The Monthly Adventures #88 - "Memory Lane" by Eddie Robson

The TARDIS team of Eight, Charley and C’rizz is, I believe, the most underappreciated and underdeveloped set of lead characters we’ve ever gotten; one of the best depictions of the family dynamic trope, C’rizz’s darker leanings, the chemistry between all three cast members, it’s genuinely really great stuff and the idea of a full fledged alien being the companion is one I wish the show would explore more. Unfortunately, the focus on the Divergence Saga kind of killed the character development, the audios afterwards got buried beneath their blossoming team of Seven, Ace and Hex and repeatedly, writers missed opportunities to do interesting things with the characters. The next story with these leads will be Absolution, which is when they begin to exit the show, so did Memory Lane manage to strengthen our characters at the eleventh hour? Let’s find out.

An idyllic Summer’s afternoon in suburbia is interrupted by the arrival of three travellers, who find something very strange is going on. The houses are all identical, down to their occupants, and the street goes on forever. What’s more, something wants them to stay.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Eddie Robson is one of those writers who, even at his worst, will make a compelling script. His style, humour and pacing is all near perfect and you can expect to come out of his stories having at least had a good time. And that’s just what Memory Lane is, it’s fun. Whilst I think this omits some much needed deeper levels of complexity, take it out of its arc, take it away from previous stories, and you have an absolute blast of a script. Firstly, the idea is amazing - take the uniform endlessness of suburbia, and crank it up to eleven. The setting and the exploration of it were by far the best things about the story and what I enjoyed the most; this is a good sci-fi concept taken to its furthest extreme and fully explored. 

Furthermore, Robson’s understated comedic leanings really shine through. The pacing is fast but not inconsiderate, everything evolves and flows naturally throughout. The scenes are snappy, the dialogue is witty and plot points are never around long enough to exhaust themselves. This is an expertly balanced piece of writing that knows when to move its story along. Carrying a lot of the pace is just Robson’s general ability as a writer, his characters and dialogue are charming and quotable but never to the detriment of his cast’s believability.

And what a cast that is, practically everybody here is on top form. Kim makes for an interesting side character and I love the idea of a Planet of the Apes style fish out of water situation for a pioneering space traveller. Tom’s actor puts in a great performance and manages to capture the energy and mannerisms of a ten year old really well and Ms. Braudy is another piece of pure fun. McGann’s also putting in a brilliant performance, when he likes a script he can be one of the best performers the show’s ever had. His intellect, his witticisms and his innate mysticism is all at its peak here.

I think the only member of the cast I have any kind of problem with is C’rizz, because his character journey begins to really struggle by this point and you can tell there’s not really anywhere else for him to go. The psychopathic undertones that have been building the last few audios turns into JNT style bickering with Kim that really got on my nerves after a while. It wouldn’t be as bad if it wasn’t with a character I was promised more from. Also the conclusion of him using his weird personality storage thing that’s been barely explained to break the prison is… flimsy.

Actually, quite a bit of the resolution of this story is flimsy. It’s eventually revealed that Tom is in a prison that traps him with his own memories and he’s being kept so as to repeatedly reenact the crash that served as the planet he’s on’s first contact. An interesting idea but it feels a little humdrum in my opinion. The reveal of “it was all a simulation” is a lot less interesting than I was hoping it’d be. Not that it’s all bad, a lot of cool stuff is done with the concept, like trapping the Doctor in his own memories or using the invention of television to resolve the plot, but for me I was just not personally taken by the answer to this story’s conundrums.

However, this is still an utterly brilliant piece of Doctor Who. It’s certainly not the deepest, there’s very little character development besides some stuff with Charley and her mother, but it’s what the show is best at: the adventure. The pace and character of it all is sublime and makes for an incredibly enjoyable experience, which is what I always value the most. 

9/10

Pros:

+ Incredibly fun

+ Witty and fast paced

+ Great setting and idea

+ Interesting sidecast

Cons:

- The reveal behind what’s going on feels a little pedestrian

- C’rizz and Kim’s bickering got old fast

Feels like a spiritual successor to Carnival of Monsters - I spent all of part three thinking The Doctor was in a mini scope. They modernised the ideas nicely.

I think this is a hidden gem from an unfashionable era of Big Finish. There are a lot more classic stories from the 2005/6 era that I’ve come across than fans give BF credit for. The Harvest, Terror Firma, Live 34, The Kingmaker and Red being main range releases I’ve enjoyed recently. I Davros being another classic output from this era.

Great story, 8 and c’rizz get a lot of development but Charlie’s a little lacking. After leaving the divergent universe her character development really slowed down.

This was a helluva lot of fun. I haven't really clicked with a story since probably The Last or Terror Firma (Time Works and Something Inside are good though) to a stretch. So this was great. The resolution is probably the worst part, not that it's bad just a bit boring. But yeah the first two parts are really good.

Also, I love that cover, I might just have to buy the CD on eBay.

Fun time indeed yes.