A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 13.2. E is For... Part Two (The Companion Chronicles: The First Doctor Volume Three, Big Finish, 2019)

Remember how I said in my discussion of the first part of this story that writer Justin Richards consciously references 70‘s and 80‘s X-Men comics?  Well in this part he goes full-on Chris Claremont.  The second half pretty much amounts to a backdoor pilot for a X-Men inspired spin-off....and I don’t necessarily mean that in a negative light.

Having reached the secret S.P.E.A.R. base that Virgil called home upon the discovery of his ‘gift,’ Susan must contend first with Weapon A, an artificial intelligence with Maria Rage’s voice (Lisa Bowerman) who sends the other three Weapons (B, C and D, naturally) after them to put Virgil ‘in his room.’  Virgil and Susan evade these creatures long enough for them to double back on Weapon A with the intent of using her to find The Doctor.  Instead, Weapon A reveals the extraterrestrial origins of ‘The Gifted.’  This leads to a final confrontation with Rage and Virgil’s decision on his future.

You’ll notice that I didn’t mention Susan much in that summary--that’s because she’s not all that involved.  She does play a role in subduing Weapon C (for Cyborg) and D (for Dead), but this is all about Virgil and his transition from Tool of The State to Symbol For The People.  It’s a super-hero origin (something Richards does not deny in the supplementary interviews that play after the story) which just happens to have some Doctor Who content in it...and it shows.  It’s very, very well done--I marvel at how well Richards diagetically integrates the narration into the bulk of the story so that when he does ‘pure’ narration, we’re used to hearing these gouts of description and don’t realize he’s made the transition into prose.  This is simply the best Companion Chronicles I’ve heard to date in that it is true to the ‘dramatised reading’ format while coming off seamlessly as a full audio.  It is not fish nor fowl; it is a fish that has taken wing and flies through the air, luxuriating in its accomplishment.

I still think that Richards’ structure and background for this story isn’t refined enough from its inspiration, which results in it not feeling like the Hartnell tale it’s supposed to be.  Its elements of paranoia, institutionalized prejudice and governmental tampering are more in line with the 80‘s--I wonder if the story would have played better if, let’s say, its narrator was Nyssa or Romana.  But that’s just nitpicking.  It’s an enjoyable story, and that’s mostly what matters.