So, more than a year after the release of this audio series, I've decided to give it a go. I've listened to the trailer and so far it's great! I'll give each episode a review and publish it all when I'll have listened to the whole piece.
If you don't wanna get spoiled, you might want to skip the ep by ep review straight to the end of the post to read my overall opinion on the series.
The episodes are pretty short, so I felt like this one went very quickly. Nothing much happens however there's already so much mystery and interrogations, I'm already hooked! There's also quite an important amount of background development for at least one the main characters. I find it really easy to like them from this first episode only since they are written and acted so naturally. I already love Cleo, whom I guess is the main character. Shawna and Abby are just a lovely little funny duet that works really well, and oh my god, Shawna's clearly in love with Abby, I can't wait to hear more about that.
I liked that L.I.N.D.A. was mentioned since the setting is really similar to this iconic story and it kind of makes it canon that the L.I.N.D.A. organisation survived the Love and Monsters events.
Also, oh my my my, I LOVE Rani I can't wait to hear more of her in the next episodes, I didn't know she was in this!
Oh this one was great as well! Certainly not as good as the first one in terms of character work, but there's a lot happening!
The references to the previous events from the TV show are great but also so frightening because you can really see the consequences of these events on the lives of the direct witnesses. I guess the two characters we met so far are the ones we see in the actual episodes (that journalist girl in Partners in Crime and that doctor who gets interviewed at the end of Smith and Jones). The latter one's story is pretty sad, I wish I could have given him a hug :(
Can't wait to hear the next one!
Oooooh some answers! But more questions...
It's really getting a lot more mysterious and I'm completely involved in the plot!
I don't have much more to say at this point, let's see what Episode 4 brings!
Yay! A whole episode referencing Blink! The return of Larry! With clothes hopefully this time!
Apparently he's not married to Sally, as the end of Blink pointed towards a romance between the two characters, but that's fine.
He said the Doctor's turning against them. What does it meeeaaaaan???
It's great to have the girls altogether in one place, even though now they seem to be in a bad position... I'm turning on the next one right away, I need to know what happens next!
I'm glad it was just UNIT because now we got to have Kate again and that is GREAT!
Also, Cleo is such a badass, she slayed this whole episode.
The tension kept going up throughout every interrogation until the climax, and just when you thought the episode couldn't be more interesting than it already was, this enigmatic guy comes in and makes Cleo speak out her bad bitch speech.
A lot happens in there! Finally the Doctor appears briefly, the team is arguing, what is going ON???
The soft reveal about Cleo's father means he met the Doctor, maybe he's someone we know from the show, or a victim of one of the events from the show.
Can't wait for episode 7!
Oh the Doctor's finally back.
So much happens but at the same time so little does. There's only three episodes left, we've barely heard the Doctor, we have no answers...
I don't know if it gets me hooked or frustrated but I need more! All I know is that time flies by when I'm listening to this, the dialogues are superb, amazing writing and direction. It kind of makes me want to read Dawson's books!
This one was proper scary! So Requiem was Madam Vastra? I'm kind of sad they couldn't get Neve McIntosh to come back for the part but it helped not spoiling the reveal to me so that's a win I guess.
I know that there's a second series but I kind of hope the story gets wrapped up by the end of this one so that it makes a whole. We'll see!
Actually we don't know a lot but we do know more. It's great!
I was NOT expecting Cleo to be Redacted and it's really an interesting twist that may give the finale a lot of work to do.
I can't wait to here about it!
Oh the finale was so good, I didn't expect such a satisfying ending.
Cleo not joining the Tardis makes a lot of sense because she has a lot to deal with at home, she has to reconnect with her mother and learn to forgive her and herself for what they did to each other, it's not an adequate moment to fly off in the universe.
I'm glad I could finally hear 13 a bit more, and she was as great as always.
Abby and Shawna!!!!!!!!! Finally!!!!!! I wasn't sure their relationship was going to end up this way so I'm happy for them!
How lucky were we to have this last year! And to think I only caught up with this now! It's a wonderful piece of free media from the Whoniverse in a very well known format for the fans, but directed in such a fresh brilliant modern way! It's important to mention how important this piece is to the LGBTQIA+ community, because the main director and producer, the main writer and the members of the main cast are all part of our community. I, as a cis gay man, am not represented (I think) in this play, but it was still so emotional to me to see such bold and open trans and sapphic representation. I love that for our community and in hard times like these, it's great to be reminded that safe spaces exist. And if like for me, your safe space is just anything Doctor Who related, you know that despite the bigotry you may find around you, Doctor Who is there and cares about you.
Storywise, it's clearly written by fans, for fans, and they meddle, they play with the TV show's events, I love it, I absolutely adore it. Some parts of the story feel more hard-hitting than others do, but the overall arc is just brilliant.
It's a timing coincidence that I started listening to this less than a week before the release of the second series but honestly I'm not sure if I'll give it a go considering how Ella Watts was kicked out of the production without a word and being replaced by James Goss (whom I love) who certainly does not have a hard time finding his voice in the Whoniverse. I don't understand this decision and I'm really disappointed. Watts apparently responded with class and dignity but I'll have to say that the BBC are kind of backstabbing her after she created the whole project that was so successful in the end. Just... not cool...
I like Goss' works so maybe I'll listen to it some day, but I think I need to process the info first.
To end on a much more positive note: listen to this. You need no knowledge of any other spin off or eu stuff, and it's free on the BBC app worldwide. You're in for a great time if you haven't listened to it already.