The Dispossessed

Main Range #242

Released: 11 September 2018

Listened: 2/8/21

This is one of those stories that takes place in a creepy tower block (which provokes memories of Paradise Towers in Mel). The block is behind a perception filter, and apparently occupied by zombies, along with one young couple who haven’t succumbed yet. Of course there’s an alien at the heart of the story, as well as a second alien and her drone trying to get to the mastermind. For a change, Mel and Ace get split off from the Doctor during the investigation phase, which gives them some scenes together. Unfortunately, they don’t make much of it, because they get along fairly well, and neither of them get to use their specialties, so they’re mostly just looking around. The story takes place in Manchester, so the minor characters have rather thick northern accents and speech mannerisms, which makes a contrast to the main characters. It’s a very visual story, and the characters occasionally fall into the audio story trap of describing what’s in front of them, which is unfortunate, because writer Mark Morris is pretty experienced in this format. Mel gets another message at the end, which forces her to betray the Doctor and Ace, and leads directly into the next story. Although the minor characters are pretty good, the story just doesn’t stand out as memorable.