“The Return of the Doctor” is the second in the new run of Thirteenth Doctor audio dramas and is an improvement over the first in a lot of ways. The previous story was more about setting up a new status quo with a very basic story, this is focused on the relationship between The Doctor and Yaz and does that extremely well, but I will admit the world they decided to do this on wasn’t all that interesting… let’s take a look!
The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), Yaz (Mandip Gill) and their new local ally Talpa (Will Kirk) open the story taking down a large alien ship that was threatening Talpa’s home and although the young Armadillo-like Zaarian is hurt in the process the mission is a success. At the hospital The Doctor tells local leader Taav (Stephen Bessant) to give the brave and heroic Talpa a great job in his cabinet for his effort and then goes to leave, but Yaz is confused, saying she wants to at least stay until their new friend, who was hurt due to them let’s not forget, wakes up, citing her oath as a policeman as a reason she can’t turn away from someone in need (remember when that was part of her character?). The Doctor convinces her to leave though, but during the TARDIS flight away Yaz rips into The Doctor for always running away because she’s afraid of not having made an impact, or even made things worse, while The Doctor claims she can’t stay around on one planet too long or it will become overdependent on her and not thrive by itself. To “settle the bet” The Doctor takes the TARDIS back to the planet one week later… or at least that what she planned on doing. Instead thanks to an uncharacteristic console switch-pressing by Yaz the TARDIS arrives a decade later and the entire planet is rioting and calling for the execution of The Doctor herself.
The Doctor notices something odd with the locals’ eyes and tries to narrow the threat down while Yaz panics, at least until they’re saved by the appearance of Talpa, who takes them to a resistance hideout comprised of just two other Zaarians in Azaan (Charlie Kay) and Vashir (Belinda Stewart-Wilson). After an introduction to the new allies and a scolding from Talpa for the first real friends in his life upping and leaving before he even woke ten years ago, they soon have to escape from perusing rioters and make it to the crash site from the ten years ago, which has been mysteriously cordoned off, but as this is happening The Doctor notices the same odd redness in Yaz’s eyes. Sure enough, after having to bury Yaz alive with nothing but a straw to breathe through, she begins raging (though to be fair, that would probably happen even without the influence of the thing…) though she brings it under control for the most part, it’s just a matter of time before it takes her too…
The story has some strong story beats for The Doctor and Yaz and for that it gets high praise, but I’ll admit the Zaarians and their planet are a little dull. We don’t get much about them or how they live, and Azaan in particular talks about having marital issues in such a human way that you easily forget these are supposed to be alien Armadillo-like people. Also the core idea of the story is a good one, The Doctor avoiding returning to somewhere and it turns out on this occasion her worst fear was realised and she has made things worse, but the fact that the only reason it’s bad this time wasn’t due to The Doctor but instead an unrelated psychic entity is a bit of a waste, really. It could’ve work better if Yaz actually had a point…
The Continuity:
A fun cover, but I’m not liking how all of the Thirteenth Doctor cover are seemingly going to feature The Doctor and Yaz off to either side of a different thing each time… I’d prefer a bit of variety!
Not really anything, this time. The Doctor does mention some people who’d suffered because they stood around waiting for her and she didn’t arrive in time, citing Madame de Pompadour, Amy and Bill as examples, references Tenth Doctor TV story “The Girl in the Fireplace”, Eleventh Doctor TV story “The Girl Who Waited” and Twelfth Doctor TV story “World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls”, respectively.
Overall Thoughts:
“The Return of the Doctor” was a good character piece focusing on The Doctor and Yaz’s relationship, as well as the former’s tendency to not look back and why that is. Some great scenes from both Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill, the duo getting to really show their acting chops and dig a bit deeper into their characters than their TV era allowed. Sadly the story surrounding all that wasn’t up to much, but hey-ho. Didn’t hurt the positives too much!
Along the way to the ship Azaan and Vashir end up succumbing to the virus-like effect as well, blaming The Doctor for one thing or another, leading to just Yaz and Talpa heading into the ship… but it’s a trap. The Doctor nailed the threat down to an entity known only as “The Whisper” and due to it needing a good amount of time (thus it forced Yaz to hit the wrong switch in the TARDIS) and a role of authority to spread she has pinned Taav down as patient zero, but as it turns out it was Talpa who was the first infected, back when the very ship she forced him to take down attacked his village and killed all those he loved when he was just a boy, the trauma of having to relive that being a catalyst for it waking fully.
Things look grim on the top of the spaceship, but The Doctor gives a roaring speech to Yaz about how much she loves and respects her, bringing up the police officer oath and such, bringing her around enough to then assist The Doctor with her gizmo and help Talpa mentally suppress The Whisper until it becomes dormant once again. The Doctor and Yaz depart once more, this time after enough time to see everyone settle, and make up in the TARDIS console room, The Doctor allowing Yaz to pick any destination she wants…
Hogan Reviews 