🤩ECCLESTON! = ALMOST PERFECT!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

The second Lost Stories release of the year is an adaptation of the storyline that was originally intended for Doctor Who’s tenth anniversary in 1973 but was replaced by The Three Doctors. It brings together the First, Second, and Third Doctors (as played by their respective Big Finish actors) and their companions Jamie, Jo, and the Brigadier.

I rather like the basic premise of the Doctors being pawns in a chess game played between Death and the Lord President. And it’s done to finally allow Death to trap the Doctors, who’ve constantly evaded him, in his realm.

The opening episode gets to the point immediately and greatly pulls you into this imagined early 70s Doctor Who story, from the intriguing Ingmar Bergman-esque opening chess-playing scene with Death (which runs as a thread through the story) to the very accurate introductory moments with each of the Doctors and their companions. Part 1 very effectively introduces all the players and moves the story along briskly.

Part 2 brings the Doctors together in the limbo space that is Deathworld. We get the typical banter between the incarnations before they have to find a way to work together to escape. I also like how each incarnation is returned to their companions and given a chance to seriously criticise their other previous or future incarnations. The tail end of the episode then turns into a The War Games ripoff with Three and Jo, which feels like a lovely callback.

The three Doctors are used very well, and the narrative effortlessly shifts between the three of them solving their separate problems and establishing contact to confer amongst themselves. Part 3 then brings every Doctor and companion together as they begin unravelling the mystery once and for all, and this also offers an opportunity for the characters to interact in interesting ways. We also get a deeper understanding of Death and his plans to punish the Time Lords.

I love how the stakes are raised at the end of Part 3 and the beginning of Part 4, when One is killed, meaning that Two and Three will vanish as well and say their goodbyes.

Michael Troughton and Tim Treloar are as great as ever as the Second and Third Doctors, respectively. Frazer Hines and Katy Manning do a great job of sounding like their younger selves, and they certainly emit good energy. The actor voicing Death is also a perfect choice for the role and seems to have great fun with it.

I like how the characters face Death in different forms: the horsemen of the apocalypse, the seven deadly sins, Kali, and Gorgon. I also like the emotional weight in the last stretch, once the Doctors learn to appreciate each other and are forced to face their mortality.

The Brigadier plays a much bigger role here than in The Three Doctors, and so does One. Jon Culshaw is great as the Brig, as usual, and Stephen Noonan still sounds a bit wrong to my ears, even though he clearly understands the general intonations and mannerisms of Hartnell’s incarnation. Interestingly, One and the Brig are paired up here for a good chunk of the story, as they make for a pretty interesting pairing.

Deathworld feels quite big from the onset, and it is surprisingly fast-paced for a Classic Who story. Many intriguing and explosive action moments probably wouldn't have worked as well on TV. There are also quite a lot of dangers, from zombies to skeletons and trigger-happy soldiers, so the listener is kept on edge.