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“A FOREST OF ALL SEASONS: A SHORT TRIP THROUGH MEMORIES, MIRRORS AND MYSTERY”

To celebrate 60 years since Steven Taylor first joined the TARDIS crew, Big Finish Day 2025 offered fans a delightful free treat: A Forest of All Seasons, a new Short Trips release written by Jacqueline Rayner and performed by the ever-wonderful Peter Purves. This atmospheric tale of warped time, shadowed futures and ghostly doubles sees the First Doctor, Steven, and Vicki land in a time-frozen forest where nothing moves forward—and yet everything shifts.

RAYNER CAPTURES THE HARTNELL ERA TO PERFECTION

Jacqueline Rayner has always had a sharp ear for early Doctor Who, and her knack for replicating the pacing and character dynamics of the Hartnell era is on full display here. The story opens with a classic “let’s explore this strange new world” setup, which soon unravels into something far eerier. Rayner never rushes the plot, giving space for the uncanny atmosphere to build. From the moment the Doctor and Steven encounter a girl who looks exactly like Vicki—except she isn’t—it’s clear that something deeply wrong is happening.

Rayner also crafts the kind of slow-burn science fiction the 1960s excelled at, favouring mystery and ideas over spectacle. The forest is a great setting—organic yet unnatural, beautiful yet disorienting—and its secrets are gradually revealed through emotional beats and quiet tension rather than explosive twists.

A STORY ABOUT TIME, MEMORY… AND POSSIBILITY

The central conceit is appropriately timey-wimey, involving a strange program that traps individuals in timelines constructed from their own memories, regrets, and possible futures. It’s both haunting and poignant, especially when the projections are tailored so specifically to Steven and Vicki.

Steven’s imagined future, where he lives peacefully with a woman who might have been his wife, is movingly handled, a brief but touching reminder of the personal cost of travelling with the Doctor. Vicki, meanwhile, is shown a happy alternate future where her father is still alive—a direct callback to The Rescue and a gut-punch for anyone familiar with her origins. These alternate lives may be illusions, but the emotions they stir are all too real. Rayner’s writing smartly explores the idea that memories—however false their setting—remain valid if they resonate emotionally.

VICKI SIDELINED, BUT STILL CENTRAL

It’s worth noting that Vicki is physically absent from most of the story, being injured early on. While this is a shame—especially in a story with such emotional resonance—it also allows her presence to linger in a more enigmatic way. She is the mystery that drives much of the Doctor and Steven’s investigation, and the projection of an alternate Vicki becomes the emotional heart of the episode. Still, one can’t help but wish Maureen O’Brien could have voiced a companion-focused segment herself.

A SHOWCASE FOR PURVES’ STORYTELLING TALENT

The true star here is Peter Purves, whose dual performance as both Steven and the First Doctor continues to be a marvel. His Hartnell impression is one of the most consistently convincing in the Big Finish catalogue, capturing not just the vocal rhythm but the fussy charm, dry wit, and sudden warmth of the original. His narration threads the whole piece together with confidence and care, and he slips into Steven’s role with a natural ease that makes it feel like the 1960s never ended.

A CLASSIC TALE WITH EMOTIONAL DEPTH

A Forest of All Seasons cleverly plays with 1960s-style sci-fi concepts but filters them through a very modern emotional lens. It’s a story about choices, missed chances, and the impact of our memories—even those we wish we could change. For fans of Steven Taylor, this is a fitting tribute that honours his character’s introspective side while still putting him at the centre of a time-warped mystery. For listeners new to Short Trips, it’s a fine example of how Doctor Who can do big ideas on a small scale, and still tug at your hearts while doing so.

📝THE BOTTOM LINE:

A beautiful, melancholic slice of classic Doctor Who, A Forest of All Seasons offers a touching tribute to Steven Taylor’s legacy, filtered through Jacqueline Rayner’s graceful prose and brought to life by Peter Purves’ superb narration. A haunting celebration of memory, identity and the paths we never took—wrapped in a Hartnell-era mystery box. 7/10.