Doctor Who: The Haunting of Malkin Place

Doctor Who: The Haunting of Malkin Place

2017

Ratings1

Average rating4

15
JKRevell
Jamie RevellSupporter

This is essentially a ghost story, with the Doctor and Romana accompanying a spiritualist on his way to investigate a haunting at a remote house in the 1920s. There's a good deal of fun at the spiritualist's expense in the first half, with the Doctor and Romana championing science while still managing to argue with one another about the finer details. This pro-science stance is perhaps most reminiscent of The Masque of Mandragora and therefore seems a good fit for the this general period of the show's history, although it's perhaps fallen a little more to the wayside in some more recent outings.

The confidence with which our heroes make these assertions means that there's little surprise when the explanation for the haunting does turn out to be a rational one - albeit more within the context of the DW universe than that of our own. The build-up to it, though, is a good mystery with plenty of suspects and a suitably spooky mood in the Gothic tradition that the Fourth Doctor was well-known for. It's clear from the beginning (and the cover) that the events have something to do with the horrors of World War One, but the clues as to what's actually going on are carefully placed amidst some red herrings, keeping one guessing (or, at least, it did me).

While many of the Fourt Doctor audios have been on the weak side, this is a good fit for the era in terms of both atmosphere and outlook, and has a nicely poignant ending - although one could argue that Romana comes across as more bossy than witty, which might be a weakness for some.

May 17, 2020Report this review