Revenge of the Nestene

"A tiny nugget of Nestene consciousness lived on."

Writer: Russell T Davies

Format: Audiobook

Released: 26 March 2020

Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Nestene Consciousness

Synopsis

One sport of the Nestene Consciousness survived being blown up by the Doctor's anti plastic. Having gestated inside a plastic clown, a small semblance of the Nestene Consciousness plots its revenge on the Doctor...

Verdict

Revenge of the Nestene was a very fun story to serve as a sequel to Rose! Russell T Davies didn't hold back in treats as part of the #TripOfALifetime watch-along for the first episode back in the revived series, and I loved the way that this was presented as Chapter 21 of his novelisation of the great episode. I read that Target book last year and thoroughly enjoyed so getting this as a sort of extension was magnificent. I don't have an Instagram account so I experienced the story through the reading of Jacob Dudman on YouTube and I was very happy with his performance. It must be quite difficult to just be standing there alone in a sound studio reading off a page, but in the few instances where I paid attention to what he was actually doing, I found it really intriguing. It brought home the fact that we really are in lockdown and just seeing him flick the page of the script (if it can really be called that) was interesting. That's not part of the story though! The idea of a continuation of events following on from Rose was really intriguing as there didn't seem much wiggle room to play with given the way the Nestene Consciousness was dealt with. But here it was, or at least one surviving fragment, that had manifested and hidden into a clown. It was good and typical Doctor Who for 'only one survived'. It's happened on countless occasions with Dalek and even Victory of the Daleks, but here it was refreshing for a somewhat less common enemy to still be around. Its lust for getting revenge on the Doctor was really good and I found the references to Nestena and the Time War and the home planet of the Consciousness getting ravaged fantastic. It was really good to address that after it was also referred to in the episode itself and the destruction it caused only came from the edge of the Time War. That's how powerful it was. The image of one hundred Gallifreys and one thousand Skaros causing chaos alongside a significantly less number of Earths was quite something. Imagine that as a comic strip! The little references to Spearhead From Space and Terror of the Autons with the Nestene Consciousness recognising Earth from past mission was terrific and good continuity. It was a collective consciousness after all! Talking about the Nestene Consciousness finding love was intriguing and didn't quite seem like the kind of emotion it might be involved in, but with it coming around the same time that Nestena was hit by the countless planets worked well. No wonder they wanted revenge on the Doctor! I was kind of hoping that the Ninth Doctor was going to appear in this one as it would have been fun to have Jacob Dudman give an impression of Christopher Eccleston's incarnation. It wasn't to be, but what we got was still a lot of fun with Pierrot. The idea of the Nestene to form an alliance to avenge their defeat alongside the likes of Daleks and Cybermen was good and perhaps a foreshadowing of The Pandora Opens/The Big Bang? The idea of a new true Auton was intriguing and then the suggestion that it was Boris Johnson was magnificent. It would certainly explain how someone like him could end up as Prime Minister! That was a very fun little ending and some much-needed comedy. Overall, a lovely little addition to the Rose story.

Rating: 8/10