Under ODIN's Eye

"We owe everything to ODIN Industries."

Writer: Alice Cavendar

Format: Audio

Released: May 2019

Series: Short Trips 9.05

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis

Sad about your local market shutting down? Don't worry about it! Come on down to ODIN Megastore, where we have everything you'll ever need. Enjoy your Hygge atmosphere. Browse stylish new ODIN wardrobes. Relax with friends on our new ODIN sofas. Friends gone missing? Meet new ones at our food-hall, where you can chill out and live happily ever after.

Welcome to ODIN Megastore, where everything is for sale. Even your planet.

Verdict

Under ODIN's Eye was a very decent little Short Trips audio adventure! I'm a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I am actually currently making my way through the films and television shows in chronological order (currently halfway through Defenders if that's of interest!), so I was very intrigued by the story's title to see if there would be any obvious links with the Norse mythology and any parallels or connections with what we get in the MCU. Other than a few character names and the obvious connection with ODIN, that didn't come which was fine but it still meant I was interested. I thought the story synopsis was actually very good and really did hook me into wanting to listen to this story over other Sixth Doctor Short Trips. I usually plan my blogging schedule a month or so ahead and today was always pencilled in as a shorter adventure featuring this incarnation. Whilst I did enjoy the adventure, I firmly believe that the story didn't really live up to the synopsis and didn't quite correlate with what was presented. I would really have liked more exploration of ODIN and its multitude of stores and items up for sale. There was hardly any indication of a planet being for sale and whilst we have seen rumblings of that before, I think that would have been something very good and interesting to occur. I like the humour of the Doctor having visited the planet before and his old greeting was traditional custom when he last visited, but he was almost ridiculed for doing so here as it seems to have become quite antiquated! In my brief research after listening to this story, I have come across a lot of likening this one to Kerblam! which I can see, although I don't think there was a huge amount of overlap. They're both quite distinct and this one worked on more of a grounded level, despite people being sent off world. I thought Nicola Bryant did an excellent job with the narration for this one as she was really able to create a number of distinct characters with just her voice. It must be difficult to perform as a single actor with a number of roles to play but she performed in a stellar fashion here. The way she was able to separate her narration to playing the role of Peri was fantastic. I really appreciated that. I thought Sven as the store supervisor was a very good character and I liked how there was some TARDIS familiarity. The fact that we had a character called Thor was also something brilliant and I really wish the Doctor could have made more of a comment on him. Especially in this incarnation! The writing for the Sixth Doctor was good though as a whole and there were definitely elements of that irritable side of the incarnation which were great. I thought the whole plot centring on the conflict between the Borusia and the Morpatha worked pretty well and the sacrifices of Lucas and Ingram brought a stark impact to what was a relatively upbeat audio before that. There was some semblance of a dark atmosphere, but it never felt like the stakes were raised so that made for a powerful moment. As a whole, I can appreciate the idea of an intergalactic store setting but I'm still not sure that there was ever any large peril that got me fully invested into proceedings. Still, Bryant's narration was excellent and I liked the overall idea with some strong characters. Overall, a good listen!

Rating: 7/10