The Broken Crown

"Make the stories real."

Writer: Paul Magrs

Format: Audio

Released: October 2011

Series: Serpent Crest 02

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Mrs Wibbsey

Synopsis 

The year is 1861, and the Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey find themselves in the right place at the wrong time. At the rectory they encounter the ill-tempered Reverend Dobbs and his young ward Andrew, whose paper faces hide whatever horrors lie beneath. Tutoring him is one Mr Bewley, whom Mrs Wibbsey is startled to recognise. In Hexford Woods, the Doctor uncovers a secret which Andrew and his friends have been keeping. As the truth begins to emerge about the rectory's occupants, it also becomes clear why so many people have disappeared from the village. Unless the Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey can help, the whole village will soon be terrorised by a child's imagination...

Verdict 

The Broken Crown was a decent story to continue my way through the Serpent Crest third segment of Nest Cottage Chronicles! I must admit that I was slightly underwhelmed by how this one started as it didn’t seem to be doing much to follow on from a very strong opener in the form of Tsar Wars, but it did finish strong which was most welcomed. I wasn’t a huge fan of the utilisation of the 1861 setting because for the first twenty minutes or so the story was just a bit boring. It took too long to catch up with the Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey after they realised the wormhole had made them arrive too early in time, and the introduction of some of the characters just wasn’t exciting. Thankfully what came later was a vast improvement once our main characters were on the scene. It was amusing to hear Wibbsey come to terms with being in her personal past and I actually thought she did so quite well. She was accepting of there being no TARDIS around and almost was confined to her fate. Or was she just that confident in the Doctor’s abilities to get them out? Either way, it was calm and assured which is what you want in a companion. I’m not sure if I would consider Wibbsey a companion, but she’s essentially filled that role whether she likes it or not. The narration role this time around being filled by Andrew was not something I was on board with. It didn’t feel right and I just didn’t find him entertaining or really worthy of taking on the telling of the episode. Before the truth of him as being Alex from the previous episode was revealed, I didn’t think he had much going for him. Bewley was a very strong character on the other hand and Wibbsey wasting no time in recognising him as Boolin was great stuff. She made no qualms about pointing things out and that’s something I enjoy about her. We soon learned that Boolin and Alex had crash landed out of the wormhole a decade ago taking the protection of the Skishtari egg to a whole different level. It’s amazing they kept in tact for this long and Andrew just believing it to be an attractive item was good. He didn’t quite realise the power it held and it being responsible for a spate of disappearances in the village of Hexford. Exploring Hexford could have been done a bit more, but there’s plenty of time to do that as the series goes on. I liked how the wormhole crash meant both had experienced severe memory loss but it was through Boolin that recovering that was best highlighted. It was done subtly at first by calling the Doctor by his name and then going so far as to referring to Alex by his true name. Coming to terms with the realisation of being the true heir of a robot empire millennia into the future was nicely done and something good to explore. The cliffhanger finish was a very strong setup for the next episode with the prospect of the Doctor and Wibbsey being transported somewhere with no air, and it didn’t seem Wibbsey was taking the Doctor’s instructions to be calm too seriously. Overall, a decent listen!

Rating: 7/10