MR 063: Caerdroia

I wasn't the biggest fan of this one either, although it certainly has more to it than the previous story. There's definitely some interesting story, but it's mostly pretty vibes based. There's some good vibes though so that's kind of fine.

We've been seeing this border guard the whole time in the Divergent Universe, the Kro'ka. It has been directing them into the different zones of the universe, but now the Doctor has figured out how to get at it. The whole opening sequence involves the Doctor tricking it into trying to go into his mind and then the Doctor traps it there and figures out what's going on. This whole sequence was quite fun and allows Paul McGann to play, essentially. His mind is a twisted web of corridors and he doesn't quite know what all is in there. Indeed, the Kro'ka randomly finds a piece of cheese and the Doctor is like "whoops forgot about that."

The Doctor gets the Kro'ka to tell him about where the Divergence are and what they're doing. They're based in a castle on a planet called Caerdroia. So naturally they go there and somehow the Doctor gets split up into three. There's an irritable/mean Doctor, an easily excitable/giddy Doctor, and the normal Doctor who balances them. So it's just an exercise for Paul McGann to play three different Doctors. Which is quite cute.

So then we go into a bunch of vibes based scenarios. The irritable Doctor goes with Charley and the excitable Doctor goes with C'rizz while the normal Doctor goes by himself. Irritable Doctor and Charley go into a clock and try not to get crushed. C'rizz and excitable Doctor go into a zoo with animals trying to kill them. And normal Doctor goes into a big bureaucratic nightmare world. This is really the only one that's interesting to be fair because there's lots of "not my department" type jokes where he has to register to use a pen and has to travel down corridors to find the right departments. I particularly liked the sincere vs rhetorical questions department.

They all meet again in a labyrinth where they meet a random guy who tells them they need to break into the center. This is where the story kind of lost me because it's a weird idea that some civilization would build a labyrinth around their water and electricity maintenance systems. The Doctors think it's odd too and it's because it's all a construct. The Kro'ka built this world and had them wandering around a maze to try to break into the Doctor's TARDIS at the center of it. He wants to present the TARDIS to the Divergence in the hope that they'll forgive him for stealing a mind probe or whatever.

Then the last part has Charley and C'rizz wandering around the construct city for awhile and they eventually find the TARDIS and leave, the Doctors form back together, the end. Thank goodness.

This is the type of vibes based story that I generally dislike, but there was enough fun stuff here to make it at least an enjoyable listen while it was happening. The main draw is Paul McGann chewing the scenery, which I always enjoy, and the confrontations with the Kro'ka which were fun. Still better than the previous story, I'll grant it. Generally this is pretty forgettable though. Indeed, I'm already forgetting most of it.

This was really good! Three McGann's, Cuckoo clocks, and the Doctor stuck in an infinite maze of offices for every little thing lol. I also enjoyed Charlie in this story, I emphasize with her frustrations with the Doctor, I'm curious how that'll effect their relationship down the road.

Would recommend.

After what has been a stretch of quite boring and run-of-the-mill stories, it's nice to get to one that is just really very good fun, it isn't the deepest of mysteries, but what it sets out to do it achieves quite well. It uses the setting of the divergent universe and The Kro'Ka much better than most other stories set in this universe and it is quite cathartic to see The Doctors and co. finally coming face to face with them.
All together: won't set the world on fire, but was quite an enjoyable listen the whole way through.

8/10

I really enjoyed this story! I thought it was a fun and creative way for the doctor to get their tardis back, and I loved how they got split into the three major facets of their personality (“I’ve got the brains, he’s got the brain damage” was hilarious). Also, the exploration of Kro’ka, who we didn’t really know much about before this, was really well done. Ultimately, I would have given this story a 4.5/5 had it not been for the fact that the author did an absolutely amazing job with Charley! In the last few stories, Charley could have essentially been replaced with a slightly-sad-looking bean bag toy and the story would not have changed in the slightest. The most egregious example of this was the previous story, The Last, where (spoilers) Charley gets paralyzed, which is used as an excuse for her to just be away for the vast majority of the story. Outside of Charley, C’rizz was also well done! I don’t think he had been done as dirty as she was in these last few audios, but it was nice to see him with a well-developed personality. Caerdroia was a very good audio drama, and I think that the way that Lloyd Rose wrote the characters (especially Charley) really made it as good as it was. I am excited to read Rose’s other works!