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Doctor WhoMEDIAMusic/Audio

Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles: The Uncertainty Principle by Simon Guerrier (CD review).

Zoe Heriot returns again, the older but alas no wiser woman now in the custody of the mysterious Company who seek to get inside her mind. Her past is more or less closed to her. Memory-wiped by the Time Lords, which of course is unknown to her, Zoe can only access random recollections when tricked into doing so. It is a long slow process and time is one thing she does not have.

Her captors have made the extraction of memories crucial and necessarily imminent but still Zoe has to be prompted She finds she doesn’t even trust the episodes she is able to access from that time.

Prompted by her captor, she returns to when the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe got to Earth where a young girl has been killed in a lab accident. The boy next door is mourning his friend although obviously attracted to Zoe. There is also the question of the monsters seeking them both out. With the enhanced perceptions of drug-induced memory, Zoe feels all these reminiscences as fresh as the moment they happened and all the associated pain and loss of potential first love.

Once again, this is a skilful and thoughtful ‘Companion Chronicle’ that not only takes us back to the concerns and plots of the 1960s Doctor but manages to bring it up-to-date and utilise our modern sensibility. It deals with loss and mourning, too, in a sensitive way. Full of resonance itself, the story lingers and it also looks like Zoe’s tale is not over yet.

As noted in the extras interviews, the science is also pretty interesting with writer Simon Guerrier using his O’level again.

Sue Davies

(pub: Big Finish. 1 CD 60 minute story with extras. Price: CD: £ 8.99 (UK), Download: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84435-947-9)
cast: Wendy Padbury and Charlie Hayes
check out website: www.bigfinish.com

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