action packed sequences followed as we hunted for Zoe and we soon got some answers from the statesman headed by Beaton. They looked for people with energy to bring into the fold and the Haukas were all they had to achieve this. Their defeatists attitude towards the meteorite was met with frustration, but then we realised that Zoe was in the other city that was actually in the same universe in the same spot! A sympathy engine test had gone wrong and the city was on a temporal fault line which meant two versions, one stagnating and one moving forward, could be influenced. So to crossover and be safe from the meteor you just needed to make it real nd think of a better world. Jamie's plea message in the hopes of a revolution was nicely done and I liked that they got enough on the right side to avert disaster. Overall, a great listen!

Rating: 8/10