The Monthly Adventures #94b - "Urgent Calls" by Eddie Robson

Three audios ago, we looked at Circular Time - the Main Range’s first experiment with format - and I mentioned how it would not be the end of Big Finish’s formula shake ups, with the next experiment beginning here. I.D., uniquelly, is a three part story with an additional short adventure - Urgent Calls - making up the fourth part. Of all the different story formats that were used in The Monthly Adventures, this one seems to be the most polarising and I concur that it does seem the hardest to pull off. But since we have one of my favourite writers - Eddie Robson - creating the jumping off point for this type of story, does it prove itself as a viable format for the Main Range?

Lauren Hudson has just dialed a wrong number, but the man on the other end can save her life. A marvellous coincidence! Right?

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Urgent Calls is a bizarre audio to me because I hear basically nothing but good things about it. The consensus seems to be that I.D. is OK but utterly overshadowed by this story and, whilst I agree that Urgent Calls is better than its three-part predecessor, I don’t think it’s that much better.

Ok, first, the positives. This is a two-hander between Baker and one time guest Kate Brown; I think this entire script relies on these two’s performances and luckily, they’re great. They have a wonderful chemistry and bounce brilliantly off each other, I was relatively invested in the pair by the end.

As for the story, whilst I have complaints I agree that this is done well. The idea is relatively simple - create a story solely through phone calls - but it’s achieved brilliantly. You know I love stories that use their format accordingly and this is no exception, I think the way Urgent Calls presents itself is pretty damn close to ingenious.

However, I find myself really not buying into this one as much as other people seem to do and it’s mainly because of one problem I had with it. It’s a story where, once you understand what it's trying to do, you’ve listened to the entire thing. The plot is relatively weak, with an underdeveloped threat and very little sense of tension of growth and I had basically worked out where it was going from the start. There’s very little to offer here in my opinion and I struggled to get that invested. There’s not much story and even if the performances are good, I don’t think our two characters are unique enough to carry everything by themselves. There was definitely a lot that could’ve been done with the idea but I don’t think the story really makes use of it.

6/10

Pros:

+ The chemistry between the two actors is strong

+ Simple idea done well

Cons:

- Thin on plot

- Once you get the concept, you’ve basically heard the whole story

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

Previous Story: I.D.

I find short one-part stories to be very hit or miss but they can be done brilliantly sometimes and this is an example of that. Taking the form of a series of phone calls between the Doctor and a telephone operator by the name of Lauren Hudson. The catch is that they were never intentionally calling each other, they just happened to dial wrong numbers each time. This is one of those great little slice-of-life adventures that show the impact the Doctor can have on someone's life even with just a few phone calls. I liked that it ended with writing a letter, that was quite sweet.

Next Story: Vampire of the Mind