Doctor Who Review: Sixth Doctor audio ‘The Raincloud Man’
By James Aggas
When the Sixth Doctor arrives in 2008 Manchester, he follows a mystery that leads him into the middle of an interplanetary war. But could there be a greater danger from his current companion, the mysterious “Charley Pollard”?
Following on directly from Return of the Krotons, The Raincloud Man begins in a rather light-hearted fashion. The Sixth Doctor and Charley are enjoying breakfast in Manchester, in the year 2008. Considering the number of stories that begin with the Doctor and his companion immediately heading into danger, it is rather nice to have a story that begins with them relaxing, for a change.
Of course, that doesn’t last long. When the Doctor sees an article about a pound coin from the relative future of 2012 being discovered, he feels compelled to investigate. Once he and Charley have both finished breakfast, at least.
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What happens next is a story that starts with a nice little mystery involving time travel and some mysterious accidents. Then it rapidly escalates into very high stakes gambling and an interplanetary war.
This is the second story featuring the Sixth Doctor and Charley to be written by Eddie Robson. It very clearly shows, too. Not only does it share a lot of the themes and style as his earlier story The Condemned, with a nice exploration of both the criminal and the alien underworlds of modern Manchester. It also features the return of another character from that very successful story: DI Patricia Menzies!
Menzies’s return
I’ve mentioned in my review for The Condemned how much I adored Menzies. She was an incredibly well-written and performed character, and this remains true in The Raincloud Man.
While The Raincloud Man isn’t a direct sequel to The Condemned, it does expand on some of its ideas. Particularly of aliens living among us in plain sight, not to invade, but simply to live ordinary lives in peace. This is explored even more in this story, as we catch up on what Menzies has been up to.
It turns out that helping the Doctor got her noticed by some of the non-Terran minorities. As a result, she’s grown even more experienced when it comes to aliens, and it helps her to solve cases that the rest of the police would definitely have difficulty with.
Catching up with Menzies was one of my favourite aspects of this story. It’s not often that we meet a character again who wasn’t a companion, and it’s great to see just how much meeting the Doctor has affected someone like Menzies.
However, even better is how much Menzies hasn’t changed. While she’s more used to aliens than before, she’s still got a very sarcastic attitude to people/problems/anything at all. Hearing more of her wonderfully witty dialogue was a joy to hear.
She’s also paired with Charley at one point, which was exciting to listen to. In The Condemned, Menzies was only with the Sixth Doctor, so it’s nice that Menzies and Charley are given some scenes together. Unfortunately, it’s not a pairing that goes very well, as Menzies becomes suspicious of Charley very quickly. And she’s not the only one.
The problem with Charley
Over the course of the story, the ongoing problem with Charley becomes increasingly significant. Travelling with a previous Doctor who should have no memory of her has been a problem she’s been trying to avoid for a long while now.
But time is catching up with her. The first episode lets you know that with a great conversation between herself and someone sensitive to time. She tries hard to justify it, but it’s clearly a bigger problem than she wants to admit.
Even worse, she makes some dangerous choices that put her at odds with the Doctor in a big way. He finally admits to himself that his companion has been constantly lying to him. And if he can’t trust someone he constantly travels with, how much longer can they keep travelling together?
Plot wise, The Raincloud Man was another great story from Eddie Robson. It had a great, fast-paced plot that grew bigger in scale as it went on. It also had a great mixture of characters, some of whom were straightforward but others were more complex in their motivations and means. I enjoyed The Condemned slightly more, but only because that had some great creepy moments. As a horror fan, that’s something I always enjoy.
As interesting as the plot was, however, it was the character drama that I enjoyed the most. The Sixth Doctor and Charley arc isn’t brought to a close in The Raincloud Man. But by the end, it’s becoming very, very clear that they can’t travel together much longer.
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