The Doctor and Jamie arrive at a police constable’s retirement do…

This year’s winner of the Paul Spragg Short Trips Memorial Opportunity is a wonderfully bittersweet tale, read by Nicholas Briggs that peeks beneath the surface of the second Doctor and shows the serious Time Lord under the surface “cosmic hobo”. Harry Draper’s script takes its time to bring the problem afflicting Constable Bernard Whittam to the fore, with the first section told from the policeman’s perspective, and the next from Jamie’s, and there are some very nice turns of phrase in the description. Once the Constable’s issue is revealed, though, the story takes something of a sharp left turn…

While Briggs doesn’t deliver a pastiche of Troughton’s Doctor in the same way that Frazer Hines has honed over the past decades, there’s a definite distinct flavour of both travellers in his performance – particularly the way that the Doctor softens as he breaks bad news. New Short Trips producer is at the directorial helm with sound design from Richard Fox and there’s a lovely unrushed feel about the way in which the story is told.

Verdict: Perhaps something of a sidestep, this is a worthy addition to the Big Finish canon. 8/10

Paul Simpson