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 NDAs.

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.

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.

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.