Review: Gobbledegook

     Back in 2022, Big Finish started a series known as Interludes, bonus hour-long audiobooks included with one set of the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors' adventures a year. To me, these seem a nice way to sweeten the pot with pricepoints being a common point of contention to listeners. However, as much as I've enjoyed the longer-form Audio Novels range, I prefer the usual full cast adventures and perhaps to my shame I've dismissed Interludes as nothing more than an afterthought. After today, I've had a change of heart.

The cover art for Gobbledegook. A small shame to not see Velar with his reading glasses on.

    Gobbledegook is a story by Frazer Lee, a newcomer to Big Finish, included as an downloadable extra for Conflicts of Interest. Rather than being a totally isolated adventure, it expands on lore introduced in the set, allowing us to meet the character Velar - an armadillo-like alien friend of the Doctor's - who was previously only talked about in the story Friendly Fire. While narratively it doesn't act as a direct prequel (and if you're familiar, you'd know that's maybe for the better) it effectively takes elements of Velar and his people's culture as described in the aforementioned story and expands on them.

    The inciting incident is simple: Velar has long since retired from his political life and now spends his days as chief librarian on his home planet, it's the busiest time of year as students cram as much as they can right before exams but something has caused the books to change, the contents suddenly becoming nothing more than - for lack of a better word - gobbledegook. Cue the Doctor's arrival.

    Velar is a quickly likeable character, he can get a little nervous and frustrated but he's mainly a polite old man, true to description he loves his books and enjoys baking even if he's not very good at it. If the opening portion of the story doesn't endear you to him that is absolutely sure to change when he reunites with the Doctor, the interactions between the two often felt sweet and I'm thankful for the time they get to just relax together before shifting back into the main plot. It's clear from the way their dialogue is written and through narrator Dan Starkey's delivery that the two fondly regard one another as old friends beyond when it's just explicitly said.

    When exactly this story takes place is a bit of a mystery to me. The implication I had gotten from Friendly Fire was that the Doctor last saw Velar before meeting Tegan and Nyssa, which would imply to me that from the Doctor's perspective this takes place after that story. If so, it makes it a little surprising to me that the events of that story don't come up here, how reuniting with Velar from an earlier time makes the Doctor feel. Without giving too much about either story away, I like a good bit of angsty Doctor Who, so that's something I'd like to have seen explored a bit. Ultimately, that placement only really matters to the nerdier of us and doesn't affect the story, if you're so inclined as I am to overthink these things, maybe this takes place somewhere amongst the stories of Time Apart with an unspecified time after, or maybe this is after Friendly Fire, and that's something that could be explored at a later point. Either way, you're getting a nice self-contained adventure here.

    Starky's narration is great, providing Velar with a distinctive and authorative voice while also managing a pleasantly, surprisingly convicing Fifth Doctor. He nails the breathlessness and line delivery that could be heard from the character on TV. This creates a funny contrast with the full cast adventures, where Peter Davison isn't trying to sound the same as he did 40 years ago, don't take that the wrong way because I really do enjoy both performances, this is just something I'm sure listeners will pick up on and see some humour in too.

    The story concludes with an ending I found particularly heartwarming, listening and knowing what's to come in Friendly Fire I did start to feel a little sad later on, through the course of the story I had found myself becoming quite attached to Velar so it was nice that the ending could act as a reassuring pat on the back.

 

Final Thoughts

    On the whole Gobbledegook really is a lovely companion piece to its box set and something I hope listeners don't overlook. Being a download-only extra it seems probable that people will miss out on this, be it that they're CD sticklers or the way it's a little more tucked away on the mobile app, in the latter case I would like to see future Interludes listed under the rest of the stories on their associated set in the app, even if it requires an extra tap to download. To anyone who has access to this story but has put it off, I really encourage you give it a go.

If this review has sparked your interest, Gobbledegook is available as part of Conflicts of Interest at https://www.bigfinish.com/