The Church and the Crown is an enormously fun, fast paced romp.

I love it when Doctor Who wears its influences on its sleeve.  This adventure is 100% Doctor Who and the Three Musketeers.  Although it leans to a slightly more historically accurate account, particularly with the depiction of Cardinal Richelieu, it still revels in the trappings of swashbuckling romps, particularly, to my mind, the two film versions of The Three Musketeers – the Michael York/Oliver Reed one and the Charlie Sheen/Rebecca de Mornay one.  It’s a shame, though, that there doesn’t seem to even be a subtle reference to the greatest of Musketeer adaptations: Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds!

The TARDIS team of the Fifth Doctor, Peri and Erimem return for yet another adventure.  The regulars are all on top form and this is a very strong story for both Peri and Erimem.  Caroline Morris, in only her second story as Erimem, gets to show her leadership in battle and has a lot of fun playing up her royal background at King Louis’court.  The story, however, belongs to Nicola Bryant playing both Peri and her double, Queen Anne.  Doctor Who has a long tradition of doubles but it’s usually the Doctor rather than his companions.  Although this is audio, a strange medium to base a sizeable chunk of plot around physical appearance, it works brilliantly.  This is mainly due, I believe, to our familiarity nowadays with Nicola Bryant’s real accent.  Therefore we can easily imagine her in both roles even though her performances are quite different.

The plot actually boils down to some fairly basic politicial intrigue: the English Duke of Buckingham is planning to invade France.  But the focus of this story isn’t an intricate plot, it’s the Musketeer stylings.  The two Musketeers that hook up with the Doctor, and then Peri, are enormous fun as as are the brief scenes with Blind Maurice.  King Louis (portrayed by the same actor as Blind Maurice!) is also great.  In sharp contrast is Michael Shallard as Richelieu.  It could be argued that he, and Nicola Bryant as Anne to some extent, doesn’t fit into the play’s more humorous leanings.  However, the fact the play is historically more believable than something like Castle of Fear or The Kingmaker but not as serious as something like Son of the Dragon or The Council of Nicaea means it balances the two sides of its nature quite well.

Historically we have as mentioned, King Louis XIII, Queen Anne, Cardinal Richelieu, George Villiers (the 1st Duke of Buckingham) and Madame de Chevreuse (a Lady in Waiting to Queen Anne).  Buckingham’s plot to invade France, however, seems to be complete fiction – more akin to the film inspired stylings I have mentioned.

I haven’t a huge amount more to say about this story.  It’s fun and amusing.  It has some great scenes of tension, particularly any involving Richelieu and it has the regulars and guest cast all on top form.  Had I not waited nearly two weeks since listening to this to write the review I may have had a few more things to say.