Ringpullworld

Companion Chronicles #4.5

Released: 12 November 2009

Listened: 2/20/20

This Companion Chronicle is written by Paul Magrs, and introduces the Novelisors, strange aliens who narrate the lives of interesting people. It’s a very Paul Magrs idea, and he’s the only one who uses them, but they are pretty convenient for the structure of Companion Chronicles, and in this case, allows Turlough to do a narrated story while he’s in the middle of experiencing it, instead of the extended flashback that most early Chronicles have. The second part is even more confusing, with the characters narrating things that haven’t happened yet, leaving the story deliberately vague. The plot itself is rather bare-bones, because the emphasis is on the narrative cleverness, which means your enjoyment will depend on whether you find that interesting, or overly precious. For my part, I enjoyed it as a one-off with a short running time. Mark Strickson does a fairly terrible job of sounding like Tegan, but perhaps that’s intentional on Turlough’s part. His Fifth Doctor is rather better, though.