Absolutely incredible horror story. The best the cybermen have been since The Doctor falls, using Jo and Tim's 3 was very genius, as the pair has one of the best chemistries between any current Doctor/Companion duo. I won't say much more, because I promise to you the blinder you go in, the more you'll enjoy it.

We have one of the latest releases in the Third Doctor Adventures in the single-story box set, The Quintessence. As you may have noticed from the cover art, Jo looks somewhat older than she normally is when pictured alongside the Third Doctor. That’s cos in 2023, Big Finish decided to begin a new line of continuity with the Third Doctor by having him reunite with Jo decades after her travels and having recently become a widow, to help with her grieving the Doctor offers her one last round of adventures to which she accepts. Now I’m not gonna lie, I hated this idea in principle, Jo’s goodbye with the Third Doctor is one of the best companion departures in Doctor Who, so for the Doctor to drive off solemnly into the sunset having lost one of his dearest friends only to turn around and almost immediately resume travels with her just feels cheap. Nowadays having had time to properly think on it and especially after having listened to this story, I still if it were up to me would never have gone along with this idea to begin with but I do understand why. If anything it allows Katy Manning to relax and use her actual voice, Katy Manning’s almost 80 now and it just seems ridiculous having her at this point trying to put on the same voice she had in her late 20s so I’m sure she’s very thankful for that. But the stories they’ve done with her years older having lived a full life, becoming a mother and a grandmother, the stories do take all that experience and wisdom into account, this is not the same Jo the Doctor initially travelled with and nowhere is that better demonstrated than The Quintessence.

Jo wakes up from an unusual dream where a little girl in an old Victorian house gives her a set of coordinates. Following her hunch, the Doctor uses those coordinates to take them to a desolate world bombarded by endless storms and winds, but at the centre of all this chaos sits the same Victorian house from Jo’s dream. Inside they find a seemingly normal yet highly unusual family who don’t seem aware of the inhospitable world outside. The owners of the house have a daughter who is ill and dying, but they’ve managed to keep her alive through the guidance of their angels who regularly communicate with them. The angels plan to eventually descend and save their daughter but the Doctor discovers very quickly that these are no angels and while they may save the little girl from dying, it would come at the cost of her emotions and everything that makes her who she is. Or at least that’s what the Doctor assumes as what the “angels” from a far off distant and dead world called Mondas have planned is something far more horrifying.

You’ve likely missed it on the cover art but they are featured on it so it’s not exactly a spoiler, but this is in fact a Cyberman story, the second time in the Third Doctor Adventures and Big Finish’s fourth with the Third Doctor in general. A glaring omission of the Third Doctor era was the absence of the Cybermen, while by this point the novelty of the Third Doctor encountering the Cybermen had worn off with the previous audios making up for those lost opportunities, stories like this just make it all the more tragic just how big of a lost opportunity it was that Pertwee never got to work with the Cybermen.

The Quintessence is a rare case of Doctor Who going the horror route with the Cybermen, but I don’t mean horror as in trying scare the crap out of you, I mean horror as in creating this uncomfortable atmosphere full of dread and despair. The imagery it evokes is just so chilling, and that’s just in the Victorian house to begin with, I wasn’t fully prepared once our journey took us to the planet Mondas itself, a world where by this point the last of it’s human inhabitants had long been converted, with Cybermen so primitive that they appear more like ghosts or zombies rather than the battle-hardened shiny warriors we’re used to seeing. The Quintessence doesn’t pull its punches in really delving into the horrors of what it means to become a Cyberman, how you lose yourself forever and that there’s no way back, or at least not to how you would wish to be. There’s a beautifully messed up scene in the middle portion where the Doctor and Jo encounter a Cyberman that’s had it’s emotional suppressor deactivated and all they can do is hear its cries of pain and wondering if its family has also been “saved”. And it just gets worse and worse as the story progresses and we come to find out the fates of the family from the house. And it way it plays into Jo as she is in her old age is a mixture of ingenious, beautiful and utterly harrowing! This is one of the few stories and the first Cyberman story I’ve ever come across where once it was over I just sat there in silence for a good few minutes taking slow deep breaths and just really processing what I’d experienced.

This is probably in my top 5 Cybermen stories I’ve ever come across and I 100% recommend it, but I give you fair warning, it’s not a pleasant listen, it absolutely succeeds as a Cyberman horror story in just leaving you completely shaken by the end of it.

THIS STORY IS EVERYTHING

📝10/10 → FAVOURITE!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: “THE QUINTESSENCE”

The Quintessence begins with an atmospheric Part 1, which sees Jo Grant led into a huge and seemingly empty manor house by a strange and playful child in a chilling dream sequence that sets up the narrative. I like how we then get into the adventure straight away when Three and Jo decide to investigate the alien planet with the mansion.

Doctor Who has always done spooky tales well, and The Quintessence taps into that with the stormy weather, the dimly lit Gothic mansion house, its inhabitants, who seem to know Jo from before, and the slowly unravelling alien presence. The talk of angels, seances, and heavenly songs only strengthens the creepy atmosphere before the brilliant cliffhanger reveal in Part 1—it’s the Cybermen!

The cast is pretty small, so we learn to know the Pepperdine family quite well and understand their situation, their motivations, and their actions. And all members are superbly performed, but especially Chris Larkin (the son of Dame Maggie Smith!) as Arthur and Felicity Cant as his daughter Emmeline. The character arc Arthur and Emmeline go through in this audio is powerful and made me feel revolted and heartbroken at the same time.

Part 2 further adds to the tension by revealing that the Cybermen have been instructing the Pepperdines to convert themselves into Cybermen remotely, and this is both creepy and heartbreaking to hear the partly converted Emmeline. Part 3 then further complicates things when we learn about Arthur’s scientific tinkering, leading to one of the more effective cliffhangers I’ve heard in a BF release in a long time.

Part 5 delivers another twist and effectively messes with our heads by completely changing the narrative (and introducing the lovely dog Houdini; what an apt name). Jo and Emmeline seemingly live a peaceful life together, but this simulated reality is constantly disturbed by the dark reality pushing through. Felicity Cant steal the show in this part with that unnerving performance of hers. This entire part is increasingly unnerving to listen to and is one of the creepiest single parts I’ve heard from Big Finish in a long time.

Part 6 sticks the landing with a great emotional turnout that pits Jo and the Cybermen against the Doctor. This is where Tim Treloar steps up as he tries to convince Jo that eternal life without death and suffering isn’t worth it.

We return to Mondas in this story, and it’s always exciting to see the people and the development on the planet.

Katy Manning is back as the older Jo, and she fits very naturally into the story. She delivers one of the strongest performances for Big Finish here, especially in the second half of the adventure. Tim Treloar is superb as the Third Doctor, and together with Manning, he easily taps into the lovely relationship between Jo and the Doctor.

The Cybermen are made very effective in the story and not overused like in many other instances. The Cyberplanner is great, especially once we learn that it’s Emmeline inside the casing.

The performances and sound ensign perfectly evoke the early 70s era, and the regular twists and tense moments make this six-parter flow extremely well. There are also several quite unnerving scenes of emotional and physical torture that are difficult to listen to, giving The Quintessence an effectively palpable, creepy, and stressful atmosphere.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• The mix of Victorian and Gothic aesthetics with robotic foes using portals to break through from their world to ours brings to mind a similar setup in Evil of the Daleks, while the slow conversion of people into Cybermen shares vibes with the Big Finish Main Range release Spare Parts.

honestly stewart pringle and lauren mooney need to write in every range cause their talents are incredible. as a big fan of their torchwood stories, i was really excited to hear how their third doctor outing would go and this was one of my favourite cybermen story i've experienced. the body horror was done so well, and it really felt dark and a different direction for the third doctor range, loved it from start to finish.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Iron Shore (Unreviewed)

A fittingly spooky story just in time for Halloween. The vibes here are incredible. Victorian manor house on an endlessly stormy planet far from any civilisation, inhabited by an odd couple and a creepy singing girl. I mean, what more could you want. Tim Treloar and Katy Manning arrive on the scene with their fantastic chemistry and uncover the mystery behind the house. Manning gets a lot of time with the little girl, Emmeline Pepperdine (played by Felicity Cant) and it's sweet to hear her adopt a grandmotherly role (literally at one point). Treloar on the other hand is busy interrogating the couple, he inhabits the Third Doctor so well. While it's obvious he's not Jon Pertwee, he brings 3 to life in his own unique way and as usual captures him perfectly here.

This is a refreshingly unconventional Mondasian Cyberman story, largely ignoring them in favour of deepening the relationship between the Doctor and Jo. If I'm being honest, I prefer it this way. I absolutely love this version of the Cybermen (their voice in particular is haunting, and it remains so in this story) but by not focusing on them too deeply it prevents them from becoming generic robot soldiers. I wouldn't say this story is quite on Spare Parts level, but if you enjoyed the body horror and tragedy of that story, then this one feels quite similar. It's similarly set towards the beginning of the Cybermen.

I enjoyed the ending, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this Jo Jones arc progresses. I think Jo Jones is 3's best companion on audio right now, so I hope they give her a proper ending rather than keeping her in Big Finish limbo. Overall, a great, spooky little adventure.

Next Story: (Unreleased)