His latest outing involves spooky apparitions and an apparent miracle cure at a Scottish castle. 

Season 7 saw Doctor Who embrace a new Earthbound format. As the show burst into colour, the Doctor began his Earthbound exile and allied himself with UNIT, the United Nations outfit with a remit to investigate “the odd, the unexplained, anything on Earth, or even beyond,” working as their scientific advisor.

With those tales freshly spruced up for Blu-ray, ‘Doctor Who and the Brain Drain’ slots in neatly after the season opener ‘Spearhead from Space’, just as Dr Liz Shaw is getting to know her remarkable new colleague…

Doctor Who and the Brain Drain

Sightings of mythical creatures in Scotland, conveniently near where a revolutionary piece of medical technology is soon to be unveiled, see the Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier all headed in the same direction. However, they’ve got to get there first, leading to an eventful trip on a Caledonian sleeper train!

At Benbrannon Castle, they meet Professor Abigail MacLeod and her son Linus, who are ready to demonstrate their remarkable new process. However, a sinister voice drives Linus voice – one that he believes is his late father…

‘Brain Drain’ comes from new-to-Who writer Richard James, who co-writes with director Nicholas Briggs. Despite the pulpy title, it tackles the delicate subject of dementia. It’s not the first time the Whoniverse has gone here – it played a part in an early instalment of The Sarah Jane Adventures. Here, the debilitating condition forms part of the backstory and provides the scientists’ motivations. The story explores both dementia’s effects and the impact it can have on family members. It’s strong, emotive stuff for Doctor Who to be sure, but set among the more usual fare of entertaining characters and spooky goings-on.

Tim Treloar

Tim Treloar has played the Doctor for a decade now and, by our calculations, this is his fifteenth box set (the series now eschews escalating numbers in favour of story titles). He’s well settled in the role and provides plenty of Pertwee-style charisma in his performance.

Joining him, Daisy Ashford as Liz Shaw and Jon Culshaw playing the Brigadier make a great team. Leaving the Doctor out the action for multiple episodes gives Liz and the Brig a chance to reflect; she has only just met the Doctor, while he’s much changed from the man the Brigadier first knew.

In the wider cast, both Glen McCready and Mark Elstob swell the cast playing multiple roles, and there’s a memorable turn from Milo Ratter as a bee-keeping groundsman.

In Summary

‘Brain Drain’ runs across seven episodes, matching the Season 7 format, but it doesn’t really need them all. The Doctor is missing for an extended period, and the Brigadier spends a goodly amount of time wrestling with the local constabulary. On top of that, the villain inches his plan forward really quite slowly! There are an abundance of good ideas at play, but we’ve a hunch that it would have made a tight 4-parter.

That said, it’s always fun to spend time with these characters and the placement, so early in this Doctor’s era, is interesting to explore. Plus, Sean Longmore’s cover artwork is an absolute delight!

The Third Doctor Adventures: Doctor Who and the Brain Drain is out now. It’s available on Collector’s Edition CD (+ download), or download only, from Big Finish.

You can find reviews of previous box sets in The Third Doctor Adventures range here.