BBC Sounds, May 1, 2022

The dangers start to get closer to home for the podcast girls…

Some spoilers

Things are definitely heating up, and we’re only on episode 3 of this 10 part series, once again penned by head writer Juno Dawson (who also voices the Ravulox, the “Terminator”-type robot who was threatening Cleo and Jordan at the end of the previous episode). A lot of care has gone into increasing the threat – or at least both the characters’ and the audience’s perception of it – on both a macro and micro level: the disappearances are having a ripple effect on the country, if not the planet, that leads to some dark comedy moments, as well as hitting horribly close to home. You can learn a lot about someone by imagining what life would be without them, and the way that their presence affects you… now multiply that to the level on which the Doctor has affected everyone on Earth’s life. The idea of the Doctor removing himself from history has come up before, but this time it’s different.

They say you die twice – once when your physical existence comes to an end, the other time when people stop talking about you – and that seems key to what is happening here. That’s also nicely linked to the concept of dead naming which is addressed between Cleo and her mum without making a big issue of it.

This episode breaks the mould of the first two by not diving back into Doctor Who history so directly – no reappearance of old characters – although The Web of Fear and The Green Death get a mention. It’s a Series 2 episode that has the most resonance and its use emphasises the magnitude of the threat…

Verdict: Redacted continues to take broad swings at the Doctor Who universe – and I’m increasingly intrigued by how it’s going to play out. 8/10

Paul Simpson