The Light at the End.

2 episodes. Approx. 116 minutes. Written by: Nicholas Briggs. Directed by: Nicholas Briggs. Produced by: David Richardson.


THE PLOT

After the TARDIS nearly blows up, the Doctor and Charley find a new feature on the console - a blinking red light that has never been there before. The Doctor checks the instruments, and finds that the light appeared after the TARDIS passed through time/space coordinates matching a particular home in Hampshire at 17:03 on November 23, 1963. He promptly sets the TARDIS to materializes at those exact coordinates to investigate.

But they don't materialize in Hampshire... or in England... or on Earth. They find themselves in a pocket dimension, home to a factory run by the Vess, who are selling the most destructive weapons the universe has ever seen. The Doctor and Charley have not been lured here by accident - nor are they alone. The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and his companion Leela (Louise Jameson) are also here. And all the Doctor's other incarnations are on the way, falling one by one into the same trap.

In the heart of the factory, like a spider at the center of a web, the Master watches, patiently waiting for his plan to unfold - And for the Doctor to be erased from history!


CHARACTERS

The 8th Doctor: Spends much of the story paired with the Fourth Doctor. This is appropriate for many reasons, not least of which is that the Fourth and Eighth Doctors are the two most superficially similar incarnations. Both seem to take things lightly until they turn on a dime and get deadly serious... Though the Eighth Doctor doesn't have the undercurrent of violent anger that marks the Fourth Doctor's most memorable appearances. For this 50th anniversary story, Big Finish could have selected any part of his audio era and any traveling companion. They chose to hark back to the beginning of their McGann audios by partnering him with Charley Pollard. She is only in the story briefly, but she gets just enough air time to re-establish the effortless camaraderie of the early Eighth Doctor/Charley stories.

The 4th Doctor: In contrast to most multi-Doctor pairings, Tom's Doctor seems to get on genuinely well with his likable 8th persona. Tom himself is in fine form here, doing a more convincing job of recreating his Doctor than has sometimes been the case in his audio outings. After dominating much of Part One, he's pushed to the background for the second episode - but he and McGann are brought back to the fore for the climax, when their Doctors get the final confrontation with the Master.

The 5th Doctor: Is cautious enough to recognize a trap of some sort in the flashing light. Alone of the Doctors, he takes the precaution of materializing just before the time coordinates, seemingly avoiding the Master's snare. Partnered with Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), the companion with whom this Doctor was the most compatible, he gets the chance to investigate and seems to be set up as the Doctor to save the day... Though as it happens, his precautions were not only foreseen, but were in fact critical to the Master's typically convoluted plans.

The 6th Doctor: Barely features in the first half, but makes up for it with a commanding showing in Part Two. As much by chance as anything, he is able to discover how the Master was able to spring his trap. He then swings through all of his Doctor's best/worst traits as he badgers and bullies a browbeaten Time Lord agent, huffing with all the righteous indignation his lungs can carry (and as all who have seen Trial of a Time Lord can attest, that is a lot of indignation), until the other Time Lord allows him to use his TARDIS to do some Technobabble that is able to put the Doctors on the offensive for the final stretch. Colin Baker is terrific, and it's appropriate that his Doctor gets such a key role, complete with "hero moment" - After all, what Tom Baker was to television Who, Colin Baker pretty much has become to audio Who.

The 7th Doctor: The least prominent of the Doctors. Oh, he gets his segment, and Sylvester McCoy's banter opposite Colin Baker at the start of Part Two is terrific fun. But his biggest chunk of action sees him working with Ace, discovering the nature of the Master's factory before fleeing from his killer drones... Which would be a lot more dramatic if the Fourth and Eighth Doctors had not already spent a lot of time discovering the nature of the factory before fleeing from the killer drones in Part One. This isn't really a complaint, mind you - With five Doctors in starring roles, someone had to draw the short straw - but it's clear that McCoy is more a "spare Doctor" than an integral part of the story.

The Master: Geoffrey Beevers' Master returns. And even though Beevers' incarnation was made current by Big Finish, at least for the Seventh Doctor, there's a fair amount of complicated exposition explaining that this version is from the period before The Keeper of Traken. An unnecessary flourish that in no way diminishes Beevers' wonderfully silky line delivery. His material is more typical "Arch Villain" stuff than his roles in Dust Breeding and Master, and I confess to unwillingly picturing Anthony Ainley's version several times as this played out... But Beevers remains a treat in the role, and I hope it isn't too long a wait before we hear from him again.


THOUGHTS

More than a decade after its founding, and after multiple non-traditional multi-Doctor stories, Big Finish finally delivered a good, old-fashionbed multi-Doctor romp with its 50th anniversary special, The Light at the End - presumably titled such because The Five Doctors was already taken.

Comparisons with The Five Doctors are apt. Like that story, the plot involves various Doctor and their Companions taken out of time - in this case, by the Master instead of by a Time Scoop - in order to have an adventure. The Master's plot is convoluted, but it largely matters only in justifying this chance to have some fun with multiple Doctors and Companions.

Also as with The Five Doctors, "narratively unambitious" should not be read as a synonym for "badly written." Like Terrance Dicks before him, Nicholas Briggs has taken on a massive undertaking: Starring roles for five Doctors and major supporting roles for their companions; cameo roles for impersonators of those Doctors no longer with us and snapshot cameos with some of their companions; some decent interaction among Doctors and Companions; and a plot that's simple enough to leave room for all of the above, but challenging enough to justify the participation of five Doctors. Oh, and a plot that moves fast without ever confusing the listener.

That's a lot to cram into two hours, and Briggs delivers on all fronts. The plot may be a thin clothesline, but it holds together and has a reasonable bit of cleverness at its center. The story may be a celebratory romp, but for the first half it's clear that the Doctors are in a desperate situation. There's even a nicely ghoulish moment at the end of Part One, as the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa discover exactly what has happened to hapless Bob Dovey (John Dorney)'s perfect family. It's a bit that's unusually dark for Who these days, and makes for an effective jolt.

My only real complaint is the theme music used for this story. It feels too bombastic, too clearly aiming for a "New Series" feel. It isn't quite my least favorite version of the theme (that would be the "8th Doctor Adventures" theme that debuted with the second 8th Doctor/Lucie season), but I still hope this proves to be a one-off.


Overall Rating: 8/10. A fine celebratory romp.


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