‘ONLY CONNECT’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

James Willaker meets the Fourth Doctor

This short story is by Andy Lane, and it features the Fourth Doctor. I found this quite a nice little story to check out and read. I’ve also enjoyed hearing the audiobook version of ‘Only Connect’, read by John Banks, who has done many Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’, including ‘Heroes of Sontar’. 🙂

Originally, the audiobook version of ‘Only Connect’, directed by Ken Bentley, was released to Big Finish subscribers with ‘1001 Nights’ in December 2012. Lately, ‘Only Connect’ is one of the Short Trips Rarities, released in September 2018, to be purchased as a download from the Big Finish website.

In the story, an architect named James Willaker, gets a taxi home from work and his driver turns out to be the Fourth Doctor. I enjoyed the interaction Willaker had with the Doctor in this tale. Willaker originally requested Mallard Close as a destination before he realised that it hadn’t been built yet. 😐

Yet the Doctor knew where to take him and he gradually reveals to Willaker that he is a time traveller and that he is from the future. I enjoyed how the Doctor and Willaker talk about time travel and what changing history means. The conversation the two have sprouts many topics of discussion.

I’m not exactly sure why the Doctor decided to become a taxi driver at this stage in his fourth incarnation. I’m not sure if he was meant to be on a special mission and he came across James Willaker by chance. There’s no indication made as to whether he’s with Sarah Jane Smith or not in his travels. 😐

Not much action happens in the story, as it’s mostly talking scenes between the Doctor and Willaker when they drive around in a taxi as well as when they have a cup of tea in a café. I know these are short stories, but I would have preferred more action in these tales instead of just characters talking.

I’m sure my Short Trips are more action-packed. Despite that, ‘Only Connect’ was nice to read and listen to. John Banks does a good voice for Tom Baker’s Doctor and I like the inflections he gives to James Willaker as a character when he’s baffled and confused by some of the Doctor’s statements. 🙂

‘Only Connect’ rating – 7/10