This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Savages

I'm quite mixed on this story. It's a very enjoyable listen but it undeniably has a lot of flaws. The plot is interesting. It feels a lot like the historicals of old but there's still something off about it. I'm also not sure whether this wanted to be a comedy or not. It really doesn't seem to be able to pick a lane which makes for an off-putting listen. Idonea is a really grating character to listen to, I get that she was written that way but it doesn't make it any better. I'm also a touch disappointed that they've done another 1/Monk story set in medieval England. Like really? You couldn't have come up with a more interesting place for them to meet again?

I'm also quite mixed on Stephen Noonan's impression of the First Doctor. He does a pretty good job but there's quite a bit going against him. For a start, since Hartnell never did audio pretty much everyone is only used to hearing his voice through low-quality 60s mono so suddenly hearing him in a high quality modern production is quite jarring. Noonan does Hartnell's mannerisms really well though, in the quieter and more sincere moments it does genuinely sound like they resurrected the man himself. When it gets to really strongly emotional stuff though you can tell Noonan's had nothing to base his impression off. I also think the writing is at fault here, this is set towards the end of Season 3 and yet the Doctor is angry and shouting so often it would seem like he only just picked up Ian and Barbara. I'm sure a lot of it is just teething problems though and as the range picks up a lot of these issues should go away (hopefully).

But all that's not to say I didn't enjoy it. I did. And it's great to have the First Doctor doing full cast adventures properly (although I do love the AISAT cast, their take was notably different). Good stuff though, overall.

Next Story: The Miniaturist