The Eleven

Doom Coalition #1.1

Released: 12 October 2015

Listened: 12/3/21

This new series starts with a flashback where the Seventh Doctor apprehends a dangerous Time Lord criminal called The Eleven. His gimmick is that he’s on his eleventh regeneration, but all his previous personas live on as separate (and squabbling) personalities in his head, occasionally breaking through and getting their own lines. Mark Bonnar plays all the voices of the Eleven, and does a good job making them all distinct, although it’s a bit rougher here than he’ll be later on. Jumping to the “present,” it’s been a while since the end of Dark Eyes, and the Doctor and Liv have been having pretty much standard adventures in the meanwhile. Kiani, a student at the Academy studying criminology, gets permission to interview the Eleven for her thesis, which gives him an opportunity to escape. The Doctor gets dragged back to Gallifrey to help, as he’s the last person who captured the Eleven. However, this Doctor isn’t as ruthless as the Seventh, and the Eleven takes advantage. He manages to get his head together long enough to execute a plan, which remains vague to the listeners, but seems to involve stealing a TARDIS and running away. It’s clear that this is the first part of a sixteen-part story, so they can afford to spend time on setup, but it’s also fairly well paced, with the action moving along sharply, and an unfortunately high body count. Matt Fitton seems more confident in his skills in this one, weaving together lore about Gallifrey while also establishing the Eleven as a major threat. It’s a decent start.