The Nightmare Realm

✅8/10 = VERY GOOD!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

A DREAM TEAM IN ACTION!

The Cuckoo is one of the more disappointing BBC Audio Original releases I’ve heard so far. Is the next 12th Doctor story better? Jonathan Morris pairs Twelve with Nardole this time around, and Dan Starkey narrates this adventure in the Nightmare Realm.

This story oozes a Cold War-era feel and 50s nostalgia, with the setting being a traditional American suburb suddenly threatened by a nuclear strike (inspired by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, perhaps?). It’s largely written as a homage to classic 1950s sci-fi stories, including flying saucers and stereotypical American characters.

Morris quickly establishes a mystery around where exactly the Doctor and Nardole are and who the people they meet are. This mystery makes for a slightly confusing narrative at times, but it also helps in maintaining tension and interest. The Doctor's characteristic quips and Nardole’s dry humour also heighten the experience.

Strange events keep happening—we shift time and place suddenly, and meet tentacled aliens and people who are cardboard cutouts—before we realise that we are stuck in a dream world similar to The Land of Fiction or the Celestial Toyroom, controlled by one boy. Once things start becoming clear, Morris adds tension with more action scenes that keep the story going. I enjoy some of the darker twists towards the end and the way dreamworlds and other dimensions blend with the regular world.

Dan Starkey's narration is wonderful. He does a superb Capaldi, and his Nardole gets that comedic Matt Lucas tone down almost perfectly. He also shifts between accents—generic, Scottish, and American—fluently.

Jonathan Morris brings the story to a satisfying close.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

The Desperate Housewives joke hit the bullseye for me!