The Doctor is on the run. From the Doctor. But neither of them know who they’re pursuing. Yet.

The final instalment of Once and Future does the impossible four times. It’s a fun coda to Once and Future and the 60th anniversary. It tells a fun, coherent, standalone story that nods to Once and Future but doesn’t demand you listen to it as well. It’s a great introduction for Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor and another very good entry in the surprisingly turbulent emotional journey of the War Doctor.

The basis of the story here is the Doctor’s condition in Once and Future, and what happens once that’s resolved. You get everything you need to understand that in this story. If you’re a completist, you’ll want to find out how it happened but it’s presented in the same way as the Ninth Doctor’s reference to visiting the Titanic, or River referencing Jim The Fish to the Tenth Doctor. Tim Foley’s a smart writer and he’s not interested in setting an entrance exam to enjoy the story. Coda is much more fun for that.

Especially as there is so much going on here. Foley fires the Doctor’s two most belligerent incarnations at each other and the clash of egos and styles is enormous fun and enormously revealing. Jo Martin makes her debut for Big Finish with total confidence and style, the Fugitive Doctor no one’s victim and certainly no one’s patsy. Her delightfully fractious relationship with Bernice (there’s a lovely running gag where she keeps being called ‘Lenny’) is mirrored by the War Doctor’s persistent use of slightly reckless battle whimsy. Both of them have been conditioned to believe they’re just their trauma, just weapons waiting to be wielded by someone else who doesn’t care about the consequences. That’s nicely chunky dramatic ground to cover and both Jonathon Carley and Martin have enormous fun with it. There’s also some inherent meta-fictional poignancy to all this, as one of the Doctor’s first, and latest, incarnations finds themselves marked by the same problem at different times in their lives.

They’re not the only ones either. Lisa Bowerman and Chase Masterson always turn in good work and this is no exception. Masterson gets a moment of poignancy as an older Vienna, maimed by a Time War she can only dimly perceive. Bowerman continues to do excellent work mining Bernice’s newfound status as the Grown Up in the TARDIS and Imogen Stubbs is remarkable as Queen Elizabeth. All three of them are women whose lives have been permanently changed by the Doctor or by the Doctor’s actions. The different ways they deal with that are all sensitively, smartly explored. That same intelligence is present throughout the cast, with Richard Reed doing excellent supporting work as various people and Nicholas Khan having enormous fun as surprise ally Shalvar.

Best of all though this is just really FUN. From the War Doctor’s gloriously impish time ram countermeasure to Elizabeth I’s remarkable actions in the final act this plays like Doctor Who with added 2000AD style pulpy action. It’s a big story that makes big choices and Foley’s script, coupled with Ken Bentley’s typically impressive direction and Howard Carter’s strong sound design.

Verdict: It’s fun, in that big rambunctious way the Anniversaries need to be but also a really personal subtle story that also kicks the door in and sets fire to it. Big, clever, weird and fun, it’s a really good time. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart

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