Protectors of Time: Prism

"You're on your way to becoming one of the lost."

Writer: Abigail Burdess

Format: Audio

Released: March 2022

Series: Eighth of March 2.02

Featuring: Lady Christina, Jenny

Synopsis

Lady Christina de Souza is crashing an exclusive party in search of a priceless diamond. Out in deep space, time travellers Jenny and Noah collide with a strange diamond-shaped vessel. What is Prism? And what does it want with the Earth?

Verdict

Prism was a decent story to continue the Protectors of Time second volume of The Eighth of March! This was probably the adventure on paper that I was most excited for with the prospect of two characters like Jenny and Lady Christina combining forces something that really interested me. Despite the story's quality, I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed when it came to the two main characters and their interaction. I thought they should have met early on and then from there gone into the plot and hear them work together for the majority, but sadly that is not what occurred. I actually think Noah was a bit of a hinderance which is a shame as I really enjoyed his presence providing the continuity from the Jenny spinoff series. Jenny had a lot of fun with her travelling companion and the moment where she staged the little fight to interact with the wall that shouldn't be touched was fun. I thought this was also a fun adventure in exploring some of Christina's background and her friendship with Cal and Flick playing a big role worked well and was some important development. We've already had two series of Christina now but there still seems like there is a lot of untapped potential there when it comes to her character. I liked how she and Jenny seemed to bond over their knowledge of the Doctor and Christina actually referring to Jenny as a Time Lord was a nice touch. I also loved that they both acknowledged how neither was likely to interact with the Doctor anytime soon! The technological theme of the story worked well and I loved the simplicity of an incredibly expensive diamond luring Christina in. The diamond-shaped prism ship that joined Jenny and Noah into the story worked well too. Jenny's reaction when confronted about the ship was very fun. I liked the use of the prism in bringing all of the stake holders together and the threat of not being able to sell stocks seemed deadly! That was a little amusing. I was not the biggest fan of the Return and the concept behind that and whilst it was voiced well enough, something just felt off. I thought there was a strong idea behind Alethea and the use of it being an app and essentially taking over the technological device was very good and had potential, but again it never seemed to fully live up to its potential which was a shame. I feel like that was the bulk of the audio really as it was good but just felt like it could be more. The actual naming of Prism as the enemy in the story came very late and probably too much so to have a meaningful impact, as it should have been earlier. I feel like I'm sounding pretty negative which I don't mean to be as this was certainly a lot of fun! The pace was strong and there were some fine stand out characters, although I think an extra actor or actress would have helped a great deal. There were a lot of multiple parts and that's never something I'm big on. Overall, it was delightful to have Christina and Jenny meet but I do wish they fully interacted and got to work together properly. Still, some fun exploration for Jenny and Noah whilst also having nice use of the 200 Bus and the humour of getting somebody on to not look suspicious. Christina's password also being de Souza de greatest was tremendous! A fine listen.

Rating: 7/10