Falling

"He is most certainly no angel."

Writer: Jonathan Barnes

Format: Audio

Released: May 2017

Series: Short Trips 7.05

Featuring: First Doctor, Polly, Ben

Synopsis 

Long, long, Mrs Polly Jackson travelled in the TARDIS with her friends, the Doctor and Ben. Together, they saw many remarkable things – some magical, some terrifying, some filled with awe and wonder. Only one incident, however, was truly inexplicable, a single encounter which failed at the time wholly to make sense. At least, that is, unit today...

Verdict 

Falling was a brilliant Short Trips adventure! This was a really solid story and a fine way to spend thirty-seven minutes on the partial bus replacement and train en route to the football. It’s always nice to combine my two favourite hobbies and there’s nothing better than hearing Annekke Wills narrating. I’m a huge fan of her and Polly as a character, so much so that we named our pet cat after the companion! She’s really love and made such an impact as a modern companion in the contemporary times of the 1960s, and it really is a huge shame that much of her time on screen is missing from the BBC archives. Starting with Polly in her win home and even in a dressing gown was unusual because that was just so real and homely, nothing like what we experienced with companions of the First Doctor era. At least not in their rooms in the TARDIS that is! It was nice for Polly to be pondering on her memories and appreciating the comfort of the familiar. She was married now which was lovely to hear but she wasn’t very fussed on moving house! Those familiars certainly do get comfortable. The move into the TARDIS and having a bad dream was a sudden shift and she wasn’t alone in having one. Ben had a nightmare too that evoked strong feelings of sadness. What surprised me slightly was that the Doctor even had a bad dream too, not that he sold it much though. The TARDIS throwing the trio around after an almost crash was intriguing and they were caught in the timestream of something falling through time and space. That was a fun prospect. The Doctor being a little disoriented was good as they landed and when we learned of the placement of this story chronologically speaking it made a lot of sense. The sudden transporting around was good and the effects of that were presented nicely in the audio format. The description of peaks and mountains was really nice and I liked how the Doctor deduced that they were moved by the power of thought. The presence of an angel was almost met with awe by Polly and Ben, but the way the Doctor ridiculed it was delightful and a fine characterisation of the first incarnation. This angel had supposedly been falling through reality for as long as it could remember was intriguing and I was hugely fascinated by the claim that the Doctor knew of the angelic species. It was the last of its kind, and it could see that the Doctor would be the last of his one day too! That was tremendous. I’m a huge fan of foreshadowing. That came in abundance with the references to The Tenth Planet with the line that snow was waiting. I thought that was magnificent. Polly and Ben being more inclined to help the Angel was good and hardly surprising given the personality of the First Doctor. The fact the angel was the source of the dream was good and I loved learning how the race was all but lost and was at a position of passing into myth when the Doctor’s race was just getting going. That helped with the scale of time the Angel was falling. The foreshadowing from the angel regarding Polly and Ben being married in the future was lovely too and I’ve always felt that they should end up together! 

Rating: 9/10