Firefall

"A blessing from the stars."

Writer: Beth Axford 

Format: Audio

Released: October 2025

Series: NSA 34

Featuring: Fifteenth Doctor, Belinda

Synopsis

Floating high above 19th Century Earth, the Doctor and Belinda enjoy the legendary Leonids meteor shower of 1833, when the skies teemed with shooting stars. 

One meteor is bigger and brighter than the others and shows no sign of breaking up in the planetary atmosphere. The travellers follow it to the village of Drummondville and begin the hunt for a fallen star.

There's a strained atmosphere in the sleepy town, where two buildings mysterious caught fire overnight. Belinda meets young Mary Moss, who's harbouring something extraordinary – something that must be kept safe from the other villagers.

What strange entity has landed, and how might if affect all life on Earth? The Doctor and Belinda try to broker peace between Leo and its human hosts, before things get out of control...

Verdict

Firefall was a very strong story to kick off this year's New Series Adventures original audios! I think it's delightful that we can get releases with the (sort of) current TARDIS team, although I do question the scheduling in not having them released whilst the series was airing. That would just seem to make the most sense! But I won't complain about timing as late is certainly better than never. I found the historical elements of this story really interesting and I'd be lying if I said I had hear about the legendary meteor shower at the heart of the adventure. It sounds fascinating though and how this kind of thing would have been viewed by pre-Victorian era eyes really excites me. Would they see it religiously or scientifically? I definitely got the sense it was the latter in how the story panned out and that was good. One of the absolute highlights of the story was the performance by Michelle Asante as narrator. I think it's great that we got an actor from the most recent series and she certainly made an impression in The Story & the Engine, but I would honestly argue she made more of one here. She was engaging and her impressions of both the Fifteenth Doctor and Belinda were spot on. I think she had a lot of help there with the writing which is equally impressive because this is Beth Axford's first audio story and one of her very first stories in any format. I follow her through the wonderful Who Watch Podcast so it's really nice to see her shine. This was a really impressive audio debut. Having the setting of 1833 was good and I liked that even though a vindicator reading was required as we head towards Wish World/The Reality War, the Doctor and even Belinda were keen on exploring things further. I thought the character of Mary Moss was really strong and it's always good to have somebody like her to compliment the main duo. I thought her relationship with Belinda in particular was strong and that was really lovely to hear. The Leonids were really fascinating and they became quite sad in the end in learning that one that came in the meteor storm here was cut off from their family, species, and entire home world! The analogy to it being like a bird who throws her offspring out of the nest to see which ones can fly was pretty daunting considering that was taken into space! And if the returned without their other siblings and kind, they would be shunned. So no time travel or space hops to sort things out here. I thought the vulnerability of the villagers in Drummondville felt very real and whilst I obviously don't agree with their actions, I can certainly see why it happened. They were threatened by something from the stars so they attacked, much to the Doctor's horror. The description of it being like putting out a candle felt very poetic and the tease of Mary getting to go in the TARDIS was a nice touch. She understood the Leonids and Belinda working out that she was a Leo felt apt. The use of the zodiac here was decent, even if I personally still don't have much of an understanding of it! I did think things dragged on a little at the end in what felt like a very much extended epilogue, but that didn't hamper my enjoyment of the story. A strong concept, perfect characterisation and a wonderful narrator. Oh and that marvellous little Mrs Flood cameo at the end. Glorious. A terrific listen! 

Rating: 8/10