Truth and fiction have intertwined in the stories of Jacob Harmer…

Roy Gill’s two-parter opens the second batch (and box set) of adventures for Tom Baker’s Doctor, accompanied by Louise Jameson’s Leela and Nerys Hughes’ Margaret. It’s rather different from the usual tale, inspired, it seems, almost as much by Baker’s appearance in The Book Tower as it is Doctor Who, with a lot of homage to a certain mode of literature that sees teenage protagonists caught up in fantasy peril and requiring the assistance of unusual elders to survive. Of course, there are the requisite Doctor Who elements – but I’ll leave those for you to discover as the story progresses.

It’s told in a different format to usual as well, to the extent that at one point I wondered if it had been pitched as an audionovel or a Companion Chronicle, but the assorted narrative styles combine to add to the sense of unease that Jacob has felt all his life. Ronald Pickup is the older Jacob, and there’s a strong supporting cast. Toby Hrycek-Robinson’s sound design has to create various environments – and subtly different versions of them – and even in this heatwave currently in the UK, you may well get goosebumps…

Verdict: Something a little different with a less-satirical-than-it-might-seem commentary on publishing along the way! 8/10

Paul Simpson

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