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TARDIS Guide

Overview

Released

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Written by

John Dorney

Runtime

124 minutes

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Robots, Spaceship

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Parking

Synopsis

The planet Dashrah is a world of exceptional beauty. Historical ruins; colourful skies; swirling sunsets...

Unsurprisingly, it's a major tourist trap. So if you want to visit Dashrah, first you'll have to visit Parking, the artificial planetoid that Galactic Heritage built next door. Parking, as its name implies, is a spaceship park. A huge spaceship park. A huge, enormous spaceship park.

When the TARDIS materialises in Parking's Northern Hemisphere, the Doctor, Ace and Mel envisage a quick teleport trip to the surface of Dashrah. But they've reckoned without the superzealous Wardens, and their robotic servitors... the sect of the Free Parkers, who wage war against the Wardens... the spontaneously combusting spaceships... and the terrifying secret that lies at the lowest of Parking’s lower levels.

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3 reviews

This review contains spoilers!

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Maker of Demons


Well, it's been a little while since I've written a review for Doctor Who (other than Lux). I actually stopped halfway through this one and didn't touch anything Doctor Who for a good few weeks. Not because this story was bad though. In fact, it's quite the opposite. It's very reminiscent of stories like The Sun Makers with really blatant and ridiculous satires on different aspects of society. The main idea behind this one is a planet that only serves as a galaxy-scale parking lot, complete with it's own society that formed after getting lost years ago.

There's some solid dialogue in the story and I think the Doctor, Ace, and Mel are balanced quite well. The twist was quite good, even if by then I'd forgotten most of the smaller details. It's mainly carried by the setting and is otherwise nothing special


Next Story: The Blood Furnace


thedefinitearticle63

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This review contains spoilers!

E lá vou de novo eu falar de mais um áudio que não me agradou nesse retorno da Mel – O próximo destino do TARDIS Team é um planeta chamado Parking, basicamente uma espécie de estacionamento planetário. Mas a frente vemos a TARDIS sendo misteriosamente roubada e os personagens se envolvendo com uma espécie de guerra civil (de novo) travada entre um grupo de revolucionários chamados “Free Parkers” e a força policial do planeta (podemos dizer assim) os chamados Wardens. Confesso que tive bons pressentimentos nos primeiros minutos, realmente gostei da ambientação achei bem imersiva cheia de barulhos de trânsito/estacionamento/buzinas/veículos e etc – O fato de estarem em um estacionamento de naves é interessante porque te faz imaginar que várias delas pertencem a outros planetas a outros alienígenas, infeelizmente você termina o áudio frustrado por não terem aproveitado e aprofundado nisso. O enredo apresenta os mesmos deslizes dos anteriores, plot manjado, personagens ruins, condução e progressão narrativa monótona, falta de brilho - Ace vem sendo muitooo apagada nas histórias ela que costumava a ser um dos maiores destaques, já a Mel ganhou uma atenção especial sendo bem útil colocando em pratica suas habilidades com computadores e harware, pena que os blocos que envolvem a companion é extremamente chato de se acompanhar. Em resumo, eu entendi que The High Price of Parking tem todo um conceito de história construído em torno de um trocadilho. O planeta se chama Parking(Estacionamento) e seus habitantes querem que seja Free(gratuito) e lutam pela liberdade, por isso têm o slogan Free Parkers (Estacionamento Gratuito) “Free” também pode ser traduzido como “Livre”. De fato, é uma boa piada bem sacada, mas sua história é muito CHATA.

Here I go again talking about another audio that I didn't enjoy upon Mel's return – The next destination of the TARDIS Team is a planet called Parking, essentially a kind of planetary parking lot. But soon we see the TARDIS being mysteriously stolen and the characters getting involved with a kind of civil war (again) fought between a group of revolutionaries called "Free Parkers" and the planet's police force (if we can call them that) the so-called Wardens. I must confess that I had good feelings in the first few minutes, I really liked the setting which was quite immersive full of traffic/parking/car horns/vehicles sounds, and so on – The fact that they are in a spaceship parking lot is interesting because it makes you imagine that many of these ships belong to other planets, to other aliens, unfortunately, you end up frustrated because they did not take advantage of this and delve deeper into it. The plot presents the same shortcomings as the previous ones, stale plot, poor characters, monotonous narrative flow and progression, lack of sparkle - Ace has been very faded in the stories although she used to be one of the biggest highlights, but Mel got special attention being very useful putting into practice her skills with computers and hardware, too bad that the blocks involving the companion are extremely boring to follow. In summary, I understood that The High Price of Parking has an entire concept of history built around a pun. The planet is called Parking and its inhabitants want it to be Free and fight for freedom, hence the slogan Free Parkers "Free" can also be translated as "Libre". Indeed, it is a good joke well thought out, but its story is very BORING.

(Translation generated by AI, so mistakes are possible).


KnuppMello

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This audio seems to centre on a joke - a pun, and its wears a little thin after the first part.

As with most of us with a day off you decide to go and visit an attraction, and finding somewhere to park is quite often the biggest challenge. For the Doctor, Ace and Mel, their choice of destination means you have to park on an entirely different planet dedicated to the task, conveniently named Parking.

The conciet of this story is forgetting where you parked, - there was a whole episode of Seinfeld that dealt with this subject. Though having to scout round a carpark might take some time, in this you may not even know which continent you parked on, which is what happened to the early visitors. Centuries later those early visitors' decendants are still there giving rise the the Free Parkers.

There is a limit on suspending the disbelief, and this stretches it a little too far. Its quite easy to overlook one or two unlikely or hard to believe plot points for the sake of the story, but this just doesn't get you past that point. The people who couldn't find their ships: Could they not have got a lift with someone else? Got a message to a friend or family member?

20 minutes of part two is taking up by explaining the situation of the planet, and then there are a number of twists and turns and it get difficult to keep track of who is who and what their agendas are. There's a reveal that happens, you can see comming a mile off, and I could make a list of story elements that have been used elsewhere.

I was a little irritated when I listened to this, maybe because there is nothing new here. It didn't make me think or leave me with a sense fulfillment, and I stopped caring by part four.

It is not a bad story, but bog standard. Nothing original, stands out or exceptional.


Seagullslost

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