Supernature

Third Doctor Adventures #11.1

Released: 23 February 2023

Listened: 3/4/23

This 2023 release more or less exists because of real-world circumstances. Katy Manning, while a gifted voice actor, was no longer finding it easy to portray young Jo anymore. And Stewart Bevan, who played Professor Cliff Jones, had recently died, so they decided to have the character die as well, which sets up Jo’s arc here. It’s the modern day, and Jo’s feeling a bit bereft without Cliff, although her extended family is carrying on his work of feeding the world. She goes to investigate strange happenings on the Isle of Wight, and runs into the Third Doctor. For him, it’s only a little bit after “The Green Death,” and he’s still hurting from Jo’s departure. That means Jo knows an awful lot about the Doctor’s future that she can’t tell him, and also means that the Eleventh Doctor was dancing around the truth when he talked to Jo in “The Death of the Doctor,” but that’s pretty typical for him. Because this is Matt Fitton writing, the emphasis is on Jo and the Doctor’s feelings on seeing one another again, but it’s also been 50 years for Jo, and no time at all for the Doctor, so the older, more capable Jo keeps throwing him and his 70s attitude off-stride. Of course, there’s also a plot going on here, but only a small one, as it’s a two-part story. There’s a secretive organization trying to develop a new weapon using alien technology, because of course there is, and it’s harming the local wildlife, so Jo and the Doctor show up to stop it. There’s no indication of what this organization actually is, but they don’t like UNIT, and they use the phrase “For King and Country,” which could indicate a link to the Forge, or could simply be because King Charles is on the throne now. Regardless, the story achieves its goal of putting the Doctor and 2023 Jo back together again for more adventures.