8-12. Second Chances.

2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 68 minutes. Written by: John Dorney. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Wendy Padbury, Emily Pithon.


THE PLOT:

Zoe remains a prisoner of The Company, though her execution has been stayed after she provided some genuinely useful information. Her advocate, Jen, has brought in a specialist to try to recover more of her lost memories, and it's someone Zoe has met before. Under a different name, Kym (Emily Pithon) had attempted to trick Zoe into revealing the secret of the Achromatics. Her career was destroyed by Zoe's refusal, and she is deeply bitter.

With Kym's less-than-gentle prodding, Zoe is able to remember another incident. The TARDIS materialized on a space station, Artemis, where the Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie are mistaken for experts sent by The Company to advise on a situation. Their sister station, Apollo, broke up shortly after sending a coded message. Zoe sets to work decoding the message, only to discover a virus. By decoding it, Zoe has set it free to destroy Artemis!

In the present, Kym reveals that Earth has only just lost contact with space station Apollo. This means that there is still time for her and Zoe to travel to Artemis, to save the people on the station from a cold death in outer space. It's a chance for Zoe to correct her old mistake - and a chance for Kym to regain her lost position and set her own life back on track.


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: There's an amusing moment in which he loses track of the TARDIS key because of how much junk he keeps in his pockets. When he finds it, he holds it up in triumph - only for his enthusiastic gesture to send the key flying through the air to land at the feet of the station security guards. When he briefly comes into contact with the older Zoe, whose face is hidden behind a mask, he seems to sense something, though there's no direct sign that he recognizes her.

Zoe: She is horrified when she realizes the nature of the virus, which is designed to modify itself to affect humans as well as code. Though there was nothing her younger self could have done differently, she still carries the guilt of the deaths that followed the virus's release, which makes Kym's offer to try to change the outcome irresistible. John Dorney's script makes the best use of Zoe's perfect memory that I've encountered in any story, with her total recall a key to the resolution - a particularly good thing in an arc whose released have been constantly punctuated by the older Zoe stating, "I remember everything."

Jamie: There's a nice in-joke, as Jamie complains about them landing in space stations when he'd really like them to materialize in a castle in Scotland, with the ensuing banter referencing the planned but unmade story, The Laird of McCrimmon. He also risks his life to rescue the younger Zoe, though this occurs offscreen as she's unconscious at the time.

Kym: The final story in this arc brings back the guest character from Echoes of Grey. There are even a few moments in which the narration switches from Zoe's recollections to Kym's, allowing quick glimpses into what motivates her and why she is so angry. She is impatient with Zoe, rushing her through key parts of the narrative, a clever justification for Dorney's script to create gaps that get filled when the Kym and the older Zoe arrive in person in Episode Two. Emily Pithon is given more emotional material here than in Echoes of Grey, and she rises to it with a strong performance.


THOUGHTS:

Second Chances is not only the final entry in the Zoe/memories arc; it was also the final release of the Companion Chronicles as a monthly range. It's an excellent curtain call for both, a cleverly plotted story that also delivers surprising emotional impact.

The first episode essentially presents an "average Troughton" episode, as Kym is able to make Zoe remember the adventure on the space station. This is an entertaining mini-adventure would make for an effective Short Trip in its own right, - but it's only at the end, when things go disastrously wrong, that it starts to seem like more than a just a standard Second Doctor adventure.

The second episode is where the story truly delivers, as we see the same events again from the viewpoint of the older Zoe. The story fills gaps that initially seemed to be throwaway jokes: Kym urging Zoe to skip past a capture/escape bit; Zoe being knocked unconscious. The flip side of the first episode's events reveals new information, and the overall context is changed and the stakes raised even further than they were already. A climax that seemed abrupt in the first episode becomes a genuinely exciting sequence, the change in perspective allowing for more development in Part Two.

The story does an excellent job of paying off the full arc. Previous stories have established The Company as ruthless and oppressive, more than enough reason to fear them obtaining this virus. This allows the older Zoe to finally do more than just remember - She acts, closing out the "frame" on a strong ending note.


OVERALL:

I thoroughly enjoyed Second Chances. It is easily the best of the Zoe/memories arc, satisfying both as a finale and as a solid tale in its own right. All told, this was probably as good an ending as could have been hoped for The Companion Chronicles as a monthly range.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Set during: Season 6

Previous Story: The Uncertainty Principle

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7-2. The Uncertainty Principle.

2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 64 minutes. Written by: Simon Guerrier. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Wendy Padbury, Charlie Hayes.


THE PLOT:

Zoe remains a prisoner of The Company, scheduled for execution after refusing to divulge details she observed when traveling with the Doctor. Her advocate, Jen (Charlie Hayes), tells her that her only hope of saving herself is to remember something of value - and time is running out.

With guidance from Jen, Zoe recalls a disruption forcing the TARDIS to materialize on Earth in the year 2022. She, the Doctor, and Jamie trace the disruption to a prototype Feynman machine. The computer isn't working - and the same failed experiment that grounded the TARDIS also resulted in the death of Meg, one of the researchers.

The time travelers pretend to be mourners at Meg's funeral in order to gather information, where Zoe befriends Archie, who was in love with the ill-fated scientist. Zoe finds herself drawn to the awkward young man, who accompanies them to Meg's lab. There, Zoe discovers the machine, which somehow is drawing creatures from another dimension - creatures made of electricity, whose merest touch results in instant death!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Blends in at the funeral through the simple trick of listening to other people's stories about Meg and then parroting back some of her qualities. He survives his first encounter with the electricity creatures thanks to his rubber-soled shoes, though he is disconcerted that his hair has been left standing on end. The description of him trying to hand-comb it back into place is one that perfectly evokes Patrick Troughton's Doctor.

Zoe: She feels romantically drawn to Archie. He is far from her intellectual equal, but his social awkwardness leaves him not quite fitting in, something that she can relate to. In the present, she is still grappling with the gap in her mind. She's facing execution if she cannot give the Company what they want - but when she realizes exactly what their goal is, she contemplates that it might be better to just let herself die and take the information with her.

Jamie: He gets less to do than in the previous two Zoe Companion Chronicles, likely because some of his normal role ends up going to Archie. He gets one great scene, however. When Archie's mother is jeopardized by the creatures and her house is set on fire, Jamie doesn't hesitate to rush into the flames to save her. He protects her from the worst of the smoke inhalation, even though doing so puts him in the hospital.

Jen: There's an urgency to her attempts to get information from Zoe, and it gradually becomes clear that she has a strong personal stake in this. By the end, she realizes that Zoe would have helped her willingly... but after Zoe's previous unreliable narration, Jen simply did not see her as somebody she could trust.


THOUGHTS:

The Zoe/memories arc continues with its strongest release yet. It's as if writer Simon Guerrier specifically corrected for the weaknesses of the earlier entries. The main story is more interesting than that of Echoes of Grey, and its ending is more satisfying than that of The Memory Cheats.

The frame story has consistently been this arc's strongest feature, and it continues to build. Zoe's subterfuge when telling her previous story directly impacts how Jen approaches her this time. Because Zoe made herself seem unreliable, she is treated as such. The malice of The Company is also further developed, with stakes rising for both Jen and Zoe.

As was true of The Memory Cheats, Guerrier constructs his story around a central idea. This time, the theme is uncertainty. The story directly invokes the principle of Quantum Superposition, that something exists in multiple states until it is measured and fixed as one thing or another. This is reflected by Zoe herself, who lives with two sets of memories: one in which she traveled with the Doctor and one in which she stayed on The Wheel. It also relates to the creatures in her story, and eventually to the state of one of the supporting characters.

This is a good story, and I have only a couple of small nitpicks. There's a minor inconsistency that I was surprised slipped through: Zoe references Jamie throwing a glass of water at the creatures - something that was actually done by Archie, while Jamie was elsewhere. When the characters investigate Meg's lab, an echo effect is applied that's a touch overdone, which I found distracting.

These are minor issues, though, and they don't stop this from being a very good story.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Set during: Season 6

Previous Story: The Memory Cheats
Next Story: Second Chances

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6-3. The Memory Cheats.

2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 65 minutes. Written by: Simon Guerrier. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Wendy Padbury, Charlie Hayes.


THE PLOT:

Zoe has been imprisoned and is facing execution in the wake of her refusal to share information with The Company.

She has one hope: Jen (Charlie Hayes), her defense attorney, dangles the prospect of leniency... but only if Zoe can remember her time with the Doctor. When Zoe insists again that she never actually traveled with him, Jen presents evidence: documents and photos that place her with the Doctor and Jamie in Uzbekistan, 1919.

This results in a breakthrough, with Zoe recalling that trip. She, the Doctor, and Jamie arrived in a village whose children were vanishing, one per night. Learning that the villagers are awaiting the arrival of Chebrakov, a Bolshevik official, the Doctor does what comes naturally: He impersonates the man in order to gain full access to investigate.

The children were taken from the poor and the privileged alike. At each house, the Doctor discovers a substance very like a spider's web. That night, the villagers remain awake and alert, and they are able to chase off what is either a badly deformed man or a creature. This leaves a trail for the time travelers to follow, to discover what became of the missing children.

Then the real Chebrakov arrives, and he has the expected reaction to the Doctor's impersonation: "I should have you all shot!"


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Impersonating a Bolshevik official grants him full access to investigate, and he swiftly notices the webs at the abduction sites. He's also able to connect the pieces of both the abduction and the still-recent war.

Zoe: She's the only person who isn't afraid of Chebrakov. She doesn't cow when he threatens to shoot her, instead calmly pointing out that it would be more to his advantage to use what they've already discovered to resolve the village's problem. She and Chebrakov genuinely like each other - which is not a point in her favor for Jen, who points out the types of deeds the Bolshevik would certainly have carried out to merit his position of power.

Jamie: He gains the trust of the village children by playing football with them. It's a bond that he solidifies when he stands up for a shy girl who doesn't want to talk to the Doctor, instead escorting the girl home so that they can talk to her mother. This is a terrific character scene that shows that while Jamie may not be as intellectually smart as the Doctor or Zoe, he is more emotionally intelligent than either of them.

Jen: Supposedly Zoe's defense attorney, Jen comes across more as an interrogator. She tells Zoe that she might gain clemency if she can provide The Company with information, and she guides her into first remembering, then telling the story. She is a mother herself, which makes her all the more invested in an incident involving kidnapped children.


THOUGHTS:

The Memory Cheats is a direct sequel to Echoes of Grey, with an older Zoe being prompted to remember details of her travels by people who want information from her. The frame creates tension, even more here than it did in the previous story, as Zoe is now in a much worse position than before.

Writer Simon Guerrier talks in the release's extras about the concept of investigating history. This is an area I've always found personally interesting. When you study past events, you're really having to interpret them using sources that are inherently biased: individual memories, often recounted decades after the events described; documents written by people serving their own agendas; and gaps that you have to attempt to fill through context. This is why, far from being static, history constantly changes: "accepted understanding" of the past shifts both with new discoveries and with changing standards.

The story plays with the idea of the unreliability of history. This is most apparent when Zoe challenges Jen, pointing out that from this point on, she could just make everything up and the other woman would never know it. The idea is also used when Jen prods Zoe's memory with records: the journal entries of a British doctor and his wife, or the likely (but unconfirmed) misdeeds of Chebrakov.

The first episode is by far the better of the two. There's just enough of the frame story to create tension, and writer Simon Guerrier does a splendid job of bringing the post-World War I setting to life. The village is still suffering from the ravages of war, and the citizens - rich and poor alike - are apprehensive of their new government. There are effective descriptions of how a poor family sleeps on the floor of their only room, with a contrast drawn between that family and another, more affluent one.

The second part takes the Doctor and his friends out of the village to find the children. It remains engaging. But for me, at least, once the characters leave the village, a lot of texture is lost.

The climax is my least favorite segment of the story. I like what it's trying to do, bringing the story to a close in a way that plays on the unreliability of Jen's sole source (Zoe). I also appreciate the way it draws parallels among the story Zoe relates, her life now, and Jen's own situation.

Unfortunately, I find the climax to be a bit of a jumble. Events are sketched rather than playing out, and critical moments seem brusehd over. This may serve the theme by stressing the unreliability of Zoe's account - but it comes at the expense of providing a satisfying conclusion, and I just don't find that to be a good tradeoff.


OVERALL:

A short epilogue between Zoe and Jen somewhat compensates, with each character challenging the other in a way that leaves the ongoing frame arc on a strong note. However, the resolution of the main plot remains disappointing to me.

The Memory Cheats is more ambitious than Echoes of Grey, with more intriguing ideas and a more detailed setting. But if pushed, I found Echoes more satisfying overall, simply because it felt more complete as a story.

I'd still rate it as a good release. But I was left feeling a little let down by the ending, which is enough to knock a point off my total score.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Set during: Season 6

Previous Story: Echoes of Grey
Next Story: The Uncertainty Principle

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5-2. Echoes of Grey.

2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 77 minutes. Written by: John Dorney. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Wendy Padbury, Emily Pithon.


THE PLOT:

Decades after her time on the Wheel, Zoe Heriot is startled when she meets Ali (Emily Pithon), a young woman who remembers her from The Whitaker Institute, where she was among those saved by Zoe, Jamie, and the Doctor. This reinforces Zoe's own doubts about her memory. Ali suggests using a Delta Wave device to try to restore those lost memories, using her own recollections of the incident as a starting point.

This works, with Zoe soon recalling arriving in the TARDIS. Something is amiss. Hospital beds are identified with patient names, but there are no patients. The Doctor impersonates an official from the company backing the Institute, and the chief researcher, Dr. Cadden, grants them access - but carefully directed access, which leaves the Doctor fuming.

There's a lab that's kept off limits, supposedly due to contagion, and they hear whispers about "The Achromatics." A secret is being kept - and the consequences could be deadly!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Impersonates a company official, freeing a captured Zoe and gaining access in a single move. After one person is killed, he tests Dr. Cadden by asking about the victim. When Cadden responds that he doesn't know where the man is, the Doctor knows that he's innocent; a guilty man would have had a story ready. Wendy Padbury does a much better job of capturing the Doctor here than in Fear of the Daleks, adopting a low, gravely tone that's a nice fit for the Second Doctor.

Zoe: She is mostly the standard Companion in the main story. She's in-character and active enough, but somewhat oddly for a Companion Chronicle, she doesn't particularly drive the plot. More interesting is the frame, which sees a middle-aged Zoe grappling with the hole in her memory. She tells Ali that she remembers wanting to travel with the Doctor, and then she simply... didn't. This mismatch makes her feel that she simultaneously remembers everything and nothing, and it leaves her primed to respond well to Ali's offer.

Jamie: Again oddly for a Zoe Companion Chronicle, Jamie has a stronger role in the main story than she does. He bickers with Zoe, who is irritated at him for a cut she sustained while trying to prepare haggis, grumbling that he can't help it if she can't follow basic cooking instructions. When he, the Doctor, and Zoe are threatened by the Achromatics, Jamie acts swiftly to throw the situation into chaos, allowing them to escape, and he pushes Zoe to climb to an at least temporary safety during the ensuing chase.

Ali: She bonds with Zoe over the difficulties of being a child prodigy. When she talks about being separated from her family and sent to work among adults who saw her as little more than a tool for calculations, Zoe admits that her story is almost identical. She pushes Zoe to remember, filling in the parts of the narrative that Zoe wasn't able to directly observe so that the story is complete.


THOUGHTS:

"I remember everything, and I remember nothing."
-Zoe Heriot grapples with lost memories.

There's a sharp divide in Echoes of Grey between the genuinely intriguing frame story and an entertaining but entirely standard main narrative.

The frame shows how the hole in her memory has affected Zoe's life and indicates that recovering her memories will make her feel whole again. It even folds in the bookends from Fear of the Daleks, with Zoe dreaming about traveling with the Doctor even though she knows she never did. It doesn't make Fear a better story, but it least it makes it less pointless. All of these scenes are quite good.

The story surrounded by that frame is a bit basic, a formulaic mystery/suspense story. There's nothing wrong with it. It moves along at a decent pace and everything is perfectly well-structured. The only problem is that it offers few surprises, with its major twist so clearly telegraphed early on that I doubt many listeners were at all surprised by it.

I still found it entertaining. John Dorney's script does a fine job of capturing the three regulars, and he's particularly good with the Jamie/Zoe dynamic. At one point, Jamie and Zoe hide in a closet to evade detection. Zoe shifts to peek through the gap in the door, digging into Jamie in a bit that would made for some amusing on-camera business; then the tone shifts toward horror as Zoe witnesses one of the Achromatics, leading to an effective cliffhanger.

Other than predictability, my main issue with this story is that Zoe doesn't actually do much. The frame presents an interesting dilemma, presenting an opportunity for her to recover her lost memories. But in the main plot, she gets the least to do of the three regulars. The Doctor puts the pieces together and resolves the incident; Jamie acts quickly to protect his friends; and Zoe... is there too. She's well-written and in-character. It just never feels like it's properly her story.


OVERALL:

If Echoes of Grey had been a television episode, its main plot would amount to midseason filler - but it would at least be pretty good midseason filler. It's far from indispensable, but it keeps me engaged throughout.

I wish I felt that the story was more centered around Zoe, rather than simply being a story that Zoe observes. Still, in the end I enjoyed Echoes of Grey, and I thought the frame was legitimately interesting. That's enough to boost my score by one point to...


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Set during: Season 6

Next Story: The Memory Cheats

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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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1-2. Fear of the Daleks.

2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 66 minutes. Written by: Patrick Chapman. Directed by: Mark J. Thompson. Produced by: Sharon Gosling. Performed by: Wendy Padbury, Nicholas Briggs.


THE PLOT:

New companion Zoe Heriot is frightened after viewing the record of the Doctor's last encounter with the Daleks on the mind scanner. The Doctor promises, however, that the adventure in question marked the Daleks' final end.

He then takes Zoe and Jamie to Lavonia, a city built into an asteroid. Lavonia is neutral territory, and it has therefore been designated the site of peace talks between the Xantha Empire and the Tibari Republic.

But not everyone wants peace. Professor Atrika, a rogue Tibari scientist, has developed a device that will allow him to mentally project a subject and also to control that person. All he needs is a person with a strong mind, meaning the arrival of the Doctor and Zoe couldn't have been timed more perfectly.

Atrika selects Zoe for the first practical test of this technology, projecting her onto the flagship carrying the Tibari president. Her assignment is to assassinate the president, which will be blamed on Xanthe. And his co-conspirators?

The Daleks, who are not quite as dead as the Doctor had led Zoe to believe!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Quickly recognizes Atrika's technology as being of Dalek origin. He tries to reason with Atrika, to make the scientist see that his allies cannot be trusted. When the Daleks learn that he is present and come crashing into Atrika's laboratory, the Doctor plays for time, reminding them that they will need his mind to properly work their machine and bring their plans to fruition.

Zoe: Tries with all her will to resist Atrika's control, particularly after she meets the Tibari president and is impressed by her. She manages to force out a couple of veiled statements, but Atrika's grip on her mind is too tight for any direct warning. As the assassination nears, she is horrified by her own actions even as she's helpless to stop herself.

Jamie: Zoe pronounces him "brave," but she also observes that something about him leaves her wanting to protect him. He spends most of the story being little more than present, an extra hostage for Atrika and then the Daleks to wield against the Doctor, though he does get a tiny bit to do at the very end.

Atrika: The placeholder villain for the story's first half. He's worked his evil genius (TM) on Dalek technology so that he can astral project a perfect assassin. When confronted about why he wants to sabotage peace, he just sneers something about how "democracy takes too long!" He was previously close to the president that he now wants to assassinate, and there's a hint that he's jealous that she didn't take him with him when she found political success - but nothing is done with that element, because that might have been somewhat interesting.

The Daleks: Nicholas Briggs does his usual splendid job, varying his pitch to distinguish between the different Daleks. Unfortunately, that's about the only good thing I can say about the Daleks here, as this is a lot closer in quality to the horrible Victory of the Daleks than to the excellent Power or Evil. For one thing, these are particularly stupid Daleks. The Doctor needs to remind them that their plans require that both he and Atrika remain alive. They later indicate their plans to betray an ally right in front of that person, because that couldn't possibly go wrong later. Finally, at the climax, they spend what seems like an eternity screeching about exterminating without ever actually... you know... doing it. Oh, and the total Dalek body count amounts to a couple of unnamed redshirts.


THOUGHTS:

I have very little positive to say about Fear of the Daleks, but I'll start with the one positive that I realized while typing out the synopsis: the bones of this story aren't inherently awful. Certainly, there's not much here that's original, but the premise could have made for a decent action thriller.

Too bad about everything else.

One of the first things that I noticed was the bad dialogue. "We'll worry about your megolomania later!" the Doctor says to Atrika - which might be OK if he was puncturing the scientist's ego, but as delivered here, he's speaking in full earnest. Later, the Daleks go into a rant about fear that plays out as unintentionally comical.

Then there are the clichés. A character has a chance to kill the Daleks, but refuses to because it would make that person as bad as they are. Another character performs a noble self-sacrifice... which, with very rare exceptions, is probably my very least favorite Doctor Who trope.

And, of course, there's a giant hole in the story's own logic. Atrika and the Daleks need minds of the caliber of the Doctor and Zoe for their plans to reach fruition. The Daleks even hold off on killing the Doctor because they accept that they need him. But it's not as if they were expecting him. In fact, it's a plot point that they are surprised when he shows up. So here's the question: Exactly what were they planning to do before they turned up?

Of course, never mind any of that, because the climax shows us that the machine can project the Daleks just fine. So then the question becomes: Since they didn't actually need the Doctor after all, why didn't they just kill him when they had the chance? The answer, of course, is that then there wouldn't have been a story. Not there's much of one anyway...


OVERALL:

Fear of the Daleks is bad. The story itself might have made for a reasonably entertaining runaround, but everything goes wrong in the execution: plot holes, bad dialogue, and clichés that had overstayed their welcome back when the Troughton era was actually airing on television!

It's sad to consider that this was the first-ever Second Doctor audio. Thankfully, better would come before too long. Even more thankfully, the rest of the Companion Chronicles from that first set were of a very high standard, which helped to offset the stink of this rotten turkey.

It's probably not Big Finish's very worst title - but it would have to rate as a pretty strong contender.


Overall Rating: 1/10.

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