The Perils of Nelly Bly

The Lost Resort #2

Released: 8 September 2021

Listened: 9/15/21

Why not follow up a grim, emotional story with a two-part true historical? The TARDIS team lands on the ship carrying Nellie Bly on the last phase of her round-the-world trip, just before it reaches San Francisco. Historical figures in Doctor Who tend to be overwhelmingly awesome, or else rather arrogant and full of their own reputations. Nellie here is the latter, but everyone seems to like her anyway. None of the team have any idea who she is (not that Nyssa or Marc would), which is somewhat amusing. I'd heard her story before, but I know most people haven’t. Tegan is at first concerned about messing with history, but Nellie has such a force of personality that they’re quickly swapping outfits so Nellie can go incognito and find out what people are saying about her. This one is written by mystery novelist Sarah Ward, and as such, it has a lot of plot happenings, but not really much drama, as all the perilous situations get resolved pretty easily. It’s apparently fairly historically accurate, except that Nellie Bly probably didn’t have someone dogging her steps, actively trying to sabotage her. The story feels very slight, almost cartoonish, and the characters all seem somewhat shallow. It’s OK as a two-parter, but I wonder if it could have been better if it had more room to breathe.