A world where every word costs you is perhaps not the ideal place for the gobbiest of Doctors…

Although a number of stories have used David Tennant’s ability to deliver rapidfire dialogue to good effect, his Doctor’s line in his first full story (“judging by the evidence, I’ve certainly got a gob”) hasn’t been put to the test quite so much as in this very nicely plotted and planned story by Eugenie Pusenjak, the winner of the Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trips competition. We’re in the company of Aymius Todd, who’s under interrogation, but can only answer in as short phrases as possible in case he runs out of credit – because on this world, a chip in your tongue debits your account for each word. Aymius has encountered the Doctor, who’s not impressed with the society on Skaz.

Pusenjak does a great job extrapolating the issues involved with such a set-up – and what would happen if you were suddenly freed from the shackles. It’s a story as much about the effect that the Doctor has on someone as it is about the Time Lord’s actions themselves, and I hope that this is just the first story that we get to hear from this writer.

If you’re interested in the journey from winning entry to final script, then Big Finish has also released both. Portions of the sample text have travelled intact; other parts of the plot have changed, sometimes quite dramatically.

Verdict: A strong 10th Doctor story with a neat concept and extrapolation. 9/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to download from Big Finish