MR 016: Storm Warning

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Oh, um, excuse me. That's just me fangirling. Enter Paul McGann and India Fisher! This was so nostalgic, oh my god. This is BF's main line, current era team and it's amazing to hear it. The Eighth Doctor was such a blank slate in the tv movie that now BF basically gets to invent his personality and what a great personality it is. Yes, BF have already invented a new companion character in Evelyn and she is amazing, but this is the first time BF basically get to invent a new Doctor.

And what a Doctor he is. Paul McGann is a legend for a reason. His banter and sharp witted responses are hilarious even here. As are his scatter brained responses when he first meets Charley, which I will post below, another legendary first meeting like Six and Evelyn. His lust for life is evident even in this first story and Charley is the perfect companion for him. She, too, has a lust for life. She boards the R101 disguised as a steward just because she can, because she wants to see the world. I'm so excited to hear all their adventures again, I'm pretty sure I was starting to tear up with how nostalgic this was for me.
Now the actual story. The R101, an airship that historically crashed tragically is on its way to India, but it is on a secret mission. To return a crashed alien pilot and possibly steal the spaceship that the alien is from. The aliens turn out to have divided their personalities into logic, instinct, and free will. The engineers, the uncreators, and the lawgiver. There is only one lawgiver that has lived for a very long time and has dictated what the engineers and uncreators do, but it is dying and it needs a replacement. The man who brought the R101 here to steal the alien ship stays as the new uncreators are free from the lawgiver's dictates, but are scared off by everyone roaring because they've never seen a predator before. One of the people from the R101 steals an alien gun and in an act to keep it accidentally destroys the gas bags holding up the airship which then crashes tragically.

The Doctor and Charley then fly off on a vortisaur, a predator that lives in the time vortex, back to where the TARDIS has crash landed. There's an interesting hook, here, for BF's ongoing series with Charley. She's a time anomaly of some sort. The Doctor considers putting her back onto the R101 and letting her die because history is going to change with her alive, which would be horrible. Does he know who he is? But he can't do it. Just as he can't not let Charley keep the Vortisaur, which Charley names Ramsey.

It's a cute story, but it's an especially amazing one. The real strength in this story is hearing Paul McGann's first real story outside of the tv movie, of course, and seeing Charley's first story. They already work so well together and have fantastic chemistry. I remember adoring these two and I can't wait to hear more of them. Which, of course, I will because the Eighth Doctor stories in the early main range are in blocks, so the next three will all be Eighth Doctor. Look forward to that!