What Lies Inside?: The Dalby Spook

"It's not alien, it's ordinary."

Writers: Lauren Mooney & Stewart Pringle

Format: Audio

Released: November 2022

Series: Eighth Doctor Adventures 9.02

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Liv, Helen

Synopsis

After encountering Harry Price, the Doctor decides to solve an infamous case before the paranormal debunker can.

But Liv and Helen are more concerned for the girl at the centre of events. What is really going on at the remote Isle of Man farmhouse? And who is Gef, the talking mongoose?

Verdict

The Dalby Spook was another excellent story to conclude the What Lies Inside? series of Eighth Doctor Adventures! This had a very different feel to Paradox of the Daleks as you would expect and it was refreshing to get a historical adventure with this TARDIS trio. I don't think we've had too many of those given the nature of the range over the last four series so this was good stuff. I thought it was a nice touch to visit 1933 with it being Helen's year of birth and I enjoyed the humour of the Doctor and Liv having a bet about the Time Lord being able to steer the TARDIS. The technicality in play here with the Doctor tracking the signal coordinates was nicely done. I really liked the Isle of Man setting and it's certainly a place high on my bucket list to visit. I thought the Doctor, Liv and Helen posing as journalists for the latest paranormal effort of Harry Price was great and I loved how Liv was keen to showcase that they were not the Doctor's assistants but his colleagues. She just about stayed on the right side of the law in making her remarks about gender very much felt. She's a very powerful character and I love her for it. She continues to shine and is growing into one of my favourite companions. I thought the concept behind the Sleech was pretty good and I was fascinated in my research after listening to find that the original idea for the psychic enemy was to be the Mara! It's a huge shame Big Finish couldn't obtain the rights to use them, but the nod to Kinda with the Doctor referencing the mirror trick picked up on Deva Loka was a decent substitute. I think the adaptation to the Psychevore was still very well done and it was terrific to have a red herring in the form of Gef. He was a weird character to say the least as a talking mongoose and Voirrey being almost consumed by her relationship with him was uncomfortable at times! It was such a strange dynamic. The Doctor was certainly feeling unlike himself for big parts of the story which Liv and Helen were quick to pick up on which I liked. They knew that things weren't as simple when it came to Gef and they were surprised by his lack of concern for Voirrey. Her father wasn't the nicest of men to say the least and it took the companions to notice that. The Doctor had trapped Gef in the box and thought that was everything sorted, except it turned out that the mongoose was the one to have sent the signal in the first place because of the Psychevore threat! Jim being possessed by it made sense as he was pretty terrible to his daughter and the moment before the paranormal activity began and he actually wanted his daughter tied up in rope was horrifying. Liv and Helen obviously objected and it became uncomfortable rather quickly. It was easy to tell that there was something more to him, but I did certainly get done by the red herring of Gef. The Doctor stumping him by asking about his name was a fun moment though! Voirrey not having much sense of decorum for guests was great as she relayed the truth from Gef about the Doctor and his companions not being from the Times as they suspected. I also love that the Eighth Doctor was using his psychic paper to receive the message! That feels like a good gap to bridge eras. Mister Timms was a fascinating character too and him knowing there was a Liv who'd arrived in a blue carriage was very intriguing! I was surprised the Doctor was so willing to ignore that and focus on Harry despite his historical reputation. I thought the Doctor realising his mistake in the TARDIS and then going back to save Voirrey was a nice touch and getting the Psychevore into the box was done pretty promptly! I liked that he saw the errors in his ways and made amends. Overall, a really eery atmosphere and a fine historical setting! A fantastic boxset concludes in style.

Rating: 9/10