The Third Doctor and Jo arrive in the trenches of the Great War – and the Doctor realises he can deal with some outstanding matters…

A lot of queries are raised by this second story in Justin Richards’ trilogy of tales set around a change in history that saw someone survive in Sarajevo who shouldn’t have done. This time it’s the Third Doctor and Jo – sent by the Time Lords – who are encountering soldiers whose fates aren’t as they should be. Jo recognises that history is out of kilter – but if it’s been the same since the First Doctor’s time, wouldn’t she know the revised timeline… or are the events of this and the next audio preordained? I’d love it if the Sixth Doctor tale in September delved into this, but I suspect that this is one of those things you have to live with!

As with the first tale, this story is narrated by an actor who played a companion, but not in that character. Katy Manning dusts off her Northern accent to portray Annie Grantham, the nurse whose intervention apparently put history on a new route, which gives Richards the chance for a slightly different – and deliberately more incoherent – account of someone new entering the TARDIS for the first time. Manning’s Jo and Doctor are as strong as ever, and it’s another of those single-actor audios which feels – thanks also to good sound design by David Darlington and production by Neil Gardner – as if it’s a full cast tale.

The horrors this time around aren’t quite as visceral as in the opener but the haunted soldiers will resonate for some time. Roll on the tale’s finale…

Verdict: A good middle act for this cross-Doctor tale. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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