5.1 Primord by John Dorney
Prisoners are escaping from incarceration all around the country and UNIT have been called in to aid in the search. But the Doctor is unwilling to agree to the Brigadier’s request for help as he and Jo have opted to take a holiday – they’re going to visit his old assistant Liz Shaw, now working in Cambridge University.
But, unfortunately for Jo, the Doctor can’t relax for very long. Soon the Time Lord and his friends are facing an old enemy – creatures they’d long since thought they’d put to ground.
The Primords have returned – and this time the danger may strike very close to home.
5.2 The Scream of Ghosts by Guy Adams
When the Brigadier and Jo are called in to look into a breakthrough in the field of portable communication, the Doctor has to stay behind with communications problems of his own – a strange signal coming through the TARDIS console that’s burned out its circuits.
When Benton approaches the Doctor with an odd story about an old friend, the Time Lord realises his troubles and the Brigadier’s investigations may be connected, and hot-foots it in pursuit.
Soon they discover that terrifying sounds are walking in the woods of the English countryside… but what lurks behind those sounds may be even more dangerous…
THE THIRD DOCTOR ADVENTURES: PRIMORD
For the fifth set of Third Doctor Adventures, Big Finish is wholly embracing the idea of the recast. The first story, “Primord” by John Dorney, is a sequel to “Inferno” that expertly recaptures the feel of the Pertwee era, though the story itself is fairly routine. But the main point of discussion is with the cast.
Big Finish has effectively recast the first three Doctors: the first Doctor is played by David Bradley in one range and Peter Purves in the others, the second by Frazer Hines, and the third by Tim Treloar. Apart from the First Doctor Adventures, all other recasts are based on impressions of the performer. But they’ve largely stayed away from doing this with companions, just the irreplaceable Doctors. Here, that goes out the window: in addition to Treloar, we have Jon Culshaw as the Brigadier and Caroline John’s daughter Daisy Ashford as Liz Shaw. Treloar’s Pertwee impression is excellent. Culshaw’s Nicholas Courtney is very good, though it has the Frazer Hines/Troughton limitation of only capturing one particular tone of voice. Ashford, on the other hand, doesn’t do an impression of her mother at all. And while that’s fine in a vacuum, it jars with the others: we have two people trying their hardest to sound like the regular cast and a third who we’re just supposed to accept as a new version of an old character. This is not to condemn Ashford’s performance, which is quite good – I would just prefer Big Finish pick a lane on recasting.
As for the story itself, it’s a Pertwee-era four-parter down to its bones. There’s nothing here you haven’t heard before, but the execution is first-rate. It’s basically a re-examination of the Primord “virus” from the Stahlman project: the change it induces is not purely physical but mental as well. Liz, endeavoring to find a cure, is infected – but because of her work suppressing the virus, she doesn’t endure the physical change and retains her considerable intelligence. So, naturally, she decides to take over the world, because that’s what happens in these stories. There’s lots of capturing and escaping, lots of scenes of the Doctor fighting off infection, lots of moments of Jo being optimistic – the usual. If you’re at all surprised by any of the plot twists or the resolution, it’s your own fault. But as I said, it’s an expert recreation of the era, even down to the bizarre music from Nicholas Briggs. It’s clear that Big Finish wants to tell full-on UNIT family stories: all we need is a Roger Delgado impersonator and we’re set.
7/10
THE THIRD DOCTOR ADVENTURES: THE SCREAM OF GHOSTS
The other story in the fifth set of Third Doctor Adventures is “The Scream of Ghosts” by Guy Adams, and it’s… fine. Good, even, but nothing better than that. Much like “Primord,” it’s a recreation of the Pertwee era to exacting detail – and this time, instead of Liz Shaw, we have Sgt. Benton turning up. Adams is particularly good at capturing the voices of characters, and all of the regulars – the Doctor, Jo, the Brigadier, Benton – have lines so authentic you could swear they were written in 1972. Additionally, Treloar’s and Culshaw’s impressions are more effective without a different style of recast going on next to them. If you’re a Pertwee fan, this story is like wrapping yourself in a warm, fuzzy blanket.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t have much going for it besides nostalgia. There’s maybe enough plot here for a single 45-minute episode; as it stands, this is stretched so thinly we don’t even learn what the conflict is until the final episode. Prior to that, we have a bunch of characters running around not understanding anything, which rapidly grows tedious. Finally, though, we learn the identity of the villains: the Vardans! Yes, it’s one of Big Finish’s favorite returning monsters – and we even get a subtle reference to “The First Wave” that only serves to remind us how much better that story was. Unfortunately, this one is much more like “Wave of Destruction.” It’s not about anything significant, we learn nothing about the characters, and the Vardans are portrayed as utterly generic bad guys who want to take over the world, and, from there, all of time and space. As with “Primord,” I don’t have a lot to say: if you love the Pertwee era and all you need is something that sounds like the Pertwee era to make you happy, you’ll love this story and you’ll love this box set. If you want something with any substance, you’re better off looking elsewhere. But it’s entertaining enough.
6/10