Tabula Rasa

"Who am I?"

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio

Released: February 2015

Series: Vienna 2.01

Featuring: Vienna 

Synopsis

Ever woken up and can't remember where you are? What if you couldn't remember who you are? Or why there's a dead body outside your door?

Vienna Salvatori is hunting for a killer – but can she be sure it's not herself?

Verdict

Tabula Rasa was an excellent start to the second series of the Vienna spinoff! I am delighted to be back with this particular range as Vienna is such a fun character. The shackles do feel like they're completely thrown away when it comes to her and with no Doctor or regular companion around, the potential really is endless and that makes this series very exciting. I thought the way this episode started with both Vienna and Doran Curtis waking up together in bed with no idea of who either was, nor themselves. That kind of amnesia is fun to explore and the direction of the episode was set as they hoped to remember who they were. Did they have a connection to each other? Did they sleep together? Vienna's thoughts regarding that were quite hilarious as she wasn't exactly complimentary of Doran. She was probably a little harsh in how she referred to his weight, whilst he was very happy with how good looking the woman he woke up next to was! It is difficult to argue that. I thought the journey to finding out information on where they were and what had happened was entertaining, and I really enjoyed the chemistry and banter between the pair. They worked together but they weren't exactly getting on! The emergence of Jexie into the story as a detective was good and I liked how she was able to fill in the gaps for both Vienna and Doran. There wasn't a massive amount of reaction when they found out their names again, but they were actually on a mission for Crime Corp. They had hired Vienna for her notorious methods which was a fun concept and I liked how the job she was hired to do was to defeat a Psycho Morph. The concept behind one of those was excellent and I thought a personality hotel was the perfect setting! I thought Vienna mocking the very idea of a personality hotel was a brilliant moment as Doran revealed that he and his wife had used one when she was very ill. Anything to get some semblance of normality again. Vienna actually did feel a little bad about that at least! She went through a lot in the episode to be honest ranging from some humour and lighthearted nature to very serious and being on hand to provide the resolution that would see the Psycho Morph defeated. I thought Anders was a strong character and the concept of him downgrading himself in the personality hotels because it was less stress than his normal CEO position was silly but fun. The Concierge was a fun element of the story too and I liked the addition of a little technology. An artificial intelligence can always provide a certain sense of unease and that was definitely the case here. I thought the hotel having an entire personality reset was a strong explanation of why Vienna and Doran had no idea who they were as this meant the Psycho Morph also couldn't feed if nobody knew who they were! It was pretty clever, and by the end of the episode once Vienna kicked into gear she realised the way to take out the Psycho Morph. A simple overload of all of the personalities took it out with it having too many people to siphon through. That was pretty darn good. Jexie teasing Vienna and Doran about them being married when it wasn't true was a delightful moment as well. Overall, a really strong way to set up the series with a fantastic plot, a lot of fun and Vienna stealing the show at the end as her memory was restored. A wonderful listen! 

Rating: 9/10