An Eye for Murder

"It's a man's world."

Writer: Una McCormack

Format: Audio

Released: July 2014

Series: Monthly Adventures 188c

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis

The year is 1939, and a case of poison pen letters ar St Ursula's College threatens to change the course of the Second World War. Fortunately thriller writer Miss Sarah Perry is on hand to investigate...

Verdict

An Eye for Murder was a terrific adventure to continue my way through the Breaking Bubbles release! This audio felt like more of a traditional story in the release and could easily become its own Monthly Adventure if expanded into a longer style, but what we got felt pretty sufficient! That's not always the case for these kinds of stories that are shorter and have the release split into four separate parts so that was a big benefit. I thought the setting of St Ursula's College was excellent and the fact it was a women-only college meant the Doctor's presence would come into question on more than one occasion as we heard. That was fun and I think it was good to make reference to the fact he wasn't dressed in his traditional multi-coloured jacket and trousers. He was going to stand out more than enough as it was! It is strange to think of the Sixth Doctor in a different outfit other than the traditional one and the blue one associated with Real Time, which is quite incredible really considering how much the modern day Doctors have changed what they're wearing. The Classic era certainly provides more of a defined look so breaking away from that here was intriguing and presented some interesting images in my head! The confusion of the college welcome Sarah Perry to their ranks for a guest position was brilliant as that would obviously inject Peri with a ready made reason to get in. She was mistaken for the thriller author and whilst she didn't exactly put on the most convincing front in that role, it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed how the Doctor was telling her to go with it to get into the college as a means of finding the source of his strange readings, but they actually got more than they bargained for! The Doctor's presence as a man was causing issues though and Peri getting to tell him to stay confined to his quarters was magnificent. I bet Peri enjoyed that considerably! I loved that we got to hear the college experience in real time the address from the Prime Minister declaring that a state of war existed between the United Kingdom and Germany, and the gossip amongst some of the doctors within about politics was fascinating. Some favoured Stalin to Hitler, whereas the likes of Dalton didn't seem to think that Hitler was that bad! There's always one. I did think things perhaps moved a little too quickly in their conversations about which side was better and Blackhouse being revealed as a Nazi was strong, but showing favouritism towards the Soviets wasn't exactly much better! It was really simple and interesting though to hear the women talk of such monumental events in a common way. This was ordinary and contemporary for them. The mystery of the alien eye artefact was really good and toying with the concept of invisibility is tremendous. Tackling it on audio is perhaps difficult without the visuals, but I do think that could help as well without the need for hiding actors. It could just be explained here and that worked well, especially with the door mystery and the poison pen letters being sent out. I thought that was fun, although I must admit I hadn't heard of the phrase before so I was fully expecting actual poison to be involved! The Doctor heading out and leaving the true article of Blackhouse behind was amusing considering he'd worked out the invisibility aspect of the eye already, so of course she'd be hiding in the college! Of course, it got a little too much for her though and it proved rather fatal. She wasn't even willing to throw it away and disintegrated whilst holding it which seemed to send that pack with some finality. Peri's humour at the end in returning to the TARDIS police box to collect her notes was fun stuff as she didn't want anything to do with actually addressing the students of the college! Overall, an excellent audio! 

Rating: 9/10