The Monthly Adventures #025 - "Colditz” by Steve Lyons

Colditz is probably one of the most important audios in the entirety of the Main Range. Introducing Klein, who would go on to be a recurring companion of Seven, and beginning the line of stories that would eventually turn into the Hex arc, it’s impossible to understate just how many stories came out of Colditz. But how is the story itself? Its influence goes far, but where did it begin? With this - the 25th release - we’ve reached the first milestone of The Monthly Adventures, and with it a damn good story.

The Doctor and Ace step out of the TARDIS, and are immediately arrested. They’ve landed in Colditz Castle, the most secure prison in Germany, and their imprisonment might just mean victory for the German Reich.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

There is a lot to love in Colditz, but I’ll begin with what I think is the highlight; Ace is at her best here and Aldred is giving a stunning performance. The Doctor’s out of the picture for a majority of the runtime, so Ace (or McShane for a few audios but damn if I’m calling her that) is our main character this episode. Rebellious, intelligent, destructive, this is where we begin to see where Big Finish would take Ace, and she’s my favourite companion in the history of the show. As for antagonists, we have two stand out adversaries - one for the Doctor and one for Ace. On one hand, you have Klein, who is an incredibly fun foil to the Doctor and really feels like a villain that works well with Seven and his megalomaniacal schemes, and on the other hand you have Ace facing up against Nazi Sergeant Kurtz, played surprisingly enough by David Tennant, who is truly incredible at playing a slimy piece of shit. In fact, I think pretty much every character here is great, from the ally-sympathiser Schäfer to the cowardly Wilkins, these all feel like real people and none of them fall into stereotypes. As for the story, we have a plot in two halves. Ace has a pretty decent but not outstanding pure historical as she tries to escape Colditz Castle, and the Doctor is running around with a refugee from a rogue timeline where Germany uses Ace’s CD Walkman to win the war. And it’s this latter storyline that gives us the twist that the Doctor from the aborted timeline died, regenerated into the Eighth Doctor, and spent years manipulating Klein so that she’d go back to Colditz and stop her own timeline from occurring. Seven has a number of insane, time bending plans over his run in Big Finish, but this might be my favourite, it’s such a hilariously mad left field turn.

As many people have pointed out however, there is one big flaw to Colditz: the sound design is atrocious. Seriously, so much of the dialogue sounds tinny - I understand that it’s because these scenes are taking place in dank dungeons with echoey walls but you can convey this well without putting your actors in tin cans. And sometimes, background noise will just abruptly cut with no warning so our characters can talk, which just feels like the cherry on top. And whilst I like Ace’s escape plot, which took a majority of the story’s runtime, the Doctor’s stumble through the woods with Klein was a lot duller, even if it had some great dialogue. Eventually, both stories do kind of lose steam and begin going in circles, with our character nearly getting away, then getting caught, then meeting up, then getting separated, before meeting up again. You’re probably bored just reading my description of it so you can imagine listening to it.

Overall, Colditz is a personal favourite of mine. Not only is it incredibly notable in the Main Range’s history, it’s also just a damn good script from fan favourite writer Steve Lyons. Ace and the Doctor are at their best and we have multiple brilliant antagonists, which I think excuses an imperfect story and some dodgy sound design.

8/10

Pros:

+ Ace is at her very best

+ Klein seems like a very unique and interesting character

+ Kurtz made for a brilliantly sinister and vile antagonist

+ Love the madcap reveal of the Doctor’s masterplan

+ Good cast of interesting, layered characters

Cons:

- Truly abysmal sound design that was incredibly distracting

- The Doctor’s subplot is noticeably uneventful

- Plot started to circle by the end