REVIEW: Doctor Who: The Last Days of the Powell Estate

Welcome to the Last Days of the Powell Estate, where the worst is behind you. Literally.

Time travel is real. And if you need proof then look no further than Big Finish’s current series of Ninth Doctor Adventures. These new Doctor Who episodes, released bimonthly, contain so much unfiltered joy and wit, it’s almost impossible to believe their vintaqe is 2025, not 2005. Even Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper, and Camille Coduri all sound two decades younger, as if nostalgia itself is the real fountain of youth. In Piper’s case it seems particularly impressive, given her slight struggle to recapture Rose’s voice even in her 2008 return. Indeed, there’s so much love and fun audible behind the microphone, The Last Days of the Powell Estate would still be a delight even if was just the Doctor, Rose, and Jackie having a natter over a cuppa for an hour.

As the title suggests, though, there’s something much more ominous afoot than too much milk in the tea. This second episode in Big Finish’s loose Powell Estate trilogy brings the TARDIS to the 2030s where Rose discovers her home utterly dead. Meanwhile, back in the mid 2000s, Jackie and her friend Brainy Betty check up on a neighbour on the fourth floor that nobody’s seen for a while. Soon all four, as well as urban explorer content creator Ellis, are being stalked across two time zones by the horrifying Mr. Fingers.

The sinister Mr. Fingers is a great Moffateque terror

Set not long after Series One’s Father’s Day, this story probably winds too close to many of its ideas and themes to ever have aired on screen in 2005. But, as a Big Finish episode, it forms a perfect complement to it. The Doctor is still understandably skeptical of Rose’s ability to follow basic time travel etiquette. With good reason too, given that his companion immediately sets Jackie’s safety above a little thing like preventing the collapse of time and space themselves. Meanwhile, a monster from out of time, beyond reason or understanding, similarly calls to mind the earlier story’s Reapers.

However, in other ways Mr. Fingers couldn’t be further from a CGI beastie. Instead he hails from the same corner of Doctor Who as the Weeping Angels, the Silence and The Well. As unseen as he is unknowable, all you need to know about this particular eldritch terror is that if you feel a tap on your shoulder, don’t turn around. Never turn around. Because you might find nobody there at all. Until you do…

Timothy X Atack’s script makes clever use of its two time zones

It’s a threat built for audio, when even on television Mr. Fingers would never be seen, only discussed by his prey as they desperately seek a way out. Writer Timothy X Atack also mines the time-split narrative to its full potential. Jackie having to face a monster alone except for Betty –  the Doctor a phone call, yet also two decades, away – is a great move. Brainy Betty is a wonderful companion’s companion too, drawing on the same archetype of a wise and witty auntie as Cherry Sunday. Sharp as a pin, and just as funny, you’ll spend a significant part of Last Days crossing your fingers that she beats the odds for this type of Who character and survives to get into more mischief with Jackie another day.

Much more than just nostalgia bait for its own sake, the re-energised Ninth Doctor Adventures recapture the quality, terrors, and fun, of one of Doctor Who’s greatest eras

Big Finish’s new strategy of releasing these new Ninth Doctor Adventures an episode at a time, alternating with the Thirteenth Doctor Adventures, is already shaping up to be a success. It’s not just easier on many fans’ wallets, but somehow feels more true to modern Doctor Who on television. Every episode gets longer to sit in your thoughts, easier to digest than when it disappears into the rearview mirror as you plunge on to the next in the boxset.

This series continues to be the perfect way to make yourself feel young again. (Or younger, at least, for some of us.) The Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler. Long may they run.

Doctor Who: The Last Days of the Powell Estate

South London, 2036. The Doctor and Rose team up with an urban explorer to investigate the case of Mr Fingers, an invisible killer haunting an abandoned corner of the city. If you feel a hand on your shoulder: don’t look around…

Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures: The Last Days of the Powell Estate is now available to purchase for just £9.99 (download to own) or £11.99 (download to own + collector’s edition CD), exclusively here. Please note: the collector’s edition CD is strictly limited to 1,500 copies and will not be repressed.