Here There Be Monsters

This story is quite boastful. It’s a story Susan tells after she has left the Tardis. She hypes it up quite a bit too. Basically telling us that this story contains her reasoning for leaving, while at the same time explaining a mysterious voice Susan hears in her head.

Too bad the story doesn’t live up to the lead in. Not even a little.

It’s a very standard story about the party meeting a vegetable that tears holes in reality to create points of navigation for humans. That sounds intriguing, and it starts of well, but it quickly falls apart.

At the start, we talk a bit about the history of navigation. The party’s curiosity is peaked and they try to rationalize their situation a lot. This is good! It’s fun, has some nice lessons in there and makes sense to do. It also helps us understand our surroundings. We talk with a plant. It’s nice!

After that though, the story kind of writes itself in a corner. It wants to add a mysterious figure to the vegetable ship that we don’t understand, but that also makes it hard for us to care about him.

The general gist is that there is a species from another dimension that has taken human form. He’s not evil, but a consequence of the spatial instability of the story. They try to portray him as somehow very important to Susan, but it doesn’t really back that up. Why is he so important? We spend a lot of time on him, and even make him a voice that Susan has in her head ever since, but he really does not come across as important. He acts a bit gruff, slightly mysterious, and then explodes. Not really leaving a long-lasting impression.

Which is a shame, because the second half is completely about him. The vegetable ship is nothing more than set dressing at this point.

What they could’ve done to make him more important, is make him someone from Susan’s timeline. That would explain why only she sees him at first, and would add some personal stakes. Make him her future husband. Or a future child. Maybe even go all the way with it, and make him a possible future incarnation of herself. One that continued to travel with the doctor and regrets it. The story desperately needs a way to make me care about this random guy, because he is constantly mentioned as her reason for leaving.

It's a shame too. As mentioned in the previous review, Susan’s reason for leaving is barely touched on in other audio or TV stories. In a way, this story is the first to do it in any capacity. And I want to understand her. It’s a reason that could be expanded so much, and it could build on her character in interesting ways, but it is left to the wayside. All we have really learned is that Susan has a random voice in her head, and that somehow contributed to her leaving. I really wish I cared more than I do.