Friendly Fire

Conflicts of Interest #1

Released: 5 April 2023

Listened: 5/13/23

This is a John Dorney story, but not the kind you were expecting. Sometimes he goes nuts with twisty stories, and sometimes he just demonstrates how rubbish humans can be. Something goes awry with the TARDIS, forcing the Doctor, Tegan, and Nyssa to evacuate onto a space station. Fortunately, there’s a planet nearby where the Doctor’s old friend Velar (from “Gobbledygook”) lives. Velar has apparently taken up mining in his retirement, which is a bit odd, but maybe not so much if you’re an armadillo-person. The miners that the team encounter are evasive, paranoid, and borderline hostile. It’s clear they’re covering something up, and it’s just as bad as you might think it is. And once they’re in over their heads, they have to go to even greater lengths to continue covering it up. The Fifth Doctor gets to have a moment or two of real anger, which is kind of unusual for him. But mostly he sounds disgusted, which is something Peter Davison didn’t do so easily when he was younger, but he can pull it off now. Even Tegan modulates somewhat, especially once she realizes that “her people” (or some of them) are the bad ones. It’s somewhat dark and sad, but not overly so, as it’s only a three-parter.