The Magician's Oath

Companion Chronicles #3.10

Released: April 2009

Listened: 6/7/21

This is the second of two Companion Chronicles narrated by Richard Franklin as Mike Yates. The plot involves a street magician, and an alien-seeming spate of sudden temperature drops around London. The Doctor and the Brigadier head off in one direction, leaving Jo and Mike to follow up on the magician, but not exactly with orders to do so. How that all resolves isn’t something you could really guess, and even though it all hangs together logically, it seems a bit contrived as a resolution. A lot of the audio stories from this stage play on the Doctor’s resentment of his exile and his feelings of isolation, and this one is no exception. Richard Franklin is an acceptable, if not a gripping narrator. Many Companion Chronicles, including this one, have a conceit of an older character telling the story to another party. That means that when the narrator uses overly descriptive language, or changes pacing to make the story more exciting, it doesn’t really fit with one individual relating a story to another. Franklin is more of the “just telling the story” kind of narrator. It’s not particularly gripping or paced, at least not as much as other narrators do. His imitations of the other main characters aren’t quite as good as in other stories, but that fits as well. This story is a little cliched, but a decent one for Yates.