2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 64 minutes. Written by: Simon Guerrier. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Wendy Padbury, Charlie Hayes.
THE PLOT:
Zoe remains a prisoner of The Company, scheduled for execution after refusing to divulge details she observed when traveling with the Doctor. Her advocate, Jen (Charlie Hayes), tells her that her only hope of saving herself is to remember something of value - and time is running out.
With guidance from Jen, Zoe recalls a disruption forcing the TARDIS to materialize on Earth in the year 2022. She, the Doctor, and Jamie trace the disruption to a prototype Feynman machine. The computer isn't working - and the same failed experiment that grounded the TARDIS also resulted in the death of Meg, one of the researchers.
The time travelers pretend to be mourners at Meg's funeral in order to gather information, where Zoe befriends Archie, who was in love with the ill-fated scientist. Zoe finds herself drawn to the awkward young man, who accompanies them to Meg's lab. There, Zoe discovers the machine, which somehow is drawing creatures from another dimension - creatures made of electricity, whose merest touch results in instant death!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: Blends in at the funeral through the simple trick of listening to other people's stories about Meg and then parroting back some of her qualities. He survives his first encounter with the electricity creatures thanks to his rubber-soled shoes, though he is disconcerted that his hair has been left standing on end. The description of him trying to hand-comb it back into place is one that perfectly evokes Patrick Troughton's Doctor.
Zoe: She feels romantically drawn to Archie. He is far from her intellectual equal, but his social awkwardness leaves him not quite fitting in, something that she can relate to. In the present, she is still grappling with the gap in her mind. She's facing execution if she cannot give the Company what they want - but when she realizes exactly what their goal is, she contemplates that it might be better to just let herself die and take the information with her.
Jamie: He gets less to do than in the previous two Zoe Companion Chronicles, likely because some of his normal role ends up going to Archie. He gets one great scene, however. When Archie's mother is jeopardized by the creatures and her house is set on fire, Jamie doesn't hesitate to rush into the flames to save her. He protects her from the worst of the smoke inhalation, even though doing so puts him in the hospital.
Jen: There's an urgency to her attempts to get information from Zoe, and it gradually becomes clear that she has a strong personal stake in this. By the end, she realizes that Zoe would have helped her willingly... but after Zoe's previous unreliable narration, Jen simply did not see her as somebody she could trust.
THOUGHTS:
The Zoe/memories arc continues with its strongest release yet. It's as if writer Simon Guerrier specifically corrected for the weaknesses of the earlier entries. The main story is more interesting than that of Echoes of Grey, and its ending is more satisfying than that of The Memory Cheats.
The frame story has consistently been this arc's strongest feature, and it continues to build. Zoe's subterfuge when telling her previous story directly impacts how Jen approaches her this time. Because Zoe made herself seem unreliable, she is treated as such. The malice of The Company is also further developed, with stakes rising for both Jen and Zoe.
As was true of The Memory Cheats, Guerrier constructs his story around a central idea. This time, the theme is uncertainty. The story directly invokes the principle of Quantum Superposition, that something exists in multiple states until it is measured and fixed as one thing or another. This is reflected by Zoe herself, who lives with two sets of memories: one in which she traveled with the Doctor and one in which she stayed on The Wheel. It also relates to the creatures in her story, and eventually to the state of one of the supporting characters.
This is a good story, and I have only a couple of small nitpicks. There's a minor inconsistency that I was surprised slipped through: Zoe references Jamie throwing a glass of water at the creatures - something that was actually done by Archie, while Jamie was elsewhere. When the characters investigate Meg's lab, an echo effect is applied that's a touch overdone, which I found distracting.
These are minor issues, though, and they don't stop this from being a very good story.
Overall Rating: 8/10.
Set during: Season 6
Previous Story: The Memory Cheats
Next Story: Second Chances (not yet reviewed)
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