The Dalek Trap

The Further Adventures of Lucie Miller #1.1

Released: 10 July 2019

Listened: 9/19/21

In 2019, Big Finish brought back Lucie Miller, eight years after her last appearance. For reasons that will become clear later, this boxed set of four stories is specifically set between series 1 and 2 of the Eighth Doctor Adventures. This story specifically establishes that the Doctor and Lucie have been traveling around since “Human Resources,” having generally fun adventures, with any tension between them now diffused, so that’s nice. This particular story has the TARDIS falling into the event horizon of a black hole, in response to a distress call. They end up in a strange place that erodes your memories the longer you stay, and the Doctor is acting mind-controlled...by the Daleks. Which would be unfortunate, except the Daleks mostly seem to want to get out of there, which involves the Doctor doing...a thing, which doesn’t get resolved in this story. Since the Doctor spends a large chunk of the story out of it, Lucie carries most of the dialog, interacting with a couple of other memory-damaged characters. It shows her using her initiative, and although she’s not as clever as the Doctor, she’s been doing this long enough to know the standard strategies, which is good. Giving her the spotlight in this first story was definitely intentional. There’s a little bit of foreshadowing of future events, but not so much that it hits you over the head.