We have what in a lot of ways is one of the more uneventful stories in the Ninth Doctor’s life, and yet it ended up being one of my favourites so far in the series and one that I would love to hear more of in the future.

The story mainly focuses on a woman named Mandy who spends the new year at an old house along with her family. Whilst there she starts to become acquainted with the new and mysterious caretaker who makes her an offer to come back to the house again next year for free.

Auld Lang Syne is a simple but cleverly structured story as Mandy encounters the Doctor at different points from his perspective over the course of a few years as she soon discovers the house has many strange secrets that stretch back centuries. With each new year we learn how much has changed for Mandy and her family from the past year, particularly her relationship with her great aunt. It builds to a fantastic emotional gut punch where after a running trend of each new year starting with the two of them bickering in the car on the way to the house, we then reach a year where we hear nothing but the radio before Mandy pulls over and breaks down in tears. Auld Lang Syne is a great tale of how people approach a new year, both the good and the bad as it also delves into the hardships of going through that first new years without a loved one. This story is less on plot and more on emotion and character and it’s very well done with some great performances from everyone involved.

Eccleston in particular gives one of his best performances as the Doctor. I found in this one he’s much more toned down compared to most of his audio work which really plays into the Ninth Doctor’s strengths. I just don’t think the Ninth Doctor works particularly well when he’s written in a zany and overly cheerful way. Him and Mandy have excellent chemistry with one another, and she becomes yet another side character who should’ve become a companion for the Ninth Doctor but doesn’t. Though I’ll be fair and say they do have the Doctor offer her a chance to travel with him and they give a suitable justification to why she can’t.

There’s nothing exciting or eventful about Auld Lang Syne but it is an excellent character drama with a timey-wimey seasoning to it that makes it a far superior new year’s story than any of what we got in the Chibnall era.