With 80 individual releases, The Companion Chronicles will draw to a close this month with the final release of Second Chances by John Dorney. We thought it an opportune moment to take a look back over the past six years and give our personal selection of the best ten Companion Chronicles from Big Finish.
The list is a personal selection and we’re sure our readers have their own favourites, why not drop up a comment or Tweet with your own favourite!
Honourable mentions that many will murder us for leaving out: Upstairs by Mat Coward, The Rocket Men by John Dorney, Old Soldiers by James Swallow, The Beginning by Marc Platt and The Scorchies by James Goss
10: Binary by Eddie Robson
It was a difficult choice for tenth place between two excellent Pertwee adventures - Binary by Eddie Robson and The Scorchies by James Goss, but as is evidenced by the rest of our list, we’re big fans of Liz Shaw and the much missed Caroline John, the first of three entires on our top ten.
A damaged alien computer is being guarded by UNIT troops, but the soldiers simply vanish… Usually the Brigadier would call in the Doctor – but on this occasion the Time Lord is being kept out of the loop. Instead, it’s up to Elizabeth Shaw to oversee the project to repair this alien technology, and recover the missing men. And then Liz vanishes too. Trapped inside the machine, Liz faces a battle for survival against a lethal defence system. And this time, she must save the day without the Doctor at her side…
Caroline John made any Big Finish audio she starred in her own, raising the level of any script and adding new levels to her sadly short lived character on-screen. Binary gives us a new side to Liz as she develops away from UNIT and toward her eventual decision to leave the organisation. A smaller scale affair than the likes of The Silurians or Ambassadors of Death, Liz’s scientific background is utilised well and fans of Pertwee and the UNIT era will love this, we did!
9: Home Truths by Simon Guerrier
Sara Kingdom is something of a blank canvas for Big Finish, having only appeared in two episodes on screen nearly 50 years ago and rarely featured in spin-off media since, the opportunity is there to craft a whole life story around the Space Security Service agent.
There’s a house across the waters at Ely where an old woman tells a strange story about a kind of night constable called Sara Kingdom and her friends, the Doctor and Steven. About a journey they made to a young couple’s home and the nightmarish things that were found there…
The Big Finish Sara plays are all superb and Guardians of the Solar System is easily this plays equal, only omitted here to serve a more varied list. Jean Marsh amazingly slips back into the role with ease, showing her immense talents as an actress, served well by what we might term first Doctor specialist Simon Guerrier.
A unique and frightening idea, Home Truths is an atmospheric masterpiece that leaves the listener eager for more at it’s conclusion.
8: Peri and the Piscon Paradox by Nev Fountain
And now for something completely different.. comedy gold from Nev Fountain and a play that almost always makes these kinds of lists, the quite wonderful Peri and Piscon Paradox.
The Doctor and Peri journey to Los Angeles 2009 to do battle with a Piscon. His name is Zarl, and he’s a fish of utmost evil. Zarl is going to steal all the water of Earth and sell it to the highest bidder. Or blow up the San Andreas fault. Or the planet. Or something like that. He’s a bit vague on that point. Fortunately, to stop him there’s help from an unexpected source: a future version of Peri. She knows Zarl’s dark secret. But should the future Peri be on Earth at all? Something smells fishy – and it’s not just Zarl!
Despite the self aware comedy trappings, the audio delves into the character of Peri and delivers very real emotion at the fate of the older Peri, successfully tying together continuity loose ends and in quite some style. Very comparable to Nev’s The Kingmaker, Peri and the Piscon Paradox is a twisty-turny roller coaster of a play and Nicola Bryant and Colin Baker are as always on sparkling form.
Hilarious, thought provoking, emotional and very very clever, Big Finish needs more Nev Fountain.
I guess he likes Peri or something!
7: The Time Museum by James Goss
The 50th anniversary came early in 2012 as we took a trip down (Ian’s) memory lane in a fantastically nostalgic walk through the early years of the show.
“This is The Chesterton Exhibition. A series of breathtakingly faithful tableaux, painstakingly detailed to the nth degree. Dedicated to the life of that most extraordinary time traveller, Ian Chesterton!”
Ian finds himself in a shrine to his own past, and on the run with a man named Pendolin. From Coal Hill School to Jobis Station, from Totter’s Yard to the Crusades, Ian’s history is unfolding. And a confrontation with a deadly enemy with a voracious appetite awaits…
Any fan of the Hartnell era or William Russell’s Ian Chesterton will adore The Time Museum, this being very much Ian’s play. William Russell is a truly magnificent reader of anything put in front of him and here he is in his element, given a brilliant script harking back to the golden era of the show, revisiting the popular topic of Ian’s relationship with Barbera.
A misty eyed and affectionate tribute to one of the truly great eras in Doctor Who, essential for all fans of the show in the 1960s.
6: The Prisoner of Peladon by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
The Curse of Peladon is one of the great classics of the Pertwee years, much underrated when the “best of” lists are invariably rolled out. There have been attempts at re-creating the rich and deep tapestry of Peladon before, Virgin Publishing’s Legacy and Big finish’s own The Bride of Peladon being of note, but none truly live up to the source material better than The Prisoner of Peladon.
“Tonight, I am going to tell you the story of the Prisoner of Peladon, and of the time when a friend and protector returned to our planet. A man called… the Doctor.”
The planet Peladon has joined the Galactic Federation, and has undergone a painful period of change. Still eager to embrace alien culture, King Peladon has welcomed refugee Ice Warriors to his world - innocent creatures that are fleeing the New Martian Republic. But, as an old friend returns to the capitol, there is murder in the refugee camps. Could the truth lie in an ancient legend?
Alpha Centuri, Martin politics and a moody, atmospheric setting make The Prisoner of Peladon a worthy follow-up to TV’s Curse and Monster of Peladon, though certainly closer to the first instalment than the second in terms of spirit and quality. A loving homage to a true classic of the Pertwee era, the play is brilliantly performed by the versatile David Troughton, preforming a range of voices that truly evoke the setting.
5: The Last Post by James Goss
James Goss’ second entry on our list, three if you include The Scorchies which came incredibly close, shows why he is one of Big Finish’s leading lights in recent times. Given an unwanted poignancy as Caroline John’s last performance in the role of Liz Shaw, the play is an exploration piece on her character, offering new insight and being a fantastic adventure to boot!
People are dying. Just a few, over a period of months… but the strange thing is that each person received a letter predicting the date and time of their death. Throughout her time as the Doctor’s assistant, Liz Shaw has been documenting these passings. Her investigation ultimately uncovers a threat that could lead to the end of the world, but this time Liz has someone to help her.
Her mother.
Rowena Cooper as Liz’s mother shines, creating an instant and believable chemistry with her “daughter” that tragically couldn’t be exploited further in future plays as surely it would have been. With plenty of nods to Season Seven, the play feels perfect as the last word on that classic season from Big Finish. Another great performance from Caroline John and this play acts as a fine tribute.
4: Mastermind by Jonathan Morris
A sequel of sorts to Tales From the Vault, Yee Jee Tso and Daphne Ashbrook return as Captain Ruth Matheson and Warrant Officer Charlie Sato, this time however there’s one more in the vault… The Master!
The Vault – an archive of alien artefacts securely stored deep beneath the Angel of the North. There’s also a prisoner in the Vault. An extraterrestrial known as the Master. He has been on Earth for some time, but now he’s under lock and key.
This is his story.
Or, as Captain Ruth Matheson and Warrant Officer Charlie Sato discover… perhaps it is theirs.
The Master as a Mafia Don - one of those things you don’t know you wanted until it happens. But Mastermind is so much more than that and in fact it is the scenes with the Master and our two UNIT officers where this play shines, where Geoffrey Beavers is able to simply talk. As excellent as the recent Dark Eyes boxed set was, i can’t help yearning for Beavers in the role of The Master, he has an innate malevolence that has the ability to transcend over audio like an intergalactic Hannibal Lecter. Not that we’re suggesting Mr Beavers is in any way evil.. he’s lovely!
Brilliantly written by another one of the ranges standout writers in Jonathan Morris (see below), Mastermind is an innovative, dark, unsettling and psychological tour-de-force and the best treatment the character has had since Joseph Lidster’s Master in 2003 (and that includes the television series).
And Captain Matheson and Warrant Officer Sato should definitely get their own spin-off Warehouse 13 style series!
3: Ghost in the Machine by Jonathan Morris
We said in our October 2013 review:
There are often two types of Big Finish play, your standard releases that could act as a soundtrack to a TV adventure and those that understand and play with the audio format a little more such as the innovative Flip Flop. In Jonathan Morris’ Ghost in the Machine we have a gem of a Companion Chronicle that exploits the medium to the fullness of it’s ability, playing with sound and audio to entrance the listener.
With shades of Nigel Kneale’s The Stone Tape, Sapphire and Steel and The Blair Witch Project, Morris crafts an intelligent, claustrophobic and frightening tale that is a perfect release in this month of Halloween, Morris’ latest tale being very much in the vain of his previous 4th Doctor release Phantoms of the Deep. Left alone with only a comatose Doctor and a tape recorder for company, an idea lifted from The Planet of the Daleks, Jo is trapped in a sealed off facility and the horror is only just beginning… Something is out there in the dark, waiting for release.
Ghost in the Machine is a triumph for all involved. Wonderfully acted and directed, Jonathan Morris’ reputation for the unsettling continues to grow and we look forward immensely to the authors second release this month, 1963: The Space Race. Intelligently written and realised Ghost in the Machine comes highly recommended as the Big Finish play of choice this Halloween season.
2: The Mahogany Murderers by Andy Lane
This is where it all began again for Jago & Litefoot…
Professor George Litefoot: the eminent pathologist who advises the police in some of their grisliest cases. Henry Gordon Jago: the master of ceremonies at the Alhambra Theatre. These are two very different men from contrasting strata in society who became firm friends and collaborators after their adventure with the Doctor and Leela battling the evil Weng-Chiang.
Some years later, Jago and Litefoot have defeated dangerous denizens of the daemonic darkness together. They have stood side by side against threats to the British Empire. But when a body is found on the banks of the River Thames and Litefoot’s post mortum reveals that it is actually a highly detailed wooden mannequin, their most dangerous adventure begins. Dr Tulp has masterminded a deadly scheme, Jack Yeovil and his murderous gang plan to live forever, and only Jago and Litefoot can stop them…
What can you say about Jago & Litefoot and Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin that hasn’t already been said? Television was robbed of a classic when their Doctor Who spin-off didn’t go ahead in the 1970s, but Big Finish have long put that crime right. You have to believe the overwhelmingly positive reaction to The Mahogany Murderers led directly to the ongoing series which is the highlight of any Big Finish year (we like Jago & Litefoot if you hadn’t guessed!).
The cast is perfect with Benjamin and Baxter slipping back into their roles as if filming on Talons had only just concluded, their chemistry and charisma together makes them the best pairing the classic series ever saw beyond a Doctor and companion (and in some cases including them!). The addition of Lisa Bowerman is inspired, the atmosphere and writing sublime. Pure magic.
1: The Flames of Cadiz by Marc Platt
The early historicals have often been heralded by fans as some of the true (and many lost) classics of the original series. Big Finish have provided many a resumption, The Glorious Revolution being a prime example, but none have truly evoked the era better than The Flames of Cadiz, our number one choice as the best Big Finish Companion Chronice.
The TARDIS materialises in Spain in the late sixteenth century. The country is at war with England – and the travellers find themselves on the wrong side of the battle lines. When Ian and his new friend Esteban are captured by the Inquisition, the Doctor, Susan and Barbara plan to rescue them. But these are dark days in human history. And heretics face certain death…
We’ve already commented on the undiminished quality of William Russell with Big Finish (or his Target readings). That he created the role of Ian over 50 years ago now is astounding considering how effortless his performances are in the role even today, yet in Flames of Cadiz he seems to absolutely relish the wonderfully evocative script by Marc Platt, ably joined by Carole Ann-Ford as Susan to authentically recreate an era in which Flames could easily have been broadcast.
This is vintage Hartnell.
Preferring to show history for what it is - brutal and violent, this is a far cry however from The Romans or other lighter historical, here the threat is all too real, bringing home some realities for a TARDIS crew who are enjoying the wonderful spirit of adventure a little too much. In lesser hands the brutality of the Spanish Inquisition could have been played for Pythonesque laughs, not so here as Platt shows that humanity rarely learns from it’s past, providing us with a strong message on intolerance. There are strong shades of The Massacre here alongside The Aztecs and even Marco Polo, perfectly recreating it’s desired era.
Marc Platts finest contribution to Big Finish since Spare Parts and a play that bodes well The Companion Chronicles replacement The Lost Years.
All the listed plays are still available to but on CD on digital download from BigFinish.com.
