Doctor Who: The Wreck of the Titan

The pairing of Jamie with the the Sixth Doctor continues here in a story that gets gradually weirder as it progresses. The TARDIS initially lands on the Titanic, shortly before it's due to hit the iceberg, which seems a rather unoriginal concept (at least Storm Warning used the lesser known R101 for that plot idea), as well as giving insufficient time for anything interesting to happen on the way to the inevitable.

So, of course, there's much more to the story than that. Even in the first 30 minutes it's clear that this can't really be the Titanic, and then we're off to something resembling the events of the namesake novel (complete with polar bear) before... well, things just continue to get odder. Whereas in the first part of the trilogy the Doctor simply kept noting that something wasn't right, and then showed little interest in trying to work out why that might be, here he is throwing out theories all the time, continually revising them as they're dashed one after the other.

Jamie is once again well written and acted, very reminiscent of the character on the TV show, while the Doctor feels to be in his element. It's unfortunate, perhaps, that you have to have listened to the somewhat blander first part of the trilogy for this to make any sense, although, on the bright side, you don't need to know anything about the Victorian novel with which this shares its name to follow the action. The story does, however, end on a dramatic cliffhanger, as what the heck is going on is finally revealed.

It's a great story, well-paced and fun, yet with time for some good character moments, notably those on the iceberg. I also liked the fact that the reprises at the beginning of each part, while still present, are at least mitigated here by being heard from a different character's perspective, rather than being directly repeated. I mean, if you absolutely have to put them in, this is at least a better way of doing it...