The Unwinding World

Another Ian potter story and story wise again I’m not invested and I feel extremely bad for that but the character stuff for Vicki make this story worth while tbh she shows herself as a force to be reckoned with

This story is way, way smarter than it lets on. It takes huge risks in its structure, but those pay off and then some.

It’s primarily told in the form of a dialogue between Vicki and an investigative AI. There are some other side moments where we listen to the other characters, but those aren’t even voiced in any way. They’re basically sound effects with some descriptive dialogue over it. This feels odd at times, but also puts way more pressure on the conversation we actually get, which works in the long run.

This story takes place in a very structured human society. Everyone does their part and lives their lives. The Tardis lands in a square, and is quickly removed by local authorities. Apparently it resembles a symbol that leads to revolt and revolution across the universe (foreshadowing?). This leaves our party stranded on the world, where they’ll have to live amongst its society. But something feels…. Odd…. So they’re investigating while living amongst them.

This is the lead-in for the main dialogue in the story. Turns out the party has discovered that this society is built to be a “path of least resistance” for the human race. It’s using mindwipe tech and slowly phasing out harmful technology to remove all flaws in humanity, so they’re a more open, welcoming race.

We describe how the party has noticed the decay of certain, very specific societal parts. Like certain technology and behaviors. This doesn’t really reflect what we know of their experiences in the city, so this felt like a cop-out for me. A reason to start conflict, without building it up.

I was wrong. It turns out this isn’t just Vicki telling the AI what has happened. This is her manipulating it. It’s being hacked and altered without realizing it. She’s giving some illogical information that fills in blanks. The dialogue was intentionally unfitting. She’s slowly drawing out information while keeping her cover going.

Frankly, that twist was amazing. I didn’t see it coming at all. Suddenly it all clicks, just because we now understand what was truly going on. It’s all creeping up in the background, until the bubble bursts. Which is incredible. A twist hasn’t landed for me that hard in ages.

It's very difficult for me to describe how it works and how it makes you feel when it happens. Its pretty complicated stuff that suddenly challenges the listener real hard, but it has a great payoff. It’s all on purpose. Every single line suddenly feels masterfully crafted. A real “holy shit” moment. It almost makes you feel like the AI.

Sadly, the story also has some flaws, although they’re comparatively minor. As you may’ve noticed, this is all done by Vicki, and although I like her from what I’ve seen, I do not think she’s this capable. Maybe that’s something that shows itself more in later adventures.

The story also ends with a speech from Vicki, and it is meant to be a little clumsy. Perhaps it succeeded a bit too hard, because it did not really feel that meaningful. The message is nice: Learn to live with your mistakes instead of forgetting, but it doesn’t really come through cleanly.

And, although useful for reinforcing the main dialogue, the segments focusing on the unvoiced characters are a bit too jarring. There’s some neat stuff, like Ian and Barbara not being able to handle computer interfaces because they’re from the 60s, but they don’t really add all that much in the long run, and could perhaps be done in a better way.

Those issues, while noticeable, fall away though. The storytelling is the main drive here, and that succeeds on almost all fronts. This story is smart, thought out and surprising. It deserves to be listened to.