Doctor Who Review: Eighth Doctor audio ‘Something Inside’
By James Aggas
The Eighth Doctor, Charley and C’Rizz are trapped inside an inescapable prison. Worse, there’s something trapped inside with them…
As a massive fan of the Classic Series, I’m quite fond of the four-part serial. Usually, four half hour episodes would be enough to tell the kind of stories that the Classic Series used to. Sometimes, the stories were longer, at six episodes or even longer than that. Sometimes, that length was just right for telling a more epic and ambitious story. Other times, however, it was simply far too long.
And then there are times when even just four episodes is too long. The four-part narrative has been used for most of Big Finish’s stories. Usually, that’s enough, but sometimes, it’s slightly more than enough. This is very much the case with Something Inside.
More from Winter is Coming
- For All Mankind finally gives us information in Episode 405, “Goldilocks”
- Watch a stunning VFX breakdown of The Wheel of Time season 2
- Of course Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) thinks Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen) should rule Westeros
- Confirmed: The Last of Us season 2 will air in 2025
- Final season of Star Trek: Discovery will have “a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of fun”
Now, before I go into more detail, it has to be said, there’s still a lot that I do like about this story. Taking place in a high-security prison, I love how claustrophobic it is. And the “Brain Worm”, while I’m not too keen on the name, is a basic but quite effective monster.
What really surprised me is how gruesome the deaths are. Make no mistake, there’s no way that they would have made this story for TV. So I like that it uses the audio medium to tell a more violent and grim horror story than usual.
However, as I said, one major problem it has is how long it is. There’s just not enough plot to justify the length. There’s some suspense and build-up. But not as much as there should be. For the first two episodes, apart from a couple of flashback scenes, the Eighth Doctor is continually tortured, and it’s not until halfway through Something Inside that his story truly progresses.
Alternative options
I can’t help but feel that one of two options should’ve been taken with Something Inside. Option one, an entire episode could’ve been cut, and it would have helped the plot speed up a lot. If the plot of two of the episodes had been combined into one – particularly the first two – there would have been a much nicer flow to the story.
Alternatively, another way the story could have improved was by including more build-up. Particularly with the Brain Worm. The Brain Worm was revealed to have killed several prisoners already at the very beginning of the story. If I’m honest, I think this was a mistake, at least if the episode wanted to make better use of its four episodes. You could easily have had the first episode focus primarily on life in the prison, before the cliffhanger reveals the Brain Worm killing for the first time. Leaping into the middle of things only really works when the story’s half the length.
Something Inside isn’t a terrible story, just a frustrating one. With a little more improvement, either with more depth or less padding, this could have been a very effective story. As it is, it’s a story with some good themes and ideas, but doesn’t quite reach its full potential.
Next: Doctor Who Review: Eighth Doctor audio ‘Time Works’
Oh, one more thing? The Eighth Doctor gets amnesia. Again. Even when just discussing the audios, that’s got to be at least the fourth time that’s happened! No wonder Eight losing his memory is such a popular joke on tumblr!