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Recap / Big Finish Doctor Who 102 The Minds Eye

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The Mind's Eye: On a dangerous jungle planet, troopers discover an amnesiac man who can only remember that his name is the Doctor. Meanwhile, Peri, living in a lovely house on Earth with her boyfriend Mike, struggles to improve her troubled relationship with Mike's teenage son Kyle, and Queen Erimem deals with a rebellion in the colony of New Cairo.

As is probably obvious, all is not as it seems.

The Mind's Eye contains examples of:

  • Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": The Jekylls, primate-like creatures that seem similar to lemures. Named for their split personalities — they are friendly during the day and dangerously aggressive at night.
  • Call-Back:
    • The Doctor recalls his own knowledge of plants coming from Peri.
    • The Doctor manages to snap Peri out of her dreamlike state by drawing attention to the fact he's wearing a stick of celery.
    • Peri's dream involved Erimem being eaten by Crocodile like things.
    • The Doctor likes to invoke Houdini when he mentions escaping from prisons.
  • Cold Open: The adventure starts out with a soldier hunting the Doctor. Who doesn't know he's the Doctor.
  • Deadpan Snarker: The soldier hunting the Doctor in the Cold Open snarks at his major over a dead com-link.
  • Died Happily Ever After / Dying Dream: Ukame's Disney Villain Death is followed by a scenario where he finds his sister, who died beforehand. He dreams about them joining the Doctor, Peri and Erimem in the TARDIS. A blue cone which buries the main parts of the ship underground in order to cloak itself. He gets to press a button in order to liftoff, and dissapears into the dream whilst counting down.
  • Exposed to the Elements: Mentioned why the Doctor is able to survive in drastic circumstances without an "environment suit".
  • The Final Temptation: Peri dreams of a "normal" life with a loving boyfriend and a son who, although their relationship was rocky at first, she is developing a mutual respect and love for. As the Doctor tries to convince her to wake up, her subconscious attempts to make her stay by creating a situation where her "family" is in danger and begging her to help them.
  • Great Escape: The Doctor escapes a prison alongside Carto.
  • Humanoid Aliens: The Doctor gets confirmed as such, which unnverves the humans in this story.
  • Improbable Age: The first time Erimem thinks that something might be wrong with her world is when her attendant mentions that Erimem has been Queen of New Cairo for 25 years, even though Erimem herself is only in her late teens. Also implied with Peri's dream scenario, where she is in a relationship with a man old enough to have a teenage son and attends his parent/teacher meetings despite her being a college student in reality.
  • Iron Lady: Erimem, even when brainwashed, is a hard as nails ruler.
  • Journey to the Center of the Mind: The Doctor joins the dreams of Erimem and later Peri.
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: The kyropites, parasitic plants which create elaborate dreamworlds for their victims while feeding off their alpha brain waves.
  • Minimalist Cast: The Doctor exposes this as the reason why the dreams aren't real.
  • Mistaken for Cheating: Peri walks in on her boyfriend Mike and her best friend Ally in what looks like a compromising situation. Ally is actually just trying on the wedding dress Mike bought for Peri as part of his surprise proposal/wedding plans. Not What It Looks Like ensues.
  • Never Wake Up a Sleepwalker: The people in the Dream Land can't be woken up willy nilly, because it'd upset their mental state.
  • Parent with New Paramour: In Peri's dream, she is dating a man with a teenage son who initially dislikes and distrusts her.
  • Rewind, Replay, Repeat: Someone is observing all three of the TARDIS' travellers and watching the footage.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Carto uses words that would have some people reaching for dictionaries.
  • Single-Biome Planet: The planet is stated to be a "Jungle planet".
  • Soap Opera: Within her dream, Peri is always watching one called Love M.D. The storyline of her dream also resembles one, with dramatic illnesses, near-death experiences and a romantic misunderstanding that leads to a proposal.
  • Space Egyptians: Erimem's dream involves her ruling the colony of New Cairo on the planet Kandoor, which is an amalgamation of her home in ancient Egypt and the futuristic worlds she has visited with the Doctor.
  • Split Personality: The Jekylls are friendly creatures by day, monstrous beings by night.
  • Talking in Your Dreams: Using a brain scanner and drugs synthesized from the kyropites, the Doctor is able to enter Erimem and Peri's dreams to try to wake them up.
  • Wicked Stepmother: Invoked by Peri, who believes that Kyle sees her this way.
  • Your Mind Makes It Real: If a victim of the kyropites dies in their dream, they die in real life as well.


Mission of the Viyrans: A night of fun on a party planet becomes a nightmare for Peri when bizarre transformations begin to afflict everyone who comes in contact with her— including the Doctor.

The Mission of the Viyrans is now available free on Soundcloud: Find it here.

Mission of the Viyrans contains examples of:

  • Anachronic Order: Although packaged with The Mind's Eye, this audio play actually takes place after the next Fifth Doctor/Peri/Erimem story, ''The Bride of Peladon.' which preemptively reveals Erimem's departure from the TARDIS.
  • Bizarre Alien Senses: The Viyrans can perceive light that humans can't see, and have a non-vocal language.
  • Body Horror: The virus Peri is carrying copies her DNA and attempts to mutate everyone around her into a clone of her. From the sounds alone, we can infer that the process is neither comfortable nor pleasant.
  • Busman's Holiday: As is typical with the Doctor and his companions, their relaxing stop on a recreation world leads to getting caught up in alien-related trouble.
  • Continuity Nod: Peri mentions having met Dracula.
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