For a story that's all about the Doctor and Benny exploring a world so boring it's the law and anything remotely interesting is punishable by death, this was a really fun listen. The highlight of the story is David Warner and how the Doctor goes about bringing down the government. Benny is given the more emotional side of the story being paired up with one of the inhabitants and we get to understand more of how this world works the effect it has on its people. Something I've found about David Warner's Doctor compared to most other Doctors is he's kind of a badass! The way he defeats the villains and his complete lack of mercy is such a far cry from how most Doctors behave in the face of victory, it's the classic you reap what you sow and he lays that vengeance on the villains big time. The episode is a play on the Classic Who story The Happiness Patrol only it's the opposite case where no one is allowed to display emotion above mild, even names are just numbers. The Bernice Summerfield audio do tend to do parodies of Classic Who stories every so often, mostly in a ha ha sense and mocking some of the logic of the original, but this one feels more organic and really doesn't sugarcoat some of the darker aspects of this world. There's this brilliantly messed up scene where a government mole posing as a rebel leader manipulates his followers into committing suicide just for the sake of doing something interesting. This is easily the best of The Unbound Universe set and I think is a great way for newer listeners to familiarise themselves with the Unbound Doctor

this was reaaaaally good omg, i'm really beginning to love this tardis team a lot. their banter together is really fun, and refreshing. this doctor is really interesting too, he's similar to some but yet his own, and slightly different to our doctor. the story itself was really clever, whilst a simple concept it was really effective.

📝8/10

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! This time: it's the planet of the deadly bore!

MY SCATTERED AND TOTALLY IRRELEVANT NOTES:

Planet X features warm humour, coming from the light banter between the Doctor and Benny; always a sign of a good TARDIS team.

Both David Warner and Lisa Bowerman are superb throughout the entire thingm

I love how Benny is looking for adventure while the Doctor complains that they have arrived on a planet so boring that the people don't bother with warfare or panic and so boring that excitement is lethal.

I also love how the Doctor is taken away for being too boring while Benny is offended because she is seen as boring

It’s a pity that Benny and Unbound spend most of the audio separated because that means they cannot bounce off each other as much as I'd hoped.

This is an interesting exploration of authoritarian worlds, a classic subject for Doctor Who, but explored from a slightly different angle and with both Benny and Unbound as good contrasts to the dull Planet X. So while there is a lot of humour in this one, there is a darker and more upsetting edge to it, especially when death catches up to the lawbreakers and the reality of the society is unravelled.

The Doctor’s investigation into the planet and Benny’s trouble with the law follow a typical Doctor Who pattern but bring tension to the story in a tongue-in-cheek manner.

The weird rubber-faced zombie thingies are like a simple version of the Cybermen and make for effectively eerie enemies. And the Prime Minister proves to be a good villain, especially once her real colours are revealed.

I enjoy how the humour is slowly replaced by tension, suspense, and heartbreak, which helps the tail end of the story feel more serious.

The second half doesn't grow much, as it mostly keeps switching between the two main plots with the two main characters.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• The idea of a planet so boring it has no name is a fun one (“a planetary equivalent of cabbage”). The inhabitants within it are only identified by titles and numbers.