We have Arrangements for War and the first story I've reviewed to feature my favourite Sixth Doctor companion, Dr Evelyn Smythe (voiced by the late Maggie Stables). A history lecturer at a university who joins the Sixth Doctor to see history in the making. Big Finish’s first original companion and a key element towards the Sixth Doctor’s redemption and change in character as Evelyn acted as a perfect counterweight to Six’s arrogant nature and is one of the few companions to call the Doctor out on his nonsense. In-universe this had the effect of evolving the Sixth Doctor into a kinder and more outwardly caring individual, whole still carrying some of his original arrogance but without coming off as a mean a-hole.

Evelyn is a far cry from almost every other companion, being elderly, an expert on history, not someone to have a war of words with and suffered from a heart condition that was slowly killing her but kept secret from the Doctor. Arrangements for War marks a major chapter in Six’s life and his travels with Evelyn as it follows a personal story arc carried over from all the way back in 2001. In an audio called Project Twilight, the Doctor and Evelyn come across a casino in London that’s apparently being run by vampires (or people experimented to become vampires) and are being hunted by their half-vampire creator Nimrod, the leader of the Forge. A secret British military organisation that hunts down and imprisons/kills aliens “for king and country”. Basically Russel T. Davies looked at the Forge and said “I wanna do that!”. During this adventure, Evelyn made close friends with one of the casino workers named Cassie (Cassandra Schofield), a young woman who unknowingly took a job at the casino so she could earn enough money to go home and raise her little Tommy, but unfortunately she gets infected and becomes a vampire herself. At the end of the story the Doctor drops her off in Norway promising to come back with a cure.
A couple years later in 2003 we got the sequel Project Lazarus, where the Doctor has finally finished making the cure and the two go to find Cassie, only to discover she’s been recruited by the Forge and brainwashed into being a hardened killer. While the Doctor is captured by Nimrod and almost tortured to death in an effort to force a regeneration for the Forge to harness the energies, Evelyn brakes through Cassie’s brainwashing and she rescues the Doctor in the nick of time. But unfortunately, Nimrod kills Cassie before she can escape with the Doctor, the Doctor’s alien reaction to Cassie’s death causes a fallout between him and Evelyn who’s become tired of his alien and almost unfeeling manner.

This leads into Arrangements for War where the two agree to go somewhere that Evelyn can take a break from him, somewhere with no imminent danger where they don’t have to get involved. The place being the planet Vilag on the cusp of a golden age where two of the three major countries are about to end their long and bloody war in a union of an arranged marriage. In a few months time a race called the Killorans will invade but on this occasion the Doctor’s help will not be necessary as the united planet will kick the invading force back into space. That is of course until the Doctor accidentally convinces a young guard named Marcus to pursue his love interest, who just so happens to be the princess set to be married, who also loves him in return. And if they’re love affair is discovered, the arranged marriage will be called off, the war will recommence and the Killorans will tear the planet apart. Meanwhile Evelyn becomes close with the governor of the third mediating country, Rossiter, and feels that this may be the end of her travels with the Doctor.

Yes, that was quite a lot to unpack, it’s one of those stories that’s stronger going in with the prior context of the Doctor and Evelyn’s relationship and everything that’s led them to this moment. It’s very heavy on drama than action with most of the story taken up by the Doctor and Evelyn separately integrating themselves into the planet’s political system so they can keep things on track before the Killorans invade. All the while, the two of them become attached to the people they work alongside.

Which leads into the ending and oh what an ending this is, without going into spoilers, though you can probably guess anyway, the two people the Doctor becomes attached to over the course of the story are both killed and after all the death the Doctor’s experienced throughout his lives he finally reaches his emotional breaking point, and so goes back to the TARDIS to try and change history. What follows is hands down my favourite Sixth Doctor scene where he’s at his most emotionally vulnerable and Evelyn has to bring him back to reality. It really showcases just how important Evelyn is to the Doctor and what separates her from almost every other companion. It’s basically the ending of Waters of Mars but better (and I love the ending of Waters of Mars).