Why does the Doctor want Bernice to join a German archaeological expedition?

Spoilers

The darkest side of Benny’s adventures continues to come to the fore in Rochana Patel’s gripping third part of this pre-War German set, reminding us forcibly that this is an Unbound Doctor (whose origins were as an alternate third Doctor, back in the mists of Time, which means that he doesn’t have the experience and knowledge of his later incarnations, no matter how he presents physically and vocally)… which means all bets are off. He may be absolutely certain that he’s going to defeat the menace (and honestly, it’s not really a spoiler to say that the Cybermen are once again involved) but at the back of our minds, we as listeners can’t be sure.

Patel’s script carefully layers on the trappings of the occult hunting Nazi trope, but at its heart, astute listeners will click, long before the Doctor, what is really going on here – the oblique reference to Professor Zaroff notwithstanding. Little echoes of lines draw us back to a story that Big Finish has mined before (almost, it could be argued, too much) but never has it been done so bleakly. There’s a line on the back of the original Genesis of the Daleks novelisation that I’ve referenced before in reviews (the first time on one of Craig Hinton’s New Adventures!) and it’s something that we do tend to forget – even the Doctor cannot always win…

There are some beautiful moments in here for David Warner and Lisa Bowerman, notably just before the final confrontations, and director Scott Handcock and sound designer Steve Foxon ratchet up the tension as what seems like a sidestep from the main story we’ve followed in the previous tale turns out to be anything but. And as for that end… one episode of Flux concluded with something on the same line, but this time the stakes are much higher. Unbound doesn’t mean Imaginary…

Verdict: Outstanding work all round on this from main cast, guest stars, and production. 10/10

Paul Simpson

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