These interludes are such a mixed bunch. This one attempts to embroil 6 and Mel into a series of imaginary death-traps based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe but ultimately only provided a pale pastiche with none of the depth of the original writing.

There were one or two mildly clever gags in it (Edgar Alien Poe, for example) , but they were largely wasted.

Ultimately, I was left disappointed and with the feeling that somewhere in the universe there must be a much better tale of Poe's mysterious final days.

I have listened to a lot of Big Finish Audio stories and enjoyed almost all of them. This one, however, I really struggled with.

In writing there is an adage - show, don't tell. This story seemed to turn that recommendation completely on its head. It was full of tedious explanations of a dull world and its inhabitants, and no characterisation to speak of. I won't be listening again.

A short trip set in a really interesting world where it costs money for every word you speak, so only the rich can say what they like. Clearly it's an allegory, but it is handled well, with the Doctor mainly in the background and the focus on a character who is short of cash and so has to choose his words wisely. The choice of the famously talkative 10th Doctor is a good one, as his rambling contrasts sharply to the short, to-the-point, speaking style of the main characters.

It will come as no surprise, given the title, that the story resolves around the desire for free speech, and this aspect of the story works well. There is also a kind of clumsy romance sub-plot which obviously exists to highlight the difference in speech patterns of the wealthy and the poor, but felt unnecessary otherwise. My biggest issue was that the speech patterns of the poor people were not short enough. Several times the main character added an expression, a phrase, or a few extra words which were simply not necessary. A life of counting every word would likely have taught everyone how to say the absolute minimum words in any situation.

Overall, a fun story in a very clever world which made good use of the 10th Doctor and did not include a spurious alien invasion.

I enjoyed this more than I was expecting. Nyssa can be hard to write for, as her role in the TV series was often little more than eye candy or a calm voice to contrast with outbursts from Tegan, Turlough, or Adric. I'm also not generally a fan of second-person narrative, which can feel like the author is telling the reader what to think. In this story, however, Nyssa's passivity and optimism work well with the psychological nature of the challenge, and the use of second-person is cleverly justified by the end of the tale.

There's an alien threat. It's Doctor Who, so the presence of some sort of alien is not really a spoiler. However, while listening to the story, I kept wondering whether the alien threat was really necessary. Either way, this was a pleasant listen.

A novella which purports to be about the First Doctor encountering some aliens in Victorian London, but is largely an excuse to claim the inspiration for the story of Peter Pan.

This kind of 'it was the Doctor all along' story is hardly rare, but in this case I found it to be very forced. I also found the characterisations to be a bit off, with the famously distant and grumpy First Doctor getting all soppy about the thought of losing his granddaughter. What follows is a lot of running, jumping, and sword-play, which almost seems as if it was originally written for a 21st Century Doctor. While all this is going on, Susan herself does practically nothing except get immediately captured and spend the rest of the story asleep.

Overall, I feel that this is a bit of a missed opportunity. The story of Peter Pan is already strange enough that it would fit a much more engaging Doctor Who story, and this tale seemed an odd choice for a First Doctor story. I'm tempted to think that this story was written for another pairing, such as 10 and Rose, then hastily converted when the publisher realised they needed a First Doctor story.