Inside Story

Short Trips #11.6

Released: 15 February 2022

Listened: 2/17/22

I’m placing this story here because Gabriel Chase is recent for Ace, and the Doctor thinks there’ll be a reckoning soon. This short trip is fairly meta, told from the point of view of writer Helen Howard, who is reading a story she wrote about Maria, who is also a writer, who has a sci-fi novel about creatures called the Betrothed, which attracts the Doctor’s attention. It gets a bit confusing because Sophie Aldred is narrating in-character as Helen, uses the same voice for Maria, and then her “younger” voice as Ace. Once the plot gets going, it’s actually not too deep, but there are references to the Doctor’s chessmaster persona, and the toll it’s taking on Ace, which is why I think this one goes well with "Fenric.” There’s always a point where the Doctor has to get called out on his nonsense, but it’s not happening here yet.