7-8. House of Cards.

2 episodes. Approx. 57 minutes. Written by: Steve Lyons. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines.


THE PLOT

The Doctor decides it's time for a holiday, and so takes his companions to a casino in the distant future. Though Jamie and particularly Ben are thrilled at the chance to partake in some games, Polly does not like this place. She doesn't enjoy the gambling machines, she finds the sight of the transfixed gamblers downright disturbing... and that's even before she sets eyes on the snake-headed Sidewinder Syndicate, the gang that runs the casino's operations.

The Sidewinders work for a mysterious woman named Fortune, who has strict rules against time travelers. When the casino's alarms are tripped by a time travel device, Polly finds herself in the Sidewinder's sights - and escorted to Fortune's office. The woman is absolutely charming and utterly chilling as she gives Polly an ultimatum. It's a simple command: Push a button that will determine the winner of "The Game of Life."

It's no simple game, though. Two players sit in booths and, when the button is pressed, random chance will result in one being disintegrated. And much to Polly's horror, one of the players is Ben!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Though sidelined for most of the story, the Doctor registers strongly at the climax as he gambles with Fortune for the welfare of his companions... playing with a tattered Happy Families deck! Anneke Wills continues to do a fine job of suggesting Troughton's tone and vocal mannerisms and, even if she can't hope to replicate the eerily dead-on audio resurrection of Frazer Hines' readings, it's more than good enough to help the listener visualize the Second Doctor. It is a shame, though, that he's in so little of this one.

Polly: Polly is very much at the center of this story, and Steve Lyons shows the same facility with her character that marked his first Companion Chroncicle, Resistance. Polly is quick-thinking and courageous, but she is also easily surprised by the darker side of humanity. She is immediately repelled by the Sidewinder Syndicate, but it takes a few minutes for her to realize that the attractive and soft-spoken Fortune is actually much scarier than the snake creatures. She is too quick to trust Lucky Bill, which leaves her vulnerable to him when he acts out of desperation in Part Two.

Jamie: Frazer Hines is not doing double-duty this story, as he voices only Jamie and not the Doctor (or Ben). But he does get a substantial slice of the action, the script cutting away to his observations of a time traveling gambler in Part One and of havoc on the casino floor in Part Two. Hines and Wills, who were actually together in the recording booth for this story (earlier efforts had them record their parts separately), bounce well off each other, and it's actually a shame Jamie and Polly have only a couple of scenes together. 

Ben: Is largely sidelined, as usual. He isn't forgotten, however, as he falls under the influence of the gambling bug and manages to get himself into trouble in a way that spurs most of Polly's actions in Part Two. 


THOUGHTS

I had high expectations for House of Cards. It reteamed the same writer, performers, and companion line-up as the wonderful Selachian Gambit, and the science fiction casino setting seemed like a sure bet to produce another fun piece. I knew this was the reverse of that one - with Anneke Wills as the primary reader, and Frazer Hines the secondary one. Still, Wills is a fine reader, and the Companion Chronicle Resistance - also by Lyons - remains probably my favorite of Big Finish's Second Doctor stories, so it's not like this was a concern for me.

I will say that House of Cards is enjoyable. It moves along at a good pace, there are several fun scenes, and the movement back and forth from the main action with Polly to the side action involving Jamie keeps it alive. The Episode One cliffhanger is terrific, and the showdown between the Doctor and the story's villain is cleverly done.

But while it's an enjoyable story, I can't help but find it a disappointing one. Something is missing this time, and the magic that happened in The Selachian Gambit just doesn't happen in this story.

The companion line-up is definitely not as well utilized here as in the earlier story, with Ben and the Doctor sidelined for the bulk of the story. The caricatured Lucky Bill, complete with American western accent, is annoying in a bad way, and the potentially interesting Sidewinder Syndicate never develop beyond their initial beat as James Cagney-like gangster snakes.

I also think Lyons' attempt to use the time travel element by telling bits of the story out of sequence is a flourish that doesn't quite work. Some of it is clever, as we see scenes laying groundwork for something just shown. Other times, the cutting back and forth between action happening to Jamie and action that had happened to Polly simply becomes tiresome. There's a twist involving the identity of a woman in a china mask that is particularly oversold. By the third or fourth time Jamie obliquely referred to the woman as "my friend," I grew irritated enough to snap at the CD player that "I got it already, move along!"

Wills and Hines keep things afloat with their spirited reading, and Lyons is too good a writer not to make sure that the various events all patch together in a way that works. The way the second episode pays off the (very good) first episode cliffhanger in a way that fits but is completely unexpected is quite satisfying. Fortune, wonderfully voiced by Wills, is an effective villain, and her scenes opposite Polly in Part One and opposite the Doctor in Part Two are the best two scenes in the story. 

More of Fortune, particularly more of her opposite the Doctor, and less of Lucky Bill and the Sidewinders might have given this story the shot in the arm that it badly needs. As it stands, it's not at all bad. House of Cards is narratively solid and pleasant enough to listen to. But it never quite manages to connect the way the best stories do.

It's a perfectly okay story. It's just also a perfectly disposable one, and not one I expect to revisit.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

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6-8. The Selachian Gambit.

2 episodes. Approx. 54 minutes. Written by: Steve Lyons. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Frazer Hines, Anneke Wills.


THE PLOT

The Doctor and his companions at a bank in the distant future for the most innocent of reasons.  It's just a simple misunderstanding involving a parking fine... Just enough cause for the Doctor to actually need a bit of money for once. But it's enough to place the Doctor, Jamie, Ben, and Polly in their usual position: The wrong place, at the wrong time. 

The Selachians are a race of aggressive, spacefaring sharks. Literal sharks, with fins and suits that preserve their acquatic environment as they move among the air-breathing plankton known as humanity. They are in the bank for the least innocent of reasons: To rob it. 

First they must breach the impregnable vault door, whose combination is changed multiple times daily. The vault is interdimensional, the combination setting the destination.  Enter the right combination and you can access the most valuable treasures of galactic civilization. Otherwise, even if you breach the door, all that you will find behind it is cold, empty space.

The Selachians are prepared to kill to get what they want, threatening to execute one hostage per minute. But the Doctor knows a thing or two about interdimensional locks, and he makes a deal with the aliens. If they agree to spare the hostages, he will use his considerable skills to break into the vault.

But there are secrets behind that door that even the Doctor isn't aware of - Secrets which make the lives of a mere twenty hostages insignificant in comparison!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: One of the joys of Big Finish's Second Doctor stories has been Frazer Hines' Second Doctor. Hines is able to make himself truly sound like Patrick Troughton, to such a degree that more often than not you would swear Troughton was in the recording booth delivering his character's own lines. It was breathtaking even in Hines' earliest Big Finish stories, and his Troughton has gotten better and better as he's done more of them. 

This story is perfectly suited to the Second Doctor's persona. He is thrust into a situation in which he appears completely helpless. Then he uses his apparent weakness and his knowledge of interdimensional systems to barter with the Selachians. By Part Two, the bank heist is being run more by the Doctor than by the aliens, and listening as he defuses one potentially violent situation after another until the story's climax feels perfect for both character and era.

Jamie: Retains his tendency to sometimes act before he thinks, as when he makes an ill-advised (and poorly-aimed) attack on one of the Selachians early in the bank heist. His fierce loyalty to his friends is shown when, having made a clean escape for himself, he runs back into a building facing imminent destruction to save the Doctor and the other hostages. In an amusing nod to Big Finish's own continuity, Jamie and Ben consciously repeat a method of escaping their guards previously used in the Polly Companion Chronicle Resistance.

Ben: Frazer Hines' Ben voice is almost as good as his Second Doctor voice, allowing Ben to come to life in this story in a way that just wasn't true of the previous Companion Chronicles. As is usual, Ben is the least-used of the companions... but he still gets a decent slice of the action, working with Jamie to overcome Selachian guards near the end. Even his crawling through the bank's ductwork, which largely shunts him out of the way in Part One, pays off, with Ben making an important discovery.

Polly: When she hears the Doctor soothing Selachians and hostages alike by talking about a calming cup of tea, she knows what will come next. Sure enough, the next scene sees her sent to the kitchen to put the kettle on. As in The Moonbase, she also actively looks around for things that might be used to turn the tables on the Selachians. With a helpful prod from Ben, she finds something. In Part Two, she is removed from the bank and mainly interacts with the police negotiating with the Selachians, which handily allows us to see both sides of the action. Anneke Wills continues to do a spirited job both in recreating her character and in narrating her portion of the story, and the switch back-and-forth between Hines' voice and hers helps to keep this serial alive and moving.


THOUGHTS

I've always enjoyed a good caper, which makes The Selachian Gambit a perfect fit for me. Writer Steve Lyons has concocted a textbook caper with the classic elements: A heist gone wrong, an impregnable security system, and a late-in-the-game twist that turns the story on its head. It's fast-paced and clever, making good use of its confined setting. 

The story also makes particularly good use of the regulars. The Season Four line-up of the Doctor, Jamie, Ben, and Polly can be daunting to cover in an audio story that runs less than 60 minutes. Resistance and The Forbidden Time both sidestepped the large line-up by separating the Doctor and Polly from the others for most of the action, effectively removing half the cast.

The Selachian Gambit properly uses all four regulars, and writer Steve Lyons manages to make this achievement look easy. One way in which this is done is by putting the companions into "teams" that are constantly switching. Polly and the Doctor are together initially, while Jamie and Ben observe some of the guest characters elsewhere in the bank. Then the Doctor and Jamie carry the main action for a while, while Polly and Ben interact elsewhere. Then Ben and Jamie are paired, while Polly interacts with the police outside the bank. It's a simple thing - but the shifting of the character pairs goes a long way toward keeping all the characters alive in the story throughout, while at the same time contributing to the fast pace.

The story benefits from Big Finish's usual polished production, but its success is brought home by Frazer Hines. His performance is nothing short of remarkable, as he enacts full scenes in which he voices every character. There's a tense scene in Part Two in which the Doctor, Jamie, the Selachians, Ben, and the bank manager all interact, discussing and threatening and arguing... and it was only after I had finished listening to the story that I reflected that this scene, and others like it, were created with a single actor. Between Hines' dead-on imitations of Patrick Troughton and Michael Craze, his ability to recreate his own 1960's performance, and his distinct voices for the guest characters, the story often feels less like an enhanced audio book than like a narrated full-cast play.

An outstanding central performance, bolstering an already well-constructed and clever story. It's often easiest to lavish praise on serious dramas than on lighter pieces like this one. But when a light story is pulled off as brilliantly as The Selachian Gambit is, then it deserves just as much praise. 

This is an excellent little story, one I will certainly revisit in the future. 


Overall Rating: 9/10.

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5-9. The Forbidden Time.

2 episodes. Approx. 62 minutes. Written by: "David Lock." Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines.


THE PLOT

When the TARDIS encounters a barrier within the Time Vortex, the Doctor becomes determined to investigate. "People shouldn't build walls in the Time Vortex," he declares, while admitting that he hadn't previously thought it possible to do so. He, Ben, Polly, and Jamie step out of the TARDIS into 1970's London...

...And they find themselves in a shadow world. The physical landscape of London is intact, but it all has a sort of a gray, dead feeling. The Doctor announces that they have travelled sideways in time. The four head back to the TARDIS. But they are too late. The Vist - a species of alien Time Walkers - block their retreat. Separated from Jamie and Ben, the Doctor and Polly flee the Vist across this surreal, crumbling landscape!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: The defining moment of the 2nd Doctor's run is almost certainly his declaration that evil does exist and must be fought. That said, there's an arresting visual moment at the end of this audio story, one that also sums him up well. He is facing the Vist, trying to summon up some fragments of authority. The monster laughs at the 2nd Doctor's disgust at its immorality, at his pretensions of authority. The Doctor talks at a rapid clip, and seems to talk himself into an even worse position than he was in already. Until we see that he has actually woven a web with his words, trapping the Vist by leading all of the aliens to do the one thing that can lead to their defeat. The small, foolish, disheveled little man, who is also the smartest and strongest presence in the room. If that's not the Troughton Doctor, what is?

Polly: Is clearly distraught when it appears Ben has been killed by the Vist, and she even refers to Ben as "my Ben" a few times during the story. With her highly empathic nature, it's not surprising that she's the first to notice the wrongness of this gray London, devoid of life. Despite this being a Companion Chronicle narrated by Polly, though, this story doesn't really do that much with her. She largely exists within the Doctor's shadow in this story, simply observing as he drives the action.

Jamie: Listening to this not long after watching/listening to several stories from Season Four, it is clear how much Frazer Hines' voice has changed in the intervening decades. That said, he has little difficulty in summoning up Jamie's basic character - no surprise, given how many times he's played the role for Big Finish over the past few years. Jamie is genuinely frightened of the Vist, but he still confides in a message to his friends that for all the dangers they've faced, he "wouldn't have missed (their adventures) for the world."

Ben: A secret car enthusiast. Ben confesses that every time the TARDIS has brought them back to London, in any time period, he checks out car magazines, and he can fairly accurately judge Earth time periods by this point by what cars are on the road (he and my father would certainly get on, though they'd probably drive any non-car enthusiast in earshot crazy). When the Vist block the TARDIS and move in on the Doctor and Polly, Ben doesn't hesitate to leap into the fray, putting himself at risk to distract the aliens' attention.


THOUGHTS

Written by the pseudonymous David Lock (identified by Wikipedia as Andy Lane), The Forbidden Time is a perfectly fine story. It's atmospheric, with Big Finish's sound designers doing their usual sterling job of creating an audioscape. It's highly visual, with the image of a parallel Earth, devoid of people and gray with decay, as its backdrop. It evokes the sense of the characters runnng through a Salvador Dali painting - with Dali even getting a namecheck by the script at one point!

For a story set during the black & white era of the television program, it's almost surprising how much use David Lock's script makes of color. The grayness of this world tips Polly off instantly that it's "wrong," and when the real world reasserts itself it's noted that the characters are moving "between black and white and color." The Vist's fortress is also detailed in a way that makes use of vivid colors. All of this brings the story to life. But while I normally visualize 1960's-set audios in black & white, this time the story was definitely in color.

This isn't the first Companion Chronicle to be read by two companions, but it may be the most ingenious use of the "second Companion." Jamie isn't simply a random second voice, dropped in whenever he has a line, nor is he an equal to Polly in telling the story. Instead, he is a supporting narrator, telling us Jamie's side of the story. This has the effect of letting us "cut away" from the Doctor and Polly to Jamie's scenes, in such a way that it doesn't compromise Polly as the principle narrator. It's clever.

Unfortunately, The Forbidden Time never quite gets beyond simply being clever. For the first episode, and the first bit of the second, I had hopes that this would be one of the range's most memorable outings. But once you get past the setting, the clever narrative devices, and the atmosphere, there just isn't much to the actual story. The Vist are a potentially strong adversary, and Anneke Wills does an effective job (with a boost from the sound designers) of making their voices genuinely eerie, if occasionally difficult to understand. But their agenda, when we discover it, is so... small, and frankly downright uninteresting. And the ending sees them far too easily defeated by the Doctor's fairly transparent ruse.

Ultimately, I enjoyed The Forbidden Time. The narrative devices are genuinely creative. The characters feel right. The production's general atmosphere and the typically strong reading by Anneke Wills make it an easy story to visualize. It just feels like this story should have been more than it is. I enjoyed the ride; I just wish I didn't feel vaguely dissatisfied at the end.


Rating: 5/10.

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4-8. The Emperor of Eternity.

2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 64 minutes. Written by: Nigel Robinson. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Deborah Watling, Frazer Hines.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor is quite pleased with himself when he manages to materialize on Earth immediately after the TARDIS is struck by a meteor. His smugness is short lived. While exploring their new surroundings, they find the dead of a massacred village. A traveler named Fen informs them that the townspeople were killed for believing that a recent meteor strike signaled the gods' displeasure with the emperor - the very meteor that the TARDIS deflected!

From Fen's statements, the Doctor realizes that he and his friends are in ancient China during the final part of the reign of Qin, the first emperor. Fen takes them to a nearby village for shelter. But it's not long before Imperial troops descend on the village, as well, taking the Doctor away to the Imperial palace. The emperor intends to force the time traveler to give him the secret of eternal life - leaving it up to Jamie and Victoria to rescue him!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: He recognizes that Fen is not who she says she is, but he plays along. He is appalled at the sight of the massacred villagers and, when the sadistic Lin threatens to do the same to the village where he's staying, he readily agrees to come with him. Since he knows that, according to history, the emperor will die soon, his plan is just to wait things out and let history take its course - at least, until Victoria reveals her suspicions that an assassin might be about to change history.

Victoria: This story emphasizes her compassion. She strongly believes that everyone is capable of redemption, as she tells Cho early in the story. When they traverse the corridor of molten silver, her background as a scientist's daughter serves her well - or maybe not so well, since she realizes what Jamie does not: That the liquid would be fatal if they fall in. Deborah Watling sometimes struggles when trying to recapture her young voice, but she does a good job of both reading and performing - and every so often, she manages to get a line just right, and the mental image of the young Victoria pops right into mind.

Jamie: Ever the protector, he tries to keep Victoria from seeing the corpses of the dead villagers. After seeing the field of bodies, he is wary of the strangers they meet to the point of hostility. He even voices the opinion that it would be all right if the emperor died. This is initially startling, but it does make sense - seeing those slaughtered villagers would almost certainly have brought back memories of his own clan. He also gets a couple moments to show that he is genuinely observant: He spots that Fen's horses are too regal for a peasant, and he demolishes Cho's pretense of being a monk with a series of observations that would have done Sherlock Holmes proud... though being Jamie, he immediately jumps to the wrong conclusions.

Fen: The young woman who takes the time travelers to the village, and later assists Victoria and Jamie in getting into the palace. The time travelers all spot that her story of being a peasant woman is clearly false. Her clothes, bearing, and even horses are far too aristocratic. Also, as Jamie notes, she is far too familiar with the secret way into the palace. The revelation of her true identity results in a memorable moment - though given the character's prominence in the story, it's disappointing that the revelation makes no real difference to the ending scenes.

Cho: The strange monk who appears in the village, only to immediately earn the suspicion of both Jamie and the villagers. He bonds with Victoria and seems genuinely moved by her statements about redemption and forgiveness - but when the Imperial soldiers ride into town, he hides himself immediately, only to take off toward the palace afterwards, which leaves the others convinced that he is an assassin.


THOUGHTS:

Emperor of Eternity has all the ingredients for a fine story. Writer Nigel Robinson describes the regulars' surroundings with a keen eye toward painting pictures in the listeners' minds. The setting, in ancient China, is inherently interesting. Lisa Bowerman directs with a steady hand, and the sound effects and music are carefully applied to make scenes that little bit more vivid.

It also ends up being a tale of two halves. The first episode is very good, with several memorable moments: the discovery of the dead villagers, Jamie's verbal sparring with Cho, the violent arrival of the Imperial guards, and the cliffhanger (and pickup in Episode Two) with Victoria finding an army of clay soldiers. All of this contributes to the atmosphere and helps raise tension while establishing the stakes.

Even in the first episode, however, most listeners will spot some of the tropes the story invokes. One narrative turn is so obvious that I called it by the thirty-minute mark. Still, as long as the story remained good, I could forgive such contrivances. It's not like televised Doctor Who in any era has gone out of its way to avoid such things.

Unfortunately, the second episode is much weaker. Not initially - the first ten minutes or so of Part Two remain strong, even if one obstacle in the characters' path feels a little too much like something out of a video game. But the momentum stalls once Victoria and Jamie reunite with the Doctor, and the story gets progressively worse from that point on - right up to an ending that's both limp and trite.

This was Deborah Watling's second, and last, Companion Chronicle. As was true of The Great Space Elevator, she struggles audibly to recapture her 1960s performance for Victoria's actual dialogue. She also has difficulty in differentiating the voices of the characters, which occasionally makes it hard to tell which person is speaking.

Still, Watling does just fine when directly reading. She brings the descriptions and action to life with suitable emotion and energy, and there was no point in which I had trouble picturing where the characters were and what their situation was. It's a perfectly fine audiobook performance - It just feels a bit more like a reading and less like a performance than the work of certain other narrators.


OVERALL:

For the first 40 minutes, I'd have labeled The Emperor of Eternity a good story, even a very good one. Then it starts to deteriorate, sliding into an ending that just doesn't work for me at all. There is still much to enjoy here - but the final Act leaves a poor last impression.


Overall Rating: 5/10.

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4-2. The Glorious Revolution.

2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 58 minutes. Written by: Jonathan Morris. Directed by: Nigel Fairs. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Frazer Hines, Andrew Fettes.


THE PLOT:

It's been roughly forty years since James Robert McCrimmon had his memories wiped by the Time Lords before being returned to his own time. He's settled down and has enjoyed a long and happy life. Then a Time Lord agent (Andrew Fettes) arrives to question him about a divergence in history. The agent restores his memory, then probes Jamie about the time he, the Doctor, and Zoe visited the year 1688.

Jamie recounts how they materialized just in time to save a young woman from a mob. She turned out to be the wife of King James II (also Fettes), fleeing with her infant son in the final days of her husband's reign. When Jamie realizes that they've landed on the eve of "The Glorious Revolution," in which King James was overthrown by William III, he decides to change history.

He meets King James and urges him not to flee, which became the pretext for William to depose him. He makes a persuasive case, even presenting a plan for the beleaugured king to get the population to side with him, if only to be on the winning side. But as the change takes hold, Jamie begins to experience strange lapses - and in his present, even as he shares his story with the Time Lord agent, his memories begin to change to reflect the new reality that he created!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: He's horrified by Jamie's actions and is determined to make sure history follows its proper course. An amusing moment has him thinking quickly when they're discovered by a boatman, assuming an authoritative posture and ordering the man to search all boats - even as he and Jamie continue with their escape in their own vessel. Hines's Troughton impression, which was already good in Helicon Prime, is terrific here. Unlike in the earlier audio, there aren't any deliveries in which he doesn't adopt the "Troughton voice," and it can be easy to forget that the same actor is voicing both roles.

Jamie: As good as Frazer Hines's Troughton is, his best acting comes when Jamie angrily talks about how the transfer of power was only peaceful in England: "No one died - in England! A peaceful exchange of power - in England! ...The Glorious Revolution was only glorious for the English. For the rest of us, in Scotland and Ireland, it was the beginning of a civil war!" The refrain of "in England" grows steadily more ferocious as the speech goes on, and the bitterness with which Jamie spits those two words are all the more effective for the contrast with his usual laid-back demeanor.

Zoe: Given that Zoe is usually more knowledgeable than Jamie, this particular setting allows a reversal. For Jamie, this is history that is barely out of living memory that has continued to impact his present, so he's extremely familiar with it. For Zoe, the entire "Glorious Revolution" is ancient history, leaving her needing the Doctor and Jamie to explain it to her. Hines does a decent job of differentiating her lines from the male characters, giving her a softer tone. 


THOUGHTS:

Big Finish's second Jamie Companion Chronicle is far better than Helicon Prime. Frazer Hines again gives a good reading, creating different voices not only for the three regulars, but also for multiple guest characters. The result feels only a step removed from being a full cast story, which helps to lend immediacy to events.

I usually prefer the Companion Chronicles that don't bother with framing devices, as most of the time those frames end up feeling labored and/or tacked on. Writer Jonathan Morris makes good use of the frame, though, weaving what initially seems to be just a bookend into the story in what I think is the range's cleverest way since Frostfire. Jamie's past actions change reality for the older Jamie even as he tells his story, and the interactions of Jamie and the Time Lord agent end up having an impact on the story being told.

The frame is also used for a strong character moment. Once his memories are restored, Jamie complains about his memory being wiped. The agent justifies it by pointing to the good life he's led, a life he might not have enjoyed had he known what was taken from him. Jamie angrily rebuts that he was given no choice - an anger not dissimilar to what he feels within the main story, in both cases reacting to decisions imposed by those who considered themselves above mere peasants.

Save for the time paradox issue (which not enough is made of), this is mostly a pure historical. Morris's script takes care to give us enough context to understand what is happening in the tale without smothering the story in details. The script maintains an energetic pace, moving quickly from one plot point to the next. There's also a rather nice action set piece with Jamie staging an exciting (if unlikely) rescue to save the Doctor and Zoe from a hangman's noose.

While it's a good story, I don't think it quite manages to be a great one. King James's characterization is inconsistent, with him veering from defeated to despotic within a single scene, only to become entirely passive again thereafter. I also think that more might have been done with the effects of Jamie's change to history. I think the story suffers slightly from being restricted to a single disc. At two episodes, it's sprightly, clever, and enjoyable - but the ideas and concepts here would have been more fully explored had this been about twice as long.


OVERALL:

The Glorious Revolution has the humor you'd expect of a story set in Season Six, but it also shifts seamlessly to some strong emotional moments. Jamie's eruption at the Doctor over the "peaceful" revolution is a highlight, an excellent character scene that also serves as a reminder that historical events can look a lot different depending on where one is standing.

Frazer Hines's performance is excellent. His Second Doctor is so good that I sometimes forgot it wasn't Patrick Troughton performing, and his acting as Jamie ranks among his best in the franchise.

Certain aspects feel underdeveloped, I suspect because of the short running time, and that costs the story a point. But this is an all-around good title, one that's well worth a listen.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Set During: Season Six

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2-2. Helicon Prime.

2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 63 minutes. Written by: Jake Elliott. Directed by: Nigel Fairs. Produced by: Sharon Gosling. Performed by: Frazer Hines, Suzanne Proctor.


THE PLOT:

Helicon Prime is a futuristic luxury resort so exclusive that it boasts a wait list of decades for a spot. It exists in "The Golden Section," an area of space whose properties discourage negative emotions. This avoids conflict among the many different species that vacation here.

The Doctor is very pleased at the prospect of a nice vacation. He is even more pleased to encounter Mindy Voir (Suzanne Proctor), a renowned singer who, thanks to her late father's genius, is the only human who can sing in a ten-octave range.

But all is not well. Ambassador Dromio, who unofficially runs Helicon Prime, is having the Doctor and Jamie watched. One wealthy but disreputable guest is murdered soon after they arrive - which, in the Golden Section, should be impossible. Another guest dies not long after speaking with Jamie.

Everything seems to trace back to a disaster that wiped out an extremely advanced colony world years earlier - and also to a mysterious treasure that someone in the present will kill to possess!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: This was the first Companion Chronicle narrated by Frazer Hines, and therefore the first audio to benefit from his excellent Patrick Troughton impersonation. It's not quite as dead-on here as it would be later. There are random line readings in which the "Troughton voice" disappears altogether, only to come back a line or two later. Still, even in this release, Hines's Troughton is often uncanny, and I remember how impressive it was on initial release.

The story does rather well with the 2nd Doctor's characterization. He spends the first episode avoiding direct action. He's cautious about drawing attention, and he doesn't want to jump to conclusions. After the second murder, he creates an opportunity for Jamie to sneak up to search the Ambassador's rooms, but he spends most of his time in public view behaving like a man on vacation with not a care in the world. Then, in his interactions with Mindy, he basically devolves into an overgrown fanboy, which is highly amusing.

Jamie: He's the perpetual fish out of water, his unfamiliarity with everything allowing both the Doctor and Mindy to funnel exposition to us through him. He grows impatient with the Doctor's laid-back attitude, trying to push him to do something, even though he doesn't have anything concrete in mind for them to do. He acknowledges that part of the appeal of his travels is the constant thrill of surviving by his wits - though that's only appealing because of his faith that the Doctor will make sure they keep surviving.

Mindy Voir: The story's "guest voice," who spends much of the story behaving as Jamie's companion, ala Samantha in The Faceless Ones. She's pleasant and indulgent in the face of the Doctor's enthusiasm for her. She also shows resourcefulness, using her vocal skills to extricate herself and Jamie from trouble. It becomes obvious fairly early that she's hiding her own agenda, particularly when she's a little too familiar with the ambassador's private rooms and a little too unruffled by the full force of the Golden Section. Still, Suzanne Proctor does a fine job of keeping Mindy the Pseudo-Companion breezily likable.


THOUGHTS:

Helicon Prime is one of the more lightweight Companion Chronicles. It's a futuristic murder mystery with some Agatha Christie overtones. The second of Big Finish's Second Doctor stories, it at least manages to entertain, which puts it well above Fear of the Daleks. Still, it seems unmistakable that fir the early Companion Chronicles, the Second Doctor drew the short straw.

The story's biggest strength is how right it gets the Doctor/Jamie dynamic. Jamie watches, amused, as the Doctor "inconspicuously" stumbles through a potted plant while Jamie simply steps around the obstruction. He is alternately exasperated and impatient with the Doctor's behavior around Mindy and with the slow pace of the investigation. However, he instantly goes along with any plan the Doctor comes up, even when it potentially puts him in danger, and it's always clear how fond he is of his friend and mentor.

The setting is also well-realized. Not much story happens in the first episode, but that's still the episode that showcases most of the best moments: Jamie marveling at various alien life forms, including sentient fish and a man made of glass. Jamie having a conversation with a short, sharp-toothed alien who is anxiously awaiting a date with a beautiful woman, with him smiling as he watches the unlikely couple walk away. The Doctor enjoying a book while sitting on a fake beach, as Jamie spills dates on the ground and watches the automated systems clean them up.

So the two leads and the sense of setting are well defined. It's too bad the narrative doesn't quite work...


FLAWS:

Helicon Prime is your classic murder mystery. A tragic event happened in the past, and several characters in the present end up dead because of it.

It's a durable format, one that Doctor Who has used many times. Unfortunately, while the building blocks of a decent version of this exist within Helicon Prime, they aren't particularly well implemented. As I mentioned, very little happens in Part One, which focuses mainly on Jamie's reactions to his current setting. Significant pieces of the story aren't even set up during this first half. The doomed colony world? The treasure? The connections between the ambassador and the victims? None of this is established until Episode Two.

We also get no opportunity to meet the victims. The first victim dies before the Doctor and Jamie even learn of his existence. Two other men die in the same scene in which they're introduced. Save for a character who strikes up a conversation with Jamie not long before being killed, there's no effort made to make them feel like real people, which keeps the stakes feeling lower than they need to. Also, the nominal villain, Ambassador Dromio, is talked about a lot, but he only ends up receiving two scenes of interest. We're told that he's watching the Doctor, but the two men don't directly interact until near the end.

This could have been fixed by simply having a tropey early establishing scene (a reception, a party, something) to allow the Doctor and Jamie to meet and get a quick impression of each of these characters early on. Such a moment would have introduced the characters while also feeding into the "Agatha Christie in space" element. Without such a scene, there's little sense of connection among the victims until it gets spelled out. Also, because the story is so back-loaded, exposition continued to be doled out right up to the very last scene.


OVERALL:

Helicon Prime feels like it was one rewrite away from being a good, if lightweight, mystery/adventure yarn. It's a huge improvement over Fear of the Daleks. Writer Jake Elliott gets the regulars right, and the setting is interesting and well-described. But while the pieces of an engaging story are present, I don't think they're put together quite right.

In the end, I'd rate this as a near-miss. It isn't bad... but it wouldn't be until Big Finish's third season of Companion Chronicles that the Second Doctor would start getting some genuinely good audio stories.


Overall Rating: 5/10.

Set After: Tomb of the Cybermen
Set Before: Fury from the Deep

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Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles Review Index

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The Companion Chronicles: Season 1 (2007).

The Companion Chronicles: Season One
1.1. Frostfire
Set between: The Time Meddler and Galaxy Four
Release Date: January 2007

1.2. Fear of the Daleks

Set between: The Wheel in Space and The Dominators

Release Date: January 2007

1.3. The Blue Tooth

Set between: Inferno and Terror of the Autons

Release Date: January 2007


Next Season: Season Two (2007 - 2008)

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