James Robert McCrimmon: The Shroud

"I am used to human prejudice."

Writer: Bob Ayres

Format: Audio

Released: July 2023

Series: Second Doctor Adventures 2.03

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie

Synopsis 

Arriving on the planet Ninevah, the Doctor and Jamie find a desperate human colony fighting the effects of a devastating super weapon – the Shroud. Nullifying all light, the Shroud has rendered the humans blind in the face of aggressive alien invaders dubbed 'Squids', and it's only a matter of time before the colony falls.

The Doctor and Jamie are caught between helping the humans fight back against the 'Squids' and investigating their latest mission for the Time Lords – but as they haven't been told what that mission is, the pair are in the dark in more ways than one.

Verdict 

The Shroud was another very good story to conclude the James Robert McCrimmon second series of Second Doctor Adventures! This has been a fascinating boxset reuniting the Second Doctor with an older version of Jamie as the companion in events after The War Games, and whilst it seemingly cleared up the arc of Raven sending them on Time Lord missions, the hint at things going deeper gives us a good direction for the series in the future. I think it would be beneficial to get more than one series a year, but I’ll take what I can! I must say that I think David Troughton has done a really good job in taking on the role of his father, and whilst he obviously doesn’t sound perfect or exactly like his dad, he has the tone and mannerisms which really bring the second incarnation to life. I’d like a little more aggression at times, but as a whole it feels authentic and I do think Jamie helps with that. The concept of the titular Shroud was good and I loved the idea of a place where light was blocked completely. The sun was there and light existed, but the Shroud was in a bubble of darkness. That was really good and I do wish that it was more of the focus on the story instead of the way it shifted to who was responsible. I cared more about the actual darkness than who had created it. It was still excellent though and the story was really entertaining. The first part was perhaps a little slow as we established the characters and setting, but after a decent cliffhanger we really kicked into gear. The Harken being referred to as squids by the humans was fun and completely unnecessary. It really did border on racism but that was kind of disguised by the fact they were aliens. Finding out their true name was good and I thought the cliffhanger of their tentacles threatening the Doctor was funny purely because of the resolution. Once they found out the Doctor was a Time Lord they basically surrendered knowing their inferiority. I must admit that was most unexpected but it was rather amusing! I thought Daria and Donya were really strong characters and the way the Doctor was quite abruptly confronted on the arrival was good. He wasn’t exactly happy about not knowing the mission he was sent on, and so much for him being an undercover agent as the identity of his species was soon revealed! That didn’t please Raven. She stole the show once again though when she showed up and the Doctor actually conjuring her up in the dreamscape was terrific. I liked how he managed to convince her to get involved in stopping the Shroud because it would make her look good to her superiors, whoever they were on Gallifrey, but it would turn out to be her downfall. The Doctor using his predicament at the Shroud to actually turn things against her was bold but done very cleverly! She would be the one consumed by darkness as he turned the tables on her quite marvellously. She was left in literal darkness thanks to being trapped in a bubble of her own where she couldn’t see out, but everyone could see in. Overall, another strong adventure to conclude the series!

Rating: 8/10