The Integral

"They fight or die."

Writer: David Bartlett

Format: Audio

Released: June 2016

Series: Companion Chronicles: Second Doctor 1.03

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe

Synopsis

When tempers fray in the TARDIS, the Doctor struggles to help Jamie and Zoe resolve their differences. Arriving at Aspen Base proves a welcome distraction; but the isolate facility is under siege. Can Jamie's belief in right and wrong withstand the perspective changing power of the Integral?, Edvard killed to further experiments

Verdict

The Integral was not the greatest of Companion Chronicles unfortunately and it ended up continuing the first volume in the range exclusively for the Second Doctor in not the best fashion. That was a big shame as the range as a whole is usually pretty solid and the boxset itself started so well with The Mouthless Dead and The Story of Extinction. Fingers crossed this is just a blip and we still a good way to conclude in the fourth and final story. It was strange that I felt this was quite a poor adventure as only The Stealers From Saiph has a rating equal to this with it joining that Fourth Doctor tale as the only audios in the range to receive a rating of less than 7/10 from myself. Of course, this is all just my personal opinion but it does go to show how strong the Companion Chronicles are. Anyway, onto the audio at hand and I actually really enjoyed how things started with Jamie and Zoe having an argument about all of the alien species they encounter on their TARDIS travels with the former arguing that each and every one of them was intent on invasion and generally just being evil. Based on his experiences with the Doctor, that was not exactly a surprise for him to jump to that conclusion! Of course, having him interact with the scientific and logical mind of Zoe was fun because she knew that this was all down to chance and the Doctor soon agreed with her. It still seemed to be slightly early into Zoe's travels in the TARDIS since joining in The Wheel in Space which was lovely and I thought both Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury did a stellar job with their narration, although the latter was certainly at the forefront. One element of the story I didn't enjoy was the fight between Jamie and Morgan. Whilst I liked that Jamie was protecting Zoe, the actual sound effects that accompanied the scuffle were terrible in my opinion. It just seemed like a repetitive grunt which wasn't too great and took away from my enjoyment of the audio which is obviously not what you want. I did think some of the guest characters were decent with Doctor Edvard starting off well, although the twist with him actually being the killer in order to ensure his experiments were carried out to a final result was a little predictable and not anywhere near as emphatic as it ought to have been. I quite liked the neuro-electrical elements of the science behind the plot and the Integral were actually a good deal of fun. Their ability to read minds was terrific and something with that potential could have been used much better. They sounded okay as the robots with it being a unique role for Padbury to perform. Their abilities to promote calmness by literally absorbing anger was excellent, but I never felt they reached their potential and just didn't excite me as the story went on. Coordinator Elm was another decent character, but her death seemed to come out of nowhere and not have a notable impact which just felt strange. Quriker's Syndrome was also a good element but I would have liked a bit more elaboration on what it actually was and what it meant to those who had it. The highlight for me was definitely Jamie and Zoe's interaction and the complete differing of opinions when it came to the pair's thinking and how they saw the perspective of others was magnificent. I was a really big fan of that and I liked how when Zoe realised that this was not how Jamie saw the world and other people, she was quick to console and comfort him as it must have been a big internal change to experience that. Unfortunately, we were taken into another lame fight scene with Xerox and the revelation of the miscalculation of the Pacifitron just didn't seem important. There probably was just a bit too much going on and with that happening, there wasn't enough time to get clarity and emotionally invest into plot elements and the characters. By the time of the conclusion, I just wasn't overly bothered and I appreciated the pace, but it just wasn't all that great. Overall, some fun elements with Jamie and Zoe but the plot at its heart just wasn't entirely for my liking. 

Rating: 5/10