Doctor Who: The Middle

The brief summary of this would be “Doctor Who does Logan's Run.” Which probably explains why one of the characters is called Mr. York. Now, if that had been all the story was, I'd probably have given it just the three stars. But, despite the initial points of resemblance, things take a left turn at the 30-minute mark, albeit one that has parallels with another, much more recent, SF work, Old Man's War by John Scalzi.

That isn't even the last twist, although I spotted one of the others quite a way in advance. The result is, though, definitely DW, reminiscent of a number of classic stories in which the Doctor faces off against some tyrannical society - Vengeance on Varos being perhaps the archetypal example for Six. There are also aliens and, of course, we're on some far future colony world, rather than Earth, but that's not really what the story is about.

It's difficult to say too much more without giving away the reveals, but it's far to say that this in, part, a story about age and, in particular, about how society treats its elderly. There's perhaps a limit to how deeply one can explore those themes in a 2-hour DW audio play, but Chapman certainly has a good stab at it. As a result, there is a good mix of actors employed, representing various different ages (in this society, The End comes at 70, not 30) - veteran actress Sheila Reid being particularly notable.

So, it's really much more - and, in particular, more original - than the basic premise would suggest. Yes, it's partly borrowing from some of the greats, but it's very much putting a unique spin on them, and our initial impressions of the society depicted turn out to be not quite what we think. A good story, tackling a theme that we don't often see.