Trevor Baxendale (who started off writing for the Eighth Doctor  in the book The Janus Conjunction) penned Something Inside a story for the Eighth Doctor, Charley and C’rizz. This is a claustrophobic tale of prisons and psychic powers; how well does it stand out from the crowd?

The story

More cryptic than usual the Big Finish product page tells us:

WARNING
YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER THE CUBE

ALL FORMS OF TELEPATHY ARE PROHIBITED.

DO NOT ATTEMPT TELEPORTATION UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES

PSYCHIC POWERS WILL BE FORCIBLY REMOVED

(MENTAL SURGERY IS COMPULSORY)

CAUTION
YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS

YOU HAVE NO POWERS

YOU HAVE NO DEFENCE

YOU ARE NOW INSIDE THE CUBE

We start with the Doctor being tortured for information he can’t recall – he has lost his memories. C’rizz is also captured. We learn that the captors have a machine for manipulating the mind normally used to create (and later destroy) psychic soldiers. Charley, meantime, is inside The Cube, a prison made of special material that suppresses the psychic talents of those inside. She meets with the remaining few inmates and we learn of the brain worm a creature that chased the TARDIS crew earlier and caused them to be split up.

The story is then a sequence of chase / torture / escape / meet up / memory / worm encounters and we have a revenge tale with most (and in the end all) of the other characters dead. Many have their brains exploded which is very graphic even on audio.

At the end the TARDIS crew survive though not through any noble effort of the Doctor’s and the melancholy ending is downbeat.

The storytelling

The amnesia device didn’t work for everyone and I found several reviews slating the idea as over used. I didn’t mind it nor did I mind the compact cast which added to the claustrophobia. I did feel that there wasn’t enough story to fill the time though the direction and acting did cover that.

This isn’t a bad story by any means but isn’t among the best.