In the Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama The Condemned, the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) picks up a distress signal and rescues Charlotte “Charley” Pollard (India Fisher), not knowing that she was a companion of a future Doctor.

Wary of creating a paradox and uncertain what to do, Charley feigns amnesia, but the Doctor is immediately suspicious. However, the question of who Charley really is is put aside when the Doctor lands the TARDIS in an apartment in Manchester where a murder just been committed. And when Detective Inspector DI Menzies (Anna Hope) finds him in the murder room which no one else could have entered, he’s arrested while Charley is kidnapped and locked in the apartment of one of the building’s tenants.

The story features the Doctor playing detective as he ends up teaming up with Menzies to solve this locked room mystery. Of course, calling this an “old fashioned” would be a bit of a misnomer as this story also involves aliens. It’s a Sci Fi mystery that reminded me a lot of Men in Black. The ending has a mix of tragedy, and a bit of light horror that feels almost Noirish in a sci fi sort of way.

The guest characters are well-written and the casting is superb. Hope’s performance as DI Menzies is top notch. The character is tough and realistic with a rye sense of humor. Everyone else is pitch perfect including Will Ash as the tragic Sam and Sara De Freitas who plays Charley’s surprisingly mellow captor.

As for the leads, Colin Baker turns in a great performance as the Doctor. I was generally surprised as I’d heard very bad things about Baker’s doctor as an arrogant and annoying guy in a garish costume. However, Condemned portrays a Doctor who has mellowed much since the time of the TV series. He’s superb in the role of the sleuth, also kind, particularly towards Charley who he lets travel with him despite distrusting her.

India Fisher is solid as Charley, a character who loved the Eighth Doctor and finds herself really disoriented with this prior doctor and having to keep this secret or risk severe consequences to time itself as well as being barred from future travels. One of the oddities of The Condemned is that this new Doctor/Companion pair spends so little time together in their first adventure. In this story, it works because Charley really needs time to process this new situation. The scenes between Charley and the Doctor in the TARDIS particularly at the start of the story are strong and would set the tone for the rest of this duo’s run.

In one classic bit of dialogue, Charley explains her surprise at seeing the Sixth Doctor in his TARDIS by saying she was expecting someone. The Doctor replies, “I hadn’t realised dimensionally transcendental time machines disguised as police boxes were so common!”

The story also represents a good entry point for those who want to listen to Doctor Who Audio. The first Big Finish Doctor Who Audio Drama I listened to over BBC Radio 4 Extra related so much to things that had happened in TV episodes I hadn’t seen that I felt lost. In comparison, this makes a solid jumping on point even if you’re not a fan of Baker’s run as the Doctor or even the Classic Series. To understand this episode, all you need to know is that: 1) The Doctor travels in time and space in the TARDIS and 2) That Charley previously traveled with a future version of the Doctor. The same can be said of the entire run of seven Big Finish stories featuring this pairing. It is very self-contained.

Overall, The Condemned works as a fun Sci Fi mystery with solid acting and a superb story. It’s a great jumping on point for anyone who’s curious about Doctor Who audios but doesn’t want to figure out 50 years of continuity.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5.0

The Condemned is available from BookDepository.com

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As we continue to honor Big Finish’s 15th Anniversary of doing Doctor Who Audio plays, we’ll take a look now at their latest Doctor Who Spinoff series, Charlotte Pollard.

Charley Pollard (India Fisher) was introduced as Eighth Doctor Paul McGann’s companion in 2001 and continued in that role until 2007. She is most aptly described as an Edwardian Adventuress, originally from the 1930s. In 2007, she departed from the Eighth Doctor, falsely believing him to have died. She then ended up travelling with the Sixth Doctor, a previous regeneration which caused untold paradoxes. She ended up leaving the Sixth Doctor in 2009’s Blue Forgotten Planet, and began travelling with the Viyrans, a race dedicated to ridding the universe of a series of viruses released in an explosion.

The Charlotte Pollard Box Set features four adventures of about an hour as Charley breaks free of the Viyrans and begins her own adventures.

1) The Lamentation Cipher

This story picks up with Charley continuing her work for the Viyrans who have been repeatedly using her services for a time and then putting her into Chryogenic sleep until needed in. Charley is not happy with this life though she believes the Viyrans intents are altruistic. However, when a mysterious Viyran who is different from the semi-automotons of that race offers her a chance to escape she takes it and eventually makes it.

This is a necessary chapter as it does a great job establishing where Charley is at and Robert Buckham Jr. (James Joyce) and others who would be play a key role in the story. It also does the necessary work of introducing people to the character who hadn’t followed the Doctor Who stories Charley appeared in.

2) The Shadow at the Edge of the World:

Charley escapes from the Viyrans via the Forever and Ever Perlexity and finds herself in the 1930s wandering with a group of women who are the last survivors of an expedition. The story has plenty of suspense and atmosphere and is a great all female performance. (With the exception of monster voices done by Producer Nick Briggs.)

3) The Fall of the House of Pollard

This story focuses on Charley’s family and at last she returns home only to find how much her disappearance has affected them. At times, the pacing is a little slow as it takes quite for Charley to interact with her parents. The way Charley actually gets home is oddly contrived and doesn’t make much sense, the cruel treatment of the character of Michael Dee seems gratuitous, and the ending is disappointing. Still, the scenes with Charley and her family are moving with Terrance Hardiman and Anneke Wills turning in solid performances as Lord and Lady Pollard. This one works primarily as a character piece that probes issues rarely raised in the classic Doctor Who series about what happens to the families of those who travel in time and space.

4) The Viyran Solution

Charley is back with the Viyrans and learns that the virus hunting cyborgs have come up with a solution to eliminating all viruses but it’s one that is so insane that the entire Universe depends on her discovering it and thwarting it. Meanwhile, Robert Buckham Sr. has other plans to use the Viyrans for his own profit.

The story concludes in a way that could mark, a “the end” moment for Charley or could leave the door open for future installments.

This also comes with a bonus “making of” CD with more than an hour of interviews with writers and cast members on each episode.

The series has some high points. Throughout, everyone performs well. Though Charley is a bit more cynical than her run with the Doctor, she still a likable character who delivers some great lines, particularly in Episode 4. The story concepts are interesting particularly in Episode 2, which gives a good idea of what Charley would be like in an adventure where the Viyrans were not playing such a huge role as pursuers.

The downside as I see it is that Charley’s actual role in these drams is a bit too passive. Charley doesn’t come up with clever plans or even take initiative for the most part. For example, her escape from the Viyrans in the first episode wasn’t really her idea. While she makes a couple key decision in Episodes 2 and 4, the first box set of Charlotte Pollard is much more about things happening to Charley rather than her doing anything or making anything happen. That’s fine if you’re the sidekick. Not so much if you’re the main character.

However, I hope there is a second series of adventures. Charley’s definitely a fun character with a very unique voice. The stories are well-written and intelligent, and the folks at Big Finish are consummate professionals whose use of sound effects makes the story come to life with fantastic sound effects.

Overall, I give Series One a rating of 7/10.

The Charlotte Pollard Box Set  is available from Big Finish Productions.

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Last Christmas, Time of the Doctor marked the end of Matt Smith’s reign as the Eleventh Doctor, and this fall the BBC will kick off a new series featuring Peter Capaldi in the role. Today, we take a look at the first regeneration from First Doctor William Hartnell to Second Doctor Patrick Troughton, “Power of the Daleks.”

Due to the BBC’s horrible archival policies in 1960s, this isn’t a story people can “watch.” This is one of several stories that are completely missing on video and the only way they can be enjoyed is as audio dramas using the TV soundtrack recorded by fans and narration by a star from the series..

Without belaboring the point, in the “Tenth Planet,” the last First Doctor story, it was clear that William Hartnell was pretty well played out in the role. The four episode story featured almost no action from the Doctor in the first, second, and the fourth episode, and the third episode was spent with the doctor asleep. The fourth ended with the Doctor changing into Patrick Troughton.

Troughton actually really gets into the role right off the bat. While long time Whovians have seen newly regenerated doctors go through the process of picking out their wardrobe and getting used to new appearances, Troughton was the first and does it quite well. His character is fun and clever. The Second Doctor plays a recorder which is another nice bit of characterization.

Of course, his companions, who were with the First Doctor, are skeptical that this is really the same Doctor, with Ben being far more skeptical than Paulie.

The Second’s Doctor’s inaugural adventure is a blast. The TARDIS lands in the future on Earth’s colony Vulcan where they discover the murdered body of a government official called an examiner. The Doctor assumes the examiner’s identity and is determined to uncover why the Examiner was killed and what was going on in the colony.

In the course of his investigation, the Doctor comes across his most dangerous enemies, the Daleks. One of their ships has crash landed and a scientists is studying the dead Daleks. The Doctor wants them destroyed but finds out to his horror that the scientist who discovered the Daleks is actually trying to revive one and that he succeeds.

The revived Dalek, whose gun armed has been removed insists, “I am your servant.” The Doctor of course doesn’t buy it and is trying to stop the crazy scientists from reviving more Daleks. However, the whole Dalek issue is caught in a web of political intrigue which has more than one person thinking they can use the three revived Daleks as pawns. Some consider the small numbers of Daleks to be minor matter, but the Doctor warns that one is enough to destroy the entire base.

This is a wonderful serial that really works on every level: it has intrigue, mystery, suspense, and fantastic sci fi action. This is a story that illustrates the true power of audio story telling. The early writers of Dr. Who had great imagination, but lacked in special effects. That’s no problem here. The music and the dialogue tell the story powerfully.

The story has some genuinely scary moments that are really brought home by the audio. Of course, the Daleks are up to evil and two separate episodes end with Daleks chanting and there are few things more scary than a group of Daleks chanting, “We will get our power! We will get our power!” as they circle the scientist brought them back to life.

The scientist, Dr. Lesterson also has a fascinating character arc as the Daleks true nature becomes more apparent and things go from bad to worse. His final scene is the last episode of the serial is just haunting and fascinating at the same time.

Bottom line: “The Power of the Daleks” packs a powerful punch with a tone that’s often a bit dark, but also brilliantly conceived and executed.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0.

The Power of the Daleks is available at Audible.

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Dr. Who has become a 21st phenomena with the series revival growing to even greater acclaim than the previous stories. Yet, it still has its roots in the 1960s where the first two Doctors played by William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton gave the character his roots. The stories of the Doctor and his companions were originally produced as half hour programs that were serialized stories as opposed to the one hour usually self-contained today.

I’ve watched a decent amount of first doctor material. I’ve seen the first three serials with Hartnell as well another, “The Aztecs.” News came out that two previously lost serials are now available for purchase both starring the second doctor Patrick Troughton, but that leaves nearly a hundred episodes of the show lost,  effecting twenty-six different serials including the last two Hartnell stories and first seven with Troughton.

While hopefully more of these videos will emerge, Dr. Who fans don’t have to wait to at least enjoy the stories because sound tracks of early Dr. Who episodes, recorded by fans at the time the series aired, and remastered and re-released by the BBC are available through Audible. So, I’m going to listen to all the Dr. Who missing  episodes I can’t see beginning with Marco Polo and see how the  audio format helps or hurts.

“Marco Polo”  is  the fourth Dr. Who Serial and ran seven episodes from February to April 4 and follows after the events of “The Edge of Destruction” which left the TARDIS  damaged and finds the Doctor and the TARDIS crew (Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, and Susan Foreman) stranded on top of a snow capped mountain and in danger of freezing to death. However, they encounter several Chinese as well as a Mongol warlord named Tagama who wants them killed. However, the Chinese are led by Marco Polo who saves them and treats them kindly.  However, they quickly find that Polo’s motives are not entirely pure: He wants to give the TARDIS to Kublia Khan in hopes of securing his own return home to Venice. However, the warlord Tagama has designs on TARDIS of his own.

The audio is narrated by William Russell (who played Chesterton in the series) who shares bits of action that the soundtrack can’t pick up. These bits are minor. In some ways, being in an audio format helps this series as the setting is quite ambitious  with luscious and ornate Oriental settings.  Given the budget of the original show, it’s safe for me to say that the theater of the mind will easily beat what 1960s British TV could do in its portrayal of the Khan’s palaces.

This serial also seemed reminiscent in its slower pacing of radio serials I’ve listened from the 1940s and ’50s which often had more deliberate pacing overall with cliffhangers built in to keep the audience’s attention.

Another big difference from the modern Dr. Who is that other than involving time travel, this story has very little science fiction. If there were a modern Dr. Who/Marco Polo stories there’d be ghosts, space aliens, or zombies thrown in.  Instead what we get is a great historical adventure with its share of twists but just an adventure happening in medieval China.

The character of Marco Polo makes this story unique from many early serials. While in other programs like “The Aztecs, ”  characters like Tagama scheme and turn initial allies of the TARDIS crew into enemies, this is a lot more complex as Polo is enlightened. He isn’t superstitious, bloodthirsty, and works to save the crew despite requests to kill them.  His broad experiences have made him willing to consider anything including their claim that the TARDIS is a flying caravan, which is why he stole it. He feels bad about it too.  Polo’s moral struggle really does create some solid dramatic tension. 

Less interesting is the overused trope of the girl about to enter into an arranged marriage that doesn’t want to do it, and the convenient plot device used to resolve it, though they did do a decent job making the character likable and someone you care about.

While the serial isn’t great, it’s good for what it is: a fun historic adventure serial. It works well with the audio format  and for now, it’s the only way to encounter the classic Marco Polo story line unless you want to read the novelization.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5.00

This serial is available from audible.com

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