The Ashes of Eternity

"This is not your solar system anymore."

Writer: Niel Bushnell

Format: Audio

Released: October 2021

Series: BBC Audio 12

Featuring: Ninth Doctor, Rose

Synopsis

When the Doctor diverts an asteroid from its collision course with Earth, the TARDIS is invaded by an ancient menace: a Solonite. Racing to save her friend's life, Rose lands the TARDIS in Northumberland, Earth in 1986, and they find shelter in an isolated farmhouse.

Teaming up with Peggy, a grieving artist, the travellers realise th terrible truth: the Solonite has accompanied them to Earth, and is now at large. As the terrifying entity seeks to possess them, its fearful purpose becomes clear – and it involves the TARDIS...

Verdict

The Ashes of Eternity was a great little BBC Audio adventure! It's not often that we get new content with the pairing of the Ninth Doctor and Rose so having this little treat inserted between series of the Ninth Doctor Adventures from Big Finish, set prior to Rose, was a delight and a brilliant use of an Audible free trial if I do say so! I was intrigued from the preview in Doctor Who Magazine about this story's idea and it certainly didn't disappoint. I liked that it was established it was still relatively early on for the Doctor and Rose and their travels with her recognising that he was burdened with grief, but she wasn't sure why just yet. I thought the choice of narrator for this one was a somewhat surprising one given that Francine Jones was a character of the Tenth Doctor era so I felt it would have made more sense for her to feature in a Tenth Doctor and Martha story perhaps, but she did a decent job despite barely average impressions of the Ninth Doctor and Rose. Her narrative style was great though. The Doctor taking it upon himself to name an asteroid Gavin was fun and the story of it shifting path and being destined to hit Earth in 900 years was intriguing as Rose didn't seem too worried. The Doctor ensured it would fall into the sun instead, but that would come back to bite him in a big way! The light represented as an electronic plasma entering the TARDIS was excellent and it lunging at the Doctor and enveloping served as a good little chapter cliffhanger. He wasn't completely out of it though as he could help Rose to an emergency landing in Northumberland of November 1986. It was nice that this was the year Rose was born and I thought that might play more of a role but that wasn't to be the case. The Doctor needed potassium to recover from the plasma ordeal and they'd arrived on a farm with some good quiche that did the job. Peggy as the owner was a fun little character and I felt sorry for her that the Phoenix destroyed her home. The idea of the Doctor's brain being burned was intriguing and we soon learned of the ancient race of the Solonite that the Doctor had inadvertently awoken. They were from five billion years ago and were based in the firebird mythology Benu that created the world which was terrific. Peggy having a wife in the past by the name of Dawn was a touching story and I liked that this didn't seem odd for Rose given the time she was from. The Doctor knowing of Peggy as a famous artist was good and I liked that it was revealed the Phoenix was scared of dying and couldn't survive without a native host. It had been inside the Doctor so now he knew what it wanted which was fun. Ed Dunne being taken over and quickly burned to ashes was an effective demonstration before it took on Peggy's form and we learned that the TARDIS was the key with it wanting to open the vortex on the sun and ripen the star. That was brilliant and so with the fate of the Earth in the balance, Rose appealing to Peggy from within was great and admirable. She felt like she was winning and used the emotion of her planet, her job and feelings for Mickey to shun the Phoenix from within her before the Doctor was able to close the valum filters and save the sun in a pretty thrilling conclusion! Peggy though was dead and nobody would know of her sacrifice and they would just think she died in her house fire which was quite sad. Overall, a really good audio!

Rating: 8/10