The Ninth Doctor #29

'Hidden Depths: Flatpack' (2022) from The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Series 2.

Quite a lot to... unpack... with this one. A really well-maintained tone throughout that I commend the story for a lot. Serves as a good companion, and improvement, to Kerblam!, with an evil IKEA being the setting. The mystery of is it a TARDIS and who's in charge grabbed me quite well, and the reveal of The Doctor being The Manager and all of the staff being all of the people was really cleverly done. I'm not aware of Liv or Tania from their times spent with the Eighth Doctor, but it was nice to experience companions meeting The Doctor with a new face and re-connecting with him. Tania's line about regeneration and comparing it to transitioning was lovely, I didn't even know that was a transgender companion in Doctor Who so that makes me excited to see her with Eight way later on down the line. Infinitely better representation and handling of themes than The Star Beast. I especially like how Liv is the one to save the day, and The Doctor and Tania both become completely brainwashed by Flatpack, it makes a great change to The Doctor just sonic screwdrivering or techno-babbling himself out of a situation which has been happening a lot in these 9DAs, but luckily not all too much in this Hidden Depths volume.

The Doctor runs into some old friends, Liv Chenka and Tania Bell and spend their time in a place not unlike ikea.

I do think it works better when the Doctor has a companion, and its something the 9th Doctor adventures have lacked. With Liv and Tania running into the Doctor they do fill that role. Liv I’ve heard before and I’ve always enjoyed Nicola Walkers work. Tania I don’t know, but other than being old friends of the Doctors you don’t need anything more to enjoy this story, there were a couple of references to stuff I wasn’t aware of, but nothing that impacted on the story.

The flatpack shop is new to the area, yet its always been there and why are the staff masked?

This isn’t the ‘biggest’ adventure, more of an interlude. Getting reacquainted with Liv and Tania, isn’t as momentous as the Tenth and Sarah Jane, but this is a post war Doctor and I suppose more could have been made of that.

Flatpack is based on ikea, even referencing the fact that Ikea is intensionally hard to navigate so that you keep hold of something in case you can’t find it again. The sprawling array of furniture to buy, and as the Doctor discovers, not all is of the time.

There is a part where you know what the big reveal is, if you hadn’t guessed already, and its a waiting game for the Doctor and co to catch on.

Overall I enjoyed it, I do feel there was potential for a grander audio. Its not groundbreaking, but a nice way to spend an hour.

Truly, the anti-Kerblam. Really wonderful, clever plotting from John Dorney here making the system the villain. The system corrupts everyone inside of it and it is the system itself which must be defeated. The antagonists are only those who we know to be good who have been corrupted by the system.