The Blame Game

Short Trips #6.7

Released: 26 July 2016

Listened: 5/29/21

Placed here because “Spearhead” was “months” ago, and Liz is still pretty positive about working with UNIT. One of the knocks against Liz as a companion is that she never traveled in the TARDIS, and was basically just a UNIT employee. This story fixes that, after a fashion. It’s read by Rufus Hound, which means the Monk is going to turn up. He seems to be the Peter Butterworth version, dressed in a habit and sandals, but he sounds and behaves like the Rufus Hound version, which is delightful as always. The Monk shows up and offers to help the Doctor escape his exile, and Liz stows away on the Monk’s TARDIS. In point of fact, neither the Doctor nor the Monk trust each other, and really, they’re right not to. The Monk is fantastic in his protestations of innocence, and basically hiding behind the Doctor at every turn, even though much of it is a sham. The only negative about this story is that it ends rather abruptly with Liz essentially talking the Monk down. Still, Liz gets her trip, and that’s what’s important.