Island of Lost Souls

The Wilderness Years were a heady time of fan creativity and innovation – and a fair amount of copyright-circumvention. Top of the ‘it’s not Doctor Who honest but it is really just don’t say it out loud’ was BBV. One of their products which sailed the closest to the wind was the audio series, eventually titled ‘The Time Travellers’. Featuring Sylvester McCoy as the Professor and Sophie Aldred as Ace, these audios were – for the first few releases at least – basically the further adventures of the 7th Doctor and Ace.

The second release was Island of Lost Souls, a World War Two set story written by Mark Gatiss. It’s basically a traditional Doctor Who adventure in all but name. McCoy is mysterious and manipulative, Aldred is feisty and bolshy. The British have stiff upper lips and the Nazis are traitorous and pursuing scientific advancements. There are even insectoid aliens possessing humans on an isolated base on an isolated island.

This is Doctor Who 101 but, ultimately, there’s nothing wrong with that. McCoy and Aldred are excellent and slip straight back into their roles (and clearly were given the memo about who these characters actually are) and the guest cast are all providing solid support. Nicholas Briggs, in particular, is great fun as the base commander forced, as so many of this type of character are, into having to trust the Doctor – I mean, Professor. (And it’s canny that they use Ace’s habit of calling the Doctor – Professor, to get around it).

The story continues the oft-used trope from the World War Two adventures of Nazis seeking a technological edge to win the war – in this case the weapon being developed by the British at this secret base in Greenland. Within the base crew is a traitor, adding an extra dose of danger beyond the alien possession. The aliens themselves have some interesting traits such as having body and mind separated as well as their ability to possess human and animals.

The other thing that struck me about this story, especially after listening to Colditz, is how accomplished the sound design is. The windy Greenland landscape is evocative and the various sound effects paint vivid pictures for the listener. It’s easily as good as many a Big Finish (and really shines a light on why Colditz was as painfully bad as it was).

These early BBV releases are really rather good and they’re definitely worth seeking out or give a re-listen to, to spend a bit of time revisiting a very different era of Doctor Who and being a fan.