Families: The Temple of Light

"I have been found worthy to speak for the ship of time."

Writer: Jonathan Morris

Format: Audio

Released: April 2025

Series: Companion Chronicles 15.01

Featuring: Vicki

Synopsis

Time has stopped. The TARDIS has frozen. And yet, Vicki finds herself with an entirely unfamiliar civilisation while the Doctor, Ian and Barbara are nowhere to be seen...

Verdict

The Temple of Light was an excellent episode to kick off the Families fifteenth series of Companion Chronicles! I am so happy that this range is returning and this essentially feels like the fourth volume of First Doctor Chronicles which is very exciting. I feel like there is so much potential with this range and it’s always wonderful to focus on the companions because they deserve the spotlight! The Doctor didn’t feature here and that’s absolutely fine because Vicki held her own fantastically. I never had any doubts that she would and I really enjoyed the performance from Maureen O’Brien. Happily, this wasn’t told in a narrator format and that’s something I always think works best. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the more traditional narrative style, but a full cast adventure just works best. The concept behind this episode in particular was fascinating and I just loved it despite me working out the plot twist almost immediately. I was quite proud of that as I hadn’t read the synopsis prior to listening as is usually the case, but I was glad that as the story went on it wasn’t left too long to reveal that Vicki was actually inside the TARDIS console! What a magnificent and original idea. There’s a lot of potential there and it was utilised in a very unique way. I do wonder if there was any foreshadowing of The Myth Makers from the TARDIS when it came to the civilisation that was created for Vicki? The use of the Temple of Light was very good and I liked how things were drip fed to the listener. From the helmic regulators to the fault locator, Vicki was slowly piecing things together and that was a fun journey to go on with her. I enjoyed her interactions with Nebrum and their shared humour about never meeting anyone with their respective names was a nice moment. The family element coming into play was nicely done too as brothers reunited in a powerful way actually, especially for a civilisation that would only exist within a fraction of a second. That was a fun concept in of itself and Vicki actually conversing with the TARDIS was a fantastic moments. It’s fascinating to think that this would happen so early on with the First Doctor as their relationship was still fostering, but I liked that Vicki was the one chosen to make the repairs because at the time of the central column exploding in a flash of light she was furthest away from the console. The idea of the TARDIS saving itself is really interesting and whilst it is surely breaking the Laws of Time, who better to go against the rules and decide what’s right or wrong than a time machine? I mean, it was a bit yucky for her to have conjured up the civilisation in which Vicki became a part of from the likes of dead skin cells, but needs must! Vicki having a name for everything was fun in the in the whacky world of the temple, and going to the Temple of Night was pretty fun stuff too. It was a good contrast. Mindus was a good character too and I was impressed that even in a world of the TARDIS’s creation that there was still room for authoritative villains. The hunt for Vicki was on but she wouldn’t be denied. Despite her displeasure at the amount of death that occurred in this world of a second, she was somewhat agreeable in the knowledge that time would be rewritten and they wouldn’t have happened at all. Again, that felt a little like cheating but when a time machine is doing it can it really be considered as such? I liked how when Vicki awoke in the reconstructed TARDIS that she was still able to remember the events she had experienced, but thought of them as more of a dream. I like that she retained knowledge because she went through and experienced quite a lot! Overall, a boldly unique concept and whilst some elements were predictable I thought this was an excellent start to the new series and welcomed returned to the range!

Rating: 9/10