Ratings1
Average rating4
The 8th Doctor series does its first comedy episode as it spoofs a certain BBC show that's on a par with Doctor Who itself in terms of popularity. The story is a murder mystery based around the eponymous show for spaceship enthusiasts in an unspecified future setting. It moves along at quite a pace, although the plot itself is rather bonkers and probably doesn't bear too much thinking about.
This would probably just be a 3-star audio if it weren't for the spoof elements, which serve to push it above the middling, if not quite to the height of excellence. Graeme Garden is particularly good as Jeremy Clarkson Geoffrey Vantage, and both he and his minutiae-obsessed co-presenter are well-written enough that it's hard not to envisage them as their real-world inspirations. (For plot reasons, the third presenter has rather less to do).
The jokes are at times a little laboured, and Lucie's increasingly mad theories about whodunnit somewhat implausible (if often quite funny), but, on the whole it's a decent entry in the series. Although it probably helps if you have at least a basic familiarity with Top Gear.