The Tenth Doctor Adventures Volume Three: One Mile Down: 2

Great audio adventure

Donna convinces the Doctor to take her on holiday to the sunken city of Vallarasee. Of course, the Doctor’s track record at attempting to take a holiday is notoriously bad and Donna’s choice of footwear is soon the least of his problems.The city that the Doctor had once explored by swimming alone through its sunken ruins is no longer under water. The Intergalactic Trust have taken over, placed the city under an air dome, turned it into a massive tourist attraction, policed it with Judoon and practically removed or enslaved the local indigenous species. Worse yet, the dome is leaking.‘One Mile Down’ is a spirited, humorous story that does a good job of capturing the essence of the 2008 television series. The sarcastic, witty squabbling between Donna and the Doctor is spot on and in a story that balances travelling or sustainable tourism against mass tourism there is plenty for them to bicker about.Although, perhaps, not as thoroughly explored in as much depth as other Doctor Who stories, there is also plenty of material here for the Doctor to rile against. With imperialistic overtones, this is a society suffering from capitalist exploitation through tourism. As a result, the Vallarasee have become virtual outcasts on their own world; prevented from interacting with their visitors, enslaved by debt to the Intergalactic Trust or imprisoned by the Judoon. There are examples of both blatant and latent racism against them from the humans and they are often referred to by the racial slur of ‘Fins’. However, despite all these elements this isn’t politically heavy.The inclusion of the Judoon feels a little ‘monster of the week’ sort of thing, but they do easily fit into the story due to its subject matter. Introducing a junior apprentice Judoon, even though the concept is a little silly, works quite well for the plot as well as being good for some humour. This, of course, does alter when Donna first meets them, but this doesn’t really impact on ‘The Stolen Earth’.Visually, if such a thing can be said about audio, ‘One Mile Down’ creates quite a startling image of a world akin to some type of Atlantis style idea. It is one of those times that make you wish this wasn’t just on audio. However, adequately portraying Vallarasee onscreen would involve a substantial cinematic budget.