The Last Diner

"Everyone loves a story."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio

Released: December 2021

Series: Year of Martha Jones 1.01

Featuring: Martha 

Synopsis

Martha arrives on the west coast of the US and finds an old friend waiting to make contact.

A desperate group gathers for her stories. But when Francine arrives, escaped from the Valiant, she isn't so keen to hear about the Doctor...

Verdict

The Last Diner was a great story to kick off The Year of Martha Jones spinoff series! I'm so glad that Big Finish have picked up this range and it's lovely to get a performed continuation of a similar style story to that of The Story of Martha. It's wonderful to hear Freema Agyeman back in the role of Martha and whilst she understandably sounds a little maturer here, it was just wonderful to hear her back and spreading the message of hope and the Doctor. I enjoyed the American setting and I have to say that Tucker was a sweetheart of a character. Martha was going around telling tales of her experiences with the Doctor and how he saved the universe or the planet or a people without them even knowing sometimes. Our little glimpse at the conclusion of the story concerning events of Human Nature/The Family of Blood and how the Doctor finished with trapping Daughter of Mine in a mirror was brilliant, but it wouldn't make for an exciting hour for us listeners if Martha just retorted a story we'd already seen on television. That led us to the story of the asteroid which would have made for quite the adventure in its own right! I really liked how Martha was understandably leaving out some details when it came to how she felt when the Doctor left her in the TARDIS and she felt so lonely and abandoned, but she was able to showcase her qualities in how she picked up on the Doctor's earlier lead in the courtroom with the religion of the asteroid. That was sublime stuff. It was nice to have the Doctor present through Martha's stories as once Francine arrived it was a stark reminder of how useless he was after the Master had aged him a century. She just described how he was sad and seemingly waiting for Martha to save the world. And they kept on waiting. I thought the explanation as to how Francine escaped the Valiant was very weak and probably the main reason for my rating not being higher, as I couldn't buy into the fact that the Master had lost focus on his prisoners. I wasn't having that with the Doctor around and his companion travelling the world. Francine was fun though in always questioning Martha's stories and her taking a little bit of scepticism when it came to the effect telling stories of the Doctor would have against the Master. The guest characters at the diner made for a nice bunch and it was nice for Holly to be a former uni pal of Martha's, even if they'd grown apart and she was quite frosty about Martha being cautious about her. But she couldn't trust anybody. Karen as the diner head was a good character too and I liked how she joined in her criticism of Martha's story and its neatness of the conclusion. The Toclafane were a lot of fun and they liked mocking the humans about the rockets. The story from Martha about how they took some people up to a hundred foot and just stayed there until they dropped was horrific, but it was a powerful example of how hope was all some people had and kept them going. The ending was very emotional as a missile struck the diner location with Francine preventing Martha from being inside because of a bad feeling. This showed Francine though that if Martha was being targeted, then what she was doing might just be working. I liked that a lot. Overall, a strong start to the series! 

Rating: 8/10