As any Doctor Who fan will know this year is the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who, and with that comes a lot of special releases. Regular readers will know I’m a huge fan of Doctor Who, especially the audio stories and even have a podcast about them, Spare Prats. So I was very much looking forward to Big Finish’s contribution to the 60th anniversary, and now its time for the second in that series; Doctor Who: Once and Future: The Artist at the End of Time.
The latest story is written by the excellent James Goss, and is a lovely three hander between Colin Baker’s Curator, Peter Davison’s unregenerated Doctor, and Georgia Tennant’s Jenny.
It starts where the last set finished off, where the Monk suggested the Doctor seek out Jenny, the Doctor seemed confused by this comment at the end of the last one, but by this one you got the impression he knew who Jenny was whether this is a sign of which Doctor he was when he unregenerated I’m not sure as even Tennant’s Doctor thought she was dead last I remember – I may be wrong. There is a whole question that when the Doctor’s daughter was first mentioned did he think it was Susan’s Mother or am I unnecessarily complicating things.
I don’t want to give away much of the plot but suffice to say I think this was a big improvement on the last episode, which I felt was hampered by the need to set up the story, none such problems in this.
The chemistry between Davison and Tennant is rather unsurprisingly excellent and again unsurprisingly the father/daughter dynamic is perfect, I say that but because it is their actual relationship they could have been tempted to overplay it to make it feel bigger, and they didn’t. Davison is able to play the role without worrying about continuity as the Doctor only has the face of the fifth, and it seems to make for a slightly more free interpretation. Georgia Tennant is always great to watch/listen to and its great to see her in a main Doctor Who release as Jenny, let’s get more Jenny please. Georgia Tennant is a great actor who not only manages to bring something great to Jenny, talking about her relationship with the Doctor, but the way she plays it not only brings out the best in her, it brings out the best in those she acts alongside. The moments with both Peter Davison and Colin Baker have some lovely underlying emotions throughout. It also brings me to Colin’s Curator – it was a clever move to create a different version of the Curator; though I hope we might see Tom back again in that role. The Curator brings a lovely mystery to the latter years of the Doctor, if he is indeed the Doctor – is it ever specifically stated? Colin plays a charming version of the character who captures the melancholy of the weary, old traveller very well. The story works well and it feels like a stop on the longer journey very well.
Conclusion
This worked more for me than the first one in the set, the cast is excellent but I feel it’s Georgia Tennant that holds it together and provides the heart, or the two hearts, something that can sometimes get missed in Doctor centric episodes, but that’s not to say the other actors are not excellent, they all share the stage brilliantly to allow it to flow and not feel like its solely about one persons experience, I should also mention Abi Harris who plays the roboguide who was also excellent. James Goss’ writing fits in perfectly with the style of story and it’s a story that allows the characters time to breathe and that’s not always easy in an hour long story, especially with 2 Doctor’s fighting for space. It certainly builds well on the first one and this looks to be a great set from Big Finish.
Read the review of the first CD in this set.
Order now from Big Finish or order the standard edition here.