Naomi's Ark

Far from Home #2

Released: 27 June 2023

Listened: 8/3/23

This is the story that actually lives up to the “Far from Home” title. The TARDIS lands on a supposedly deserted space station in a galaxy far from Earth. The planet is about to be wiped out by a supernova, and the Doctor wants to try to preserve the species’ culture as it currently stands. Unfortunately, they’re all “rescued” by automated drones, and fired off in different directions. The Doctor and Harry end up with a semi-hive-minded, highly evolved species, but can’t convince them to detour back to the TARDIS. Naomi, meanwhile, ends up on a damaged ship with a crew of functional adolescents, technically advanced, but emotionally immature, and not great at decision-making. Naomi has proved herself to be great companion material thus far, both with the Doctor and UNIT, but she doesn’t seem to have realized that herself yet, with most of her adventures taking place on Earth near to her own time. Here, she has to shoulder a lot of responsibility and make decisions on the fly, which she turns out to be pretty good at. Meanwhile, the Doctor’s efforts to persuade the folks they’re with lead to him exposing a lot of his personal history, his dark side, and the way he feels about himself. This Doctor in particular seems to carry a lot of weight for what he’s done in the past, and compensates by trying to take a more active role against evil, which leads him to further hard choices. None of which compare to what he’ll face in a regeneration or two. But it’s good to see an examination of this Doctor’s persona and choices.