The Return of Jo Jones’ second and third story sadly follow on from the first in being perfectly fine but a bit dull and predictable. The two-parter format doesn’t help, but I’ve heard good two-parters before so it’s not an excuse really! Oh well, let’s take a look at “The Conservitors” and “The Iron Shore”, shall we?
“The Conservitors” is your classic future dystopian thriller, with The Doctor (Tim Treloar) and Jo (Katy Manning) arriving to see a man unable to drive his car because he’s gained a certain amount of points for committing crimes against the state then they soon find themselves talking to nervous civilian Wendell (Paul Copley) and his rebellious son Laire (LJ Parkinson), the latter of whom gives The Doctor a card to a meeting led by charismatic rebel leader Vykane (Poppy Miller) who wishes to take down fascist dictator Maldon (Gary Turner) by any means necessary. The secret meeting is broken up by Maldon’s army of robots called Conservitors and everyone scatters, with The Doctor arrested. Basically think of any clichéd way this story could go and it happens, but I may as save the actual ending for the Spoiler section!
Again nothing was bad and the acting was good its just it was really plain and predictable.
“The Iron Shore” on the other hand had a more interesting premise, though still not super original, of a man name Callis (Tom Alexander) who lived in a shoreside town on the planet Mercator and believed he was cursed because all of his family were killed within the span of two years. This had led the locals to distrust him also, and given when The Doctor and Jo arrive they nearly get killed by falling girders near to where Callis was standing there may be something to it. There was also a fun character called Merileen (Paksie Vernon) who works in the local tavern but is actually part of a group called the Iron Pickers who were native to the land before the “Mercateers” arrived, led by a relative of Callis. They see what’s happening to his family as divine punishment from “Solomun”, a local legend. It’s some fun set up, sadly the second half bottles it somewhat by having Solomun being an alien who is mentally controlling people from the depths, taking great pleasure in killing all those linked to a certain person. The whole evil mental entity feels a bit too close to the first story in the set and generally puts the story in a rather uninteresting direction.
Plus I have to point out that its partially narrated by Jo like an old Companion Chronicle, which is a format I don’t particularly love. I like an audiobook, love an audio drama, just pick one or the other, this way feels like the writer wasn’t sure how to get everything across so had to put in some prose that literally explains everything in a frank manour. Your mileage may vary on that opinion, however.
The Continuity:
Despite my mocking in the previous review, it is a really nicely created cover, even if Jo is ignoring the Doctor and looking “at the camera”.
Nothing really stands out, which is rather fitting for these stories! Obviously Doctor Who has done political satire dystopias before, like the Seventh Doctor TV story “The Happiness Patrol” but that’s more of a thematic link rather than actual continuity.
Overall Thoughts:
“The Conservitors” and “The Iron Shore” have a lot in common, sadly what they have in common is being perfectly serviceable but not very memorable. They all use, or rather re-use, a lot of basic tropes and the short runtime means characters are often very stock (or in the case of Iron Shore, interesting to start with and then dropped in favour of generic villain plotting). Not bad, but not particularly good either, the same as the opener to this set. Let’s hope older Jo’s adventures pick up in the next one!
“The Conservitors” sees The Doctor unable to commit crimes against the state due to nanobots so he and Jo struggle to stop Vykane from bombing the “Conservatory” (where Maldon is) but they eventually manage to get the two in the same room, stop Vykane with the same nanites The Doctor had and convince Maldon his plan for a safer Brit- um, country was flawed despite his calculations. The Conservitors are then restored to their factory default and arrest both Vykane and Maldon. The Doctor and Jo are seen off by Wendell and Laire, the former having managed to get the guts to fight against the system to save his son and revealing he was once like his son before he lost something dear to him and he didn’t want to lose Laire or some such classic thing.
“The Iron Shore” is simple really, once the entity revealed itself The Doctor heads into the depths in a diving cage to confront it and had to fake his own death to bring it into the TARDIS, where he was able to trap it and eventually set it free in an uninhabited part of space. Lot’s of Jo acting sad and shocked but you know, we know he isn’t dead… that’s the problem with “Doctor in peril” moments really, as necessary as they are given the format!
Hogan Reviews 