8-12. Second Chances.

2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 68 minutes. Written by: John Dorney. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Wendy Padbury, Emily Pithon.


THE PLOT:

Zoe remains a prisoner of The Company, though her execution has been stayed after she provided some genuinely useful information. Her advocate, Jen, has brought in a specialist to try to recover more of her lost memories, and it's someone Zoe has met before. Under a different name, Kym (Emily Pithon) had attempted to trick Zoe into revealing the secret of the Achromatics. Her career was destroyed by Zoe's refusal, and she is deeply bitter.

With Kym's less-than-gentle prodding, Zoe is able to remember another incident. The TARDIS materialized on a space station, Artemis, where the Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie are mistaken for experts sent by The Company to advise on a situation. Their sister station, Apollo, broke up shortly after sending a coded message. Zoe sets to work decoding the message, only to discover a virus. By decoding it, Zoe has set it free to destroy Artemis!

In the present, Kym reveals that Earth has only just lost contact with space station Apollo. This means that there is still time for her and Zoe to travel to Artemis, to save the people on the station from a cold death in outer space. It's a chance for Zoe to correct her old mistake - and a chance for Kym to regain her lost position and set her own life back on track.


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: There's an amusing moment in which he loses track of the TARDIS key because of how much junk he keeps in his pockets. When he finds it, he holds it up in triumph - only for his enthusiastic gesture to send the key flying through the air to land at the feet of the station security guards. When he briefly comes into contact with the older Zoe, whose face is hidden behind a mask, he seems to sense something, though there's no direct sign that he recognizes her.

Zoe: She is horrified when she realizes the nature of the virus, which is designed to modify itself to affect humans as well as code. Though there was nothing her younger self could have done differently, she still carries the guilt of the deaths that followed the virus's release, which makes Kym's offer to try to change the outcome irresistible. John Dorney's script makes the best use of Zoe's perfect memory that I've encountered in any story, with her total recall a key to the resolution - a particularly good thing in an arc whose released have been constantly punctuated by the older Zoe stating, "I remember everything."

Jamie: There's a nice in-joke, as Jamie complains about them landing in space stations when he'd really like them to materialize in a castle in Scotland, with the ensuing banter referencing the planned but unmade story, The Laird of McCrimmon. He also risks his life to rescue the younger Zoe, though this occurs offscreen as she's unconscious at the time.

Kym: The final story in this arc brings back the guest character from Echoes of Grey. There are even a few moments in which the narration switches from Zoe's recollections to Kym's, allowing quick glimpses into what motivates her and why she is so angry. She is impatient with Zoe, rushing her through key parts of the narrative, a clever justification for Dorney's script to create gaps that get filled when the Kym and the older Zoe arrive in person in Episode Two. Emily Pithon is given more emotional material here than in Echoes of Grey, and she rises to it with a strong performance.


THOUGHTS:

Second Chances is not only the final entry in the Zoe/memories arc; it was also the final release of the Companion Chronicles as a monthly range. It's an excellent curtain call for both, a cleverly plotted story that also delivers surprising emotional impact.

The first episode essentially presents an "average Troughton" episode, as Kym is able to make Zoe remember the adventure on the space station. This is an entertaining mini-adventure would make for an effective Short Trip in its own right, - but it's only at the end, when things go disastrously wrong, that it starts to seem like more than a just a standard Second Doctor adventure.

The second episode is where the story truly delivers, as we see the same events again from the viewpoint of the older Zoe. The story fills gaps that initially seemed to be throwaway jokes: Kym urging Zoe to skip past a capture/escape bit; Zoe being knocked unconscious. The flip side of the first episode's events reveals new information, and the overall context is changed and the stakes raised even further than they were already. A climax that seemed abrupt in the first episode becomes a genuinely exciting sequence, the change in perspective allowing for more development in Part Two.

The story does an excellent job of paying off the full arc. Previous stories have established The Company as ruthless and oppressive, more than enough reason to fear them obtaining this virus. This allows the older Zoe to finally do more than just remember - She acts, closing out the "frame" on a strong ending note.


OVERALL:

I thoroughly enjoyed Second Chances. It is easily the best of the Zoe/memories arc, satisfying both as a finale and as a solid tale in its own right. All told, this was probably as good an ending as could have been hoped for The Companion Chronicles as a monthly range.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Set during: Season 6

Previous Story: The Uncertainty Principle

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7-2. The Uncertainty Principle.

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

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6-3. The Memory Cheats.

2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 65 minutes. Written by: Simon Guerrier. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Wendy Padbury, Charlie Hayes.


THE PLOT:

Zoe has been imprisoned and is facing execution in the wake of her refusal to share information with The Company.

She has one hope: Jen (Charlie Hayes), her defense attorney, dangles the prospect of leniency... but only if Zoe can remember her time with the Doctor. When Zoe insists again that she never actually traveled with him, Jen presents evidence: documents and photos that place her with the Doctor and Jamie in Uzbekistan, 1919.

This results in a breakthrough, with Zoe recalling that trip. She, the Doctor, and Jamie arrived in a village whose children were vanishing, one per night. Learning that the villagers are awaiting the arrival of Chebrakov, a Bolshevik official, the Doctor does what comes naturally: He impersonates the man in order to gain full access to investigate.

The children were taken from the poor and the privileged alike. At each house, the Doctor discovers a substance very like a spider's web. That night, the villagers remain awake and alert, and they are able to chase off what is either a badly deformed man or a creature. This leaves a trail for the time travelers to follow, to discover what became of the missing children.

Then the real Chebrakov arrives, and he has the expected reaction to the Doctor's impersonation: "I should have you all shot!"


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Impersonating a Bolshevik official grants him full access to investigate, and he swiftly notices the webs at the abduction sites. He's also able to connect the pieces of both the abduction and the still-recent war.

Zoe: She's the only person who isn't afraid of Chebrakov. She doesn't cow when he threatens to shoot her, instead calmly pointing out that it would be more to his advantage to use what they've already discovered to resolve the village's problem. She and Chebrakov genuinely like each other - which is not a point in her favor for Jen, who points out the types of deeds the Bolshevik would certainly have carried out to merit his position of power.

Jamie: He gains the trust of the village children by playing football with them. It's a bond that he solidifies when he stands up for a shy girl who doesn't want to talk to the Doctor, instead escorting the girl home so that they can talk to her mother. This is a terrific character scene that shows that while Jamie may not be as intellectually smart as the Doctor or Zoe, he is more emotionally intelligent than either of them.

Jen: Supposedly Zoe's defense attorney, Jen comes across more as an interrogator. She tells Zoe that she might gain clemency if she can provide The Company with information, and she guides her into first remembering, then telling the story. She is a mother herself, which makes her all the more invested in an incident involving kidnapped children.


THOUGHTS:

The Memory Cheats is a direct sequel to Echoes of Grey, with an older Zoe being prompted to remember details of her travels by people who want information from her. The frame creates tension, even more here than it did in the previous story, as Zoe is now in a much worse position than before.

Writer Simon Guerrier talks in the release's extras about the concept of investigating history. This is an area I've always found personally interesting. When you study past events, you're really having to interpret them using sources that are inherently biased: individual memories, often recounted decades after the events described; documents written by people serving their own agendas; and gaps that you have to attempt to fill through context. This is why, far from being static, history constantly changes: "accepted understanding" of the past shifts both with new discoveries and with changing standards.

The story plays with the idea of the unreliability of history. This is most apparent when Zoe challenges Jen, pointing out that from this point on, she could just make everything up and the other woman would never know it. The idea is also used when Jen prods Zoe's memory with records: the journal entries of a British doctor and his wife, or the likely (but unconfirmed) misdeeds of Chebrakov.

The first episode is by far the better of the two. There's just enough of the frame story to create tension, and writer Simon Guerrier does a splendid job of bringing the post-World War I setting to life. The village is still suffering from the ravages of war, and the citizens - rich and poor alike - are apprehensive of their new government. There are effective descriptions of how a poor family sleeps on the floor of their only room, with a contrast drawn between that family and another, more affluent one.

The second part takes the Doctor and his friends out of the village to find the children. It remains engaging. But for me, at least, once the characters leave the village, a lot of texture is lost.

The climax is my least favorite segment of the story. I like what it's trying to do, bringing the story to a close in a way that plays on the unreliability of Jen's sole source (Zoe). I also appreciate the way it draws parallels among the story Zoe relates, her life now, and Jen's own situation.

Unfortunately, I find the climax to be a bit of a jumble. Events are sketched rather than playing out, and critical moments seem brusehd over. This may serve the theme by stressing the unreliability of Zoe's account - but it comes at the expense of providing a satisfying conclusion, and I just don't find that to be a good tradeoff.


OVERALL:

A short epilogue between Zoe and Jen somewhat compensates, with each character challenging the other in a way that leaves the ongoing frame arc on a strong note. However, the resolution of the main plot remains disappointing to me.

The Memory Cheats is more ambitious than Echoes of Grey, with more intriguing ideas and a more detailed setting. But if pushed, I found Echoes more satisfying overall, simply because it felt more complete as a story.

I'd still rate it as a good release. But I was left feeling a little let down by the ending, which is enough to knock a point off my total score.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Set during: Season 6

Previous Story: Echoes of Grey
Next Story: The Uncertainty Principle

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