Ride or Die is a somewhat interesting Doctor Who audio play from Big Finish Productions with Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill reprising their roles as the Thirteenth Doctor and Yasmin Khan. The script is written by Rochana Patel and directed by Ken Bentley.
The cast includes Lauren O’Leary, Harry Ryan, and Jason Forbes. Giulia Innocenti portrays the mysterious creatures known as the Banshees. Ako Mitchell and Maddison Bulleyment round out the cast.
This is also part of a longer story in which the Doctor is lured to various locales in time and space by someone known only as the Tourist. That particular mystery may be engaging enough to keep me interested in this range.
In this episode, the Doctor and Yaz arrive on a planet where human colonists are being beleaguered by beings known as Banshees. The Doctor soon has reason to suspect that Banshees are not quite the evil invaders that they appear. There may be a chance for peace if the Doctor can get at the heart of the conflict.
It’s not a bad episode. Some of the usual exploration of the relationship between the Doctor is somewhat predictable and not that interesting. The plot was standard for the era without being anything too unique. Whittaker and Gill seem to be having fun, which is nice. The story arc with the Tourist does seem likely to hold my interest well enough.
Big Finish still does a better job writing for this version of the Doctor than the television producers came up with. It does get a little preachy when it comes to steering clear of war. The Doctor is back to thinking there is no good reason to go to war ever. It just gets a little old, and there are indeed good reasons to go to war even if there are few and far between.
Anyway, I found this episode to be pretty average as far as the story goes. It’s not the most original of plots, but the performances and technical work in post-production still provide some satisfaction.
