Part three in the Legacy Of Time release.

You can’t really go wrong with Jo Grant, well not in my opinion anyway. Katy Manning is a great actress whose good at voices and I’ve really enjoyed pretty much all of her audios.

Here Jo and Osgood are enjoying swimming when Kate interrupts, there is some temporal interference near the coast, a group of people from the 16 century have found themselves in the 21st. Whats more this has happened before when it was solved by the death of Jo Grant!

It is a little odd when two eras come together, more so when they are so far apart.

I was quite surprised when the third Doctor turned up, I don’t know why but I imagined this wasn’t going to feature the Doctor (maybe I’d heard too many Companion Chronicles)

The way the Doctor meets Jo is nicely done, as he fails to notice that she’s got old. When they enjoy dinner together an interesting thing that cropped up, and is something thats caught attention, is that why isn’t the Doctor vegetarian? I’m a vegetarian myself, I’ve often wondered why, with his beliefs, how come he’s so happy to eat meat.

One of the other points about this audio is Kate and the Brigadier. Though they don’t meet, Kate feel she shouldn’t let on about who she is and is reticent to speak to him on the radio.

So this is more about the relationships than the actually hook of the story - how could Jo have died in the past and still be alive, it all makes sense in the end, but its not really the point.

We are left with what causes the event which is setting things up for things to come.

Another enjoyable story

In 2019 Big Finish celebrated their 20th anniversary with their own Avengers Endgame with The Legacy of Time, a box set bringing together as many Doctors, companions and other characters from all corners of Doctor Who lore. Not for a single epic story sadly but rather six separate stories that are tied together by the return of a monster that was introduced way back in Big Finish’s very first Doctor Who audio story. It was overall a solid box set that does deliver in its conclusion with having all the Doctors on the cover come together to save the universe, including a surprise cameo from David Tennant. That said though, you would look at the cover and think you would be in for something more grandiose than what we ended up getting because in essence these are just run of the mill stories.

However, the true highlight of The Legacy of Time was its third entry The Sacrifice of Jo Grant, a story set later on in Jo’s life where she’s called in by Modern Who’s UNIT led by Kate Stewart with her scientific adviser Osgood. Whilst investigating gaps in time appearing along a Dorset coast, Jo and Kate are pulled through and find themselves back in Jo’s old UNIT days with her Doctor investigating the same phenomenon. While she enjoys spending one more day with her Doctor, Jo knows how the gaps in time were closed back in the past from an eyewitness account, and to save the world she must make the ultimate sacrifice.

Ok so I won’t give away the ending but if you know anything about Doctor Who, you should know that a title like that and what it teases should always be taken with a shovel of salt! Not saying a word but any seasoned fans really should know how this works by now. But putting that aside, The Sacrifice of Jo Grant is a wonderful emotional story that’s less on plot and more on Jo getting one more day with her Doctor. The Third Doctor and Jo was one of the strongest parings in the show’s history, a friendship that began on bad terms with the Doctor not wanting her as his assistant but over time their relationship grew and grew to the point where they parted in one of the most effective companion departures of all time. On top of that we have Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart giving one of her best performances as she’s presented with the opportunity to have one final conversation with her father but doesn’t know if she can bring herself to do it. Really Kate was the showstealer in this as while Jo getting one more adventure with the Doctor is a wonderful story, it is admittedly one that’s been done before, such as Find and Replace, but this still manages to hit all the right notes and has earned itself a top spot among the Third Doctor’s best stories.

It's a rare thing, for a story to move me to tears. It hasn't happened in years.

This did. It was brilliant. That's all.