The Silent Priest

Classic Doctors, New Monsters #4.3

Released: 14 March 2024

Listened: 4/8/26

Another Classic Doctors, New Monsters story, this time with the Silence. Normally in these CDNM sets, the Doctors involved appear in chronological order, and the stories usually aren't connected. This time, though, the Eighth Doctor's story comes first, and is a prequel to the Seventh Doctor story "The Silent City." Which means, for the purposes of this project, I've listened to the stories backwards. But ultimately, it doesn't matter much. The Eighth Doctor turns up two years before the events of "The Silent City," when the city is still ruled by crime lords of two main factions, and the police can't do anything about it. However, there's a church, and everybody who visits it leaves feeling better, although they don't know why. The Doctor specifically visits to unburden himself of things he's done related to the Time War. I think it's a bit of a stretch that the crime lords want to control something that makes people feel better about themselves. Maybe if they thought it was a drug they could package and sell, I suppose, but mostly it seems that they don't like the idea of a secret existing on their turf. And the Silent, well, he's awfully independent for one of his kind, but at the same time has a rather limited imagination. There's an interesting difference in that the Seventh Doctor doesn't trust the hypnotic suggestions he's received, whereas the Eighth is more likely to trust his gut (or what he thinks is coming from his gut). Because of the nature of the story, it can't end well for the Doctor, but he also can't know that, which leaves the whole thing feeling a bit insubstantial.