The Devil in Ms Wildthyme

"I'm ready to let my inner demon loose."

Writer: Stephen Cole

Format: Audio

Released: December 2005

Series: Iris Wildthyme 1.02

Featuring: Iris

Synopsis

Another

Another message to you from Panda:

'So in this adventure, we meet Dr Zachariah Marwick. Dear Tom finds out that he has started a special clinic for people with mysterious lumps ­ but how come he knows exactly what they are before he's even examined them? And why is he so insistent that his patients join an exclusive speed-dating club? Trans-temporal adventuress Iris Wildthyme, meanwhile, is not herself. She's scared of her own shadow, it seems. Indeed, she's even afraid to leave her wretched bus. I, naturally, am terribly worried about her ­ and about Tom as well. You see, he seems to have straw coming out of his head, like old stuffing. How can that be? And then they have the temerity to accuse me of getting all emotional about everything? Me! I ask you.

Anyway, together we three brave heroes must face demons from Iris's past, as an outrageous presence begins to assert itself over reality... one that seems to have been reading far more Dennis Wheatley than is strictly necessary.'

Verdict

The Devil in Ms Wildthyme was not the greatest of episodes to conclude the first series of the Iris Wildthyme spinoff series. I am afraid I couldn't get along with this one much at all which is such a shame as I was a big fan of the opener Wildthyme at Large but this was a severe drop in quality. I thought the dynamic just didn't work for whatever reason and it was bitterly disappointing that after the prospect of adventures for Iris, Tom and Panda, that the bus took off and then landed exactly back where it was in present day London. That's the most overused setting in the Whoniverse and there's just not much originality that can be done with the place, even in a very different spinoff range like this one. We didn't get a huge amount of Iris in the episode which just feels odd considering the nature of the spinoff, and I don't think enough has been done to establish Tom and Panda for them to be main characters in their own right just yet. I think the fact Panda's first released story was the previous episode but we don't have any background on who he is or how he comes to be animated as a stuffed bear hurt things here. The whole story was seemingly centred on an apparent switch between Tom and Panda as the former's brain was on its way to becoming entirely straw! That was just a bit weird and initially was quite exciting, but I couldn't take much of the story seriously. I wasn't all that bothered by the talk of demons and whilst the ID Bar is a decent concept, the move from the likes of a speed dating ring to a chemist just felt off. I liked the creepiness of how Tom was lured into the bar, but it just didn't add up with there being a dating ring. Tom being gay was fun as it meant Alice wasn't having very much luck at all. Her conversation with a mute attendee was hilarious and worked so much better in audio format than it would have anywhere else. She was a pretty good character but I wish there was more done regarding the lumps. Dr Marwick was a relatively strong villain and I enjoyed his position as an evil doctor with much more than met the eye. But once everything pointed towards a devil as the power behind him and who he worshipped, I just wasn't interested. The plot didn't excite me and not enough was done to establish the demonic presence. It sounded a bit silly and having a little bit of it in numerous people from when they were young and then bringing them together at a speed dating sight was just not believable. What if they weren't all single? What if they'd moved away? There was too much leeway for things to go wrong. I thought the humour of Iris got a bit over the top in the end and the diarrhoea from going through the Vortex wasn't amusing to me. The continuation with the memory crystal of Iris and her adventures was pretty good and I liked that there was a stress fracture to perhaps let some slip out, but I wasn't fussed on Iris not putting all her memories within. Would she really keep some silly ones? The whole thing of the pure virgin at the end but having some saucy memories of Iris to make it believe that Panda was no virgin was just strange. Overall, this had some moments mainly from Katy Manning and for Tom in parts, but this wasn't my favourite of audio adventures. Sadly, I won't be rushing for the second series now! 

Rating: 5/10