SHORT TRIPS, VOLUME 3

Following on from its sixth segment, Short Trips (Volume 3) from Big Finish again continues with a short interlude which is, this time, narrated/voiced by William Russell who does a fair job with Hartnell’s voice.  The First Doctor (with Susan) befuddles the android with a simple trick – the android is stuck in a loop of turning over a piece of paper onto which the Doctor has written “PTO” on both sides.

The Doctor is aware, from the android, that six of his future incarnations have been trapped by the trick of the door and the only clue he has is that each of his future selves was most likely accompanied by a companion. How does that help him?

The First Doctor’s solving of the “trick” is quite clever but, boy, has it taken a long and arduous journey to get here.  Nevertheless, it’s a delight to hear William Russell’s voice once more.

All the Fun of the Fair by Bev Conway is read by India Fisher in First Person.  Trouble is that the character of the narrator appears to be male, and it’s distinctly off-putting to have characters refer to the narrator as male when her voice is clearly female.  It takes a while to get used to that.

The story is a bit of a mess.  The TARDIS is being used as a magic box at a funfair (awkwardly reminiscent of The Wondrous Box earlier in this set of stories).  The narrator (I’m not sure we ever got his name) coerces people inside, they close the doors and “vworp! vworp!” they disappear, supposedly into the future.  The TARDIS doesn’t dematerialise – the occupant does.

Eventually, when a police constable vanishes, his detective colleague turns up to investigate – having first been forewarned by a distant descendant, Lucie Miller.  The three of them enter the TARDIS and they arrive at an unknown time/location where all of the previous disappearances are congregated.

Amongst the group is the Doctor, who’s pleased to have been rescued by Lucie.

What isn’t answered is why the occupants of the TARDIS vanish, when the TARDIS doesn’t.  Also, why Lucie and the police detective arriving changes anything.  If they can all get back into the TARDIS when Lucie arrives, couldn’t they have done so at any time without her presence?

None of this is made clear and, so, All the Fun of the Fair is really just 15-minutes of India Fisher doing an assortment of caricature voices to serve a mess of a story.  Definitely not a segment to be recommended.