Everywhere and Anywhere: All's Fair

"How can a mutation be clever?"

Writer: Max Kashevsky

Format: Audio

Released: December 2023

Series: Eleventh Doctor Chronicles 5.02

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Valarie

Synopsis

Chicago's World's Fair, 1893. An ideal date for a pair of loved-up engineers.

However, there are certain things you don't want to happen on a date. An impossible reunion derailing things. Abominations stalking the streets. Your date dying at the end...

Verdict

All's Fair was an excellent episode to continue my listening of the Everywhere and Anywhere fifth series of Eleventh Doctor Chronicles! By the end of the story, I wasn't considering things to be at all fair and I think that was part of the humour in the title. This was a fast paced episode that really covered a lot of ground, some of it rather unexpectedly! The idea of the episode giving us the death of Valarie when she was older is incredible. This companion really doesn't get a break! It's just one thing after the other for our favourite part-cyborg. She's going through a lot but that doesn't stop her having a great first date with Roanna. I thought it was lovely that she finally got to meet up with her and get that date. It certainly went well but the emotional torment both would experience as the episode unfolded was quite horrifying! I really enjoyed the continuity with The Inheritance dating back to Geronimo! in having the Fulcrum Corporation return with Hendricks fully in command. I like that we get a returning villain who was hinting at a lot to come in the next boxset, that is going by the name and the cover art. We've still got Cybermen to come in this finale, but all signs point towards another meeting with the Daleks. Hendricks taunting the Doctor on the outcome of the Time War was superb. She claimed he'd killed all of his own species for nothing because Daleks still survived, and let's be frank she was correct. The idea of her wanting to wipe out the Daleks properly is exciting because in theory why would the Doctor oppose that? He had his chance at their genesis, but now a new mutation was being developed. A mutation that would make people immune to extermination! That's incredible and I can't wait for it to unfold in the future. Roanna being patient zero for the Surge that would ravage Chicago was really well done and having Frank come back in time and try to kill her was fantastic. Not what you want on a first date! I thought that disease was good and the Doctor naming it was a fun moment. I was a big fan of meeting Hayden has Valarie's husband was a good character and the way he introduced himself to his wife in her own past and her first date was a big shock! This was a lot for Roanna to take in and I liked that she ended up helping Hayden as he struggled to cope with everything that happened. Maria was a magnificent villain as the Fulcrum representative and her callousness in shooting Roanna and wanting to cause double torment on Valarie was magnificent. The Doctor's reaction to finding out that the Valarie that dies was the real article and not a projection, robot or version from an alternate universe was excellent! He was very angry. But Valarie wasn't and knew that she wanted a life worth living, even if it was on borrowed time. Travelling with the Doctor in the TARDIS, who would want to be anywhere else? She also convinced Roanna to go along with the relationship even though they knew it wouldn't last. That made the proclamation of love even more special. Overall, an emotional and really strong episode! 

Rating: 9/10