Ghost in the Machine

Companion Chronicles #8.4

Released: 11 October 2013

Listened: 6/30/21

This is the final Companion Chronicle to feature Jo Grant (which is OK, because the Third Doctor Adventures started up not long after), and it’s definitely different than the others, as many Series 8 chronicles were. For a start, there’s no flashback; the story takes place in “real time” with a younger Jo, meaning that Katy Manning plays both Jo and the Doctor, not a narrator relaying the Doctor’s words. Thanks to some liberal body-swapping in this story, co-star Damian Lynch has to play his own character, Jo, and the Doctor, and it must be said he does so reasonably well. This is also one of those stories that leans hard into the audio medium: Jo needs to record what’s going on for a comatose Doctor, finds recorded station logs, and then discovers that the monster is made of sound and can record not just voices but also people’s essences onto tape. That makes the first part of the story rather spooky and atmospheric, and the second part distinctly brain-twisty as characters interact with recordings of each other. Supposedly, recorded people can only use the words that they’ve been recorded saying, but I’m not engaged enough to re-listen to the first part and see whether they held to that strictly. Finally, this is the first Big Finish story directed by Louise Jameson (Leela), who will continue as an occasional director for the range. It’s different and interesting, but I wouldn’t want too many like this.