Other Worlds: Saltwater

"I need to talk to the President."

Writer: Alison Winter

Format: Audio

Released: October 2022

Series: Rose Tyler: The Dimension Canon 2.01

Featuring: Rose, Clive

Synopsis

Rose finds an Earth under threat, as something steals the salt from the oceans. 

As global tensions escalate, Rose wants to make those in charge listen, and finds an ally in the shape of another Clive...

Verdict

Saltwater was a great audio adventure to kick off the Other Worlds second series of The Dimension Canon for Rose Tyler! It's no surprise that Rose gets a second series (and a third to come!) and I enjoyed the first series very much so it was a no brainer to get this one on pre-order. With the first series already establishing the style and format for this spinoff series, this episode wasted no time in getting Rose onto another version of Earth. It felt very dark and with Rose arriving on a world where her parents had been murdered by pro-war activists, it was clear this was a very different universe indeed. The Iron Curtain had not been lifted on this version of Earth which was a really fun idea and I'd have liked a little more of history catching up in present day of this alternate reality. I thought the news broadcast was a good use of that, but there was definitely more potential there. It seems that Pete will be absent from this series which is absolutely fine and I liked the quick reference from Clive explaining that he'd been shown all of the codes by him so knew what he was doing in control of the Dimension Canon. Jackie was a bit of a bit part player in this episode and that was fine, but she did provide strong humour particularly when Rose had been arrested. She's still getting to grips with the whole jumping around the multiverse thing, but I loved her comments about the Doctor and how he saw something in Rose. That was a really nice mum moment for her to show her daughter just what she could do. If the Doctor had entrusted her, then she must have something to offer! Clive was excellent in this story and it really is incredible to see how far the character, albeit an alternative version, has come since his appearance in Rose. It's a lot of fun and having two versions meet over the phone here was delightful. I thought the concept of technology that was faster than the speed of light was brilliant and there's no real restraints when it comes to the multiverse. Who's to say that technology was beyond capable developments in this reality? Except Clive had realised that the stars were going missing and dimensions were breaking down. I thought that was excellent foreshadowing of The Stolen Earth/Journey's End. After all of her efforts, Rose had just condemned the people of that Earth to a slow death. They only had around five years left, but Clive was quick to point out that she'd given them more days to live and provide hope. She had to hold onto that. I liked the idea of the President providing a false position on their power and ability to deal with alien threats, and the concept of aliens coming to Earth to mine salt because of deteriorating resources across the universes was really well done. I thought it was good that Clive realised there was no malice in the aliens' intent as they didn't know Earth was populated, so Rose realising that light was needed instead of sound to contact with them and show that the planet was inhabited was more than decent. It was a neat and tidy resolution to what was as a whole a strong episode! A great start to the series. 

Rating: 8/10