Winter is Coming
Fansided

Doctor Who Review: ‘Eighth Doctor Adventures: Brave New Town’

By James Aggas

facebooktwitterreddit

In this episode of ‘The Eighth Doctor Adventures’, the Doctor and Lucie arrive in a village stuck in the past in ‘Brave New Town’. Why is everyone reliving the same day, and why is Bryan Adams still number one?

Brave New Town opens with a nice little mystery for the Eighth Doctor and Lucie. They land in the quiet little village of Thorington in Suffolk. The people there seem nice and friendly, but also a little odd. For some reason, everyone is reliving the exact same day: September 1st 1991.

Not only is everyone aware of this, but even stranger, they accept it as normal. As the Doctor and Lucie investigate further, they’re forced to ask themselves: is there more to fear in this village than the fact that Bryan Adams is still number one?

More from Winter is Coming

That’s how the episode begins. The quiet little mystery is kept up for half of the episode, and it’s handled really well. It’s always enjoyable when the Doctor and the companion arrive somewhere that should be ordinary, but something isn’t quite right. It’s more relatable than a space station or the distant past. So there’s an instant hook for the audience from the start.

There’s another thing I appreciated about Brave New Town: the village setting. As someone who’s lived in a village himself, the depiction of village life resonated rather strongly, personally speaking. Particularly with people living in the past. While figuratively true in some places, “living in the past” is given more of a literal interpretation in this story. Turning the figurative into the literal is one more thing that Doctor Who usually does well.

The ‘visitors’

Then about halfway through, the episode changes gear. Without giving too much away, it becomes a little more fast paced and action packed, especially when we start getting some answers. Some additional characters are introduced in this half too, as the initially mysterious ‘visitors’.

Personally speaking, the standout performance of the guest characters was Adrian Dunbar. It was great to hear him as no-nonsense McCarthy. Dunbar has been greatly enjoyable to watch in various roles on television. (His performance as the antagonist Martin Summers in police/time travel drama Ashes to Ashes is well worth checking out.)

So it was great to hear his voice in Brave New Town. McCarthy is someone who’s initially confidant that he’s seen it all. Of course, that rapidly changes once he meets the Doctor and finds out what he’s dealing with.

But what are they dealing with, exactly? The answers to the intriguing mysteries are satisfying, and not just because they provide a very new take on…well, you’ll see. Unlike the trailer, I don’t want to spoil the big twist here, particularly as it’s rather nicely built up. (Seriously, the trailer for Brave New Town reveals far too much.)

Brave New Town is another entertaining listen in this season of The Eighth Doctor Adventures. It has a great mystery, a lot of humor, and some really cool ideas. It’s also exactly the right kind of story for the forty-five minute length. It’s simple, it doesn’t try and squeeze in too many characters or storylines, and it’s resolved rather nicely.

Next: Doctor Who Watch Launches App For iOS and Android

Next time: ‘The Skull of Sobek’

Home/Doctor Who