Doctor Who - Short Trips 8.08 - Flight Into Hull!

Producer Ian Atkins, Script Editor Ian Atkins
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Written By: Joseph Lidster, Directed By: Lisa Bowerman

Cast

Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler)

"Oh great, TWO Jackie Tylers....isn't that just wizard!"

Jackie Tyler's lost a close friend, and this new Doctor is only a half-hearted replacement for him.

But as she tries to put the events of Big Ben behind her and take a well-earned break, others have spotted an opportunity. A well-intentioned, far-reaching plan is underway. But Jackie Tyler isn't the woman she was...

So - first The Siege of Big Ban, and now Flight into Hull! Big Finish are positively spoiling us with tales of the meta-crisis Doctor and Jackie Tyler. 

After the events in Big Ben, and in an effort to have Jackie and the Doctor get on more, Pete and Rose arrange a private zeppelin flight for the pair, to the 'famous' spa city of Hull, to see it's great glass pyramid, and sparkling blue waters  (obviously this parallel world has some very big differences to ours!).

However things don't go as planned (do they ever?), thanks to a new Jackie Tyler, crashing into this dimension, and our party. The difference in this new Jackie though is that she is sharp, intelligent, cunning...and desperate to save her own children from her dying world, which is suffering from severe global cooling.

As with The Siege of Big Ben, Joseph Lidster delivers a smart and very witty, story for the Short Trips range. This is a perfect ship in a bottle story, which at first is quite light hearted and breezy, but quickly takes quite a dark turn, not only through the desperation of this new, second Jackie, but also exploring this Doctor's humanity, and the realisation that if he dies - he won't regenerate.

Camille Coduri again excels at not just our Jackie, but this new Jackie as well, and obviously has fun playing the new characterisation of what must be by now a very familiar role.

Flight Into Hull! is a truly great follow up to The Siege of Big Ben, and left me wanting to hear more stories from this parallel Universe. I'm quietly hoping that Big Finish are thinking the same....

You can buy Flight Into Hull here.