Babblesphere

Destiny of the Doctor #4

Released: 1 April 2013

Listened: 7/6/22

This one is from the “Destiny of the Doctor” series, which means it’s a narrated story, in this case by Lalla Ward. She’s got Roger Parrott to play the various male roles, but Lalla narrates the Doctor, and doesn’t attempt Tom Baker’s voice at all. Unfortunately, a lot of the banter doesn’t come across as well with the constant “he said,” “she replied,” and so on. As for the story itself, it’s a critique of social media and the inanity it entails. That was probably more insightful in 2013, but in 2022, it’s not very impressive. Johnny Morris can do better. It also has another over-used trope, the “mind-sucking monster is feeding on human brains, so we’ll give it a Time Lord brain and it won’t be able to handle the volume.” Which is fine if done properly, but there isn’t any interesting twist on this one, really. As always in these Destiny stories, there’s an insert from the Eleventh Doctor, but it doesn't add a whole lot, except giving the Fourth Doctor the opportunity to comment on the Eleventh’s youthful looks.