Erasure

Short Trips #8.4

Released: 30 April 2018

Listened: 7/20/22

Story time with Narvin! This is an unusual Short Trip, told in the style of a Companion Chronicle, with a narrator relating a flashback. In this case, though, it’s Narvin talking to Leela. The frame story takes place after Gallifrey: Enemy Lines and before the Time War series. They’ve been in a battle, Leela is injured, and Narvin tells her a story so she’ll stay awake. Except it really is more of a “young Narvin” story than a story about the Doctor. As a young CIA agent, Narvin gets sent to stop some other species from mucking around with time, except he finds the Doctor and Adric already there. The aliens try to strong-arm the Doctor by popping back in history and blowing up the star-liner carrying Adric’s ancestors, erasing him from history. In response, the Doctor sends Narvin to fix it. Sean Carlson narrates quite well, telling the whole thing from Narvin’s biased point of view. He’s never seen the Doctor before, and is well-positioned to relate how intimidating the Fourth Doctor can be, especially when he’s angry. But ultimately, it’s a story about how Narvin himself has changed due to his interactions with Leela and Romana, which is a point of view you don’t really get, even in the Gallifrey series.