No Place Like Home: Jellyfish!

"Do not engage with the sea."

Writers: Neve McIntosh & Dan Starkey

Format: Audio

Released: December 2024

Series: The Paternoster Gang 7.02

Featuring: Vastra, Jenny, Strax

Synopsis

The Gang head to the coast for Madame Vastra to convalesce. But their holiday proves far from restful. This Cornish village is home to suspicious locals, strange storms and wreckers. Most dangerous of all, something lurks in the seas – something with a mysterious hold over Vastra...

Verdict

Jellyfish! was a great episode to continue my way through the No Place Like Home seventh boxset of Paternoster Gang adventures! I think it's wonderful to see that both Neve McIntosh and Dan Starkey penned the story as who better would know the characters than the very actors who portray them! They brought both spectacularly to life on screen and now their adventures are being brilliantly extended and expanded on audio. This was a solid follow up to the incredible opener of Dopplegangers and whilst there wasn't quite as much humour, that was never going to happen in a story like this one. Vastra was in a very bad way following her poisoning but she was being drawn to somewhere very intriguing. I really liked the offhand scientific facility that helped Vastra, although my only qualm was that a little more elaboration on just why she was restored to normality would have been beneficial. I loved that it was sixty-five million years old and Maggie's reaction to hearing that number when Vastra said it was as old as she was made for a really fun moment. I just didn't understand why a supposedly mythical and incurable poison was eradicated from an air bubble in an ancient Silurian site. I guess the experimentation was something to play a part in? It was fine, but more details would have helped make this even better. I thought the setting of Cornwall was pretty perfect and whilst I've only visited the region once on a dray trip for football, there's definitely a different vibe there. I knew someone at university from there and she was almost as patriotic of being Cornish as I am of being Welsh. It is a very intriguing place and that was presented nicely in the story. Maggie being shipwrecked from the Mermaid provided an emotional tale with how much she felt she owed to Mr and Mrs Bligh for 'saving' her. With the truth that came about them, I felt extremely sorry for her. David quite clearly loved her and wanted her to stop repaying her non-monetary debts now but she still had a few months to go in her mind. She would actually prove pivotal in defeating the Blighs which was impactful but quite a shock that she went to such means! The Bligh pairing using a psionic crystal to lure ships in and then have them wrecked but appear to save some people whilst taking the loot for themselves was horrifying. The audacity! It was excellent for a Whoniverse story though and shows just what could happen when something powerful falls into the wrong hands. Mrs Bligh in particular was a right old ruffian and that was perfect for this kind of villain. Once she was challenged by the likes of Strax and Vastra, she had no chance though. I thought the humour that came from Strax and the lobster craving from Vastra was magnificent and his pride in knowing what the word lob meant was marvellous. Of course, his assumption that the jellyfish were Rutan Host was also fantastic and it's just delightful hearing his Sontaran tendencies shine through despite doing good. Jenny didn't feel like she had a huge amount to do here other than help look after Vastra and be a helping hand, and sometimes that's absolutely fine. I'm very interested to hear how things conclude from here knowing who is on the artwork cover as the Gang head back to London now with Maggie having pushed Bligh to her death and now seemingly installed to carry on the running of the gulley. Overall, a terrific story! 

Rating: 8/10