MR 107: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster

I really like this story. And the introduction of a character with real moral ambiguity was intriguing. I wish that the execution of the character in subsequent stories had been better. I did like how he ended up, but yeah, this intro was very good.

Hm... I was all set to roll through the Brewster Arc, but it seems I'm missing one of the stories, so I guess this journey begins and ends here for me. For now, at least. (Come on, BF, let's get another middle-MR sale soon!)

Anyway, I thought this was a really fun story. If it's not one of my favorite 7th Doctor stories, that's more by virtue of McCoy having so many great tales to choose from. I especially loved how each episode (well, other than the last two) had a distinctly different format. The first one one probably worked best, told from Thomas' perspective, playing with the double-meaning in the title--as he's being haunted both by visions of his dead mother as well as a pair of time-traveling weirdos. The perspective flip is really interesting, and while ultimately the answer was pretty dull, it was fun to speculate on why the Doctor and Nyssa were traveling back to Brewster's childhood. Overall a really great 'hook.'

And speaking of strong starts, catapulting Nyssa--by herself--into 19th century London (where else) only to have been "anticipated" was great fun. But then, I am an eternal sucker for fish-out-of-temporal-water stories. The Doctor spending a year ingratiating himself to the scientific community was also pretty great. Kinda bummed they didn't photoshop a magnificent beard onto Davison's face for the cover, though.

Quote of the story: "No, I've been very careful to tell them only things they already know. I think that's why they like me."

I generally prefer Davison in the more dramatic stories, but he had some really solid comedic delivery in this one. This exchange, in particular, made me smile:

Doctor: "Sorry about the mess. You know what it's like, genius at work."
Nyssa: "Doesn't your assistant find it a bit strange that you have a police box in the corner of your study?"
Doctor: "Do you know, he's never brought it up. I think he's being discrete."

Speaking of whom, I really enjoyed the Doctor's assistant here--Robert. He's pretty quick-thinking, kind, optimistic, and generally pretty laid-back. Ideal companion material, generally. So I loved it when he called the Doctor out for lying to him--which makes it such a shame that they killed Robert off near the end, as the story catapulted itself to a rather underwhelming resolution. At least we got a killer line of dialog from his sacrifice, though:

The real quote of the story: "It seems I have a habit of underestimating people. And losing good friends."

Not that he's not always great, but Davison's performance here seems especially on-point. This is the 5th Doctor I love.

But, yeah. For all those great bits, this story kind of petered out at the end. The resolution to the whole smoke-aliens-from-the-future was pure technobabble nonsense. I listened to the Doctor's summation twice and still don't understand how everything was supposedly fixed. Maybe I'd follow along better if there was text. I don't know.

And then there's the stuff with the TARDIS. I really like the idea of setting up an arc where the Doctor and companions are stranded somewhere without the TARDIS... provided it's a proper arc... but I'm also very much not fond of non-Time Lords being able to pilot the thing. The most advanced technology in the universe ought to be a bit harder to steal, yeah? 

Still, I'm interested to see where this goes next. Not really sure what to make of Brewster at this point. I think there's a bit of a problem with him, and characters like him, in the audio format. Much of his behavior could be excused by youth, but with only a voice it's pretty hard to gauge age. If he's only 15 or 16 or so, it's easier to overlook some of his decisions here... but if he's an older teenager or young adult, well, his actions--his belligerence--becomes much harder to stomach.

Wait, what? What happens in Stranded that links back with Brewster?

Didn't the Doctor already loan out the house to someone? Or Helen did, behind his back?