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If, like us at CultBox, you still have a Merlin-shaped hole in your life, you can at least console yourself with the fact that many of the cast have already gone on to great things both in the UK and across the pond.
Following the pattern that grisly discoveries occur when the Whitehapel gang are socialising, this final tale began amid a “Zombie Apocalypse” team building exercise.
Not that we were initially aware, joining them fleeing from the undead hordes with Buchan and Miles worryingly immersed in the game. It was a smart move, serving to highlight this fractured team’s plight. If such an event does not truly exist for corporate jollies, it really ought to!
Love them or loathe them, multi-Doctor stories have long been a part of Doctor Who’s anniversary celebrations and two such tales are coming our way this November.
The first beat of the tale was a surprising one with the introduction to Jason (Jack Donnelly) taking place in the present day. Establishing our hero as a rootless young man in search of his father, we soon descended in a mini-sub and found ourselves drawn in the world of Atlantis. And it is a world, rather than the past, we are led to believe.
When Doctor Who began its format was very fluid, with stories ranging from comedy to space opera. The TARDIS was more unpredictable and certainly not invulnerable, and most importantly the Doctor was clearly making it all up as he went along.
The world of Doctor Who has a fine tradition of anniversary publications. Given the level scrutiny the show has enjoyed in recent years, the trick is to find a unique angle to approach the material with. Wonderfully, BBC Books have achieved just that with The Doctor – His Lives and Times.
The second part of this face-skinning story begins at quite a pelt, as our witness link from the previous episode is made within the first few minutes. After her input, Buchan’s disgust is palpable at a link to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, drawing on a work of lurid fiction rather than his treasured archive of fact.
After the 1996 TV Movie, and with no prospect of further onscreen adventures, BBC Books began a series of novels featuring the Eighth Doctor. These adventures took off into new worlds with fresh companions, creating their own continuity.
‘Night of the Whisper’ is a rare thing indeed, a non-televised adventure for the Ninth Doctor.
Other than the half a dozen novels and handful of comic strip appearances that appeared at the time, Christopher Eccleston’s short stint as the Time Lord has not seen much expansion. AudioGO tend to make audio adventures for the incumbent Doctor and Big Finish’ license precludes anything pre-2005.
After last week’s supernatural shenanigans, we are back to the gruesome bread and butter of Whitechapel with a serial killer who has a penchant for skinning their victims.