14th August 3097 – a perfect day for a wedding. And for the destruction of your planet…

You’re likely to go through a lot of emotions listening to this 40 minute story from Alfie Shaw. There’s likely to be some confusion and wondering if director Scott Handcock has made a mistake with the file. That’s probably going to be followed by even more confusion as things don’t appear to make sense. And then you’ll start to realise what Shaw is doing thematically… and that will decide your overall opinion of this.

For me, it’s up there with Nick Briggs’ Creatures of Beauty for its playing with the concepts of Doctor Who storytelling (and I’m well aware Creatures is a marmite story – I’m one of those who admires it). It’s built round a very clever central conceit, one that could only be told really against the backdrop of the Time War (and just as an aside, I really thought it was the War Doctor featured but apparently it is the increasingly battle hardened Eighth). Its protagonist, Viola Wintersmith, finds a way to weaponise something that we all have – a past – in the service of proactive revenge… and unsurprisingly the Doctor isn’t impressed.

It’s how the Doctor deals with it that also sets this apart, and the thematic cleverness continues right the way to the (real) end of the file.

It’s appropriate that Adele Anderson doesn’t try to imitate Paul McGann – this is a story about the essential Doctor-ness of the character as much as anything else – and Richard Fox’s sound design and music are essential to selling the ways in which things are changing… or not.

Verdict: One I suspect people will love or hate – and I loved it (even more on a second listen). 9/10

Paul Simpson

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