.you must be mad, or else you wouldn't have come here

Dear Dastardly and Muttley,
(Wait, does that mean Jo is Penelope Pitstop? After meeting her Doctor Who alter-ego in the novel "The Crooked World" I'm not very comfortable with the idea.)

You suggested I'd write my own reviews of the Companion Chronicles I recommended two weeks ago. Challenge accepted. (Oh dear, I'm starting to sound like a Dominator. Sorry, Tony.) For my first review, I choose the Victoria Waterfield story "The Great Space Elevator".

The story begins with a much older Victoria reminiscing about the time she, the Second Doctor and Jamie (or, as the Mad Twins affectionately call him, "Skirt Boy") land in Sumatra sometime in the future. As usual in Victoria's days, they fall right in the middle of a base-under-siege situation - with the base in question this time being a space station linked to the Sumatra base through a long structure known as a Space Elevator. Something very wrong is happening at the station - they send emergency messages only to dismiss those later, the communications officer's voice and manners completely changed. The Doctor manages to convince Security Officer Tara Kerley to let him and his companions accompany her to the station. What follows is a chilling and suspenseful tale that will keep you on the edge of your seat (if you're sitting down, that is) to the very end.

As I'’ve mentioned before, the Patrick Troughton era is my favourite. This is what makes me appreciate the Companion Chronicles so much - it allows us to get new adventures of Doctors that can no longer make an actual appearance, as well as provide us with an interesting look at the way the companions see the events unfolding before them. "The Great Space Elevator" fulfils those two aspects perfectly. It's also the perfect audio to show to someone who has never seen a Troughton episode, as it's both written and produced in such a way that it feels like a typical Series 5 story. From the special effects that would be required to the soundtrack, everything fits with what the production team back in 1967/68 could achieve - the only difference is that it's much, much shorter, which in the case of this particular adventure works as an asset. Tara Kerley's uniform is clearly reminiscent of what Miss Garrett and the other female personnel wore in "The Ice Warriors", and the character itself, played by Helen Goldwyn, is in the same vein of other no-nonsense women of the Troughton era like the aforementioned Miss Garrett or Miss Kelly from "The Seeds of Death". As I listened to it, I could almost imagine the visual effects team rubbing their hands in glee because they'd be given a chance to use their beloved foam machine yet again. The only two things that seem harder to accomplish, the sight of the Space Elevator rising up to the skies and the view from inside the Elevator as it took the Doctor and his friends to the station, would be difficult to achieve, but not impossible.

In conclusion, it's a great story. It pushes the right nostalgia buttons for the Troughton fans, and it also works well as an introduction for the newcomer.

All the best,
Patricia