There are plenty of disappointing Doctor Who stories out there, ones full of exposition and poorly-written characters, ones that insult their audience's intelligence, but it's a dire day when such a story introduces a new companion.

The Devouring feels like it takes place in a parody of the time period which it is supposedly set in, where all characters are cardboard cutouts and the villain of the week is painfully cliche (and not in a way that is redeemable through its campness; no, it suffers the curse of being utterly boring). It attempts to put forward a feminist message while simultaneously lacking any female characters with any will or agency beyond Audacity herself. It ends with a self-sacrifice that is utterly undercut by the Doctor's ability (through the power of plot convenience) to save Audacity from death in a manner which defies the laws of time and lacks respect for the audience's time.

Beyond that, Audacity seems to have been written as the sort of character who exists for the sake of travelling with the Doctor, rather than being an interesting person who gets wrapped up in adventures beyond her. Every detailed revealed about her - in the story's painfully obvious style - feels as if it was added to make Audacity more "companion-y". Of course she has a passion for astronomy; she's going to be travelling in space soon, after all. Of course she has a passion for standing up for the weak; those are the Doctor's values, after all. What does Audacity bring to the table that's unique? She is quite audacious, true... but in case you forgot that, it's right there in her name. Has Lisa McMullin ever heard of the principle of show, don't tell?

I've come back to write this review after listening to a few more Audacity stories, and seeing how she gets on with Charley. At first, I hoped that despite a weak introduction, other writers would be able to do something with her character that would excite me. After all, Audacity isn't the first companion with a weak introduction story, and some of those companions have become my all-time favourites. However, this doesn't seem to be the case for Audacity; she is largely hamstrung by this weak introduction story, one that seems to be going through a bullet list of all of her character traits without ever once pausing to make her seem like a person. It's a damn shame.