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TARDIS Guide

Overview

Released

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Written by

David K Barnes

Runtime

60 minutes

Time Travel

Future

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Amnesia, Robots, Virtual Afterlife

Inventory (Potential Spoilers!)

Sonic Screwdriver

Synopsis

Fond Farewell is the intergalactic funeral parlour with a difference: the deceased attend their own wake! Invited by celebrated naturalist Flynn Beckett to his memorial, the Doctor finds he's not quite the man he was. But who would steal the memories of the dead?

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5 reviews

A very strong start to the fourth 9DA box, this is a story about a future funeral parlor that provides a unique service to its rich patrons in offering a simulacrum of their departed loved ones for a limited time on the day; essentially, the dead can attend their own wake. The Doctor comes to visit at the behest of the deceased, a noted galactic animal conservationist who knew he was dying from a fatal disease and had many corporate enemies. Only, his simulacrum doesn’t remember The Doctor, or his former assistant Sasha Yan, and then the robotic Attendants start electrocuting people. It’s a pretty great standalone low-stakes adventure very much in the style of S1, and it succeeds at it! Good sound design and pretty decent music. Some minor nitpicks, it probably doesn’t need to be a full hour, a bit of trimming might have helped the pace, and Juliet Stevenson is perhaps chewing just a little bit too much of the audio scenery, but I thought this was a fun and engaging bit of Ninth Doctor audio drama, nicely written by David K Barnes. 4/5


OliverGreene

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The Ninth Doctor #15

'Old Friends: Fond Farewell' (2022) from The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Series 1.


A pretty good concept here, with a funeral home that can recreate a person to attend their own funeral, very kind of Moffat vibes there. The mystery of Flynn Beckett's missing memories is a good one to unravel, and I think I enjoyed this a fair bit. I was unfortunately listening to it while a little stressed at work, and was pausing it quite a lot, so the flow of it didn't quite make it all work for me, but I don't think that was the fault of the story, and regardless of that I think I'd call it one of my favourites from these 9DAs.


hallieday

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The exploration of the dubious and compelling idea of “Fond Farewell” funerals was expertly handled. I loved that there were no clear heroes and villains. Everyone had a clear, believable and relatable motive - a feature missing from most science fiction.


15thDoctor

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David K Barnes has written very few Doctor Who stories, but both of the two I've listened to have been COMPLETE bangers. Like, holy s**t, this story is truly something else. This story is absolutely ingenius.

S.


Azurillkirby

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It’s got an intriguing premise and I like Flynn’s character a lot, but the overall plot is slow and kind of predictable. No more malfunctioning killer “helper” robots please.


connorpurnell99

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3.61 / 5

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Quotes

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DOCTOR: Sometimes I think I never have the answers. I only seem to keep pointing out the problems.