The Winged Coven

🙏🏼(6.1) = OKAY!

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

I was slightly worried when going into The Winged Coven because it continues the story of Four and Mrs. Wibbsey from The Thing from the Sea, which I found very boring.

Susan Jameson returns with her grandmotherly narration style, as if she were telling a bedtime story. She portrays both the Doctor and Mrs. Wibbsey well. Captain Mike Yates is also present, yet he seems to blend into the background.

The story feels very apt for this Doctor and is slightly more intriguing than The Thing from the Sea, but it’s not overly exciting or memorable. This is another religious cult story in the vein of The Masque of Mandragora or Image of the Fendahl, and the cult stuff is the most effective and very well described.

There’s quite a tense third act here, with Jameson’s narration and the music helping to make it all exciting and livid.

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

Previous Story: The Thing from the Sea

A fun little story, with a good premise, but like The Thing from the Sea it's fairly basic especially when comparing it to The Nest Cottage Chronicles. Still though, it's not bad and I found this one to be much better than the last. Susan Jameson as Mrs Wibbsey is genuinely one of my favourite companions now. Her dynamic with the Doctor is unique compared to every other companion. This story and the last do help to give her character much more depth.

This one especially made Nest Cottage feel quite alive and expanded on many of the characters that got a limited role before. Even Captain the Wolfhound gets a chance to be in this story after being sidelined completely since Hornets' Nest. As it stands, this is the last story in the extended timeline to feature Mrs Wibbsey and Nest Cottage which is a real shame because I've quite enjoyed this setting and these characters.

Next Story: Luna Romana