Landbound

Short Trips #7.X

Released: 29 December 2017

Listened: 7/4/21

This is one of the bonus short trips normally released in December, but it’s not a Christmas story, nor is it a traditional Doctor Who story, nor a typical Short Trips vignette. Instead, it takes place over three different points of the Third Doctor’s life, three times that he encounters a former ship’s captain who lost his ship and crew under mysterious circumstances. Taken together, the three incidents help him deal with his exile on Earth, the restoration of his freedom, and the loss of Jo. As with “The Prisoner of Peladon,” there’s a hint here that without a companion, the Doctor doesn’t quite understand what humans need or want, although he’s trying. Nick Briggs reads this one, and his Third Doctor voice isn’t the most accurate, but he gives it a good shot. The voice he uses for the ship’s captain is pretty much the same one Briggs uses whenever he needs a Northern accent, which seems a little overdone, but it’s not bad. One of the longer Short Trips, this one is decently atmospheric.