Season 18 Finale (Episodes 12-13)... and plans for the future!

Episode 12: Where Angels Fear to Tread

Just when the Time Lady thought she could take some Time Off on 2024 Earth, Urgent Unfinished Business comes knocking at the door – in the form of Miss Jones’ ongoing machinations to harness the vestigial power of the defunct Abraxas entity and take control of the space-time continuum. A tale of tough choices, narrow escapes and, yes, Weeping Angels.

Episode 13: The Wake

The hunt draws to a close. Penelope joins forces with alternate versions of the Doctor and Romana to track down Miss Jones, no longer a living Time Lord/Lady but a disembodied entity desperately seeking a new body to possess and reconfigure. The trail of its wounded TARDIS leads them to a house in 1873 Bloomsbury – just in time for the evening’s séance…

And thus ends our 18^th season – which proved to be a somewhat lengthy yet bumpy ride, with more intermissions that I would have wished…

Started in October 2023, this season concluded just before August 2024 – yes, we dragged on for almost an entire year – which really made it difficult to maintain a satisfying narrative pace… but hey, in the end, we managed to wrap it up in a very satisfying manner, with a dramatic farewell to the whole Abraxas motif.

So, why did it take us so long to play these thirteen episodes?  

Well, it was due to a variety of unrelated factors: our decision, after episode 3, to go for a full-fledged season rather than the intended six-episodes mini-series (a decision which, in retrospect, was perhaps not as brilliant as it seemed in the first place), Penelope’s more-or-less unexpected regeneration, the fact that, after more than 200 episodes, new story ideas were becoming more and more elusive and, last but not least, various Real Life contingencies (the dreaded Triad - work, health, family…).

For all these reasons, Sylvie and I have agreed on a change of pace for Penelope’s next adventures. Instead of going for seasons of 13 to 15 episodes, we’ve decided to adopt the six-part miniseries as the standard format for our beloved Time Lady’s excursions in time and space. This format proved highly successful when we tried it back in 2022 (see the Key to Space miniseries) - and it will actually make it easier for me to construct multi-episode stories and will also make easier for Penelope to ‘linger on’ for several episodes in the same location or time period, something that Sylvie is clearly keen on. Of course, it does not mean that each six-part miniseries will necessarily be set in a single setting, as the six-episodes format also lends itself very well to breakneck quests through space and time, giving me all the creative freedom and flexibility I could ask for!  

See you in a few months, for a new chapter of Lady Penelope’s Odyssey!