83. Something Inside

Something Inside sees The Doctor reunite with his old steadfast companion amnesia. It's a pretty straightforward story of militarized psychics and a telepathy-consuming brain worm told in a roundabout way. The first 2 parts are slow as we try to unravel forgotten events and get a handle on the issues St hand. The memory loss schtick wears thin quickly as there is a lot of hemming and hawing about things recalled or not quite remembered. The plot picks up the pace in the 3rd part only to slow down to a drag in the final episode. There is a decent story here somewhere but good luck keeping your interest long enough to grasp hold of it. When it's moving along this is in a similar vein as some of the better 80's television stories. It's a shame it's so inconsistent.

Some descent concepts but the music is a bit cringe and there’s few surprises. Still a easy listen 6/10

A serviceable story, but not much more than that. It's got a fairly strong central idea which is reasonably well developed, but gets a bit tedious and repetitive as it goes on. I think it might have worked a lot better as a three-part story.

I like the basic premise, though. I like the idea of characters who are given psi-powers to fight a war, only for their own government to turn on them after the war is over. It's not the most original idea I've ever heard (it sound like something "Star Trek: The Next Generation" would have done), but it's a strong, compelling idea all the same. Unfortunately, the actual characters involved are bland and mostly forgettable.

Having the Doctor lose his memory is also kind of annoying, and like the non-linear approach to the story, doesn't seem to serve much of a narrative purpose. Unless I'm overlooking something, which wouldn't surprise me. I found this a very difficult story to concentrate on. It just doesn't seem to hold my attention, so it's very possible that I missed some details or even a few major plot points.

It has been noted elsewhere that the story is a bit a grim. Although there aren't a whole lot of characters, there are a lot of corpses by the time it's all over. It's one of those stories where the Doctor succeeds by containing the threat, preventing it from getting out and killing countless numbers of people who aren't actually in this story, which unfortunately failing to save anyone who is in the story other than himself and his companions. The script handles this nicely, giving the Doctor a beat to reflect on everyone he couldn't save, but it's still makes for a pretty grim experience as a listener.

This is a pretty solid and frightening adventure. The Doctor, Charley, and C'Rizz are trapped in the Cube, a prison for psychics. The Doctor has lost his memory (again) and is being tortured by the Rawden who created psychic warriors to win a war but now fears them.

The idea of creating these warriors and then locking up due to fear is a powerful one and very thought provoking. The Mind Worm is a perfect monster for audio and very creepy. Rawdem and Twyst (terrific name for a torturer by the way) are a terrifying pair of torturers trying to extract information from the Doctor. Overall, this is pretty chilling with some very suspenseful moments in Part IV. I also really like Charley in this episode. Separated from the Doctor and eventually C'Rizz, she shows drive and determination to find her friends, and a lot more spark than she's shown since C'Rizz joined the TARDIS crew.

Of course, it does seem the Eighth Doctor and amnesia and temporary memory loss has become a theme (The TV Movie, Minuet in Hell, Terror Firma, and there would be more more) , but thankfully they came up with a better reason for it here. C'Rizz's plot seems to kind of spin in place in this episode. It doesn't detract much, but his main thing he does is get beaten up by Twyst.

Still, this is a well-produced tale, although it's probably has one of the more grim stories for the Eighth Doctor during this era.