I have to be honest; this is a short story that I didn’t really enjoy all that much. The Curse of the Fugue is the first Short Trip with Lucie Miller back since her character arc ended, which is a point in this story’s favor as she’s a lovely character with a great dynamic with the 8th Doctor, but unfortunately the writing was a bit confusing. Or maybe I was just distracted when I was listening to it… sometimes that happens too.
Whatever the case, this story deals with a couple people in an elderly home with memory problems (hence fugue, in the psychological sense). Both were involved in WW2 and had dealt with a strange (alien) artifact that messes with people’s minds. In order to be whole again, they had to let go of their respective pieces, trusting the Doctor to get rid of them and not abuse its power himself. Lucie had the rough end of things here, having to work as a personal care assistant in the home for a couple weeks while the Doctor orbited around the time period in the TARDIS, and so it is through some of the trust built up with her that the two people were able to relinquish their artifact pieces to the Doctor.
It’s a low-key, soft-spoken kind of story. There is dramatic tension and a narrative rise and fall, but it’s not action-packed. That doesn’t make it boring – many good Short Trips are fascinating non-active scenes – but this one just didn’t hold my interest as well. Maybe a second listen would help me appreciate it more.
Ripples in my Tea 