We have The Prints of Denmark from the Second Doctor’s third volume of the Companion Chronicles box sets, as of a few months ago, it was the last release of The Companion Chronicles, a series originally was meant to conclude in 2020 but production issues (COVID most likely) pushed it back to 2022. Overall it's a great box set and up until the announcement of the next release it would've served as a great conclusion to one of Big Finish's longest running series'

The Prints of Denmark sees Zoe wander off from the Doctor and Jamie as they’re exploring a video library of unique recordings over the centuries. She ends up bumping into another time traveller who offers her the opportunity to see history without the randomness of travelling in the Doctor’s TARDIS. As they travel and she observes the past, she begins to notice anachronisms such as electric lamps and photography in the middle ages, but her worries are confirmed when she’s taken to see the premiere of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, live on the big screen! All manipulated by her fellow traveller, a certain meddling Monk.

This is the first in my reviews to feature the renegade Time Lord known as the Monk, a title he picked up in his very first meeting with the Doctor. The Monk holds the accolade of being the first antagonistic Time Lord in Doctor Who history, long before the Master we had The Time Meddler from Season 2 where the First Doctor encountered one of his own people disguised as a Monk in 1066 who was plotting to change the outcome of the Battle of Hastings. Why? Mainly for sh*ts and giggles! The Monk’s whole deal is that he considers history to be one massive toy room for him to play about with, he’s a Time Lord who’s not exactly evil like the Master or the Rani, or even that dangerous, but he’s someone with no cares or responsibilities for preserving the natural course of time. Onscreen the Monk only appeared twice in the show, in fact he’s also the first individual villain in Doctor Who history to come back for a rematch where after being stranded in 1066 and vowing revenge on the Doctor, the Monk returned the following year in the twelve part epic The Dalek’s Master Plan where he briefly tangled with both the Doctor and the Daleks before being chased away. To date the Toymaker holds the record for the longest gap between appearances in the show for a former villain, but it’s only a matter of time before that record gets shattered mark my words.

The Monk wouldn’t appear again in Doctor Who until 2010 when Big Finish brought back the character for the Eighth Doctor Adventures, there he was voiced by Graeme Garden, a few years later he was recast as Rufus Hound who’s played the Monk ever since and has encountered almost every other Doctor. In 2021 they also introduced a female incarnation called the Nun voiced by Gemma Whelan (Yara Greyjoy from Game of Thrones) who faced off against the Tenth Doctor. The Monk’s a great villain and I’m counting the years until he’s brought back onscreen.

The Prints of Denmark is the quintessential Monk story as it encapsulates everything about his character, changing history to such an extreme degree, but not for reasons of malevolence or domination, but rather for his own childish amusement and having a friend of the Doctor’s to mock and show off to. Rufus Hound and Wendy Padbury work brilliantly off one another with Zoe having to play the Monk at his own game to try and set history back on track as we get some creative and funny descriptions of how history is affected by the early invention of television (I never knew I would want a Kanye West all rap version of Hamlet so badly!) If your unfamiliar with the Monk, this is an ideal listen to get acquainted.