The Incherton Incident

This was pretty solid, overall. It was my first taste of Stephen Noonan as the First Doctor. It was pretty good - a little off-putting at first, but after a while, I really got into it. It didn't really feel like a good impression to me, but it did achieve the spirit of William Hartnell's original performance. Plus, it really blended nicely with Lauren Cornelius' Dodo. Dodo, who didn't really have much of a presence in the original show, is always welcome in Big Finish since it makes her more of a character and gives said character the opportunity to be in better stories.

The story itself is decent. There's this whole evacuated town after a ship tried to track down the TARDIS. Set in a post-war England with a military man recovering from PTSD, there's a lot to like about the audio and it felt like a cozy listen even with some of the dark themes about war and justice. What's a little weaker is the villain, who kind of comes across as a little cartoonish even if Sanderson's motivations aren't entirely evil. Still, The Incherton Incident isn't a bad listen and has some solid ideas to it that I feel, overall, make it worth a listen if you can get it for a good price.

A story that is wide as an ocean, but deep as a puddle.

The Doctor and Dodo crash into something while flying through the time stream. This causes the Tardis to land near the small town Incherton, 1947. When they arrive, they are quickly swept up in a local emergency: Something alien has crash landed on the town, destroying everyone who lived there. What could it be?

I’ve thought long and hard about the best way to describe this story, but I think I have found it. Do you remember those annoying little slidey puzzles? The ones where you just constantly smash little pieces together in the hopes of ending up with something worthwhile?

That’s what this story is. The characters are the small little pieces. They are all insignificant, flat and really not detailed enough. Yet they keep confronting them with each other in the hope that one of the clashes leads to something meaningful. Yet realistically, all you end up with is frustration.

Let me explain. Each character can be described with 2, maybe 3 words: The traumatized commander, The snarky spy, the traitor, the hypnotizing alien. All of them are flat as a board. Sadly, the same thing goes for our main cast, as they are reduced to their most stereotypical traits: The grumpy know-it-all and, well, Dodo.

And all these characters seem to do is bicker. The Doctor argues with the spy. Dodo gets the commander. They fight and fight, maybe swap some dynamics around if you’re lucky, then we continue fighting.

It doesn’t help that the overarching plot has nothing new to offer either. The threat is an alien who was hidden deep underground, but is now awakened and using hypnosis to influence people. This is basically the exact same premise as “the miniaturist”, which was 2 stories ago… So realistically, this story has nothing. No themes, no unique setting, no memorable characters, nothing.

And frankly, I have nothing more to add. I am doing Doctor who mostly chronologically, and yet I feel like I’ve already seen this story a million times. It’s completely bland, unoriginal and way too long. Hopefully the next story will throw something engaging into the mix, like characters or a plot.