The Stuff of Nightmares

"Shouldn't the fact that you were dead have dulled your senses?"

Writer: Paul Morris

Format: Audio

Released: April 2017

Series: Jago & Litefoot 13.01

Featuring: Jago, Litefoot

Synopsis

Litefoot and Jago are both suffering from strange waking nightmares. They resort to hypnotherapy to try to diagnose the problem. But meanwhile a Time Agent is looking for them – as a way of tracking down the notorious criminal Magnus Greel. Before they know what is happening, our heroes find themselves trapped in a dystopian future where nothing makes sense any more...

Verdict

The Stuff of Nightmares was a strong start to the thirteenth series of Jago & Litefoot! It really is an extraordinary run for this pair of infernal investigators and it's incredible to think how far these characters have come since The Talons of Weng-Chiang, and now this episode serves as a follow on from it. I feel a little dumbfounded by the prospect of seven series since The Final Act taking place over the course of just three years as Litefoot claims that to be the timeframe since last encountering Magnus Greel, but I'm not going to ponder on semantics when it comes to timelines. This was just a really good opening story to what I'm sure will be another stellar series of this wonderful spinoff range. Starting with a nightmare from the perspective of Litefoot was good because he's usually the more composed and accomplished of the lead pairing, but the very idea of being aware and awake whilst your body was seemingly dead and ready to be cut open is an understandable nightmare indeed! It reminded me a little of Dark Water and the darkness surrounding death and the dead there, but we actually could hear Litefoot pleading with Jago! Having him undergone a psycho analysis was good and I enjoyed how Jago and Ellie also went that route later in the story. Ellie's nightmare involving her vampiric past was terrific and her being addressed as the Old One was fantastic. I love that about Ellie's character and it's always good to be able to tap into that. The concept of a nightmare being explored in of itself is a very strong idea and I liked getting the Victorian slant on that. I have no idea how advanced science was in the late-nineteenth century when it comes to the dream state and beyond, but it was fun to explore for sure. I thought Cara made for a pretty good character and whilst she did lack a bit of charisma, that could be explained in her efficiency when it came to performing her role as a Time Agent. Given the time technology to hand, it does seem a little odd that she couldn't arrive at the right time and was actually at least three years late, but her desire to bring Greel to justice was admirable. Jago and Litefoot having to relive events concerning Greel could be described as a nightmare on its own but they weren't exactly revealing when it came to the information concerning him as dead. Cara confirming that with the remains of which there wasn't exactly much identifiable was immersive! Technology of the fifty-first century obviously works differently. I thought the use of Chronoplasm was fascinating and something fun to explore, especially with the difficulties that came from its leakage. I wasn't expecting such an emphatic end for Cara as her manipulator self destructed which meant she had a pretty terrible fate and death. That took me by surprise but it's opened up a fascinating world moving forward. It will be a bit of a waste if the resulting portal that opened amidst a world of doom would just take Jago and Litefoot home. I hope it's some kind of parallel universe or another dimension because we already had Litefoot linking minds with another version of himself that understood the futuristic technology, so surely we can explore more now? Overall, a real strong episode to start the series and I'm enjoying the direction presented here! It feels unique which at this point in the range I think is important. A great start! 

Rating: 8/10