1001 Nights

"This isn't a fairytale."

Writers: Emma Beeby & Gordan Rennie, Jonathan Barnes, Catherine Harvey 

Format: Audio

Released: December 2012

Series: Monthly Adventures 168

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Nyssa

Synopsis 

A long time ago, two travellers came from far away...

In the performed palace of an omnipotent Sultan, a girl must tell stories to keep the man she cares about from a cruel and horrible death. She spins tales of distant lands she has visited with a mysterious traveller, of fabulous creatures and fantastic adventures – and of a blue box that can travel in time and space.

Meanwhile, in the dungeons below the throne room, there lurks a secret which will bring down the kingdom – perhaps even the universe.

Can the Doctor and Nyssa escape from this never-ending story before the final chapter spells their end?

Verdict  

1001 Nights was a decent and rather unique audio adventure to comprise the one-hundred-and-sixty-eighth release as part of the Monthly Adventures! It was unique because it was almost four separate stories and despite my trusty source of TARDISWiki stating that this release actually comprises four different adventures, I am not considering it as such and that’s purely down to the framing narrative. With the stories being told within a story, I only consider this to be one adventure in a similar way to my blogging of The Story of Martha last year. I just don’t see any feasible way where the specific 1001 Nights story that forms the framing narrative could be blogged by itself or listened to in isolation. It just wouldn’t work. I thought the tales of adventures had by the Doctor and Nyssa were decent, but I think the problem with this kind of format is that it’s not entirely believable that the stories Nyssa would choose to save her life with are ones unseen, unheard of unread by the listener and would all feature just the pairing of her alongside the Fifth Doctor. That’s just not believable given all of her travels with the likes of Adric and Tegan as well. Surely one of those ought to have featured in at least one retelling? I thought we’d be getting that when Nyssa mentioned about having previously travelled with the Fourth Doctor and Adric, but sadly it wasn’t coming. I thought the respective tales themselves were pretty decent but I was much more interested in the actual overlapping story regarding Nyssa and the Sultan. The Doctor being trapped and sent for execution was good jeopardy and the only way out was Nyssa telling good stories. It was a good idea to have stories as a currency, but at one point we had a story within a story about stories which got somewhat complicated and probably a little too convoluted. I think my favourite of the three mini stories would be The Planetarian as that was a fun concept and he was a solid character to carry it. I was less of a fan of My Brother’s Keeper which was a shame as initially it appeared that the Miaxa would have a lot of potential but that never really materialised fully in my opinion. Maybe it was because this was where the tired and lousy Houdini line was used to get the Doctor out of an inescapable predicament. I am so bored of that. I think Smuggling Tales was an improvement through to conclude which was great despite the story telling confusion. Lottie was amusing and I liked how limericks were tackled with poetry. I enjoyed that. The way the Sultan tried to take over the Doctor’s life was quite something and hearing him acting as if regeneration was near was fascinating. He was also after the TARDIS but Nyssa knew that couldn’t happen, he needed to be a Time Lord to pilot it but the Sultan didn’t think that would be an issue. The Doctor having endured over 1,000 nights before being reunited with Nyssa was a big surprise, and a little more could have been made of that in my opinion. I figured she would show more shock! The ending was rather simple as the Doctor merely tricked the Sultan into waiting around for three months to believe himself cured, but as a whole this was a story with a solid idea but the format just was a bit off for me to give any higher of a rating, but it still shows to be good! Overall, a decent listen. 

Rating: 7/10