The People Made of Smoke

Wicked Sisters #3

Released: 12 November 2020

Listened: 11/13/20

This story returns us to the same point as the first one, but in an altered history (so all three stories happen in the same place, but different times). It looks like Abby and Zara’s alterations have made a positive difference, but as always in this series, there are unintended consequences. The Doctor spends the entire story trying to find a loophole, or in some way to let Abby and Zara escape their fate, which, to be fair, is pretty much what the Doctor always does. It’s a little jarring to see Abby and Zara get caught by long-term consequences, when the Doctor always gets away with it, but that seems to be his superpower. The nature of the Smoke is revealed (stealing from the Seventh Doctor’s line in “Survival”), and the Doctor needs to go to pretty great extremes to deal with it. There are not one, but two different fake-out endings, but that’s pretty normal for this show. Louise Jameson gets to play a more experienced and mature version of Leela, and you can tell she’s loving it. And just maybe they’ve managed to squeeze in a few more adventures for older Leela and the Fifth Doctor while they’re at it. I don’t know if this is the end of Abby and Zara’s story, because you never know that in Big Finish Doctor Who, but if it is, it’s not a bad ending.