The Dread of Night

The Seventh Doctor: The New Adventures #1.4

Released: 15 November 2018

Listened: 8/20/22

This last story is from Tim Foley, and it’s a proper, traditional, scary Seventh Doctor story. It’s 1899, and the TARDIS lands near a countryside manor house. The lady of the house has recently passed away; the father isn’t mentioned, but he’s not around either. So the house is left with two daughters, a teenaged one who’s trying to cope with being the head of household, and a younger one who’s suffering from severe insomnia along with hallucinations. There’s also a rather dour nurse and a cook. It’s a great setting, and this story makes the most of it. There were a couple of jump scares that made me flinch even in a well-lit room, which is pretty rare for me. Even better, Chris and Roz get some good characterization. Chris is brave and friendly as always, but Roz is strong, clinical, and curious, using her police skills to good effect. They’ve been fine in the other stories, but not much beyond the capabilities of a normal companion. Here, though, there’s a strong sense of who they are. And the Doctor is at his most enigmatic, disappearing without warning, making strange observations, and even putting on his “facing down an Elder God” act, with a nice twist. The whole story, in fact, has a nice twist that I didn’t see coming, so that’s refreshing. On the whole, I liked this boxed set better than I expected to. I’m not a huge fan of the novel era, but these stories were a nice mix of older characters with a more modern twist. It’s a shame that it looks like there won’t be more.