Meanwhile Turlough

"You broke the terms of your exile."

Writer: Jonathan Blum

Format: Audio

Released: April 2024

Series: Interludes 07

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough

Synopsis

There's a crisis on Greysolon. And only the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough can stop it. Except one of them may be otherwise occupied. Turlough has managed to find a crisis of his own. A very personal one. While his friends are saving the planet... he's going to have to save himself.

Verdict

Meanwhile Turlough was a great little bonus adventure! This story served as a fine Interludes addition to The Dream Team boxset of Fifth Doctor Adventures and it was nice to have Turlough's story continue as he was absent from the titular boxset. Tegan gets a triple whammy which is a lot of fun and the dynamic between her and Turlough was explored well here. Things can get quite frisky between those two so that was fun to explore, even without the benefit of the two actors who perform the companion roles. Unusually, this story was read by an actor who wasn't one of the main TARDIS team but that was absolutely fine as I thought Dan Starkey did a terrific job! His take on Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor was pretty darn accurate and even his Tegan was recognisable. It was really impressive stuff and in a format like this with over sixty minutes of mostly prose by one actor, the way he was able to differentiate between roles was very helpful. His Turlough was absolutely spot on and I honestly wouldn't have disagreed if I didn't have the knowledge and somebody told me that Mark Strickson was the narrator. It was fun for him to reminisce on how he joined up with the Doctor back in Mawdryn Undead and this story really helped establish some of his feelings towards the Doctor and his people. He was less than complimentary about the Time Lords which audibly hurt the Doctor, but the Time Lord did understand and even acknowledged that his people were far from perfect. His talk of the punishment dished out to exclude an entire species from the universe from the start to end of time was shocking and Turlough realised that this could easily have been Trion if he got his way with events here. Splitting up the Doctor and Tegan from Turlough was good for the purposes of the story and I do wonder if we will ever get the other side of this audio. It sounded really eventful for those two to be dealing with AI and a virus, but the explanation of its resolution we got was quick and rushed. That was fine though because that wasn't the main story we had been listening to. That was all background to learning more about Turlough. I like that this is an adventure that couldn't have taken place on television because Planet of Fire and everything we learn there about Trion was yet to be revealed, but that's where the audio format and being over forty years later comes in handy. Turlough is strict to not reveal to the Doctor and Tegan too much about his origins, but him promising the Overseer the secrets of the TARDIS was a bit of a step too far for the Doctor even if his plans were for the Time Lords to take over. It was a decent idea really and I thought it was also good for Turlough to get some interaction with a fellow exile. He was far from the only one to be left in the doldrums and I think it was good for Turlough to talk about that. This really was a strong exploration to the inner workings of Turlough and his thoughts on the Doctor and Trion. I thought it was absolutely hilarious as well for the Doctor to start a sentence to his companion with 'do you know why I put up with you?' You wouldn't get that with nearly every other companion! Fantastic stuff. That rounded out the audio nicely. Overall, a great little listen and a fine addition to the Fifth Doctor Adventures. 

Rating: 8/10