The most interesting thing about “The Dalby Spook” is finding out that it’s based on an actual thing! Apparently on the Isle of Man in the 30s there was a hot rumour of a talking mongoose called Gef that attracted paranormal specialists and skeptics like Harry Price to debunk it. How bizarre! What’s that? The story? … It’s alright. After “Paradox of the Daleks” it was certainly more straight forward and low key, that’s for sure! Let’s take a look…
The Doctor (Paul McGann), Liv (Nicola Walker) and Helen (Hattie Morahan) arrive on the Isle of Man and end up taking a look at a psychic called Mr. Timms (Harry Myers) and he seems to get Liv’s history right using his powers until Harry Price (Phillip Jackson) arrives on stage to debunk him. Liv’s sure there is more to Mr. Timms than meets the eye but The Doctor insists everyone follow Price to the so-called “Dalby Spook”, or a talking mongoose called Gef because that’s much more fun to say…
They get there and of course this being Doctor Who there really IS a talking mongoose, though Price believes the young girl in the house, Voirrey Irving (Felicity Cant), is just using ventriloquism (the believed actual explanation from the real thing). While The Doctor gets into a debate with the mongoose Liv and Helen befriend Voirrey and the latter in particular is worried about her father Jim (Richard Earl) mistreating her, partially due to her own early 20th century upbringing. Honestly though much like when Helen suddenly had a gay brother for the sake of a quick monologue and then it was dropped I can’t help but feel there was also a bit “who cares? You’ll likely never mention it again and it will have no impact on your character or how you’re treated” about it.
One or two little twists later, including The Doctor acting like a bit of an inattentive idiot for some reason, and we get to a quick conclusion. It’s okay, a bit of a more calming story after a more frantic two-part Dalek one.
The Continuity:
Um… well, copy and paste my sentence from the previous review… there really isn’t anything else to say about the cover!
Not really anything, beyond a mention of The Eminence and its Infinite Warriors, which reminded me that Liv had been with The Doctor ever since the Dark Eyes story strand… man, she must be close to a record, at least within Big Finish anyway!
Overall Thoughts:
The Dalby Spook is a quick and simple story with one or two fun bits and a rather out-of-place and somewhat pointless attempt to get people to care about Helen again (sorry, she’s just not that interesting!) As an “extra” one part story in a box with the bigger and more entertaining “Paradox of the Daleks” it’s perfectly fine, it just won’t light your world on fire.
As for spoilers well Mr. Timms turns out was possessed by an evil mental parasite from the Dark Times that was attracted to Voirrey’s innate psychic ability and Gef is actually an alien from that time who came to stop it and protect her. The Doctor captured Gef think its feeding on Voirrey and ignores Liv and Helen’s pleas and valid points in a completely out-of-character moment purely so the evil creature can start to attack Voirrey through her father, but soon The Doctor, Liv, Helen and Gef return and seal the evil entity away. Before all this indisputable evidence started happening Harry Price had already left, obviously…
Like I said, it was fine but The Doctor being so unwilling to hear his companions out for so long was a poor way to get him and his companions away from the villain.
Hogan Reviews 