Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Cloud Eight from Big Finish Review

We’re walking on Cloud Eight in the fourth entry in the Ninth Doctor and Rose audio adventures with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper. Set many centuries in our future, and still on the Powell Estate, the time-travelling pair find themselves in what appears to be a utopian future.

But things are about to get nightmarish…

The Doctor and Rose travel to the 47th century, Earth’s ‘Second Dark Age’, but when they arrive in the floating box city of High High Wycombe, it’s more like a paradise. The residents live an existence of endless leisure, and at night sleep a blissful, dreamless sleep. But cracks soon begin to show on its perfect, polished surface, and something terrible is brewing in the mind of teenage Elsa – something ancient and hungry – something that sounds like a nightmare.

I must say, I have no major complaints about this story. The closest thing I can find is that I could do with an entry NOT set on the Powell Estate (even if it is in Earth’s so-called ‘second dark age’ and is barely recognisable). But that being said, this story crafts a superb setting with a lot of mystery that slowly unravels, and is yet another in a long line of solid Big Finish listens. This does not disappoint.

Primarily, the Doctor and Rose – who are brilliantly written and performed, as ever – spend time with one family in this seemingly perfect version of Earth. All of the support cast got the memo here – there is a creepy friendliness to them all, where you’re not quite sure if they are friends or foes.

A great mix of exaggerated acting, a consistently written script (they all bang on about their curfew and ‘old movies’ throughout) and some jarring editing conveys the sheer numbness of this leisure-obsessed family of the future. Words like ‘exaggerated’ or ‘jarring’ might sound disparaging, but believe me when I say it all totally works in the story’s favour.

I found Elsa – played by Felicity Cant – to be particularly memorable here. Since none of the characters in High High Wycombe knows anything about dreaming, it is daunting to hear Elsa break through and start having nightmares for the first time. Which leads into the impactful reveal towards the story’s end of what happens when everyone in this world falls asleep…

It is also the smaller details sprinkled in that polish this already shiny adventure. Once again, I am enjoying the Ninth Doctor referencing Frozen to an unaware Rose who wouldn’t know about the film in 2005 (funny, timey-wimey references only possible with the hindsight Big Finish has). And, was it just me, or did I spot a meta joke about Elsa’s ‘favourite Doctors’, one of which being McCoy?

I think what I liked most about Cloud Eight was its ability to lull me into a thought-provoking sense of unease. The central theme here is that of consumerism and ‘becoming the product’, which is explained a little too obviously, but effectively by the Doctor in the episode’s climactic moments.

And I must say, with the way many of us are addicted to social media and stimulating content, and the growing capabilities and possibilities of language learning models (otherwise referred to as AI), the twist of this story feels scarily resonant to our world, and what it might look like in the future. That’s enough to make you wanna hide behind, nay, crawl inside the blooming sofa.

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Cloud Eight from Big Finish is available for download now, currently priced at £9.99.