This particular Companion Chronicle centres on a very unique companion, one who entered and exited the TARDIS in a single story. During Doctor Who’s third season we were given a monster story in The Dalek’s Master Plan, an epic twelve part story (that’s five hours runtime!) and one of the best episodes of the First Doctor era. It was also the first story to kill off a companion, not once but twice! The first being Katarina of Troy who joined the TARDIS in only the previous story, The Myth Makers, in the chaos of her beloved Troy being sacked by the Greeks, but sadly not long into her travels she was blown out into space. Taking her place within the same story we had Sara Kingdom, a far cry from most companions , a formidable agent of the Space Security Service, one of the toughest companions the Doctor’s ever travelled with. But once again, just when it seemed like she was well on her way to becoming a full time member of the team, Sara met her end in the climax of the story, being aged to dust by the Dalek’s Time Destructor. The Dalek’s Master Plan was one of the boldest and bravest episodes the show had ever put out, to kill off two companions when Modern Who barely has the guts to kill off one, and even then they always throw in a loophole or cry Bad Wolf.

Despite her short onscreen tenure, The Dalek’s Master Plan presented a somewhat justifiable gap in between episodes, specifically the bizarre Christmas episode they squeezed in the middle where Big Finish have been able to create many more adventures where the Doctor, Steven and Sara evade the Daleks whilst in possession of the core of the Time Destructor, a full M of Teranium mined over fifty years from Uranus (said the old fashioned way much to my amusement). The earliest depiction was in a short story The Little Drummer Boy from one of Big Finish’s Short Trips books as an experiment but Home Truths was when they took that first big step in a trilogy that succeeded so well it spawned several more audios, all with Jean Marsh reprising her role as Sara right up until 2014 when she retired from acting.

The basic premise is that the Doctor, Sara and Steven arrive in a large, empty house with two dead bodies and honestly that’s as far as I’m gonna go because this is one of those special stories where it’s best to go in knowing as little as possible. This is hands down one of the legit scariest Doctor Who stories I’ve ever come across, with one of the most effective sound design work Big Finish have put together, everything from the foreboding narration delivered beautifully by Jean Marsh, the sound effects, the ghostly noises, it all just creeps under your skin and creates this wonderfully chilling and tense atmosphere, I personally call this Big Finish’s Blink.

I wouldn’t say it’s necessary to have seen The Dalek’s Master Plan or even be that aware of it to be invested in the story and Sara’s character, I’d say quite the opposite really as not only does the story do an adequate job in explaining the wider events and who Sara is without feeling like exposition but it may even lead to fans looking into The Dalek’s Master Plan for themselves.

The true triumph of this and the rest of Sara’s trilogy (The Drowned World and The Guardian of the Solar System) is not only developing the character of one of Doctor Who’s shortest lived companions but also addressing the event of her killing her own brother and the guilt she feels at her mistake, something that seemed to be brushed under the rug in the televised story. Of course if you do know the events of The Dalek’s Master Plan and what becomes of Sara, her involvement at first may raise questions but it all builds to a brilliant twist ending that I won’t give away. You’ll just have to listen for yourself! And I’d also recommend the rest of the trilogy also written by Simon Guerrier, it perfectly nails that theme of regret and gives Sara a perfect ending while opening the doors for many more stories with her later on

Rob Shearman is my all time favourite Doctor Who writer, one of the few who've I've never come across a single bad story from, certainly some are weaker than others but when he's on his A game, it's some of the best Doctor Who I've ever come across. What makes him stand out is that his Doctor Who stories are really unlike the Doctor Who stories you tend to come across. You never forget your first time experiencing a Rob Shearman story, the imagination, the dark sense of humour, the incredible wit in the dialogue, the characters that just leap out of the story and take on a life of their own, and his most highly valued trait is his ability to write thought provoking subtext.

The Death of Me is one of his more chilling tales and one that leaves so much to the imagination and explains almost none of itself. It sees the Doctor arrive at a B&B in the middle of a fog, where an emotionally distant couple are killed every night at midnight along with their chicken, their killers turn out to be thousands of versions of the themselves who tear them apart and the Doctor is caught in this trap as he too is torn apart and awakes the next day fully intact.

What the cause is behind this...quite unusual scenario to say the least is not something you're going to get any answers for, which may disappoint those who always expect these things to have some explanation, but that's not the focus of the story, or even how Shearman tends to operate. The story's dark, violent, it sends the Doctor to some very uncomfortable places as he quickly behaves in a manner uncharacteristic to how he normally acts in these situations, it has a lot of subtext on the monotonous, repetitive cycle of living an idle life, and the solution is delivered in such a blunt, obvious way that it's honestly funny. And ending as well is very dark, thought provoking and cynical despite a seemingly happy ending. It's so short and yet it really stays with you long after reading it.

We have Arrangements for War and the first story I've reviewed to feature my favourite Sixth Doctor companion, Dr Evelyn Smythe (voiced by the late Maggie Stables). A history lecturer at a university who joins the Sixth Doctor to see history in the making. Big Finish’s first original companion and a key element towards the Sixth Doctor’s redemption and change in character as Evelyn acted as a perfect counterweight to Six’s arrogant nature and is one of the few companions to call the Doctor out on his nonsense. In-universe this had the effect of evolving the Sixth Doctor into a kinder and more outwardly caring individual, whole still carrying some of his original arrogance but without coming off as a mean a-hole.

Evelyn is a far cry from almost every other companion, being elderly, an expert on history, not someone to have a war of words with and suffered from a heart condition that was slowly killing her but kept secret from the Doctor. Arrangements for War marks a major chapter in Six’s life and his travels with Evelyn as it follows a personal story arc carried over from all the way back in 2001. In an audio called Project Twilight, the Doctor and Evelyn come across a casino in London that’s apparently being run by vampires (or people experimented to become vampires) and are being hunted by their half-vampire creator Nimrod, the leader of the Forge. A secret British military organisation that hunts down and imprisons/kills aliens “for king and country”. Basically Russel T. Davies looked at the Forge and said “I wanna do that!”. During this adventure, Evelyn made close friends with one of the casino workers named Cassie (Cassandra Schofield), a young woman who unknowingly took a job at the casino so she could earn enough money to go home and raise her little Tommy, but unfortunately she gets infected and becomes a vampire herself. At the end of the story the Doctor drops her off in Norway promising to come back with a cure.
A couple years later in 2003 we got the sequel Project Lazarus, where the Doctor has finally finished making the cure and the two go to find Cassie, only to discover she’s been recruited by the Forge and brainwashed into being a hardened killer. While the Doctor is captured by Nimrod and almost tortured to death in an effort to force a regeneration for the Forge to harness the energies, Evelyn brakes through Cassie’s brainwashing and she rescues the Doctor in the nick of time. But unfortunately, Nimrod kills Cassie before she can escape with the Doctor, the Doctor’s alien reaction to Cassie’s death causes a fallout between him and Evelyn who’s become tired of his alien and almost unfeeling manner.

This leads into Arrangements for War where the two agree to go somewhere that Evelyn can take a break from him, somewhere with no imminent danger where they don’t have to get involved. The place being the planet Vilag on the cusp of a golden age where two of the three major countries are about to end their long and bloody war in a union of an arranged marriage. In a few months time a race called the Killorans will invade but on this occasion the Doctor’s help will not be necessary as the united planet will kick the invading force back into space. That is of course until the Doctor accidentally convinces a young guard named Marcus to pursue his love interest, who just so happens to be the princess set to be married, who also loves him in return. And if they’re love affair is discovered, the arranged marriage will be called off, the war will recommence and the Killorans will tear the planet apart. Meanwhile Evelyn becomes close with the governor of the third mediating country, Rossiter, and feels that this may be the end of her travels with the Doctor.

Yes, that was quite a lot to unpack, it’s one of those stories that’s stronger going in with the prior context of the Doctor and Evelyn’s relationship and everything that’s led them to this moment. It’s very heavy on drama than action with most of the story taken up by the Doctor and Evelyn separately integrating themselves into the planet’s political system so they can keep things on track before the Killorans invade. All the while, the two of them become attached to the people they work alongside.

Which leads into the ending and oh what an ending this is, without going into spoilers, though you can probably guess anyway, the two people the Doctor becomes attached to over the course of the story are both killed and after all the death the Doctor’s experienced throughout his lives he finally reaches his emotional breaking point, and so goes back to the TARDIS to try and change history. What follows is hands down my favourite Sixth Doctor scene where he’s at his most emotionally vulnerable and Evelyn has to bring him back to reality. It really showcases just how important Evelyn is to the Doctor and what separates her from almost every other companion. It’s basically the ending of Waters of Mars but better (and I love the ending of Waters of Mars).

Next we have Davros featuring, you guessed it, the Master! No of course I’m kidding. This was part of a special trilogy in 2003 during the 40th anniversary celebrations which Big Finish was spearheading. While the Eighth Doctor got the main 40th anniversary story in the utterly insane story Zagreus, Doctors Five, Six and Seven got their own stories pairing them up with an individual villain and naming the stories after said villain. With Five we got Omega, Seven got the Master and Six was left with Davros. Picking up in between Resurrection and Revelation of the Daleks, Davros is restored to life thanks to the head of the galaxy’s largest corporation TAI. Mr Baines hopes to use Davros to make further advancements in TAI’s technology while his wife Mrs Baines (voiced by Wendy Padbury) is a historian who admires and is fascinated by Davros. The Doctor attempts to persuade them of how dangerous Davros is but ends up being employed to work alongside him instead.

This scenario is as entertaining as it sounds, listening to the Doctor and Davros trying to one up the other at work is very funny, but beyond that this story is a fantastic dive into Davros’s character. It’s the first Big Finish story to feature him and Terry Molloy easily sinks back into the role in what I can honestly say is his best work as Davros. I already considered him in this position but didn’t fully appreciate it from just the TV episodes, but Terry Molloy is by far the best Davros actor in all of Doctor Who, you can tell his successor in Modern Who, Julian Bleach (second best) is modelling his performance more on Molloy’s than his predecessors.

Unlike any other Davros story, this one focuses solely on him without featuring his creations which helps to demonstrate just how deadly Davros can be even without his Daleks flanking him. The story even offers our first glimpse into Davros’s origins as we hear flashbacks from before his accident and the signs of the cruel, power crazed monster he would later become. This would be expanded on further in the four-part mini-series I, Davros, a biography from childhood to wheelchair that I highly recommend. It’s an infinitely more superior origin story than the five wasted minutes Steven Moffat gave us in The Magician’s Apprentice.

Easily the most insane Cyberman story ever created, and I love every minute of it! As you’ll notice from the cover, this release features the return of the Doctor’s old companions from his second incarnation, Jamie and Zoe, but it goes much deeper than that. Legend of the Cybermen forms the third in a trilogy during the Monthly Range in 2010 where the Sixth Doctor lands in the Scottish Highlands and is reunited with a much older Jamie McCrimmon, still with his memories lost of ever travelling with the Doctor. After persuading him to rejoin the TARDIS, the two ended up on the deck of the Titanic in the second story only for things to spiral out of control after an encounter with the Nautilus and it’s captain by the name of Nemo. The ending finds the two of them in a white void that the Doctor’s all too familiar with as somehow the Doctor and Jamie have been brought once more to the Land of Fiction.

Which brings us to Legend of the Cybermen in a fun and epic conclusion as the Doctor and Jamie are reunited with Zoe as they’ve been brought to a reality where fictional characters live, thrive and have now formed an army against an invading force that seeks to destroy fiction forever.

My one problem with this story is a common one in a lot of Doctor Who stories featuring one of its main villains, the story does a fantastic job in part one building up to the surprise reveal of the Cybermen with a brilliantly dark cliffhanger that’ll never make me look at Oliver Twist the same way again. Perfectly done were it not for the fact that the cover art and the title already ruined the cliff-hanger!! It happens a lot in Doctor Who where they spend a large portion of the story building up the reveal of the villain, and then name half the story after said villains!

Nevertheless, Legend of the Cybermen is a fantastic sequel to The Mind of Robber and in a lot of ways goes further with exploring this reality of fictional characters, so many familiar faces both good and bad turn up, all united against a common enemy. In a lot of ways, the Cybermen are the perfect monsters to bring to the Land of Fiction, creatures of pure fact and logic in a world that to them is utterly unholy. Which leads to some creative ideas such as the Cybermen attempting to warp reality and the effects it has on its inhabitants, or the variants of Cybermen created from converting the Land of Fiction’s more magical and monstrous inhabitants.

The story as well is a great dive into the Doctor’s relationship with Jamie and Zoe, what with them regaining their memories and wondering why the Doctor never came back for them, which builds to an albeit status quo ending but still very emotional farewell for one of the show’s most iconic TARDIS teams.

The two stories preceding this, City of Spires and Wreck of the Titan, are fairly average and are sort of required listening to get the full context going into this story, but the conclusion is well worth sitting through. If you love The Mind Robber then this is a must listen follow-up.

The Queen of Clocks comes from a special series from Big Finish pairing Classic Doctors with monsters from Modern Who. A series that began as one of Big Finish’s earliest releases featuring Modern Who elements after they were granted the licence to use Modern Who in their production line. The premise of the series is self-explanatory, four stories featuring four different Classic Who Doctors going up against monsters that they will later encounter. The stories themselves feature a lot of what we already know about said monsters but the best stories of the series also add something new that portrays them in a more interesting light. Most fans will agree that Modern Who doesn’t have the most impressive lineup of original monsters, the only real successful ones being the Weeping Angels, but a lot of that admittedly comes from either being serviced in poor stories or not being used to their full potential. This series has certainly helped portray such underserved monsters in a more positive light. The best of the entire series being this very story where the Sixth Doctor and Mel are trapped in a colony kingdom that’s besieged by droids that run on clockwork and are having to hold out until midnight when the droids reset themselves.

As it’s her first appearance in these reviews I may as well talk about our companion of the story Melanie Bush. A companion who had a very unusual introduction. During Season 23’s Trial of a Time Lord, after witnessing the death of his companion Peri, the Doctor is then called on to deliver his defence. His evidence being an event in his own future during his travels with a companion he is yet to meet. By the end of the Season, Mel gets directly involved in the trial and helps the Doctor defeat the Valeyard before departing with him. After that, with Colin Baker’s firing, we just jumped straight into her and the Seventh Doctor meaning we never get to see how Mel first met the Doctor, or even given any proper time to settle in with this new companion who they pretty much plonk into the show after the seemingly harrowing death of Peri the previous episode. That would be bad enough, but unfortunately Mel’s negative reputation comes from the fact that most of her dialogue consists of screaming!!!

In her very brief stay on the show they have her scream so many times to the point where it practically became a bad punchline, they even tried to get her scream to match the cliff-hanger sting in one episode, and they once filmed her screaming right beside Sophie Aldred (Ace) who was suffering from a headache at the time of filming (and you can tell from her expression). Then as abruptly as she entered the show, she leaves just as suddenly and out of nowhere! She literally just says “I guess I’ll be off now” and that’s it!!! There’s no reason behind it, no build-up, no indication, she just walks off and joins space conman Sabalom Glitz much to the Doctor’s approval (not caring that Glitz had sold his entire previous crew into slavery!). Since then, she’s returned onscreen a number of times in just the last couple years alone, first in a cameo from The Power of the Doctor, then appearing for a more prominent role in The Giggle during the 60th anniversary specials (which makes her the only companion to be present in two regeneration scenes for the Doctor, barring The Stolen Earth) and more recently appearing in the two part finale to Series 14 alongside Ncuti Gatwa.

All the negativity around Mel’s original run in the show was in no way Bonnie Langford’s fault, she had the misfortune of coming in when Classic Who was its lowest point. Thankfully in the years since with Big Finish and even her recent onscreen returns, they’ve done a great job in wiping the stink away and I’ve really grown to like Mel over the years, funny how not having her scream all the time can make all the difference!

Onto the actual story itself, despite featuring clockwork droids and the cover featuring the ones from Girl in the Fireplace, they’re not necessarily like the clockwork droids from Girl in the Fireplace or even Deep Breath. The two main elements they keep from those episodes are the clockwork motif and the fact that they’ve patched bits of the colonists onto themselves while the last survivors barricade themselves inside the castle. What starts off as a usual base under siege with the Doctor and Mel trying to rescue the last remaining colonists who have a strange obsession with clocks and time, turns into quite an emotional story as the climax just hits you with this massive gut punch twist that leaves both the Doctor and Mel visibly shaken, a twist that heavily relies on the clockwork gimmick the droids have. Honestly the ending of this story is what earns it a spot in the best Sixth Doctor stories I’ve ever heard from Big Finish, the story itself up until then is solid enough but that ending just takes it to a whole other level. And it gets even better (depressing) afterwards when they track down the son of the colonist’s leader and they finally see the full picture of everything that happened whilst telling him what became of his mother. It’s a slow burner but the payoff is so sudden and so impactful that it’s well worth the listen.

It’s insane to think that this is my new favourite Fifth Doctor story considering how long it was a debatable point between The Caves of Androzani and Spare Parts. Tim Foley in just a few short years has become one of my favourite Doctor Who writers, in fact I’d say he’s my favourite current writer in Doctor Who, he’s so well gifted in worldbuilding and creating new lore that I think he’d be a perfect and welcome addition to the show’s writing team. For all his great works in the past few years in various ranges, it’s his work on the Fifth Doctor that truly brings out the best in him having written The Auton Infinity and The Merfolk Murders.

Pursuit in the Nightjar may just be he best work to date as the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan land on a spaceship crewed by one man, Captain Goben, a ship filled with medical supplies being delivered to a blighted world. The Doctor quickly recognises the ship as the legendary Nightjar, one of the earliest stories he’d heard after leaving Gallifrey and one of his earliest inspirations in exploring the universe. The Nightjar voyages across multiple galaxies for over three years to deliver aid to a world devastated by a galactic war, an act of bravery and sacrifice that inspires both sides to end the conflict. But in the present the Nightjar is being pursued by an enemy craft called the Nemesis also crewed by one pilot, Captain Eslo. The Doctor’s overjoyed to witness the history of one of his favourite stories, that is until history takes a turn for the worse and the Doctor is pushed to his emotional breaking point as everything that gave him so much inspiration in his youth begins to fall apart and there’s nothing he can do to stop it.

As I said, the Fifth Doctor stories really bring out the best in Tim Foley and in turn, Tim Foley’s writing really brings out the best in Peter Davidson, the emotional journey the Doctor goes on throughout this story is so heart wrenching and utterly beautiful as he tries everything to hold the Nightjar together but is fighting a losing battle. It builds to an ending that cleverly works its way around the unanticipated change of history. Another strong-suit of Tim Foley is character writing, with such a small cast, Foley gives our leads and our two space pilots so much depth.

This is honestly a masterwork in Doctor Who writing, easily Foley’s best so far, and I’m beyond excited for his big project this year where once again writing for the Fifth Doctor, Tim Foley will be writing two full box sets comprised of a single twelve-part story called Hooklight. A story that will take the Doctor and his original companions on a long and epic journey that Foley’s mentioned in interviews drew a lot of inspiration from The Lord of the Rings, as in the book in creating an entire fantasy world full of different creatures, characters, lands and of course an ancient evil. Time will tell if it lives up to what Foley’s already delivered for the Fifth Doctor.

We have one of Big Finish’s biggest triumphs with Spare Parts. This follows a line of continuity between Season 19 and Season 20 where the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa briefly travelled by themselves after Tegan left in the former’s season finale….and then came back one episode later, genius! Well Big Finish decided to pad the gap out a bit and I’m grateful for that as the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa make for my favourite Fifth Doctor TARDIS team and it's certainly improved my opinion on Nyssa. She suffered quite a lot from always being the third wheel in the Fifth Doctor’s companions. Originally you had her, Tegan and Adric; Tegan being the loudmouth who was more involved in the story and Adric being the unlikable jerk which meant Nyssa sort of just drifted into the background and was just there to look pretty. From what I read, apparently JNT attempted to write her out of the show on several occasions but was always stopped by Peter Davison. While the run of audios makes me appreciate them not writing out Nyssa early, I don’t exactly blame them for trying given how little she had to do onscreen. A good example of this is Earthshock where she spends almost the entire episode in the TARDIS doing nothing. Thankfully for Nyssa, given the chance to travel solo with the Doctor has allowed her to properly develop her character and be more involved in the stories.

Which brings us to Spare Parts and it’s honestly poetic that while Genesis of the Daleks is widely considered the best Dalek story ever written, on the opposite side we have Spare Parts which is without doubt the best Cyberman story of all time!

There’s a very good reason why Spare Parts tops a lot of people’s recommendation lists for first time listeners of Big Finish. With Genesis of the Daleks proving to be one of Doctor Who’s most highly acclaimed stories, could the same concept work with exploring the genesis of the Doctor’s second greatest villains. The answer was an emphatic yes with the universally beloved Spare Parts. Taking place on the Cybermen’s home world Mondas, the Doctor and Nyssa explore a civilisation on the point of collapse and the brink of extinction as the inhabitants so very alike to those on Mondas’s former twin planet, Earth, gradually and surgically remove their souls in a desperate bid to survive. Spare Parts showcases more than any other why the Cybermen are one of sci-fi’s greatest villains and what they represent; the fear of dying and the desperation to survive by any means necessary, even if it means giving up everything that makes you who you are. It’s made more effective by just how bleak this world is. Everything we learn about Mondas from its people to the various disasters crippling the dwindling population is just dripping with nihilism and despair.

Fun little fact about Spare Parts, Russell T. Davies took inspiration directly from this story when he brought back the Cybermen in Series 2 as Rise of the Cybermen is presented as a remake (a very inferior remake I might add) and Spare Parts features a family called the Hartleys with a young woman named Yvonne, a name that was reworked into Yvonne Hartman from Army of Ghosts. Also, not to give too much away but both characters suffer a similar fate that in the case of this story is a scene that never fails to bring me to tears. It’s a perfect scene that shows the tragedy of losing a loved one to the Cybermen and how the unfortunate victim has lost themselves forever.

Now I should address the elephant in the room that while Rise of the Cybermen from Series 2 was looked on as a remake of Spare Parts, fast forward to Series 10 where we get a much more direct remake in World Enough and Time. While it’s not as strong as this story I do give World Enough and Time its dues for being a much worthier remake than Rise of the Cybermen and frankly I consider it the best televised Cyberman story to date. But that still doesn’t make it as strong as Spare Parts which is all the more reason to give this a listen. I also consider this to be my favourite performance from Peter Davison as the Doctor, his dialogue and his line delivery is just so perfect in this. This is the story that really turned around my opinion on the Fifth Doctor.

I’ve gushed over this one quite a bit, but it is honestly one of those rare Doctor Who stories where I cannot think of a single flaw. Spare Parts is not only one of the Fifth Doctor’s best and the greatest Cyberman story, but this belongs in the top 10 Doctor Who stories of all time

We have a very special release, one that marked the return of a long forgotten range in Big Finish after over seven years, the Novel Adaptations. As the name suggests this was Big Finish giving full cast adaptations from Doctor Who’s vast library of novels. You’d think this would be a successful long lasting series given Doctor Who’s goldmine of novels just waiting for a full cast adaptation, but surprisingly the series only managed 11 releases and was discontinued in 2016. The main issue cited was poor sales, I also think licensing played a factor as some of the releases had to make drastic changes and omissions with certain characters due to rights issues. But as far as the poor sales argument goes, I think the reason behind that was for one thing most of the novels adapted just weren’t the interesting ones that people were just clamouring for, and another was there wasn’t enough variety. You have the whole Doctor Who literary library to choose from and yet the vast amount of releases focused on the Seventh Doctor, you just don’t really have that much excitement towards future releases and the unpredictability of which Doctor’s gonna be next when the series kind of falls into a holding pattern with one Doctor. So after seven years, Big Finish announced a one off return with the Fifth Doctor’s Goth Opera. I’ve not read the original so I can’t speak for how much is faithfully adapted and what’s changed but regardless of how the novel is, this was an outstanding release.

You know you’re in for something special when the story opens with a disclaimer that it features adult content not suitable for younger listeners, that’s always what they use for their Torchwood releases. Though having said that, it’s really not that inappropriate, nothing that’s any worse than early 2000s Big Finish, it’s just more violent compared to most recent Big Finish audios and as you can guess from the monsters featured, very bloody. The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan are pulled into a nightmarish plot concocted by the ancient enemy of the Doctor’s people, the vampires who have begun to mass following the resurrection of their great leader, all thanks to the assistance of a Time Lord from the Doctor’s past who plans to build an army. But this ordeal grows darker yet as Nyssa has fallen victim to the vampire’s terrible bite and will soon be joining their ranks.

This is a real treat of a story that dives deep into the lore behind the Vampires and their connection to Time Lord history, including a prologue from Rassilon himself voiced by Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield from The Hobbit trilogy) and the inner fanboy in me gave a little squee at the mention of the Other, one of the three founding fathers of Time Lord society alongside Rassilon and Omega and the Time Lord the Doctor’s a reincarnation of (it’s a long story….literally). Goth Opera, however much it adapts or changes from the original novel, embraces the novel canon rather than tiptoeing around it like previous novel adaptations. People always think of Doctor Who as being that show that died in 1989, had a quick comeback in 1996, then properly came back in 2005 and nothing significant happened in all the years in between, when you couldn’t be further from the truth. What Doctor Who lost onscreen it gained tenfold in books, audio and even comics, with the novels completely rewriting everything we thought we knew about the Doctor’s history creating such a rich and interesting lore that this adaptation offers a little taste of, even down to mentioning the names of the Doctor’s childhood friends from his group the Deca; Ushas, Mortimus and Koschei aka the Rani, the Monk and the Master!

But this is more than just giving fan service to the novel canon fanboys, this is just a thrilling story with some fantastic performances and really brings out some of Sarah Sutton’s best work as Nyssa.

I really hope this isn’t a “one off” release as Big Finish insisted on, especially given how well received it’s been since release. If Big Finish revive this series with more variety in which Doctors to use, especially now with access to the Modern Who Doctors, and also go with novels that would really get people excited, I think there’s a lot of mileage they can get out of this series.

It’s crazy that not too long ago this would be either at my second of all time favourite Fifth Doctor story, but it just goes to show the resurgence the Fifth Doctor has had in recent years. The Caves of Androzani is regarded by many as one of if not the best episode in the show’s history. Whenever you look up such lists online, if it’s not at No.1 it’s definitely in the top 5. I know fans who absolutely despise the Fifth Doctor but still say this is one of Doctor Who’s all time greats, and not just for the fact that it kills the Fifth Doctor.

This is a regeneration story that is everything the Modern Who regenerations stories continuously miss the point on. Pretty much all of Modern Who’s regeneration stories try to be these big universe ending stories with the Doctor’s impending regeneration constantly being foreshadowed or in some cases being the driving force of the plot. They have habit of glorifying the Doctor’s death when honestly, it’s more impactful the more downplayed and simpler it is. In this story the Doctor’s dying right from the get-go and he doesn’t even realise that until the near halfway point, it comes from something so simple as touching an unknown plant. From there the Doctor and Peri are put through a brutally unforgiving story as they’re captured, almost executed, chased by sadistic killers and in the case of Peri being leered over by the Phantom of the Opera.

Sharaz Jek is an all-time great Doctor Who villain, not exactly evil as they give him a tragic backstory and motivation for waging a small war against the government of Androzani Major, but he’s still an intimidating figure who can snap without warning. Christopher Gable gives an intense and unsettling performance as Sharaz Jek, it blows my mind that they originally wanted David Bowie in the role (yes that David Bowie), but I feel that celebrity casting would’ve been distracting. Here Christopher Gable showcases a performance that gets downright uncomfortable at certain points. There’s a scene in particular where he’s alone with Peri that I’m honestly shocked they were allowed to air given the implications. It’s made more uncomfortable by Nicola Bryant’s performance as Peri who’s absolutely incredible playing off Sharaz Jek’s creepy advances and insane ranting, just that look on her face when he strokes her hair, that winced expression mixed with utter terror is just gold.

But as if one great villainous performance wasn’t enough, we get two with John Normington as Morgus, it’s one of those performances where he’s just relishing every moment of how evil he is but he never goes too far, which makes it all the more unsettling, some of his best moments involve him talking to himself while looking directly at the camera, it was unintentional and a miscommunication between him and the director but it was brilliantly performed that they kept it in.

This was the first Doctor Who episode directed by Graeme Harper who went on to direct a few major episodes in the Russel T. Davies era, he brings a more cinematic vibe than most Classic Who stories, and it works excellently. Notably the cliff-hanger to part three which is my all-time favourite Doctor Who cliff-hanger, the editing and sound design is top notch as the Doctor hijacks a mercenary ship and races back to Androzani Minor to rescue Peri, all while holding off his regeneration and with a gun pointed at him. If you don’t watch this story then I do urge you to at least check out the cliff-hanger, it’s incredibly executed and gives me goosebumps every time! For as timid and non-threatening as the Fifth Doctor is often described as, this was his most badass moment!

Then we come to the ending, and oh what an ending this is, the Doctor finds the antidote to the poison that’s been slowly killing him and Peri all episode but there’s not enough for them both. If this were written by Russel, he’d probably have the Doctor crying and screaming about how he can do “so much more!” or how he “doesn’t want to go” and all that crap. But thankfully he isn’t and the Fifth Doctor without a moment’s hesitation uses the last of his energy to give Peri the antidote. Then he calmly and gently says goodbye to Peri as he begins to regenerate and the faces of all his past companions and the Master swirl around in his head before a new Doctor sits bolt upright. Ending on a gold line that change has happened and not a moment too soon. This is the best regeneration in all of Doctor Who and until Modern Who gets a clue how to handle these scenes it’ll continue to stay that way; no crying, no speeches, no nostalgia baiting, the closest they ever got was Parting of the Ways but unfortunately that came before they went off the rails with regeneration stories.

There’s not much else to say really, even for fans who never liked the Fifth Doctor, there’s no denying that he went out with a bang. But more importantly this story answers the age old mystery that everyone wanted to know from the Fifth Doctor’s very beginning…..just why does he wear that celery?????