SNS: Perfect Day

The second to last audio of season two: Perfect Day by Steve Lyons.

SAPPHIRE: Steel and I worked together for a long time, Gold. Our methods may be different, but we understand each other.
GOLD: (Carefully) Yes. Yes, I'm sure you do.

Steve Lyons was "inspired" by Adventure 3 (that one set in the apartment with the family from the future) to write a story that is about the future. Thus, we have an adventure set during a wedding, in which the future the participants face make them prefer to live the same day, over and over and over...

There are some resonances with Adventure 3. The obvious one being that the future is the main story focus, and the part with Gold reminds one of when Sapphire was in the other apartment, but aside from that, this one is completely different.

For starters, this story is more soap opera, focusing on a group of people so wrapped up in their petty problems that they would prefer to forgo the uncertainly bad future for the lesser continual "perfect day". This makes the story reliant on the audience like the passengers, and thinking they were right. In reality, the passengers just come across as whiners and when Steel makes the point that he should leave them to their fate, one readily agrees with him.

That isn't the only problem with the story. The perfect day was been running for around 2,500 iterations, and every day, presumedly, they have the wedding? What? Really?? Why??? That's just insane! Surely they could have come up with something else to do? (Lydia and Steel suggest the repeat is just for Sapphire and Steel's benefit, but that doesn't explain that first time when they arrive.)

The cast perform their parts well, Victoria Carling especially giving proper weight to Lydia's role. Caroline Morris takes a break from Erimem to portray Jen, and Mark Gatiss reprises his role of Gold from The Passenger.

Not a bad story, all up, but it's not going to win high praise either.