Doctor Who review: The Dispossessed (Seventh Doctor audio)
By James Aggas
In this month’s Doctor Who audio, the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Mel investigate strange things in a tower block in The Dispossessed…
The Dispossessed is an interesting Doctor Who audio. Like many of the previous stories with both Mel and Ace, this captures something of the flavor of McCoy’s TV era. Certainly, the tower block setting is reminiscent of Paradise Towers. Fortunately, The Dispossessed is definitely superior compared to that earlier story.
For one thing, while it’s a fairly light story and moves along at an easy pace, there’s also a good amount of horror in there, too. It’s not exactly scary, but with the Doctor and his companions finding themselves fighting zombies and making the occasional horrific discovery, there’s definitely a good influence from horror.
It’s not surprising, as writer Mark Morris certainly seems to enjoy writing horror. In fact, this isn’t even the first Doctor Who story he’s written where zombies were a major monster. (Check out 2009’s Plague of the Daleks for an earlier and even nastier example.)
Still, it’s kind of surprising that The Dispossessed isn’t even more of a horror story than it actually is. It’s got some creepy ideas, but instead of being rich in atmosphere, it instead balances out the horror with plenty of sci-fi, too.
The Seventh Doctor, Mel and Ace find a tower block filled with zombies in The Dispossessed.
(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
An ambiguous start
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There’s a really good mystery at the heart of The Dispossessed, as you’re left working out what’s really going on for the first two episodes or so. By the third episode, we do start getting plenty of answers. But up until then, you’re left wondering what’s really going on with everyone in the tower block.
We’ve also got plenty of good characters, too. Ruck and Jan stand out as a particularly sweet couple. You start to root for them, especially with the two of them being trapped in a building that they cannot escape from.
The character of Isabel is also brilliant. She’s a fresh take on a classic sci-fi trope, and she has some really fantastic lines in this one. It was definitely satisfying hearing how she always handled the situation (usually with a snarky line or two).
Overall, The Dispossessed was a pretty decent Doctor Who audio. It wasn’t what I expected, but it had some interesting ideas and some really great fleshed out characters. Not my favorite of the year, but still enjoyable.
Next. How did the Silence destroy the TARDIS?. dark
Are you enjoying the current season of the Seventh Doctor on audio? Did you check out last month’s opening story Red Planets? Let us know in the comments below.