Cobwebs

 

Cobwebs by Jonathan Morris

Now stop me if you've heard this one before... 

The Doctor and Companions arrive in Location X where they discover evidence that something bad is going to happen in the future (i.e. their deaths, the TARDIS not working, etc) and have to fudge the rules of time so they live. It's a Doctor Who stalwart, I should think, I can't count how many stories I've done with it, but the Fires of Vulcan and the entirety of Matt Smith series 6 come readily to mind - and quite frankly, Cobwebs is no exception. It's a complicated time puzzle of a story that will never really surprise you (I figured out the twist a solid hour before it happened.) The story's chief selling point is that for the first time ever since like Mawdwyn Undead and Terminus for two seconds, Tegan, Nyssa, and Turlough are in the TARDIS together. It's other chief selling point is Tegan is in it - this was her second Big Finish audio ever, and she had previously said she wouldn't do them. I think it's rather noticable that this is a Tegan story, it's quite a Tegan vehicle and she gets a lot of dialogue in it, a lot of focus for a Doctor Who companion, even if she isn't given an enormous amount of depth or character study, there is a lot of her. Minus that it's the return of Nyssa - for her it's been fifty years and for Doctor Who and Co, it's been two days. So in all of these triumphant returns, it does make sense that someone would be lost in the bargain, and it's definitely, 100% Turlough. I've never thought Turlough was a very deep character that had a lot to him minus the Black Guardian Trilogy and his departure. He's sort of a bit of a bland character, well meaning but also self-serving. This is momentarily touched on, but in the whole of things, you could essentially give Turlough's lines to Nyssa and the story would work just fine. I don't see the point of him being here yet, maybe it comes up in future stories. If not - they should have axed him and made this a series 19 audio with some tweaks. The best part of Cobwebs is the sense of satisfaction to it, as you see all the elements slide into place. Part One lets you see where everything is going in the most vague of terms, and you can see it steadily go into that direction in the following three parts. This is the story's greatest asset - minus it's incredible atmosphere. The only problem I can see with a story like this would be that for someone unfamiliar with the audio medium, it's complexity could be self-defeating. It could be difficult to follow along with if you aren't familiar with complicated time nonsense and while that may not be a deal breaker for some, it can be for others. Regardless, this one's a fine two hours. Pick it up if you have the inclination: 8/10

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