Patience [AUDIO/2021.12.2]

★★★★☆

  Who would've thought that something like Stranded, with a mission statement in its inception to be more grounded than its predecessors, would be able to come up with something as trippy as Patience? Two parallel stories with a split up TARDIS team, a series of similar events, a pair of Judoons employed by a mysterious force chasing them, a hall of mirrors and a pack of playing cards -- there's a wealth of wonderfully vocative, strange moments that I always look for in my Dr. Who, and Tim Foley has a lot of fun juxtaposing what's really going on with the Doctor's tale of his childhood. 

  At this point in Stranded, it's become quite a different beast from what I thought it would be from the first boxset alone (feels like ages ago now). I can understand why some people were, at this point in the series, turned off from the sotry as a whole because it deviated from how it was initially marketed. Is it a huge downer for me, personally? Not at all. On the contrary, it delights me that Stranded was able to utilise its restrained nature to create its own brand of universe-spanning adventures. It has its own overarching enemy, Divine Intervention, and its own mystery to solve. It's got its own continuity, its own feeling, and that's immensely cool. Patience as an audio drama flows so smoothly, plays with immense ideas with reckless abandon, and is directed with real flair. Andy from Torchwood holding a baby Judoon? Count me in. The title being a direct reference to the Doctor's wife? It's a lovely nod to the greater Dr. Who continuity, so I'm taking it. Paul McGann is especially silky smooth in this one, narrating the childhood story of the Doctor's with class.