Twisted Folklore

Stranded #3.2

Released: 2 December 2021

Listened: 1/2/22

This story, by Lizzie Hopley, is also surreal, and also starts in media res. The TARDIS has finally made it to Rarkelia, the origin of the assassins in “Divine Intervention,” only to find it pretty much taken over by human colonists, who are indoctrinating the youth with stories attributed to “the Doctor.” Their response is to fight fire with fire, by infiltrating society and spreading their own stories. Andy isn’t around, so I suppose this is a separate trip and not a continuation from the previous story. It’s a pretty low-key invasion, which says something about the methods of colonization, but it only really works because the Rarkelians are a notably adaptive species, so they’ll likely assimilate within a generation. The running theme, though, is that there’s a dystopian Earth Empire out there, occupying a space in history where it shouldn’t be, and the source is something Divine Intervention did in 2020. Unfortunately, this story just doesn’t stand out a whole lot; it’s too similar to themes we’ve seen before.