Ghost in the Machine (#8.04)

  Big Finish, Companion Chronicles

 

Though this is a scary story, it mightily reminds me of previous audio Big Finish did the main range called Whispers of Terror. Taping audio of a person and it takes on a life of its own? It happened to a human as opposed to an alien in this episode but similar type of circumstances surrounding the audio being. The story has Jo coming out of the TARDIS on a planet long after the Doctor has arrived and walked out. We discover she is in a base underground that has been sealed in. There is an audio monster at large who was trapped in the first telephone or phonograph message where Edison recites Mary has a Little Lamb to Watson. So this alien escapes in this base and Jo is trapped as the other people in the base. Things progress from there and the Doctor saves the day, ultimately, using Jo Grant as his proxy.

And I can’t say enough good things about how Katy Manning voices the third Doctor. Wow! It really sounds like him and has the pacing of his voice really down. Fantastic stuff! But I didn’t find this super scary. There are other scarier stories, like Night Thoughts, that really spooked me out. This one is definitely spooky but once the action starts, the spooky goes away for me. Perhaps it’s a result of listening to this at work instead of in the dark, in bed, by myself. Difficult to accomplish on the best of days!  So only a 4 jelloid story for me.


Katy Manning (Jo Grant) and Damian Lynch (Benjamin Chikoto)

Writer: Jonathan Morris

Director: Louise Jameson

Release: October 2013

© Laura Vilensky 2019