This is a bit of an oddball.

The party arrives at the most wonderful place on earth: Some random attic. After thoroughly examining the place, they discover that they’re in 10 downing street and that they’re stuck in a time loop of sorts.

Basically, anytime they enter a room in the attic, they arrive in another time period. It is discovered this is because of a fungus that grows through time. The staff of 10 Downing Street are loyal to this fungus, and hope to train it to one day become the perfect ruler. Hopefully inspired by all the presidents that live the house throughout the decades.

Small problem with that: You can’t train a mushroom, because it isn’t sentient.

Yet they are convinced. It’s like a cult that has existed through generations, so they ain’t stopping now. The party quickly realizes that might become a problem. Because what will happen when the shroom discover the tardis? It will have infinite feed on everything ever!

So they trick the butlers and maids by… acting haughty, which makes them obedient? And then they save the tardis and fly off.

….Is this a filler story? This feels like a filler story.

It has no real solution. They just leave it alone. Same for the servants. They just leave them be. The moral being: all empires fall anyway, so there’s no need to worry about it.

Yet this took an hour! And there’s very much still a threat! This could maybe have worked as a short trip, but this? What even is it?

Besides the massive Grand Canyon of a hole, the main cast is also a bit off. The entire story has a bit of a pessimistic vibe. The Doctor is rude. The companions are rude. There’s a lot of little snide remarks and insults. There’s no need for all that! It feels like they took the base idea people have of the Hartnell Doctor: Stern and rude, and just applied that to the whole group. Meanwhile other stories on both TV and audio have shown that they can be so, so much more.

There is an understanding in there. Little moments shine through, like Vicki calling Steven her brother. But the overall atmosphere ruins any fun those remarks could hold.

So yeah, there’s not much to gain from listening to this. It has no resolution, no real character moments and frankly, nothing else. Yet it keeps gnawing at me. Looking at the writing credits for Mat Coward, it seems this has been his only contribution to Doctor Who, besides a short trip. And honestly, some part of me wants him to have another go at it. The general idea is very, very out there and there is a fundamental understanding of the characters as well. Those are all the elements of a good Doctor Who story. I do hope he gets the chance. This might’ve been a misfire. But he’s very clearly creative, and it would be a shame to lose that. Let’s see what the future holds.