Absolute Power

Main Range #219

Released: 13 December 2016

Listened: 9/2/20

Another spacey future adventure for Constance, as she and the Doctor end up on a planet with a long-dead civilization, significant ruins, and mysterious glyphs. And, of course, a mining corporation owned by a wealthy businessman, Lyam Yce, who doesn’t care about the cultural values, and who has a ditzy-seeming fiance who knows a lot more than she should. Constance gets the spotlight here, although portraying her 1940s cryptography skills as making her a capable xeno-linguist is kind of a stretch, even with the TARDIS giving her a boost. She also gets a romance subplot for the first time, as Yce’s assistant Ammar takes a shine to her immediately. It’s unrequited, of course, and Ammar is kind of a wet blanket, but he manages to come through in the end, and accepts being turned down with good grace. Constance seems to be reminded of the war wherever she goes, and so asks to go home at the end. It’s an OK story, although the climax seems a bit rushed and overdone. It’s not quite as clever as it thinks it is.