Tag Archives: writer: tim foley

Three Thirteenth Doctor plays

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Big Finish have not yet got Matt Smith or Peter Capaldi (or Ncuti Gatwa) to reprise their incarnations of the Doctor on audio, but they got a significant score with Jody Whittaker and Mandeep Gill reprising their roles as the Doctor and Yasmin Khan, and launched their Thirteenth Doctor range with this set of three stories, released late last year. Spoiler: I liked all three of them, and have a special reason for loving the third.

Vampire Weekend by safe pair of hands Tim Foley (see here, here and here) kicks off with the Doctor tagging along with Yaz to a hen weekend in the Peak District, where unfortunately (as you might expect from the title) one of the other guests is a vampire. The plot is straightforward but the chemistry between the two leads is palpable, and makes the whole thing a lot of fun. You can get Vampire Weekend here.

The Return of the Doctor, by newcomer Rory Thomas-Howes, is perhaps the least surefooted of the three. Yasmin asks the Doctor to look at what has happened to a planet where they have already saved the day. The cover illustration is a bit misleading because it shows a character who looks like Sutekh, but is actually one of the armadillo-like inhabitants of the planet, where of course the Doctor’s benevolent intervention turns out to have completely misfired. The script takes Yaz to a place of questioning what the Doctor is actually for, and what indeed companions like her are for, which is slightly tricky territory, questioning the entire format of the Whoniverse, and I thought the script didn’t navigate that territory with full confidence. You can get The Return of the Doctor here.

I cheered when I realised that Lionesses in Winter, by Lisa McMullen, another safe pair of hands especially in historical territory, is in fact a riff on The Lion in Winter, the play famously filmed with Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn in 1968, and less famously with Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close in 2003. Like the original, it is set at Christmas 1183, a brief moment of reconciliation between Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II. But we start to diverge from recorded history, and the cause of the divergence and What Is Really Going On is well done in sfnal terms and rooted in the historical facts. But basically I will always lap up anything about Eleanor of Aquitaine. Debra Baker, playing Eleanor here, is probably the biggest name of the guest actors for any of these three.

The extra track of commentary by cast and crew has some thoughtful reflection by Mandip Gill and the producer of this series, Noga Flaishon, about the meaning of Christmas and the Christmas holidays for non-Christians operating in a traditionally Christian country. (Although Mandip Gill portrays a Muslim character in Doctor Who, she is actually Sikh by background. Noga Flaishon is Israeli.)

You can get Lionesses in Winter here.

Recent Big Finish: Tenth Doctor, Fourth Doctor, Martha Jones

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So, I’m rather far behind with writing up my recent Big Finish listening – last time I mentioned it was in July. Three boxed sets of audio plays to cover quickly in summary here.

My favourite of these is a set of three stories with the Tenth Doctor and Classic Companions. All three bring David Tennant together with John Leeson as K9. The first, Splinters by John Dorney, features Louise Jameson as Leela; the second, The Stuntman by Lizzie Hopley, has Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, and the third, Quantum of Axos by Roy Gill, has Sophie Aldred as Ace. All three stories have fantastic chemistry between Tennant and the others – the arrivals of Leela and K9 are the first changes to the regular cast he remembers as a young fan, and clearly everyone is thrilled to bits to be performing with each other. It was also interesting that all three stories play with themes of identity, memory and nostalgia, which always appeal to me too. Dorney, Hopley and Gill are among Big Finish’s more reliable writers, and they have delivered here. Strongly recommended. Here’s a trailer to whet your appetite.

Another New Who spinoff comes in the form of The Year of Martha Jones, set during the year that Martha travels the world while the aged-up Doctor is the Master’s prisoner. We’ve already had a print anthology set in this period; this however is better, getting off to an excellent start in The Last Diner by the always reliable James Goss, a more Western-y The Silver Medal by Tim Foley, and a well-executed climax in Deceived by Matt Fitton. Martha is joined by Adjoa Andoh playing her mother Francine, who has apparently escaped the Master, and Serin Ibrahim as old friend Holly. (Also Clare Louise Connolly plays the Toclafance in all three stories.) Guest stars include Marina Sirtis, best known as Deanna Troi in Star Trek, in the first episode.

The fifth set of Ninth Doctor adventures, Back to Earth, sees Christopher Ecclestone’s time as the Doctor on audio overtaking his record on TV. To be honest I was less wowed by this trilogy than by some of the others, but these are all decent enough stories. Station to Station by Robert Valentine has the Doctor helping a young woman (Indigo Griffiths) out of a strange predicament in a deserted railway station. The False Dimitry by Sarah Grochala brings a Whovian spin to a corner of Russian history, the title character playedby Alexander Arnold. And Auld Lang Syne, another one by Time Foley, has a spooky New Year’s Eve party where all is not what it seems; veteran Wendy Craig makes an appearance as the great-aunt. I got the sense that Big Finish is trying out younger writers and actors in this range, which is fine. Here, again is a trailer.

I’m also way behind on noting the Fourth Doctor box sets that I have been listening to, but I think I’ll save those for another post – the above three are all worth getting anyway.