Way of the Burryman

The Ninth Doctor Adventures Series 1 #4.2

Released: 16 February 2022

Listened: 9/30/22

The last two stories in this set are really one continuous story, but that’s fine. After the funeral in the previous story, the Doctor decides to go visit the Brigadier, and finally tell him how much he appreciates him. The Doctor finds him at the Forth Bridge, near Edinburgh, doing some UNIT consulting business. It seems there’s a secret military base developing a stealth submarine, and the staff have reported hearing voices. Also part of the base staff is a young Sam Bishop, pre-UNIT, and romantically involved with Fiona, a local girl who’s very much into local history, and has no interest in travel or being an army wife. The Brig does pretty well investigating on his own for a while, displaying quite a bit of open-mindedness and knowledge gained from working with UNIT for so long. Eventually, though, he’s going to need the Doctor’s help, as they track down the voices to being the remnants of workers who lost their lives constructing the Forth Bridge, trapped as resonances in the structure of the bridge itself. Which honestly doesn’t make a ton of sense, but Russell T Davies-era Who doesn’t mind mixing up some mysticism with dodgy science, so it’s OK. And of course the Ninth Doctor is sensitive to honoring the wishes of the dead. Mostly, though, this is about the Doctor and the Brigadier reuniting, each finding the other to have changed dramatically. John Culshaw fills in for Nicholas Courtney as usual, but modulating his performance for an older Brigadier. Roy Gill sets the scene effectively, and creates powerful character interactions.