London, 1965

"It's like an orgy!"

Writer: Paul Magrs

Format: Audio

Released: January 2022

Series: Beyond the Doctor 03

Featuring: Ian, Barbara

Synopsis

It's Spring 1965, and at last two time travellers have returned home after many adventures with the Doctor. Yet the world has moved on in their absence, and settling back in proves harder than expected. 

For Barbara, salvation appears in the form of kindly Angela Leamann, who offers Miss Wright a roof over her head in return for a series of 'psychical sessions'. 

Ian, meanwhile, discovers a hidden talent and joins London's growing literary science fiction scene. He sees no harm in drawing upon his experiences with the Doctor – even when his ideas are picked up by a bigshot in television. 

Unsuspectingly, the ex-schoolteachers are being drawn into an invisible web...

Verdict

London, 1965 was an excellent story to continue my way through the Beyond the Doctor miniseries from BBC Audio! This has been one I have been dying to listen to ever since it was released. The title is obviously a play on that triumphant moment at the end of The Chase when Ian and Barbara used the Dalek time machine to return somewhat home, and this does a really a good job in picking up the pieces and following them as they try and settle back into normal life after nearly two years away and thought missing. That really is difficult to try and comprehend as imagine just trying to reintegrate yourself into society and not really being able to explain where you have been and what you have experienced for two years! Was it maybe even longer for them? Who knows how long in their own personal timeline that they were on board the TARDIS. The title is also a fun nod to a Twitch marathon of Classic Who back in 2018 where it became something of a social media meme for quite a while. I think that's good fun and I just love the idea of people binging this show for the first time truly from the very start. Ian and Barbara are rare companions from the black and white era where not too much of their run is marred by missing episodes. So you do basically get a complete run of their experience in then TARDIS and they're the first true companions so their departure should be a huge moment. It's also important to remember that despite them becoming good friends with the Doctor and Susan, and then Vicki, they didn't choose to travel the universe. Even though she was under Leamann's spell when she said, Barbara's remark about being kidnapped by the Doctor was incredible! There really isn't any arguing with that though. Just go and watch An Unearthly Child for confirmation! I really like the simplicity of the title too as whilst there's no exclamation mark that Ian says the line with as they return, this story is basically Ian and Barbara living their life soon after in London, 1965. I think that just works brilliantly and is good fun. The idea of them becoming distant after everything they experienced together just feels impossible but Leamann was good in her role. She was tapping into things with Barbara and the idea of her adventures in the TARDIS actually being past lives was a wonderful concept. A fun allusion was made to The Aztecs and her being a goddess whilst her uncanny recollection of the French Revolution was a lovely nod to The Reign of Terror. I really enjoyed how Leamann and even Harmer with Ian were trying to tap into their TARDIS trips for information about the Doctor. That followed up Bessie Come Home rather nicely and the mention of Penumbra was intriguing because I have looked ahead and know the title of the final release in the series. I'm enjoying that continuity already and look forward to hearing it develop further. It's working for me at the moment. I wasn't expecting the resolution being linked to The Web Planet and thanking the Animus with them being in the mind of Barbara and leaving untapped psychic powers within, but they came to great use here! Ian was right, his experiences over the last two years or so would certainly make a tremendous television show. The idea of him writing scripts was lovely and I was surprised Barbara was at odds with him over that. Hell, his scripts might even have potential for numerous spinoffs across who knows how many different formats. Overall, a fantastic episode! 

Harmer with Ian

Rating: 9/10