The best Doctor Who is on our phones, not on TVs

Poor old Doctor Who. The British science fiction drama is on the eve of its 60th anniversary but feels wedged in the doldrums. The TV episodes – a new special to farewell the 13th Doctor drops on Monday – feel on an epic scale but are overly complex and unengaging, the companions dull and the 13th Doctor herself, played by Jodie Whittaker, the first woman to take the role, feels like a retread of previous incarnations. Fewer people are watching, fans are voluminous in their dislike.

I will watch the new TV special more with a sense of duty than excitement. But salvation is at hand for Whovians from an unexpected place – a podcast drama called Doctor Who: Redacted that takes the series in an exciting direction while remaining truer to its spirit of current TV offerings. In short – it is terrific.

The 10-episode series written by young adult novelist Juno Dawson and produced by the BBC centres around uni dropouts Cleo, Abby and Shawna (played by Charlie Craggs, Lois Chimimba and Holly Quin-Ankrah) who host a podcast called The Blue Box Files. The trio investigate conspiracy theories including one about a mysterious blue box (which we know, but they are yet to discover, is the TARDIS, the Doctor’s time travelling spacecraft).

It’s all the fun of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Three Investigators, but totally for now.

The trio is seeking the truth about the mysterious individual known as The Doctor, but everyone associated with her ends up being erased from reality and turned into ghosts. Redacted, if you will.

And everyone else simply forgets that they existed. It is a neat riff on the short attention spans that bedevil our modern social media age, and with the production’s exemplary sound design, chillingly handled.

The plucky trio are queer and more gender and ethnically diverse than the TV drama. But the accompanying preachy lip service sometime found in the TV version is lacking here. These girls feel real. And when the reptilian alien tells the trans woman to stop judging her scaly green skin – that’s a great moment of drama.

Trans theatre usher Cleo (“I’m only here for the sass, babe”) is a particularly striking character, desperately holding on to their truth while nothing about the world makes any sense and her loved ones vanish.

Old favourites and other characters return, but are pushed to the side. And the Doctor has a minor but crucial role herself.

And whereas the TV show often falls for the sin of overreach, each 20-minute episode of this audio production is a chilling chamber piece of quiet horror.

Each episode ends on a cliffhanger, a much-missed highlight from the old series, followed by some jaunty theme music. It isn’t the famous theme, but it carries on in its spirit. Much like the drama itself.

The great joy of this program is that it makes your imagination soar. One episode I listened to while crossing a deserted park late at night after doing a late shift had me quickening my pace and looking over my shoulder for Weeping Angels. Listen and you will understand.

This is an exciting, atmospheric and absorbing drama about characters I care about as well as being highly entertaining, which is something I wish I could say about the current TV series.

The Power of the Doctor is on ABC TV Plus on Monday, 7.30pm and iview.

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