Fear of Flying

Short Trips #11.5

Released: 15 February 2022

Listened: 11/26/22

This Short Trip is from the 2022 collection, which means it’s a fairly long Short Trip. It’s read by Ayesha Antoine, a frequent Big Finish contributor, but not often used as a narrator. It’s told from the perspective of Hawa Hassan, an aspiring actress in the 22nd century. Unfortunately, she’s been struggling, and she needs to fly to her next audition, but she’s terrified of flying. The story makes the experience sound nearly identical to 21st-century flying, with the only real difference being the propulsion system. And just like now, there are some people afraid to fly, and some overly chatty, bordering on rude, passengers. Guess which one the Doctor is. He seems to be doing his usual motormouth act, with the effect of making Hawa increasingly nervous, but is he just being thoughtless, or is he winding her up for a reason? This is writer Paul Verhoeven’s only Big Finish work to date, but he captures the Tenth Doctor’s dialog style well, and Antoine does a reasonably good job of capturing the cadence, although she doesn’t try for an impression. The twist is pretty nice, perhaps a bit predictable, but predictable can still be good if it’s well-executed, and this one is.