Rulebook

"All who are transmatted are dead."

Writer: Tony Jones

Format: Audio

Released: October 2016

Series: Short Trips 6.10

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis 

The Ellani of Beadledom 3 lived their lives in regulated harmony until they were invaded by the Valtor. Of course the Doctor and his new companion Peri were delighted to help out, but they didn't know their biggest challenge wouldn't be the Valtor army, but the Rulebook...

Verdict 

Rulebook was a decent little Short Trips adventure! This one felt quite short at 37 minutes and change but it still managed to tell a really solid story that I enjoyed. I thought Nicola Bryant’s narration was very impressive and she did a stellar job in differentiating from Peri and the narrator. Making that distinction is something important in this kind of format in my opinion and she did it tremendously well here. She was almost unrecognisable in her narration! Starting things out with a reading from the titular rulebook was good and the tease coming out of the opening titles referring to the dead heroes of the Doctor and Peri was superb! That was very enticing and with it being read as the listener you were enticed to believe it as a stated fact. We soon learned that the Doctor and Peri were immediately post adventure following a war between the Ellani and Valtor. They seemed to have an interest on both sides with them having helped the former side and the latter were now in hibernation after their encounter. So the mystery of the missing TARDIS was good because neither side seemed like they should be out to oust the Doctor and Peri. I’m not a massive fan of catching up with events after what seems like an entire story has happened, but I can understand taking that approach for a Short Trip. Something as simple as a transmat back to the bay where the TARDIS had landed became very problematic and with the Doctor firmly believing they were back at the same one, the TARDIS going missing was the issue to lead us through the story. The concept of the transmat being used for the living as a crime was fantastic and it really did catch me off guard. It should only be used for freight here and with those used they became copies moving forward! Peri’s gasp of thinking they were dead was quite amusing. I was quite impressed with the writing in giving this a feeling of being very new for Peri which is what you would expect alongside the Fifth Doctor. The TARDIS being claimed as state property was very fun because the Doctor would certainly be contesting that, although he now had no claim to his own ship under Ellani law! Seeing him try and tackle the legal system there was good but any kind of potential appeal could take weeks! That didn’t go down well. Yorvil was a good little character as the one professing the forms and she was quite to the point and informative without being annoying. That was admirable. It’s always good to have the Doctor protesting his innocence and there genuinely was a misunderstanding here, but the use of the transmat had been a complete waste of fuel despite the success in addressing the war on both sides! That was good stuff and the Fleet Commander was quite adamant in his assertion of the wastage. It really did feel like the Doctor was fighting a losing battle. I thought Peri came into her own towards the end of the story as when it seemed like they were to be the ones set to pay for the wastage and supposed damage caused, Peri was able to blurt out that under the laws that gave them no claim to the TARDIS they were legally dead! That is good to play around with. Peri wanting to appeal that rules could be the be all and end all was good and what I would have expected from the title of this adventure, and just having a rulebook in play as the key focus was a concept that I thought worked pretty well for the most part. The conclusion injected some much needed action as the fleet were seemingly destroyed and that absolutely outraged Peri. That was the highlight for me as she thought the Doctor had committed mass murder, only for him to have done the opposite and something rather clever. The fleet actually ended up appearing in orbit all undamaged as the Doctor didn’t have time to explain his plan to Peri before executing it. It tied everything up nicely for a pretty strong conclusion to what was overall a good listen! 

Rating: 7/10