📝8/10 = MORE ENJOYABLE!

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

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: “THE CHURCH AND THE CROWN”

This story instantly transports you to 17th-century France and the time of King Louis and Queen Anne and growing unrest between the church and the crown, in what is essentially a pure historical take on The Three Musketeers.

It’s been a while since I listened to The Eye of the Scorpion, so I forgot that Erimem joined the TARDIS at the end of that story and makes her first trip with Peri and the Doctor in this one. But I love how she immediately hits it off with Peri and shows great fascination for this new time.

Part 1 is pretty busy with setting the scene and throwing in a lot of characters who discuss the current political situation. The standouts from the beginning are the historically accurate depiction of Cardinal Richelieu, who’s portrayed well by Michael Shallard, and King Louis XIII as played by Andrew Mackay.

I’ve always enjoyed dopperlgänger stories in Doctor Who (such as The Androids of Tara), and here we have another one: Peri looks exactly like Queen Anne, leading to plenty of confusion when the former gets entangled in an assassination plot against the latter. This allows for more time for Erimem to find her role as a companion as she joins the Doctor in his attempts to save Peri, while Nicola Bryant gets to pull an impressive double duty as both Peri and Queen Anne; she truly keeps both characters separate while recognisably voicing both of them.

Caroline Morris is a force to be reckoned with, and the energy and fierceness she gives Erimem brings to mind Louise Jameson and Leela. I quite enjoy how she often takes charge of a situation, much to the Doctor’s chagrin, and how well she interacts with the other characters.

Peter Davison is also in top form and sounds like he's enjoying himself.

The music, performances, and setting give The Church and the Crown a feel akin to Phantasmagoria mixed with The Marian Conspiracy, and I’m all for it.

Part 2 continues to twist and turn the political intrigue while feeding the tension between the King and the Cardinal; all the while Erimem tries to ease tensions, and the Doctor is being brutally interrogated. Part 2 is much the same, but the performances and the great dialogue keep it all going even if the story hardly moves forward.

The chaos and battle scenes are played out surprisingly effectively, and Part 4 brings the story to an exciting close, with a few final twists to boot and consistently strong performances and music.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• The Doctor says that his “arms are a bit longer," and I was thinking: are his arms too long (see: Wild Blue Yonder)?