Ah Big Finish, where would Doctor Who be without you?

For those who don’t know, Big Finish is a company that specializes in producing radio plays… radio plays that are listened to on CDs and MP3s instead. With the resurgence of podcasts recently, radio plays have come back in vogue, but Big Finish was out there decades prior still plugging along.

They primarily produce audios for old sci-fi and fantasy franchises, along with the occasional audiobook. However Doctor Who is their bread and butter. They helped keep the show alive during it’s 16 year long hiatus, and are still making new content for older eras of the show to this day.

The Companion Chronicles are a ‘spin-off’ series that focuses on the Doctor’s past companions recounting previously untold tales of their travels. Unlike the ‘main-range’ with it’s full cast audios, CCs tend to only have one to three actors at a time. They’re paired back, more intimate affairs, but they tend to be longer than Short Trips, hence why I place them in the full audio category.

Besides, for earlier Doctors they tend to be more abundant than full cast plays.

But enough background, what is this particular audio play about?

More or less, yes.

Steven, Vicki, and the Doctor land in Britain in 1912 during the height of the Suffragette movement. In a quarry they find the bones of a physic alien that can possess women. It’s goal? To destroy all men.

Not just mankind, but anyone male specifically. Basically the alien is a radfem, who becomes worse than the very thing it supposedly hates most, as it subjugates people and forces them to fight against their will.

It’s not a very subtle message, and it conveniently ignores the existence of trans people who would throw a monkey wrench into the idea of an alien who feeds off of ‘female energy’, as if such a thing could even exist. However, I did enjoy this outing more than the previous Steven and Vicki adventure I read last week.

For starters, the inclusion of the original actors does heighten the material. I won’t lie, books have their place, but they can’t recreate the chemistry of two real live people interacting. Steven and Vicki have a fun sibling dynamic that was lost in The Empire of Glass, but shines here front and center as they retell the story together.

Another thing in the audio’s favor is that it’s smaller scale. It feels like something that could have feasibly happened in the show proper, even if the approach is different because of the medium. It’s also more focused thematically speaking, as well.

I also enjoyed the humor and the insights into how classism and sexism intersects. How women themselves can uphold systems of oppression against them if they feel it will protect their own power, and how men can be important allies too. I also enjoyed the critique on what types of political protests are most effective or not. While the message isn’t subtle, it does have layers.

Honestly I would have enjoyed these aspects of the story more, but they are mostly only focused on in the second half of the story, which also features a lot of exposition dumps. They’re important info dumps as they explain the main villain’s goals and motivations, and being an audio there’s no other way to get that information across, but still it’s a bit uneven pacing wise.

Overall though, this has been one of the more enjoyable stories so far. It’s no Crusade and I liked Set in Stone more, but it was a fun romp itself.

(PS. I love how the story unintentionally implies that Steven is actually a trans man who is offended by the alien mistaking him for a woman constantly, only to try and kill him whenever it figures out he’s actually a guy. lol)