The Doctor and Sarah’s adventures continue as Series 15 wraps with two stories on the theme of war and the perils of time travel.
Doctor Who is often at its best when digging into history, from well-known events to the more obscure. As Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor rounds out his fifteenth year of audio adventures with Big Finish, ‘A New Occupation’ brings two interesting takes on time travel in history.
Daughter of Destruction
We’ve long been suckers for a pure historical, where the only anachronisms are the time travellers themselves. Here, Katharine Armitage’s two-parter explores the story of Alakhai Bekhi, a daughter of Genghis Khan’s daughters, along with the perils of time travel.
Beginning with some terrific pudding pun banter, the TARDIS brings Sarah and the Doctor to the edge of the Gobi Desert in the early 13th century. They save a life and at Sarah’s insistence aid an escape, but in doing so set off a dangerous chain of events. There’s there feel of ‘The Aztecs’ here, as the Doctor warns about changing the established pattern of history.
Alakhai (Susan Hingley) is a formidable character, given in marriage to secure his dominance over the Ongud peoples. We enjoyed her interactions with Sarah who bemoans the fate of women in history but ends up meeting a most remarkable example! We also encounter the mighty Genghis Khan himself, brought to life by Paul Courtenay Hyu, and there’s a palpable sense of danger during the Doctor’s interactions with him.
A New Occupation
The series closes with a 4-parter which reunites the Doctor and Sarah with the ever-reliable Harry Sullivan. When the TARDIS refuses to leave Jersey due to a temporal disturbance, they’re forced to lure him to the island on his annual leave.
With the use of unstable alien technology, the story ties present (1970’s) Jersey with the later stages of WWII. At that time, the Channel Islands were under Nazi occupation with the islanders on the edge of starvation.
The drama comes from Helen Goldwyn, directing her own script, and focusses its attentions on a family caught between times. In the present, there’s Bridie Vautier (Sarah Lawrie), general manager of the Belmont Hotel, and her mother Matilda (Caroline Strong) who struggles with dementia. From the past, we meet the sparky Kit (Francesca Pim) and a conflicted Nazi officer, General Herz (Wilf Scolding). Plus, the scenery chewing Commander Von Schmet (Paul Herzberg) who seeks to turn events to his advantage.
As well as exploring the privations suffered by islanders in the war, the story takes a leaf out of the Back to the Future approach to time travel. Bridie suffers physical effects when events endanger the prospects of her parents getting together, so to speak. We also enjoyed hearing the surprising period accent of the Jersey natives, which sounds more like South African to our ears.
In Summary
With its contrasting takes on time travel and solid character work, Series 15 ends on a high with this boxset. Tom Baker sparkles throughout and Christopher Naylor continues to be brilliant as the affable Harry. Also, despite recording five years ago, early on in her time playing Sarah, Sadie Miller’s performance impresses too.
Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures: A New Occupation is available now on CD and download to own from Big Finish.
You can catch up with our reviews of previous series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures here.