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The Locked Room


The Companion Chronicles 9.4



Once the ruler of a people he left the TARDIS to lead, Steven lives hidden away. His granddaughter Sida, now president, gave him money to build a radio telescope, but what exactly is he doing?


So first off to appreciate this story to its fullest, you really need to not only know the TV series, but have heard the previous two ‘older Steven’ CC’s, and the Oliver Harper CC trilogy. I, so far haven’t heard the first older Steven, or the last Oliver Harper CC. I suppose that what happens when you pick up stuff in the sales. It didn’t impair my enjoyment, but you would be quite lost without doing some research first.


The first Doctor does feature in this, indeed Steven has been working hard and has managed to contact/summon up up the Doctor. Unsurprisingly it involves both Steven and Sida being locked in a room. Of course there’s a twist - a third element that harks back to the Oliver Harper plot. 


As I said it helps to know whats happened before in the audios, so some of what happened didn’t have the impact that it should have have done, and also my concentration wasn’t all there. But on the whole I enjoyed it. Peter does a nice version of the First Doctor, and though there is narration, by Sida, its not that heavy. It is one of the things that initially put me off the range, here its more sparse and fills in details rather than leading the story.


The alien menace wasn’t s something that I felt really fitted a first Doctor story, but the world in which Steve lives is something I would have liked more of.

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