We come to the end of Charley and the 8th Doctor. This has been my first foray into the expanded universe of Doctor Who, and while there have been a few disappointing stories, there have also been some all-timers for me personally (Chimes, Neverland/Zagreus, Scherzo, Natural History...).

So The Girl Who Never Was. This is an amazing story, let down by the amount of things that it tries to implement in a 2 hour long episode. It was a bit hard to follow, as it keeps changing time settings and there are some characters that share their names in both instances. Even then I love me some Cybermen and I love references to 60's Who so seeing the Cyber-planner in action was really cool.

The plot twist with the other Charley is pretty well handled, although it's nothing too remarkable.

I liked that Charley was the one that saved the day and got marooned as a consequence, and the fact that is how they get separated felt somehow right, as it's left clear by the note at the end that Charley really wanted to leave the Doctor, as their time together had run its course.

So, as I'm extremely biased towards these characters and I love stories that don't hold your hand and don't make it easy to be understood (so you get the itch to experience them over and over), I have to give this one a pretty high score.

I'm excited to listen to the next adventures of the 8th Doctor, although I may look back and start at the beginning of the Main Range, as I have only listened to McGann's stories. And obviously I have to catch up with Six, as Charley's story isn't over...

Considering how Absolution ended, I thought there'd be a bit more... emotion and weight to Charley and Doctor's interactions. C'rizz died and Charley vowed to leave after Doctor basically said he didn't care. Would've been nice to have a whole episode unpacking that before her departure, but they end up separated for a large part of this episode, and when they are together, it just doesn't feel as tense as it should.

That being said, I still enjoyed it enough, although it was a tad hard to follow at times.

damn, this got me. i knew the gist of what happened at the end of this, and knew what comes for Charley next, but god, I just love the heightened tension when a companion leaves. this was no exception. reminded me of Ten and Rose in Doomsday