Broken Hearts: 9.3/10 - Yet another really emotional and powerful story. I really felt for Valerie in this story and really enjoyed how her and the Doctor mended the relationship at the end. The setting, being a planet where the weather is determined by the emotions of its denizens, was the perfect idea for this story and channels Valerie's feelings into the plot of the story. The B plot, following Augustus and Lionel the robots, was really touching and I liked the twist of Augustus being the one in the tornado, even though the story makes that twist clear as you listen. In the end, I really enjoyed how the Doctor and Valerie’s relationship was handled and showcased a new dimension to the Doctor/companion relationship that we haven’t seen before.

A very good story to finish off the second Eleven & Valarie box set. The plot is essentially two separate two-handers. The story follows the fallout from the previous story, Curiosity Shop, and how that has effected Valarie, add to this an interesting situation, and we have a recipe for a great story. Safiyya Ingar is again the star of this piece. They have so much to work with here, but that isn't to say that Jacob Dudman doesn't get to show off his abilities. The atmospheric sound design is especially good for this release. These last two parts to the second box set have been more emotional than the rest of the series up to now. They have been good, but for me, this comes at the cost of enjoyability. Overall, this box set has been good, but not great like the first one.

Doctor Who – The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles: All of Time and Space

#4.04. Broken Hearts ~ 10/10

◆ An Introduction

If your characters have been put through an experience that can be described as a living hell, then it pays dividends to give them an hour to process their emotions. Lisa McMullin clearly shares that opinion: all of ‘The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles’ had been written and recorded by August 2023, but she knew the characters needed that closure.

Valarie took herself apart to save a planet in danger. Her cybernetics may have been reassembled, but broken hearts take a long time to heal…

◆ Publisher’s Summary

He took her apart, and she told him she was fine. She lied.

He saved their world, and told them they’d be safe. He was wrong.

◆ The Eleventh Doctor

The Doctor is an alien who couldn’t possibly understand human emotions, despite travelling with at least one of us in almost every incarnation. He desperately wants to bury his feelings, but returning to a planet devastated by the Time War causes all that trauma and guilt to come bubbling up to the surface. This episode showcases him at his most regretful and emotionally vulnerable. McMullin should be very proud.

Jacob Dudman’s departure left me deeply saddened, but I completely understand his reasoning: his acting career is really taking off, and he has been working with BigFinish for seven years straight now. The atrocities the Doctor witnessed during the Time War left him feeling guilty and emotionally traumatised; feelings which he has tried hiding from his companions. Those feelings finally erupt like a volcano in ‘Broken Hearts’, and Dudman channels so much emotion and power into those moments. A truly sublime performance.

Away is good. Away is one of his very favourite places: the Doctor has had many an adventure / holiday / near death experience there. His wife understands him better than anyone else in the universe. The Doctor thinks that Valarie knows him better than she deserves. He may not be cyber-enhanced, but he’s a whizz at the front crawl! His companions aren’t dispensable; they’re invaluable. The Doctor tries to consider the collateral damage he might cause, and sometimes he gets it really spectacularly not right. But he saved the Vale of Iptheus, he told the people they were safe: they got caught in the crossfire between the Time Lords and the Daleks, but he stopped the war. One life is too much to take, and the Doctor has taken billions. He can number them all, each and every one, and he can never ever undo it; he can never ever unsee it. They will scream inside his head forever, and he will be sorry beyond the end of everything! The Doctor doesn’t think he’ll ever be ready to say goodbye to Valarie Lockwood.

◆ Valarie Lockwood

Valarie has been through a great deal in a comparatively short space of time. Her cybernetic components were dismantled and used to save a planet; a process which caused her immense physical pain. The Doctor may have reassembled her, but broken hearts aren’t as easily healed. Lisa McMullin uses this episode to give the character some closure, and she does a really good job too.

Safiyya Ingar has been one of the greatest additions to the BigFinish family in recent years, which makes me all the more sad that Val’s adventures are drawing to a close. ‘Broken Hearts’ features some incredibly emotional material, and Ingar does a terrific job with it. Easily one of their best performances yet.

Valarie said she was fine, but she also said that the Doctor’s joke about the Mechonoids was funny, and she agreed that bow-ties were cool. She’s not fine, nowhere near fine: it would take a rocket ship to get to fine from here, and if the Doctor tells her that he has a time and space ship, she will drop-kick him into another dimension! Valarie took herself apart because he asked her to; she tore herself to pieces so that he could make a sculpture.

◆ Lionel and Augustus

Lisa McMullin summed up this episode by claiming that it’s basically WALL-E meets The Last of Us. The similarities to the former become a lot clearer once we’re introduced to the rescue and recovery bots.

These robots gradually become more sentient and develop feelings for each other; they even choose the names Lionel and Augustus for themselves. On the flipside, our dynamic duo are falling apart: probably because – in the previous story – the Doctor treated Valarie like the spare-parts bin at a computer repair shop!

Lionel and Augustus become such lovable characters from the moment their personalities begin to blossom. Their original purpose was to search and rescue, so it’s only natural that they want to take care of some defenceless baby animals, when they come across them in the wreckage of Iptheus. They take on the role of parents to the infant Bucklings, knowing that their biological parents are deceased. I fully expected that this storyline was building up to the message that life is capable of thriving in even the most inhospitable environments. I didn’t expect this episode to rip my heart out, then force me to watch as it stamped all over it! Lionel and Augustus are unable to look after the infant creatures… so they all end up perishing. I genuinely burst into tears at that point: it’s called ‘Broken Hearts’, but I didn’t think that applied to the listener too!

◆ Cry Me a River

A weather system with built in empathy, designed to ensure cloudless skies on high days and holidays; everybody’s good mood making the sun shine. It’s a fascinating concept which could essentially be used to create Space Dubai, if the inhabitants of a single world were living life to the fullest and happiest.

As demonstrated with the devastation across planet Iptheus, the downside is that empathetic weather can be weaponised. Thunderstorms are conjured up by fury, sadness causes a monstrous flood, and getting frightened brings about a literal whirlwind of fear. Speaking as someone who suffers from depression and severe anxiety, I can only begin to imagine the horrifying weather front that my cocktail of emotions would create.

◆ Sound Design

Iptheus was devastated by the empathetic weather: all that remains is a dead world, with a lone distress beacon calling out to eternity.

Throughout the episode, we’re treated to brief flashbacks that showcase the rescue and recovery operation in full swing. Hundreds of the little robots are deployed to the planet, whilst the inhabitants wail in terror. Buildings are reduced the rubble as the chaos of the Time War sweeps overhead, leaving no survivors. The one constant sound: that distress beacon, waiting for a salvation that’ll never come.

Iptheus sits under a melancholic shadow, and all life has been extinguished. Lee Adams really rams that point home with his soundscape.

◆ Music

BigFinish have largely stuck with the same ensemble of composers for the past decade, so coming across a name I don’t recognise is something of a treat.

Borna Matosic makes an excellent first impression by cramming his score full of emotion. The instrumentation is exquisite, and it fits the mood of the story like a glove. Genuinely, I am so pleased that he’s the composer for the next two sets in this range.

◆ Conclusion

“Everyone and everything… deceased.”

Iptheus was decimated by empathetic weather: caught in the crossfire during the Time War, a fleet of rescue and recovery robots were dispatched to assist the survivors… but everyone had perished during the catastrophic weather front. Two of the robots remained on the planet, scouring the surface for even the slightest hint of life, but now they’re becoming sentient.

Lisa McMullin supposedly begged to write for the Eleventh Doctor and Valarie, and I’m so happy her request was granted. Their relationship has been on shaky ground ever since they left the junkyard, but dealing with a world in which their emotions control the weather actually helps them to work through some of their recent trauma. Dudman and Ingar are on top form throughout the episode, and also did a great job lending their voices to the thoroughly adorable Lionel and Augustus.

‘Broken Hearts’ will forever be heralded as one of the greatest things BigFinish have ever put out, and it was my favourite release of 2023.