Wild Pastures

"And to think you just throw them away."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio

Released: April 2018

Series: Tenth Doctor Chronicles 1.03

Featuring: Tenth Doctor

Synopsis

Strange things are happening at the Wild Pastures Rest Home. When the Doctor calls on the Nobles to investigate, he doesn't expect Sylvia to be the one to step up. Soon, they're in too deep, and the Doctor and Sylvia will need all their faculties to get out alive.

Verdict

Wild Pastures was a pretty average way to continue the Tenth Doctor Chronicles! The idea of an adventure featuring the Tenth Doctor alongside Sylvia Noble is really good on paper, but I don't think it worked overly well in practice which was a bit of a shame. I'm not sure what it was, but I just found myself waiting for this one to end which is strange because there certainly were good elements. I think my main issue was just with the character of Sylvia and I found myself completely disinterested in her. I wasn't fussed on hearing her complaining at the care home and I found the whole opening sequence a little odd with nurse Smith investigating, who was of course the Doctor. If it was a time jump, it wasn't well established in my opinion. The humour that came with the Doctor turning up on the Noble footstep with a care home brochure was excellent though and it's a shame that Donna was off on holiday! Somehow during the events of Midnight perhaps? Sylvia's reaction to the Doctor bringing that was superb though with her comment about whisking Wilf off to Venus. It wasn't happening on her book! The mystery of the care home experiencing patents going missing and it only being the ones that nobody would notice was good, but it felt a little recycled. Sylvia getting herself entrapped at the Wild Pastures home was fun and the only way out was a release form from her next of kin, which in this case turned out to be Donna. And there was no sign of her! The Doctor working out that Sylvia's body clock had been fiddled with was really intriguing and more emphasis should have been centred on that. The idea of a Sarga plant and its similarities to the Varga plant is good, and suggesting it was developed on a Dalek outer colony was great, but it didn't seem the best fit in a care home. The Doctor getting infected with it was exciting though and that resulted in some memory gaps as we learned the blue fluid was leftover residue of memory extraction! That was a good concept. Sylvia lugging the Doctor around in a wheelchair was a fun image. The Doctor's memory being impacted and having him call Sylvia both Dodo and Rose was good and quite the range of memories in terms of timeframe! The Doctor's anger at Laticia being reduced to soup was probably the episode highlight and Dudman's most impressive moment. His take on the Tenth Doctor was decent throughout. The nursing staff turning out to all be clones was unexpected and their role in the end was a nice touch from Sylvia, in turning the essence into the clones and giving them full life. I didn't see that coming. It was good to follow on from them sneaking some of the extract from their employers. The main enemies of the episode weren't great to be honest and Sylvia casually dropping their name as the Joyed at the end seemed like the writer wanted to throw it in to ensure they did get a name! Overall, some very good elements but not the most memorable of adventures.

Rating: 6/10