The Book of Kells

Eighth Doctor Adventures #4.4

Released: 13 September 2010

Listened: 11/2/21

Now that the dynamic between Tamsyn and the Doctor is established, it gets shaken up a bit in this story. The TARDIS is pulled off-course, to Ireland, 1006, near Kells Abbey. Tamsyn has a fairly bad time of it, getting soaked, covered in chalk, and then falling down a midden, all in the first few minutes. She also proves to be terrible at improvising a cover story, despite having attended drama school. She and the Doctor aren’t quite in sync yet, and she makes some new-traveler mistakes. In fairness, the Doctor isn’t really helping her much, and is willing to leave her on her own for long periods. But this isn’t a true historical, because the Meddling Monk is at Kells, and has designs on the Book of Kells. In production time, this is the first time the Monk has been seen since 1966, and the Doctor certainly acts as though he hasn’t seen the Monk since “The Daleks Master Plan.” Of course, since then Big Finish has used the Rufus Hound version of the Monk in quite a few stories, and he’s had multiple encounters with the Doctor. Here, though, he’s played by Graeme Garden, which seems like a good choice for comedy, except this Monk is more calculating and less blustering than either of his other two incarnations. (However, his choice of “Thelonius” as an alias is such a bad pun, even the Doctor calls him on it.) The Monk is also working with an associate, Lucianus, who isn’t what he appears to be. You’ll have to stick around after the credits for that reveal, but it’s effectively shocking on first listen, and adds a vein of humor to re-listens. I kind of wish Tamsyn had gotten more of a fair shake before the series arc took over, but this story stands reasonably well on its own.