The First Doctor #12

'The Sleeping Blood' from The Companion Chronicles.

Possibly my favourite story so far in my non-televised First Doctor adventures. Lovely to have a Doctor-lite serial here, really giving Susan the reigns to handle a situation all by herself. Great set-up in the medical research facility location here, with an intriguing time following Susan as she explores looking for medicine for The Doctor as he lies feverish in the TARDIS. Learning about the planet and the nanotech alongside her is fun and her intelligence shines nicely here. Kendrick is a very appropriate Doctor Who side character, and his way of dealing with The Butcher at the end really feels like a modern story with the way it explores themes of soldiers and terrorism and Susan's interference is a nice viewpoint into this. The Butcher is a tad lousy but that's almost entirely just due to a voice performance that doesn't work for me personally. His motives and descriptions are all very interesting stuff.