Operation: Hellfire

The Third Doctor Adventures from Big Finish are not a range I have clamoured to purchase. The recasts don’t always work for me and the bits and pieces I’ve heard of Tim Treloar in other releases haven’t convinced me I’d be able to suspend my disbelief for a full story.

But, completist that I am, when the volume of Third Doctor Adventures containing Operation Hellfire, a World War Two set story, appeared in a Big Finish sale, I grabbed the chance to buy it so I could include the story in my marathon.

The first hurdle to get over when listening to these stories is always going to be accepting Treloar’s 3rd Doctor. This is Volume 6 of the range and it is clear he has settled into the part and found a way of doing it. There were times when he did sound like Pertwee but I can’t say he convinced me for the whole running time. But I did manage to make peace with his performance and it didn’t take me out of the story.

The same can’t be said, unfortunately, for Katy Manning. I know what she’s trying to do – it’s the same thing Wendy Padbury does when she’s recreating Zoe. They pitch their voice higher but, unfortunately, it just makes them sound like little children. Manning in particular teeters on the brink of a twee, silly voice which just doesn’t sound like Manning from the 70s. I know she never is going to (years of smoking will have put paid to that) but actually, I think she’d be far better off just sticking to her own voice with just a slight lightening of tone. In constantly pulled me out of the story, particularly in the earlier episodes when I was also trying to get used to Treloar’s performance.

There is a hilarious bit though where Jo pretends to be an acolyte of a Nazi occultist and she goes all husky and sensual which Manning does brilliantly.

Ah yes – a Nazi occultist. That’s essentially what this story is about – the Nazi obsession with the dark arts. Many Doctor Who stories so far in my marathon have explored the Nazi desire to find the next super weapon but, as we know from the Indiana Jones films, they were also fascinated by how the supernatural may be able to assist them in their efforts to control the world.

The Doctor and Jo are sent on a mission by the Time Lords to retrieve a powerful Gallifreyan artefact which has fallen into the hands of a Nazi-sympathising British cult. They are assisted by an Ian Fleming-like member of the London Controlling Section (a branch of British Intelligence) called Douglas Quilter.

This is a very atypical Pertwee story which, judging by the extras, was part of the point. As such, it is rather difficult to picture this as part of the era it purports to be from/inspired by. It also makes it a bit of a weird experience. It’s all very sensationalist and bizarre despite being grounded in the real life agency of the London Controlling Section. The guest cast are all playing larger than life characters who audibly chew the scenery, especially Jeany Spark as Daisy Chapel. and although it’s entertaining, it makes the whole thing rather comic strip like. In fact, the whole story is far more reminiscent of the Countdown comic strips than anything on TV. Taken on that basis, it does work but it’s all rather over the top. As if to emphasise the unrealness of it all, the one ‘real’ person in the story, Winston Churchill, really only appears in cameo, almost as if he is popping up for the odd frame in the comic strip.

Taken as an audio comic strip in the style of Countdown, this isn’t a bad audio. It’s very over the top and the fact the whole Nazi occultist thing turns out to be a ruse, is a bit of an anti-climax. The macguffin of the amulet is apparently influencing events but it’s a bit unclear and overall it’s a story which feels like it had a lot of fun elements but doesn’t really know what to do with them or how to turn them into a coherent, satisfying Pertwee era story. Manning and Treloar do work well together but I think I might need to hear a more ‘traditional’ story to better judge whether I think the recast works and whether the Third Doctor Adventures are a range I want to pursue further (I do also own the box set with the Monk and the Cybermen simply because the whole ‘Pertwee never had a Cyberman story’ is something that has been an itch in my fandom that needed scratching since the early days (I even wrote a Pertwee Cyberman story for my school days fanzine).