Below There

Listening to this in close proximity to Wild Blue Yonder was an unintentionally interesting coincidence. With very similar plots, it was cool to see how the two different production companies went about crafting stories taking place on the far edge of known reality. There's some decent moments and writing but unfortunately, Wild Blue Yonder also has the effect of dampening my enjoyment of the audio a little bit. Below There far from terrible or unacceptable, but just a little too by the numbers for my liking. Vyx's character doesn't really stand out, while it doesn't particularly feel like the Doctor is doing anything extraordinary compared to what we are used to. Eccleston is always a treat, though, so that is something. His mere presence really is able to elevate otherwise normal stories like this.

That being said, I don't think the opening had me hooked the way a story like this really ought to have. I wasn't nearly as intrigued as I feel I should have been for a story like this, and, in the weeks since I listened to this, it is pretty forgettable, to the extent I wound up listening to the whole introduction again before realizing I had already just heard this audio. Not a great sign, in my opinion. I also had to look up the ending since I forgot, and yeah, I do now remember appreciating the critique of capitalism, but I don't think it was really anything new for the franchise either. It's okay to tread the same ground, especially for Doctor Who which has been around for 60 years, but you really need to offer an entertaining or memorable experience to justify that, and I feel like Below There simply fails to achieve that.