Some time after leaving UNIT, Liz Shaw calls the Doctor to Cambridge University, where scientists are experimenting with time dilation. A device hurls them to the year 2014, and a meeting with Richard Beauregard, heir to the Beauregard estate.
But there’s something rotten at the core of this family… The seeds of a political movement that believes in a new world order.
The Sentinels of the New Dawn are stirring. And their malign influence will be felt for centuries to come…
THE COMPANION CHRONICLES: THE SENTINELS OF THE NEW DAWN
With the fifth series of Companion Chronicles winding down, Big Finish turned to Paul Finch, son of “Leviathan” scribe Brian Finch and writer of the Lost Story adaptation, to pen a prequel to that story. The result, “The Sentinels of the New Dawn,” is a fairly traditional story that promises interesting material at the beginning but then fails to follow through.
I love the idea behind this story. Set in the aftermath of “Inferno,” with Liz now working at Cambridge, the script presents an interesting concept: how will the Doctor react when Liz approaches him for help? Will their relationship be different now that she’s voluntarily parted company? Will the Doctor be delighted to be reunited with a fellow scientist in a welcome relief from the early days of his partnership with Jo Grant? Liz dwells on these issues, and it appears to be setting up some meaty character work – and then she says something about the Doctor largely acting the same and it’s never brought up again. This happens a lot, actually: the Doctor is curiously reserved when they travel to 2014, for example. Is his reunion with Liz proving more difficult than he previously thought? Could he be plotting yet another attempt to escape Earth? How to read the mind of a Time Lord? But no, he’s just playing dumb to fool their captors, and none of these potentially interesting ideas are explored.
This applies equally to the main villains. The Doctor and Liz travel forward in time to a period when New Dawn is gaining power and influence. At first, their ideas are revolutionary, but in that idealistic, undergraduate sense – so are they really in the wrong or just overenthusiastic? Is the creature they have created truly a monster or merely a tragic figure trying to come to grips with its own monstrous nature? The answers to these questions are again the most basic: yes, it’s an evil monster, and yes, the group is really in the wrong in the most obvious way possible. When you have a dictator giving a podium-pounding speech in which he extols the virtues of Hitler and Nazi Germany, you’re perhaps being a little too obvious.
None of this takes away from Caroline John’s performance, though, which is first-rate throughout. She’s an excellent narrator, one who actually makes “said the Doctor” prose asides sound like a natural part of her conversation. I also like the framing device – a UNIT officer coming to talk to Liz about her encounter with New Dawn three years before that encounter even happens – but the twist at the end also seems unnecessary and makes Liz come across as a bit of an idiot. Duncan Wisbey goes progressively far over the top as Beauregard, but this is a conscious choice given how natural he sounds as the operative during the framing sequences. Lisa Bowerman directs, and the sound design from Richard Fox and Lauren Yason is up to the usual high Big Finish standards. Overall, “The Sentinels of the New Dawn” is a missed opportunity. It wastes a talented narrator and a fascinating setup on an average, unimaginative Doctor Who story.
Disappointing.
5/10