Doctor Who review: Leela joins Jago & Litefoot in Dead Men’s Tales
By James Aggas
As series 3 of the Doctor Who spin-off begins, Jago & Litefoot are reunited with a very old friend – one who warns them that the end of the world is near…
After establishing its titular characters as an effective duo in the first two series, the third series of Jago & Litefoot sees a familiar face joining the cast. Seeing her two friends for the first time since the classic Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang, Leela is visiting from Gallifrey for a very important mission.
Unsurprisingly, Dead Men’s Tales primary focus is introducing Leela into the series. While she’s more than familiar with Jago & Litefoot themselves, they have a firmly established world of their own at this point, even after just eight episodes. So, for this episode, writer and script editor Justin Richards is keen to focus on Leela meeting familiar characters and slowly becoming a part of this team.
However, as well as Leela herself, Richards is also focused on introducing her mission and setting up the key arc of this series. Something is going wrong with time. Strange temporal phenomena are cropping up all over London. Left unchecked, it could destroy the world. While she doesn’t know the cause of it just yet, Leela is ready to deal with each and every outbreak – with Jago & Litefoot’s help, of course.
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A tragic beginning
As you can see, the first episode establishes a clear arc and theme for this particular series. Temporal phenomena is certainly a great hook for a series like Jago & Litefoot – especially as it can take on many forms.
Take this episode’s story, for example. Aside from introducing both Leela and the key arc, Dead Men’s Tales is focused on the mysterious “Wet Men”. They’re actually seen relatively little, but Richards makes sure to give them plenty of presence throughout this episode.
On top of that, he also includes quite a tragic element as well. In many ways, Dead Men’s Tales is unashamedly a ghost story. One that’s done a little differently, particularly in where the ghosts come from. But it still captures that combination of atmosphere and tragedy that many ghost stories have.
Dead Men’s Tales is a nice introduction to the main arc of this box set, featuring plenty of hints of what’s to come in Series 3 (and even beyond). As well as telling a good ghost story in the world of Jago & Litefoot, it also does a great job of bringing Leela into the world of our regulars. A strong start to this series.
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Have you listened to Dead Men’s Tales? What are your thoughts on it? What do you think are the best examples of a ghost story in the Doctor Who universe? Let us know in the comments below.