In the Night: Resistor

"I knew I'd heard that band name before."

Writer: Sarah Grochala

Format: Audio

Released: September 2023

Series: Fifth Doctor Adventures 6.02

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan

Synopsis

The TARDIS lands in a basement beneath a club in Warsaw in 1982 – which is a bit of a surprise as the Doctor was hoping to take Nyssa and Tegan to Yugoslavia. 

But a bigger surprise is yet to come – the band on stage are missing one of their musicians. And getting them through the gig is only the start of the TARDIS crew's troubles.

Something strange is happening on the streets. Black cars glide through the city, picking off the unwary. Some are driven by the Secret Police... but others... by something very much not of this world.

Verdict

Resistor was a great story to conclude what has been a terrific In the Night latest series of Fifth Doctor Adventures! Whilst I maintain I would still like some sort of story arc akin to what’s been happening with the Sixth Doctor Adventures, it’s always fun to catch up with this trio. The Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa have a lot riding for them and they really do have a lot of chemistry. It’s clear at this point that the death of Adric in Earthshock is long behind them now and there was actually some considerable banter which was lovely. Things can often get testy with Tegan in particular being around and whilst that wasn’t wholly absent here, it was nice to have a laugh about the Doctor’s failure to navigate the TARDIS to Belgrade. Instead it had decided on Warsaw and whilst the year was correct, the Polish capital was not part of Yugoslavia. Tegan hoping to catch up with her grandmother was nice and the fun she had with Nyssa about not wanting to upset her relative by telling her about her firing was a nice touch. I also thought it was brilliant to take advantage of Nyssa being from Traken and being shocked at the punishment that would befall two men being in a relationship. It’s obviously a mad thing to punish but those handed out were severe and it led to becoming an informant. I thought the way it was revealed that the informant was not actually Hao but from the other male in the band was excellent. I thought the whole idea behind following the band was really well done and then being familiar to Tegan was a nice touch and a clever way to tap into the contemporary setting for her. The Doctor stepping in to fill the drums void left by Hal’s disappearance was a little borderline silly, but hearing the kind of rock punk music that we did here was unexpected! It didn’t seem befitting of the Fifth Doctor era but sometimes it’s nice to step out of the comfort zone. That’s what happened here. I enjoyed the dark and gritty atmosphere of the story to represent Warsaw and whilst I do think a little more exploration of the Polish capital would have been great, it did seem accurate despite me not ever going there. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Krakow and Wrocław, but from what I’ve studied on Yugoslavia this felt right. Repressing punk music and what it stood for felt like a Nazi Germany story in parts and as I’ve just returned from a trip to Riga in Latvia which included a guided tour of a KGB Prison, this was startling. Russian occupation is not what anyone should have to suffer. Political views stayed mostly neutral here which was good though. I thought things were magnificent when staying purely historical, but when the Mondry were revealed I was less interested. They didn’t really seem needed and I think a pure historical in Warsaw would have been tremendous. As my rating reflects, this was still terrific and the ingenuity of Tegan in playing a part at the end when Nyssa and the Doctor thought they just got lucky in the power being turned off was a nice touch. I thought the way the Mondry were dealt with was decent although it wasn’t wholly believable that they were a peaceful species. It would have been better if this was a species we’d encountered before that we knew were on the good side, but it wasn’t a huge deal. Tegan realising that the natural timeline of things may involve the band actually being moved to London by TARDIS was a bit odd, but quite fun at the same time! Overall, a really strong story to conclude the series!

Rating: 8/10