Doctor Who: Once And Future: Past Lives by Robert Valentine (CD review).
Big Finish is producing monthly stories featuring classic Doctors for the 60th Anniversary. They are an opportunity to spend an hour with one of your childhood favourites and maybe solve the mystery of the underlying arc.
‘Past Lives’ is the first which features mainly the Fourth Doctor, although due to circumstances several more are heard. Commencing on the battlefield of the Time War, its clear the Doctor is in trouble. He’s been badly hurt and, at first, his colleagues think he is regenerating but it’s far worse. He’s degenerating and despite the joy of listening to 1-7, this could be terminal for the Doc.
Settling on this Fourth persona (Tom Baker, as if you didn’t know), he skips away with his TARDIS to attempt to locate some kind of explanation and maybe a cure. He’s determined to track down the Meddling Monk (Rufus Hound, delightfully skittish) which leads him to Earth and what appears to be one of the many money-making schemes of the ethically challenged Time Lord.
The Fourth Doctor is, of course, a delightful persona and Tom Baker attacks this with relish and a pickle on the side. He’s playful and wistful as he meets not only the Brigadier’s daughter now the Chief Scientific Officer, Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), but also his companion Sarah Jane (Sadie Miller).
Here we go then off into the 60th anniversary celebrating all that is Big Finish and ‘Doctor Who’. It’s a tough job trying to get in as much as you can about the last 60 years but, blow me, Big Finish is giving it a go. Tossing in clues and genially distributing the virtual jelly-babies to the grateful listener this is a delightful coda to the Tom Baker years. He’s not himself as such but he’s risen to the surface-cometh the hour cometh the man-to begin the quest that will last all year for us.
Sue Davies
June 2023
(pub: Big Finish, 2023. 1 CD 69 minutes. Price: £10.99 (UK) $13.86 (US). ISBN: 978-1-80240-076-2. Download: Price: £ 8.99 (UK), $11.33 (US). ISBN: 978-1-80240-077-9)
cast: Tom Baker, Sadie Miller, Jemma Redgrave, Ingrid Oliver, Rufus Hound, Ewan Bailey, Colin Baker, Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy, Stephen Noonan, Dan Starkey, Tim Treloar and Michael Troughton
check out website: www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-once-and-future-past-lives-2774