The Doctor and Benny have to find a new way to communicate.

Tim Foley kicks off this new set for the Unbound (Third) Doctor and Bernice Summerfield with a fascinating story about communication, and the way that speech and understanding don’t always necessarily go together. It’s a three-hander for David Warner, Lisa Bowerman and Misha Butler that Scott Handcock directs with flair, with Steve Foxon’s sound design emphasising the common paths down which thoughts are running with exemplary pick-ups between lines.

It’s a story that you don’t want too much detail about before you listen to it –  as an audience we’re grasping for understanding in exactly the same way that the characters are – and, not for the first time with this particular TARDIS pairing, there’s a bittersweet air to it. The box set’s overall title – Lost in Translation – has a more literal meaning for this story than I suspect it will later (after all, this Doctor has been translated over from one universe to another).

You wonder with some TARDIS crews why they stay together – particularly with all the bickering that can happen – but it’s scenes like the final one of this that shows why Warner and Bowerman are so strong together.

Verdict: A thoughtful and intriguing start to the set. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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