#which then means that jamie has to do a SUPER quick turnaround in changing his mind on the shards and being concerned

[the--highlanders]

tbh the phantom piper is like. the epitome of how much some audios could benefit from directly acknowledging 6b rather than siphoning the plot off into 'two and jamie are travelling alone but we're not going to address it/we're going to throw in a mention to victoria being at graphology lessons so it's feasibly s5'

but if you think about it. the actual implanting of the shard into jamie's brain is quietly treated as quite horrifying?? the story makes a point of the fact that they needed 'two security guards and a sedative' to subdue him for the operation. he clearly didn't want this. and yet two's able to talk his way out of getting one himself. which begs the question of why two let jamie go through the process, and only spared himself. either you assume that two has deliberately enabled jamie to be implanted with the shard so he can study it (which is horrifying in and of itself, and if the author genuinely wanted to set the story in series 5, really begs for a callback to evil of the daleks and their newly rebuilt trust - but the story doesn't explore this avenue at all), or. two just let jamie have the operation for fun I guess. there's no explanation.

whereas if this was directly acknowledged as a 6b story. there's so much more scope there. jamie's already had his memory wiped once, so automatically the implications around the shard deleting memories feel way more personal. surely that's something that would strike home for him (rather than being quite chill and unconcerned about the whole thing for a lot of the narrative, as he is in the story, without a huge amount of attention paid to that being quite ooc). but then in terms of two's motivations, if he'd been sent by the cia to investigate the implants, and he actually had been forced to allow jamie to undergo the operation - that's potentially super interesting!! possibly for the first time they're each finding out first-hand just how risky working for the time lords could be for jamie!! the audio's themes of memory and consent just work /so well/ for 6b - and it can't play with that at all, because it doesn't fully acknowledge 6b itself.