Interrogation

"I know what the truth is."

Writer: Sasha Sienna

Format: Audio

Released: May 2022

Series: Redacted 1.05

Featuring: Abby, Shawna, Cleo, Kate

Synopsis

Cleo, Abby and Shawna are trapped in a safehouse being interrogated about someone called 'the Doctor'. Unfortunately, only Cleo remembers who that is. And so far, their captors seem to be big on violence and short on patience...

Verdict

Interrogation was another very good episode to continue my way through the Redacted podcast series! This was another fine continuation of the series which continues to grow on me more and more. The lack of Rani in the series was explained here which I was grateful for as it seems that everything she had said was true earlier on in the series, but now she has also disappeared after coming into contact with the hosts of the Blue Box Files podcast. The same can be said for Penny and Oliver too after their recent appearances. I’m a big fan of the idea behind the Doctor going missing and being forgotten, so the moment where Cleo is being interrogated but she gets on the same level as her UNIT guard Miller. He was an interesting character and suited his role as interrogator very well. He was determined for answers and didn’t seem too swayed by the obvious innocence of the three podcast hosts. He was all set to get answers about the Doctor and with the podcast focusing on the TARDIS, he wanted to know why nobody else could remember her. I thought the loose reference to Survivors of the Flux once Kate arrived on the scene by mentioning that there wasn’t much left of UNIT. I thought that was great and slotted in nicely with the current Doctor being referred to as female firmly establishing the series within the Thirteenth Doctor era. The eureka moment when both Miller and Cleo could see the other also remembered the Doctor was an obvious highlight for the story, but things wouldn’t last. I think if any title of any story in the Doctor Who universe has done a better job of explaining what happens in the adventure than this one then I’ll be very impressed. Because this was exactly as advertised and we did get basically a full twenty-five minutes of interrogation and it was really interesting. It did have the potential to get boring or repetitive but thankfully that was never threatening. It was fun that the three prisoners could hear from below the other being interrogated which provided a bit of a comfort level and some semblance of safety. Miller making it obvious with a tap that he was signalling to other UNIT personnel was fun and Shawna noticing and pouncing on that was good. The efforts of UNIT to get answers by threatening the podcast hosts’ family members seemed a bit off canter and I’m not sure if I ever seriously bought the threat, but that’s mostly because I know the purpose of UNIT and their ultimate goal to protect. Cleo continuing to search for Jordan was good and I loved learning more about their history on the Powell Estate. It’s terrific continuity that really is effortlessly simple. It was wonderful to hear Jemma Redgrave feature as Kate and I must admit that I didn’t think she’d actually feature so soon after being mentioned! It’s a scary prospect though if even Kate has forgotten the Doctor. It was lovely to hear her greet the podcast hosts though and her shocked reaction to Roberts going rogue and wanting to find the answers was brilliant. It was a court martial offence but for him that was worth finding out the truth. The trio didn’t know of course but that didn’t stop Cleo standing up to him and goading him to shoot, but he never would of course. They needed the hosts because they had some information on the Doctor and the missing people, and that some was more than UNIT had. They were completely in the dark and that scared them. Overall, a great listen!

Rating: 8/10