From time to time, everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has things from their past they’d like to undo, but nobody gets a second chance. What’s done is done and we can’t change that. Zoe’s mistakes have led her to imprisonment at the hands of the Company. But when news reports trigger memories of the Doctor, Jamie and an appalling threat, she begins to sense a way out. An opportunity for redemption opens up to anyone willing to take it. Nobody can alter what’s been done. Nobody gets a second chance.
Or do they?
Second Chances is a final end to Big Finish’s second most prolific range, the Companion Chronicles. Tying up the loose end of Zoe’s battle with the Company, Second Chances brings the arc that began in Echoes of Grey to a satisfying conclusion, the trilogy seeking to deal with the issue of Zoe’s memories that were taken from her alongside Jamie at the conclusion of Season 6’s The War Games.
Zoe’s final fate and those of her memories remain a mystery throughout Second Chances. Mistrusted by the Company, they seek the assistance of an expert, the mysterious Kym, in an attempt to access her memory. Recalling her worst day, Zoe suddenly has the opportunity to put things right as what was Zoe’s past is now happening in the present. With Kym holding a grudge for something Zoe has done, we learn the true horror of the twin space stations Artemis and Apollo and there will be consequences for all concerned. You can’t change history, not one line… or can you?
Starring Wendy Padbury as Zoe, the play also sees the return of Emily Pithon to the trilogy as Kym, a cold and bitter woman with an agenda all her own that acts as magnificent foil for the troubled Zoe. Giving us a glimpse inside the heads of both characters gives us a listeners advantage and a masterstroke throughout the audio from John Dorney, one of Big Finish’s leading lights. This is far and away Padbury’s play however, taking centre stage and carrying the drama in a highly emotional hour and ten minutes from Big Finish, giving distinction between the younger and older Zoe while making another fine stab at Patrick Troughton.
Dorney has successfully brought together the loose ends from Echoes of Grey and The Memory Cheats to bring a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, yet equally creating a story that is able to stand without the weight of the back story, weaving a clever and twisting tale to add to his already strong reputation with Big Finish, imbuing the script with a growing sense of inevitability and fate. The story is particularly evocative of Zoe’s starring Season 6, closing your eyes will bring images of The Wheel in Space, The Space Pirates and the 1960’s visage of what the future may look like.
The play is another triumph for Lisa Bowerman who’s directorial expertise rarely falter, casting a suitable tone for this tale of loss and of endings.
A sombre and downbeat finale to the range then, yet with a fitting ending of hope as Zoe leads out the range, the overall play a bleak one however for what will be this most missed of ranges. Yet from the flames rises a new series and at the conclusion we get our first glimpse, or whatever the aural equivalent is, of the Early Adventures Range, focusing on the William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton years in longer tales starring the companions of the era. The new range will have high standards to live up to but somehow, we’re sure it will.
Written By: John Dorney
Directed By: Lisa Bowerman
Cast: Wendy Padbury (Zoe Heriot), Emily Pithon (Kym)
Second Chances, the final Companion Chronicle in the range, is available now from BigFinish.com or via the Amazon link below.
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