Doctor Who: The Girl Who Never Was by Alan Barnes
02/02/2008 . Source: Sue Davies 
CD. pub: Big Finish ISBN: 978-1-84435-287-6. 120 minute CD. Price: £14.99 (UK). Non UK £11.50). . voices: Paul McGann, India Fisher, Danny Webb, Anna Massey, Amanda Root, David Yip, Robert Duncan, Natalie Mendoza, Tim Sutton, Jake McGann and Nicholas Briggs . Buy Doctor Who: The Girl Who Never Was in the USA - or Buy Doctor Who: The Girl Who Never Was in the UK  check out web sites www.BigFinish.com
Charlie's decision to leave the Doctor means a sad journey back to where the Time Lord originally picked her up, saving her from a great airship disaster and she can never go home.
Thanks to the TARDIS and its peculiar sensitivity they do not land where they are supposed to. Charlie suspects foul play and leaves the Doctor in a huff and is alone and vulnerable in Singapore, New Year 1931.
When she meets Byron, Charlie is more than willing to go and see his 16-footer. Well, he is Australian after all. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, he is more than he seems and has a gun.
This is a sharp and witty script with the chance for Charlie and the Doctor to have a bit of fun for a change, well just for a short time anyway, before it all gets deadly serious. Yes, it's that time again to sing, 'What shall we do with the ex-companion?' In the TV show, we will be bringing them back to do cabaret in the coming series but in audio, we are tougher. Following the shock exit in 'Absolution' (well, shocking if not entirely unheralded) we have the exit of Charlie Pollard. For some reason she has finally noticed the Doctor just isn't human and needs to get a life. Nothing is ever that simple and Byron and his mysterious mother are part of the problem not the solution.
Some interesting guest stars are here, including the redoubtable Anna Massey as a woman who can't forget to remember her past. There's a time-travelling ship and some all-hale-fellows-well met in 1942. Other cast includes Danny Webb (seen saving the world in the TV Doctor Who, The Satan Pit two-parter), Amanda Root, David Yip and Robert Duncan.
Along with the starry cast there are some extras, mostly interviews with the cast and production staff. These extras are a generous inclusion from the Big Finish guys. They round off the experience like DVD extras, you don't need them, but they feel like added value.
Sue Davies
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