The Third Doctor gets a letter delivered. Jackie Tyler gets a job offer. Lady Christina gets a friend. Harry Sullivan gets duped.

On paper this shouldn’t work. The ongoing plot surrounding the Doctor’s degenerations is wrapped up in a clash with a familiar face in a new situation and three old companions interacting in new and interesting ways. It’s a huge amount to fit into one story but writer Lisa McMullin doesn’t just make it work, she makes some important meta points about the Doctor. These not only cleverly echo the early RTD era show but also provide some nicely handled poignancy and context to a whole raft of other stories.

The Renegade is a huge part of this. Michael Maloney is an actor who fizzes with intellect and kinetic energy and never stops thinking or moving. He’s a perfect foil for Christopher Naylor’s Harry and a smart echo of the brittle, spiky elements of the Third and Fourth Doctor. You get why Harry buys into what he’s doing even if you also share the Doctor’s frustration. The closing confrontation between Colin Baker and Maloney is especially good, and has that rarified feel all great Time Lord scenes have: clever and witty and not remotely human while still thrumming with compassion. Baker is one of the all-time greats and his Doctor has never failed to impress and entertain. Here he’s in his element, a determined, relentless Doctor well suited to a problem that requires both those factors. But there’s also an intriguing hint of what’s to come with him here, echoes of the War Doctor to come in the Sixth’s exasperated compassion. Plus McMullin’s use of the Renegade manages to add to an entirely different story, moving in a different direction to this one as well as making this one better. The script on this story really is ridiculously good.

It’s doubly so when you realize it takes companions from two different time periods and styles of the show and honours them both. Naylor’s Harry Sullivan in particular does some surprising work here. He’s still the slightly oafish living embodiment of the word ‘gosh’ that good-naturedly made the Fourth Doctor’s life difficult. But he’s no longer just that. I don’t know if this is a response to the fact that we’re all exhausted beyond words of ‘bumbling public schoolboy’ types after the last few years. I do know that I’ve rarely liked Harry more and Naylor’s take on him is true to the original and deeply endearing.

The lion’s share of the story, aside from the clash between Six and the Renegade, goes to Jackie and Lady Christina and it’s the most pleasant surprise in a story full of them. The instant friendship between the two women is grounded, charming and feels completely understandable. It also embraces and evolves the themes of their time on the show. The Doctor naturally gravitates towards the brilliant, whether brilliantly normal or abnormally brilliant, and Jackie and Lady Christina are both. Better still, McMullin finds something the two women need in the other. Jackie desperately needs a friend and gains one in Michelle Ryan’s cheerfully hyper-competent art thief. Lady Christina needs not just a friend but a support structure, a not-quite family and finds both in Jackie and the Sixth Doctor. The most fun McMullin and director Helen Goldwyn have here (and they have a lot of fun) is an extended Mission: Impossible style break-in which tasks Jackie, Lady Christina and the Doctor in equal measure. Each one on their own isn’t enough. Each one together saves the day. It’s the refutation to Davros’ barb about the Doctor turning their companions into weapons. They don’t. They just turn them into who they need to be.

Ironically this level of meta discussion is the one place the story falters. Goldwyn as ever is fantastic, the cast are great and McMullin’s script is fantastically good but the toys have to go back into the box. The final couple of scenes are a little muted as the fascinating relationships between these characters are erased by both time and narrative expediency. It’s really poignant too and even here adds something subtle and meaningful to the show’s overall story. The implication, if you choose to buy into it, is that Jackie and Rose have been points in the Doctors’ lives since very early on and that presence ties into everything that draws Nine, then Ten to them. It certainly makes Ten’s interactions with Lady Christina in Planet of the Dead even more fun and nuanced. The Doctor, four lives further down, unsure if an old friend who has no memory of their time together can be trusted.

Verdict: This story really is that complex and light on its feet for all that. McMullin’s done the near impossible here and it’s the strongest entry in Once and Future so far as well as a highlight story for the entire cast. Even my frustrations stem from limitations outside the story’s control. Limitations that hopefully next time, McMullin will not have to work inside because I can’t wait to see what she does next. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

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