The Crumbling Magician

"Life can be complicated...  but death is simple."

Writer: Guy Adams

Format: Audio

Released: September 2019

Series: Companion Chronicles: First Doctor 3.04

Featuring: First Doctor, Polly, Ben

Synopsis

The TARDIS has crashed, its passengers in a bad way. The Doctor – not in the best of health anyway, his old body wearing somewhat thin – is in a coma, Ben unconscious. As for Polly, she's been affected worst of all. Time is running in the wrong order for her and she's seen the future, in which she's mortally wounded. But will Continuity allow her to die?

Verdict

The Crumbling Magician was an excellent story to conclude the third volume of Companion Chronicles for the First Doctor! I think this might just be the best of the boxset as a whole which turned out to be pretty darn good and consistent across the four tales. I do hope there is a fourth volume on the way! I love the First Doctor era and getting an extension here of that last little segment of it alongside Ben and Polly is delightful. It was clear that these events were close in proximity to The Tenth Planet with talk of the Doctor feeling old and his body wearing thin, so presenting a challenge for him here and having his consciousness transported into Polly was terrific. I never considered a story like this being possible but the First Doctor getting to experience being young again and being full of energy was a lot of fun. The format of the adventure worked well with the Doctor being absent for the entire first part following an eventful crash that kicked off the Chronicle in style, but he emerged in a big way for part two after the cliffhanger! Ben was a welcomed presence to go alongside both the Doctor and Polly and able to react to the change in consciousness. His initial moment where he realised that it was the Doctor inside the duchess was terrific. I really enjoyed Continuity as the enemy and it seemed a little harmless without the sinister voice given it was an AI, but it was following its programming with a few little twitches which I appreciated. Allie was a decent character as well that provided some strong stuff for Ben as we learned about the child who had unfortunately become an old man. The implication that the crash of endured by Allie's mum's ship being with the TARDIS was very powerful given the relationship built between Ben and Allie, and the idea of heroism being discussed was brilliant. I thought the use of time jumps in the story was really good and caused some frustration to Polly which we don't often see. She was understandably worried about the conditions of Ben and the Doctor, and the sacrifice she made to save the Doctor from a coma was fantastic as a part of him was also used to save her. The little audible regenerative power being used was terrific and I loved the Doctor's reaction to what had happened once waking. It was also good that Continuity was going to keep his secrets to ensure that the continuity of the era was protected. That was a nice touch. The Doctor and Continuity had marvellous dialogue and debating the programming and what was in line with the law and guides was really good. I thought Ben volunteering to look after Allie was great as well and something that stumped Continuity as it looked to eradicate the child despite being a minor. The suggestion of the Doctor finding him a habitable planet was amusing, but it was nice to know he was in safe hands. The fate of Continuity at the end and the explosion was unexpected but a fitting end and some ironic emotion for the computer intelligence. Overall, a superb audio! 

Rating: 9/10