The Doctor awakens in prison…

Simon Guerrier’s short story is heading for two decades old – it originally appeared in the Short Trips anthology Zodiac, Big Finish’s first prose Doctor Who stories, in 2002 – and this reading was previously released in 2010 and in 2017. It seems at first as if Duncan Wisbey isn’t trying to do anything other than a straight reading of the tale, without character-specific voices… until the second scene when the conceit has been revealed and the full Pertwee can be unleashed. Even so, the voices aren’t impersonations – a la Tim Treloar for Pertwee or Jon Culshaw for Delgado and Courtney – but you’re very clear, when you need to be, as to who’s speaking when, and director Nicholas Briggs gives discrete gaps between scenes to help with that clarity.

It’s a neat idea and makes for an interesting character piece – the way in which the Master believes the Doctor behaves, and the latter’s actions once he realises what’s going on – and there’s even a little gap filled in in the relationship between two of the UNIT personnel.

Verdict: Ensuring that we have plenty of Delgado in the 50th anniversary celebration of his arrival on Doctor Who, this is a fun tale. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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