Like [AUDIO/2020.8.13]

★★★☆☆

  As technology advances in our real world, it only makes sense for science fiction staples like Doctor Who to catch on and explore the extremes of our reality. As I write this review, two examples come to mind: Series 10's Smile and Oxygen. As a whole, the mythos has always enlargened its horizons to embrace the times in which each story was born. Now that we're in the 2020s, when social media has become just as important as the physical world we live in (both in terms of social interactions and corporate marketing), it was only a matter of time until an adventure talking about likes, dislikes and views came about.

  We are quite lucky, then, that the adventure in question was written by none other than Jacqueline Rayner. Rayner's always a dab hand at delivering a good story, and Like is no different. With all the quirks and tempting indulgences in the notion of a society based on implanted social media, I could tell during my listen how a lesser writer could've botched this up. Luckily, this story proves to have interesting implementations of said concept: an entire economic system based on likes as tokens of status and wealth, Peri earning an entry pass to a government official's office by becoming an advert celebrity and gaining followers, the true "villains" being not a single figurehead but the masses holding public opinions. Rayner decides to add in a subplot (or to be more accurate, half-plot?) about a marooned alien race in need of help from the planet on which the story takes place, and how xenophobia is preventing them entry; I have some grievances in the way this was resolved, sure, but then again... would there have been another logical way than to create a sitcom where the Yoblan is the token goof/butt of the joke as a plan to gain public popularity? I don't know, I'm no sociologist. 

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ  

  If you want to listen to Colin Baker get frustrated over humanity's obsession with documenting their entire lives on social media and Nicola Bryant become a celebrity (she even has her own beauty product advert), Like is here for you. As a fun and entertaining Doctor Who adventure that has something to say about our dependence on media and how popular opinions shape our everyday lives, this is a darn good hour-long show. A world in which dislikes can physically harm you — that's terrifying.