The World Beyond the Trees

"I'm living in the past."

Writer: Jonathan Barnes

Format: Audio

Released: January 2017

Series: Short Trips 7.01

Featuring: Liv

Synopsis

MedTech Liv Chenka is alone. No Doctor. No TARDIS. No Molly O'Sullivan. But the strange environment she's stranded in is about to get even stranger, with Liv the only one who can help out. There's a message here, for her, and for someone very far away...

Verdict

The World Beyond the Trees was was a really strong Short Trip adventure! Taking place within the Dark Eyes series of Eighth Doctor Adventures, this was a unique take on the format and one I instantly loved. It just worked from the very start and it certainly helps to have a character like Liv Chenka in that narrator role. Except here she wasn’t quite a narrator as the style of story was very different in that she was basically reading a letter of events to her lost father. I thought that was pretty poignant and there was a good level of emotion in her retelling of what she had gone through. Whilst this was very much a solo outing for Liv, it was nice to acknowledge the Doctor and Molly. Liv touching on the lack of similarities she shares with Molly was intriguing and she didn’t seem wholly fussed on the Doctor here either with how much he has changed since their first meeting together in Robophobia. That feels like a long time ago now and it is easy to forget just how far Liv has come. She feels really mature and well versed in tackling alien obscenities here. I like how she takes things face on and the Doctor giving her a warning about the Damascus Project was intriguing. I did know beforehand that this adventure takes place simultaneously with Damascus which is a fun little quirk and something I could get on board with happening more in the range. It’s been a couple of years nearly since listening to that previous Short Trip story but the links were good and the memories came flooding back with the likes of the Milur and the Prime Minister. Neither were as prevalent here but it was good that Lilla was scared of the former and teaching a lesson to the latter. She was very much alien and the way she reacted to Liv realising it was her that had triggered the listlessness field was so calm. She admitted it but she didn’t mean the effects so that should be okay right? Not quite. Lilla wanted to protect her father’s interests and the Prime Minister was trying to take things that didn’t belong to him. Lilla stating that the powerful needed to be faced with truth was excellent and really struck a chord with me. The relationship that was built between Liv and Lilla wasn’t exactly something I would describe as close, but they came to a mutual understanding. The finding of the fourth tree was intriguing and painted quite a nice picture actually with the lift within. It was good that Lilla wouldn’t allow Liv into the tree that her father had only meant for her though. She stuck to her principals there and wasn’t having it! I liked that a lot. She was a really likeable character. Liv helping ensure Lilla saw reason with regards to the listlessness field and lifting it was terrific, especially when she was on hand to confront the Milur at the end. But Lilla was long gone. It was a nice way to tie things together at the end of what was a really strong little audio! Overall, a great listen. 

Rating: 8/10