Fairytale of Salzburg

"The fires must cleanse you."

Writer: John Dorney

Format: Audio

Released: October 2018

Series: Eighth Doctor Adventures: Ravenous 2.03

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Liv, Helen

Synopsis

With the Doctor and most of the population condemned to hell, Liv and Helen race against time to discover the source of all this chaos, and to find the one man who can save the people of Salzburg from eternal damnation.

Verdict

Fairytale of Salzburg was a decent episode to conclude the story already started in Better Watch Out. This wasn't quite to the level of the first part for my liking but as my rating reflects this was still a really solid outing. It just felt a little different and I don't think the stakes felt as high which is crazy to say considering the threat that Salzburg faced. I'm not really sure how that occurred – maybe it was the incidental music? The first episode felt like things were building so for this one to start a little differently and ahead of events was slightly off-putting. I must admit that I don't think the approach to tell events in exactly the right order to Bruno was helpful. It didn't make much sense and wasn't that great of an artistic choice in my opinion. Regardless, this was still very enjoyable despite some obvious flaws and I must say I'm a massive fan of the Salzburg setting at Christmas. Injecting the Krampus into that was a fine basis for the story and Maria really came into her own during this episode. After being threatened with eviction by Shafranek last time out, we now jump ahead a month to the point where she cannot afford the increased rent and the landlord gets his wish of having her and her mother thrown to the street. I always felt like we would reach this point after what happened with the Doctor helping her, but when he wasn't around to help she didn't really stand a chance against Shafranek. The revelation that it was actually her responsible for the Krampus was quite unexpected and things really did reach mythical status when we learned just how it had happened. The landlord had driven her to feeling down and extreme which was completely understandable as who would want to be ejected at Christmas? So she simply wished for the Krampus to be real and that's exactly what the Bishop granted for her. Liv confronting him about the wishes was fascinating and she was keen to get things reversed with her own wish but unfortunately for her a wish could not undo another's wish. The foreshadowing of why she want to save her own wish was intriguing too and I liked the mysterious feel the episode had. There always seemed like there was mist which is a big compliment for the kind of atmosphere created. Helen has quite the adventure in this episode and I was taken aback by her ageing. The idea of her taking decades to learn how to fly the TARDIS is not something I'm a massive fan of to be honest, but the emotion that comes from her return makes for some powerful moments. She's on her last legs as she returns to Liv and remembers her old friend, whilst the Doctor sees something different in her but not that she has aged. Her efforts to be brilliant and defeat the Krampus were impressive and I think the method of going back to the myth's origin and bringing Nicholas was actually incredible. I really wouldn't have seen that coming but an actual St Nicholas providing the means to defy the Krampus at Christmas really is terrific! I also thought it was really nice at the end just when it felt like all was lost for Helen that Liv used her wish from the Bishop to wish that she was young again. She had saved the city and now she was rejuvenated. I was less impressed by the purpose of the Doctor's storytelling to Bruno and whilst it was good for him to now survive, why would the Doctor show him his city burning and admit that things were already safe early in the episode? That took away from the threat in my estimation. Overall though, still a strong episode and a good conclusion! Onto the finale.

Rating: 7/10