Blue Forgotten Planet

"One day the whole human race just forgot."

Writer: Nicholas Briggs

Format: Audio

Released: September 2009

Series: Monthly Adventures 126

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Charley

Synopsis

'So, this is the blue planet you've forgotten about. But take another look. You helped us once. I know you can help us again.'

On Earth, civilisation has ended and time is running out for the Doctor and Charlotte Pollard. 

Will the mysterious Viyrans really help?

Verdict

Blue Forgotten Planet was an excellent Monthly Adventure and a fantastic way for Charley to depart as companion! It seems like Charley has been with me my whole way through my run of listening to the Monthly Adventures ever since I started what feels like an age ago! After her excellent debut in Storm Warning and countless adventures since, it's quite sad that this is the end for the Edwardian adventuress with the Doctor in either of the incarnations she has travelled with. I really liked the continuity here with Patient Zero and the Viyrans aiming to wipe out all knowledge and trace of the viruses, but one thing I wasn't expecting so quickly after Paper Cuts was for this to establish a lengthy gap between stories with Mila posing as Charley having travelled with the Doctor for a very long time. I'm absolutely fine with that as it opens up a large window for future adventures set chronologically before this one, but I don't see why things were rushed. Couldn't we have just gotten at least some of those stories? It's also clearly established that Charley has been carrying out missions for the Viyrans since the events of Patient Zero where she was taken and cured of the virus. I liked the idea of the Blue Forgotten Planet documentary and a series showcasing the dire situation on the planet and highlighting the need to save was very good. I thought it was even better to find out that it was all a ploy and that the Viyrans were actually using the footage as part of their analysis in deducing whether the human race should survive or not. That was a powerful moment. I thought the pace of this adventure was really good and I also felt that the music and atmosphere was particularly great for this audio. It really gave it a big feel and it was clear that this was going to b an important story! There was a good sense of importance which I thoroughly enjoyed. The guest cast in this one were brilliant and I really liked McCallister and his link with the Viyrans as their puppet was a good plot element. Green and Driscoll's relationship was terrific to explore and I also thought Atherton was an excellent character. There really wasn't a lot I didn't like about this one! The madness that impacted the human race was superb and I loved how it was an unseen effect of the supposed cure. With all that's going on in the real world right now, that seemed terribly foreshadowing of a potential future! Let's hope we don't all go forgetting civilisation and society around us. The situation being that humanity didn't even know what year it was worked very well for me. The Doctor was on top form as ever in his sixth incarnation on audio and his reaction when he found out the odds of the human race contracting the virus from a single particle within them was somewhere around one in five billion was brilliant! He was utterly gobsmacked that they would even contemplate genocide for a threat on such a minuscule scale. Charley and Mila making claim to who was the true version was very good and surely the genesis of the idea we would see on television with Osgood. It was brilliant stuff. Charley revealing the truth of her future travels with the Eighth Doctor was lovely and I thought it was wonderful for her to admit that she had loved him, and she felt that he loved her back. I'm not so sure it was reciprocated, but I really like that she felt loved by the Doctor. They were an outstanding pair. Her mentions of how she was saved by the Doctor and then went on to have a large number of adventures was magnificent and her telling the Sixth Doctor of the events of The Girl Who Never Was so she could be sure he would willingly have the memories erased was fantastic. I thought it was a very good way to explain how the Eighth Doctor didn't recognise Charley when first meeting her and he was instead planted with a memory of Mila and how she had come to rely on the TARDIS with that being her reason for leaving. Planting the seed of the Doctor suggesting perhaps he just faked not knowing her to protect the Web of Time was brilliant and something I like to think might be the case. The apparent death of Mila was handled very quickly and hearing the emotion of Charley when carrying out the memory change of the Doctor and staying with the Viyrans was a good way to finish. Overall, a superb audio! I just wish we had a bit more in the way of showcasing the gap between stories, but that's not to say it won't come in time. Farewell, Charley! And onto the spinoff...

Rating: 9/10