Harry Houdini is a significant figure in the Doctor’s life. As far back as Planet of the Spiders, the Doctor revealed Houdini had taught him many of his escapology tricks. In the years since, the expanded universe has explored the relationship between the two and developed it from some throwaway references to some full-blown adventures.

The first encounter with Houdini in this marathon was in the short Christmas story – Houdini and the Space Cuckoos. In that story, Houdini met the 11th Doctor mid-performance. However, it was also clear that this wasn’t their first meeting. The Doctor and Houdini’s chronological relationship is almost as complicated as the Doctor’s is with River Song. What becomes clear over the course of the Houdini stories is that he has met multiple incarnations of the Doctor but that he has met them in a random, and undefined, order.

Harry Houdini’s War is set in 1917 and finds Houdini meeting the 6th Doctor. But it’s all very strange. The Doctor seems to be working for the Germans and betrays Houdini to them. The Germans want Houdini’s brilliance to be used for their own ends but they have also discovered some alien technology which could allow them to instantaneously transport hundreds of the troops right into the middle of Allied territories.

My son listened to this story just before I did and part way through was very concerned that the Doctor was working for the Central Powers. Of course, it all turns out to be a ruse – hoisting the Germans by their own petard, so to speak – but it hints of the complex relationship Harry and the Doctor have (which continues through into the other stories). Because the Doctor has always been reluctant to share his secrets with Harry, Harry has always retained a suspicion and a resentment towards him. Harry readily accepts that the Doctor has betrayed him and is working for the Germans. Even Peri’s protestations that the Doctor must have a plan don’t convince him and, oddly, even for the listener, Peri herself doesn’t seem convinced the Doctor isn’t actually working for the ‘baddies’. In fact, Peri herself seems a little ‘off’ – of which, more later.

The Doctor effectively gets a surrogate companion in Helen Smith, or Helga Schmidt – a German spy living in New York. With the Doctor apparently working for the Germans they begin the story as allies and the story progresses she learns to respect the Doctor on a more personal level. When she discovers he is an alien himself, her eyes are opened to a universe beyond the Great War and realises that he is actually working for a greater good than a petty conflict between humans. This, of course, is part of the Doctor’s plan as he is only helping the Central Powers so that he can achieve his true aims. Preventing the Germans from effectively utlilising teleporting technology is important to him for the sake of history’s true path but there is a secondary aim which, for him, is just as important.

And this is where Peri and her slightly odd behaviour comes in. It transpires that it isn’t actually Peri. She is an alien who has taken on Peri’s form based on the Doctor’s memory. The TARDIS and the alien’s time ship collided in the vortex and the ship crashed on Earth (which is where the tech the Germans are using has come from) and the alien found refuge on the TARDIS.

All of the Doctor’s mysterious machinations are not only to stop the Germans from developing technology that could see them win the war in one foul swoop, but also to help the stranded alien to return to the vortex and be rescued by others of their kind.

But because Peri isn’t really Peri, it is, ironically, a great story for Peri. Nicola Bryant really gets her teeth into the role and delivers the various hints that all is not as it seems cleverly and subtly in her performance. The Doctor’s actions also allow Colin Baker some more things to play with and, particularly when betraying Houdini, the listener really feels wrong-footed even by this most ‘sketchy’ of Doctors.

John Schwab (from the TV episode Dalek) plays Houdini. Apparently, BF had wanted to cast Tim Beckmann who had played the role in Smoke and Mirrors but he proved unavailable (having returned to his native Canada). Therefore, Schwab steps into the role having similar vocal tones to Beckmann. He is excellent in the role and has great interplay with both of the leads.

One aspect of World War One which Doctor Who hadn’t thus far covered was the world of the airforce. We’ve had trenches and submarines. We’ve had field hospitals and life away from the war. Young Indiana Jones travelled the full expanse of WW1 experiences and aeroplanes were explored in the Jon Pertwee-starring episode Attack of the Hawkmen. Harry Houdini’s War finally redresses the balance with Houdini and Peri in a thrilling air fight which ends with them crashing into woods and barely escaping with their lives. This action set-piece also ties in with Houdini’s real life history as he was an aviation pioneer and became one of the world’s first private pilots.

The idea of Harry Houdini’s ‘war’ also ties in with historical events. Houdini was a staunch patriot of the USA (despite being born in Hungary) and aided the war effort in a variety of ways including teaching American troops how to escape from sinking ships or extricate themselves from various restraints if captured by the Germans. Therefore, it isn’t too much of a stretch to believe that the Germans, particularly spies working in the USA, would want to use Houdini’s talents for their own ends.

As mentioned, Houdini has a slightly fractious relationship with the Doctor and this story sees this developing in its antagonism. Houdini is increasingly angry that although the Doctor is friendly towards him, there is so much about him that he doesn’t know. He easily believe that the Doctor would betray him to the Germans because, he realises, he really doesn’t know who the Doctor is. At the close of the story, the Doctor returns Harry to New York, but on the day all the adventures started. Harry is unconscious for his ride in the TARDIS and is furious he has been denied the opportunity to see inside the Doctor’s time machine. He’s also frustrated by the fact that no one can know what he has done in terms of helping to save the world. He just has to return to the theatre, finish his act and return to his normal life, waiting to see if the Doctor turns up again.

This frustration clearly festers in Houdini because it will reach a peak in Smoke and Mirrors, our next story. Both produced by Big Finish (although Smoke and Mirrors was released by AudioGo), these two releases tie in together very well and it’s clear Steve Lyons, the writer, is laying groundwork for the relationship between the Doctor and Houdini in Smoke and Mirrors – which was released six year prior to this release.

One other, more prosaic, common theme of these Houdini stories aside from his relationship with the Doctor, is his ‘chinese water torture’ escape trick. It featured in Houdini and the Space Cuckoos (it was, in fact, the cover illustration for the downloadable story – with the Doctor suspended upside down in the tank). Again, in this story Harry is mid-trick when the Doctor recruits his assistance. His return back through time at the close of the story allows him to make a spectacular entrance at the theatre having ‘escaped’ the tank of water. Escaping from water and a box will be the signature feat of Houdini revisited again in both Smoke and Mirrors and our final Houdini story – Theatre of the Mind. Obviously Houdini is known for much more, but the water torture is an arresting visual image so I’m not surprised it features in all of the Houdini stories in some form or other.

Harry Houdini’s War is a great 6th Doctor story, a great WW1 story and a great Houdini story. It ties in with the other Houdini stories in a way which must have been planned at least to some extent and helps develop the Doctor’s relationship with a historical character in a way that I’m not sure happens anywhere else – or at least not is as much detail as these stories do.