Splinters

Tenth Doctor, Classic Companions #1

Released: 14 September 2022

Listened: 10/31/22

This boxed set is a trio of recent adventures featuring the Tenth Doctor meeting companions from the classic series…sort of. They’re not always what they seem. The box’s arc starts off with the Doctor randomly finding K-9 Mark II floating in space. (Except not quite randomly; K-9 got here after the events of Gallifrey and the Time War.) He requests the Doctor’s help in tracking down anomalies left over from the Time War, with the first one being on 16-century Earth…where Leela is, unusually. Leela has no memory of how she got here, but she’s been helping to defend the village against the Spriggan, a creature of myth that steals the children of the village on their 18th birthday. Louise Jameson is a treasure, and it’s fantastic to see her working with any Doctor, because Leela pretty much takes them in stride. The story itself has a new-series feel to it, in that its pacing rarely lets up, which plays to the Tenth Doctor’s strengths of running a lot and talking very quickly. Ultimately, the story has more fairy-tale in it than I like, and although John Dorney puts a good explanation on it, that doesn’t really do it for me. Louise Jameson makes it worth it, though.