123d. The Company of Friends - Mary's Story

This is a one off adventure making up one part of The Company of Friends anthology. In the Doctor's timeline this apparently fits in after Benny's Story and Izzy's Story and before any other 8th Doctor audio adventures.

This features the Doctor meeting Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, who then becomes his companion in many adventures. The idea of Mary Shelley being a companion was a good one and this story giving the story of their meeting is very enjoyable and interesting. It is suitably gothic horror style and has an involving plot which has peril, humour and character drama. It features Lord Byron and his household on the famous night they tell each other scary tales and it also features some 'timey-wimey' aspects with The Doctor appearing in two different points of his own timeline. It is all well produced and very well acted. The story is not the most incredible in terms of being perfectly executed but is very good.

This is easily the best of The Company of Friends 4 adventures and is a fine introduction if listened to before later Mary Shelley adventures such as the excellent The Silver Turk.

Overall: 8/10

Mary's Story: Is the best and most well rounded story with good music, interesting story that genuinely intrigues and a fantastic companion in Mary Shelly. The idea of Paul McGann's eighth Doctor started as a joke in his first adventure, 'Storm Warning.' The Doctor is hurt and sends out a distress call which summons a younger version of himself from a week ago.

The plot is rather nonsensical, Mary Shelly and Co. find the Doctor outside their house dazed and confused. When asked his name he tell them it's Frankenstein, it's never explained why he did. They take him in and while recuperating he appears to die. So, they electrocute him and he comes back to life, albeit rather deranged? 'Mary's Story' has Great production values, acting but as a story that hangs together it just fails, still enjoyable the first time though.

The jewel of the collection, Mary's Story is an incredibly done tale of two halves. It begins with a near-death Eighth Doctor meeting with Mary Shelley, her husband Percy, John Polidori, Lord Byron, and Mary's sister Claire and leads to a horrific experiment by Percy which easily could have inspired the author of Frankenstein and ends with a delightful time travel twist and an invitation to travel in the TARDIS.

It's based on a suggestion in Storm Warning that the Doctor and Mary Shelley traveled together, but it does more than fill in continuity. It's a superb half hour with Julie Cox turning in a great performance as Mary, that combined kindness and bravery and would set up her return for a trilogy of stories with the Eighth Doctor.

This is a wonderful little tale, intertwined with the fateful and prolific time that Shelley, Byron, and Polidori on the edge of lake Geneva, with a good dose of Laudium, we also have the obligatory thunder storm that rages in the background, when we find the Doctor injured and at the point of passing out, knocking on the door where the historic writers are spending their holiday. However the Doctor himself seems to be caught up in his own time line. The story could well have been developed as a full release. Sadly we only get a half an hour of this, and it is over. Cracking stuff.