The second of this year’s audio adventures featuring the fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) and Nyssa of Traken (Sarah Sutton) sees the time travelling duo arrive on board a giant floating tomb: the final resting place of the God-King of the Arrit, an ancient civilisation who might one day have rivalled the Time Lords, had they not become extinct.

There’s little about the Arrit, as they’re portrayed by writers Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby (The Doomsday Quatrain, 1001 Nights) that suggests ancient and powerful intelligences – one of many flaws of this frankly rather flimsy tale. Save for the ultimate plan of their God-King, the Arrit come across as rather generic aliens, as does their giant floating tomb-ship, a musty labyrinth littered with occasional corpses and fiendish traps straight out of the ‘deadly room of death’ trope satirised so memorably in Galaxy Quest.

With the TARDIS crew pitted against the Arrit’s insectoid slaves, the Arrit-Ko, and only other adversary save for the tomb itself being a party of tomb raiders led by the mercenary Virna (Eve Karpf), there’s an awful lot of running around corridors in Tomb Ship and very little in the way of narrative tension, though thankfully the drama increases in the final chapter, as various plot threads combine.

Tension should arise out of the conflict between the Doctor and his antagonists, but neither Virna nor her hapless sons – Hisko (James Hayward), Heff (Jonathan Forbes), Murs (Ben Porter) and Rek (Phil Mulryne) – have much in the way of personality, rendering their interactions with the Doctor quite forgettable. The monomaniacal Virna is gratingly one-dimensional, and her children aren’t so much well rounded characters as a predictable collection of types: there’s the stupid one, the violent one, the slightly suspicious one – and of course the short lived one whose sole purpose is to show us how the traps work.

Also present on the tomb-ship is the mysterious Jhanni (Amy Ewbank), whose real identity will be easily guessed by listeners, while the sudden appearance of another character from an earlier Big Finish release late in the piece is forced in the extreme, straining willing suspension of disbelief almost to breaking point.

Performances, thankfully, are strong, though Davison sounds a little bored; the rest of the cast do their best with their underdeveloped characters. For once, Sutton does not have to play a possessed Nyssa. The sound design is excellent, one of the few highlights of this underwritten, unimaginative story.

Some of Big Finish’s audio adventures are true classics, easily comparable to such outstanding television stories as Kinda and The Caves of Androzani. Sadly, the company’s 2014 releases for the fifth Doctor to date are more akin to Time Flight and Warriors of the Deep – evocative of the period, perhaps, but hardly worth revisiting.

Taking place between seasons 19 and 20 of the classic television series, when the fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) and Nyssa of Traken (Sarah Sutton) were temporarily travelling together without Tegan and other companions, Moonflesh is an earth-bound adventure, set in Suffolk – a fact the Doctor deduces by the fragrance of the local leaf mould – in late October 1911.

The story begins with the TARDIS materialising close to the home of a famous explorer, Nathaniel Whitlock (Tim Bentinck) and his loving daughter Phoebe (Rosanna Miles). Whitlock has stocked the grounds of his estate with lions, elephants and other exotic wildlife, and charges visitors handsomely for the experience of hunting them. He is attended by a faithful Native American servant, Silver Crow (John Banks), whose hunting skills and spiritual beliefs soon prove significant – especially once the Doctor and Nyssa find themselves being stalked by a hungry lioness within minutes of landing!

With their arrival coinciding with that of a wealthy hunting party – bullying industrialist Edwin Tremayne (Hugh Fraser), his put-upon son Hector (Geoffrey Breton), and Ms Hannah Bartholemew (Francesca Hunt), an ardent supporter of women’s equality who has quite the eye for a pretty girl herself – it’s not long before mysteries unfold and secrets are revealed, with potentially fatal consequences for all concerned.

Writer Mark Morris has previously depicted the fifth Doctor in the BBC Past Doctor Adventure Deep Blue, as well as in the Big Finish audio Plague of the Daleks, and has a firm grasp of the character of the Time Lord. Scenes such as one where the Doctor gets to display his bedside manner, or casually refers to being “possessed by aliens dozens of times and it’s never done me any harm,” are delightful. Nyssa is also well written, portrayed as compassionate, intelligent and inquisitive; their scenes together are particularly enjoyable.

Morris’s supporting characters are slightly less well-realised, tending more towards the larger than life than the well-rounded; however the relationships between them are well presented thanks to a combination of effective dialogue and strong performances – though having two blustering and headstrong Englishmen in the one story does sometimes make the characters of Edwin Tremayne and Nathaniel Whitlock a little hard to differentiate, for which director Ken Bentley must also bear some blame.

Elements of mysticism and mythology in the story evoke the feel of televised fifth Doctor adventures such as Kinda, while the historical setting naturally recalls Black Orchid; as the story develops, it also calls to mind the standard base-under-siege adventures of the second Doctor, as well as two fourth Doctor stories in particular: Horror of Fang Rock and The Hand of Fear.

The plot is serviceable though not outstanding, and some aspects of the story don’t hold up to scrutiny – if only Whitlock and his daughter live in their vast house, for instance, who feeds the wildlife and prevents their animals from escaping into the surrounding countryside?

The writer’s decision to set an extended sequence of his story in the spirit world of America’s First Peoples is more problematic; but while Morris’ appropriation of Native American religious beliefs borders on insensitivity, the fact that Moonflesh resorts to an audio equivalent of blackface by having a white English actor, John Banks, playing a Native American role, is of greater concern. That Banks plays the role – which borders on the cliché of the noble savage – well is beside the point; unless Big Finish is 100% committed to colour-blind casting across its ranges for all characters, it’s a casting decision which at best suggests a lack of respect for indigenous peoples, especially when one considers the low number of peoples of colour employed in the British entertainment industry.

More positively, Andy Hardwick’s sound design is nuanced and subtle, with every creaking floorboard and crackling flame adding to the atmosphere evoked by his richly cinematic score; and while the story may be a trifle shallow, overall Moonflesh is well-paced and – save for the flaws mentioned above – a mostly satisfying addition to the monthly range.

Even though Tom Baker was in the lead role when I became a teenage Doctor Who fan in 1980, Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor was MY Doctor. There was something about his portrayal that I identified with: his youth made him a more accessible ‘hero’ figure than Baker did; his preppy cricketing look influenced my own fashion sense; and his vulnerability was something I could relate to.

Davison visited Melbourne, Australia in 1983 to attend the Logies, Australia’s TV awards. As a giddy 16-year-old, I took the day off school and went into the city where he was doing a promotional book signing appearance in the department store Myer. In front of quite a crowd of excited fans, he tried hard to look enthusiastic as the matronly Myer book department manager, while chatting with him, gushed about the special effects in ‘Time-flight’, which was having a repeat screening on the ABC at the time, and everyone knew she was talking through her hat – even then, ‘Time-flight’ was considered naff. I did feel a little embarrassed that the book he signed for me was the ‘Time-flight’ paperback, just released, but I was too excited. I was there, on the platform, with THE DOCTOR!

Fast-forward 31 years, and I receive a media release email from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra publicity department announcing interview opportunities with Davison to promote his role as host of the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular's Australian and New Zealand tour. Over the years as a freelance writer, I have interviewed many other Doctor Who stars, including Katy Manning, Elisabeth Sladen, Russell T Davies, David Tennant, Matt Smith and Steven Moffat, but this was different. You can imagine my excitement at the prospect of a one-on-one interview with my teenage hero. So I emailed the publicist, explained my position, and was kindly granted an interview with Peter Davison. And here it is.

After the interview, Davison agreed to sign a DVD sleeve (‘Castrovalva’ this time, and he marvelled at the ‘Mild Violence’ classification) and have a photo taken with me. I showed him a photo on my phone of my signed copy of ‘Time-flight’ (he remembered the book signing and the crusty matron), we chatted briefly about Melbourne’s crazy hot summer (he’d arrived on a 40 degree day), how Katy Manning was as mad as a cut snake, and how gracious Elisabeth Sladen had been, and then it was over. Even though it was only 20 minutes, Peter was warm, attentive, articulate and candid – just as I expected him to be. I’m just glad I didn’t gush too much, or melt into a fan-geek mess. So thank you, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, not only for the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular, but for allowing me to meet MY Doctor.

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The Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular runs in Melbourne from 31st January to 1st February before moving to Brisbane on 8th February and Wellington from 21st February to 22nd February.

“The problem with those who try to engineer history is that they can’t appreciate the wonder of sheer happenstance!”

The times, they aren’t a-changing. Whereas for the majority, this year’s plentiful Doctor Who 50th Anniversary audio outings have held the central purpose of expanding the series’ narrative universe rather than engaging in regular bouts of nostalgia, Big Finish’s 1963 trilogy is taking a different approach during the final stages of the countdown. Listeners will find themselves grounded in the inherently familiar (well, at least if they were around to witness the broadcast of An Unearthly Child) this time around, as the production team explore some of the defining elements of the year in which the show premiered.

Fanfare for the Common Men investigates the impact of arguably the most influential group of musical artists in the entirety of the ‘60s. Though for obvious reasons a physical appearance from members of the Fab Four themselves is out of the question, their presence - or rather their absence, such is the premise of the piece - is felt throughout nonetheless. It transpires that as the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa arrive at what should be a Beatles concert in November 1963, an altogether different band have taken their place in history for reasons initially unbeknownst to the world at large.

As a premise, Fanfare’s set-up works magnificently, its opening chapter at the aforementioned gig a startlingly impressive rendition of ‘60s fandom- though this reviewer can’t claim to have been present in the year itself to verify the release’s complete accuracy! If the remainder of Eddie Robson’s storyline succeeded in fulfilling the high expectations the listener will instate after these great initial moments, then as a whole the product could be dubbed an inspired venture. In brutally ironic fashion, however, the crucial setting of the piece itself works notably to its detriment.

One particular trait of the Big Finish range which has struck this reviewer over the past nine months is the impact which a supporting cast ensemble can have on a singular release’s quality. Just as easily as guest stars such as Jo Woodcock and Terry Molloy have elevated Starlight Robbery and Daleks Among Us respectively to the metaphorical Hall of Fame, so too at the same time have the underwhelming guest stars on Destiny of the Doctor releases such as Enemy Aliens served to diminish their chances of entering those same upper echelons of the range. Here, newcomers Mitch Benn, Andrew Knott and David Dobson are each either regularly afforded unoriginal or uninspiring dialogue or simply don’t excel in their performance as much as their predecessors have done in the past.

All is not for nought in this department, though, with the central cast still providing consistent portrayals. Peter Davison remains on top form as his incarnation of the Doctor, this particular version of the character appearing no older than in his last full story in 1984. Sarah Sutton’s Nyssa doesn’t rank among this reviewer’s favourite classic companions, but Sutton puts plenty of enthusiasm and passion into her role here regardless. Without noteworthy performances such as these, the piece would offer far less value in terms of its cast ensemble, a crying shame given the (relative) youth of this new series of adventures.

Of further negative impact is the lack of ambition to be found in the overarching narrative. Although Mark Gatiss’ Victory of the Daleks was met with a mixed critical reception, at the very least Gatiss could be commended for attempting a new spin on the well-tread World War Two (World War Who?) setting. On the other hand, Robson’s plot struggles to innovate, the execution of its premise infuriatingly similar to the manner in which other episodes based around the consequences of time travel and time manipulation have played out. While not a wholly destructive flaw, this failed attempt to fully utilise the period setting of 1963 rather worryingly contradicts the purpose of a range based primarily around that specific period.

Had Fanfare occupied a role within a wider series arc, constrained in some form by additional plot elements beyond its writer’s control (as was the case with Persuasion earlier this year), then its shortcomings could perhaps have been forgiven to an extent. As it is, however, beyond the final release in the 1963 saga likely tying into the 50th Anniversary audio special The Light at the End, there’s virtually no foreseeable connections to be found between this, The Space Race or The Assassination Games. Even a few further homages to the year itself, whether more melancholic (e.g. the JFK assassination) or otherwise wouldn’t have gone amiss, yet surprisingly little attention seems to have been given in this respect either.

Inevitably, then, the standalone nature of the piece enables its caveats to be highlighted fully, and in this case such caveats are as clear as a Yellow Submarine. Fanfare for the Common Men has its moments, but those are limited by its weak supporting cast and mediocre narrative. A benefit to this is of course that subsequent 1963 releases can (ideally) only get better, but it’s troubling when that is the single greatest compliment this drama can attain. In the words of the Fab Four themselves, unless a potential listener knows him or herself to be a Beatles fanatic, then in the case of this sub-par initial outing, they can simply Let It Be.

"You’re saying we’re all about to be Blinovitched!"
Tegan Jovanka, Prisoners of Fate

For a TV program celebrating its 50th anniversary, it is remarkable, although not necessarily surprising, how many great, similar ideas pervade Doctor Who across its other media – print, comic strip or audio drama. Some ingenious concepts and visuals in the spin-offs are often developed quite coincidentally of the TV series (the primary source) but are inevitably trumped by the parent program.

Indeed, as if the parent program doesn’t have enough of its own continuity to draw from, it has since its return in 2005 drawn inspiration from its spin-offs. The recent Season 7 finale The Name of the Doctor repeated some ideas that were first mooted by Virgin Books’ New Adventures range in the 1990s. Paul Cornell adapted his original NA Human Nature into a two-part serial for David Tennant’s Doctor in 2007. Key ideas in some of Big Finish’s audio dramas in the early ‘00s were also “borrowed” by the TV series, notably from Marc Platt’s Cyberman origin tale Spare Parts and Robert Shearman’s Jubilee (the famous cell scene of Dalek – in which the Doctor realises his cellmate is one of the creatures – happened in Jubilee first!).

The latest Doctor Who audio release Prisoners of Fate – if it had been released a year ago - would probably be hailed by fans as a classic of the audio range. It is an intelligent and cleverly thought out story, with some truly brilliant ideas and visuals and a wonderful villain. Unfortunately, coincidence can, to put it crudely, be a “bitch”. I suspect Jonathan Morris conceived of Prisoners of Fate at least a year ago so who couldn’t forgive him for feeling a little miffed that his story and ideas have been trumped by none other than the Season 7 finale?

For the sake of the readers of this review, I will discuss the more obvious aspects of the plot first but warn it is hard to comment on this story without touching on potential spoilers (which I will return to). I can talk more freely about the “B” and “C” plots - even if they are actually presented as the “A” plot in all the publicity for the story and on the CD sleeve. The Doctor and his companions touch down on Valderon after the TARDIS is drawn there by a temporal anomaly. The incongruity appears to be a Chronoscope, which the colony uses to police its society in a manner that is reminiscent of the Philip K Dick short story (and subsequent movie) The Minority Report. The Doctor’s companion Nyssa is also reunited with her son Adric 25 years after she went missing, presumed dead.

While it is not essential, it helps if you have scrubbed up on Jonathan Morris’ earlier BF outing Cobwebs which reunited Nyssa with the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough some 50 years (in her personal timeline) after she first left the TARDIS crew in the TV serial Terminus. The “B” plot, nevertheless, reinforces just how much of an indirect impact the Doctor’s meddling can have on not just the lives of a 15-year old boy but his whole family and the galaxy at large. Not only does the Doctor’s reunion with Nyssa rob her family of their mother but it means she is also not able to provide the crucial antidote to Richter’s Syndrome that she originally sought and discovered in Cobwebs. The effects of the Doctor’s interference are disastrous, with billions across the galaxy having succumbed to the virus. Prisoners of Fate also revisits some of the themes that were touched upon in the TV serial The Angels Take Manhattan and to a lesser degree the preceding BF release The Lady of Mercia – that once the Doctor and his companions arrive in a given time and place, they are at risk of learning about their own futures and becoming ensnared in the web of time.

However, as it becomes clear by the half-way point of the story, the Chronoscope sub-plot, together with the notion of imprisonment on the premeditation of murder, is a red herring. It’s a little disappointing that Morris does not explore this in more depth – however, if he had done so, I suspect it would have been an entirely different story. Similarly, there is the potential for Adric’s experiments on Valderon’s prisoners to alienate him from his mother but that too could also make up another story. As it is, the Nyssa/Adric reunion is also a clever distraction from the raison d’etre.

The true “A” story to Prisoners of Fate features many similarities (at least on a superficial level) to Season 7 finale The Name of the Doctor – most notably that both stories involve a villain from the Doctor’s past who threatens the Time Lord’s very existence (and with it the web of time) and that the key to his survival is one of his companions. There are also some strong, impressive visuals to the story, set on the penal planet Valderon, that also bear an uncanny resemblance to imagery on Trenzalore. More than likely I’ve already said too much and to say any more would be to spoil the listener’s enjoyment of the story on its own merits and independently of The Name of the Doctor.

As we’ve come to expect from Big Finish dramas, the scale and quality of the production is almost flawless. The regulars and the guest cast are very impressive in bringing the story to life. While they comment in the CD extras just how complex this tale is to understand (compared to The Lady of Mercia), Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Mark Strickson through their energetic performances really do anchor this story (and their preceding adventures) in the period of Doctor Who in which it is meant to be set (eg circa 1983-84). The guest cast are also very competent performers, even though their characters are mostly one-dimensional, a case in point being Sarah Douglas’ Prime Elector Sybor. However, as I’ve mentioned, not everything in this story is as obvious as it seems and Douglas clearly relishes the opportunity to play the story’s true villain (as do Fielding and Strickson briefly as well).

The sound effects and incidental music in Prisoners of Fate also deserve a special mention, especially the score by Fool Circle Productions. The use of haunting choral music really conveys the sense that you are (along with Tegan and Turlough at one point) visiting a haunted medieval castle and there is also a lovely homage to Nyssa, reprising Roger Limb’s theme for the character from the TV series. It’s great to hear a suite of all this music at the end of disc one.

The problem with such an enjoyable story like this is that the bar is raised so high that the conclusion is always going to be on a hiding to nothing. The seemingly all too convenient climax is my only gripe with the tale (again I can’t risk spoilers!) but I personally like the melancholic twist in the resolution between Nyssa and her son.

Prisoners of Fate is, fittingly in Doctor Who’s golden anniversary year, virtually an unofficial anniversary story. Like The Name of the Doctor, it celebrates Doctor Who’s past and present while also challenging fans’ established knowledge with a curved ball hitherto unknown (even the villain’s name seems to inadvertently symbolise the anniversary). However, as I’ve mentioned, its impact has been diluted by the historic events of Doctor Who’s recent TV finale. It may be some time before Prisoners of Fate emerges into the limelight to be evaluated as an outstanding story in its own right.

Postscript and Spoiler Alert: If you aren’t overly bothered by the threat of spoilers, I will give out one, final cryptic hint – an alternative title for this story could be “The Doctor’s Other Wife”!

"Buck up, Bleaky! You’ve always wanted to see history up close, haven’t you?"
"Not this close – not actually taking part! I never wanted to be locked up and sleeping in filth and dressing up ..."
"Tough – because that’s what time travel is like!"
Tegan Jovanka and Professor John Bleak, The Lady of Mercia

It’s well known that part of Doctor Who's brief as a children’s program back in the Sixties was to educate as well as entertain. Hence, the rationale for the historical serials, where the only fantasy elements were the TARDIS and her crew. The time travellers would visit what the modern TV series now describes as "fixed points" in history, powerless to influence or change specific events but often having to extricate themselves from the politics and petty rivalries of the age.

The tone of many historicals in the Hartnell era was quite earnest, even adult (eg The Aztecs, The Crusade, The Massacre) while others were more humorous in style (The Romans, The Myth Makers, The Gunfighters), although never at the expense of the drama – the Doctor and his companions were often still walking a fine line between safety and danger.

Of course, with some notable exceptions (The Highlanders in the Troughton era and Black Orchid even later in the Davison era), the historical drama was dispensed with after Hartnell’s time, largely because young fans preferred the SF/fantasy element. Big Finish has since its inception revisited the historical format quite frequently and successfully, spanning all of its Doctors, from Tom Baker through to Paul McGann.

Peter Davison’s Doctor has had his fair share of historicals (eg The Eye of the Scorpion, The Council of Nicea, The Church and the Crown, The Kingmaker), most of which were tongue in cheek affairs. The Lady of Mercia continues that vein. Structurally the tale is different from some of the other BF historical dramas (and particularly the 1960s TV historical serials) in that it is as much a time travel story as an historical. It starts unassumingly at a 1980s university, where DIY time travel experiments are occurring in the physics department, a conference about mediaeval queens is about to commence and unruly students are, as one academic character describes it, “revolting” (as much in character, as in vociferious protests!).

Indeed, based on the above description, The Lady of Mercia initially has all the ingredients of a Douglas Adams script, even down to the jibes about students and undergraduates. Certainly, writer Paul Magrs seems to channel Adams a lot in the narrative. When a warrior princess is inadvertently brought into the present and disrupts the opening drinks session at the conference, it seems a little coincidental that a female French academic perceives the princess to be part of the performance, much as the two art critics in the Louvre in City of Death perceive the dematerialisation of the TARDIS to be part of the art. Some of the supporting characters from the university are very flawed in an Adams-esque way too. There is a married couple in the story – an historian and a physics scientist - who have both been engaged in extra-marital affairs. One of these trysts is with a student who is leading the protest against the very same physics department that his lover works for!

However, once the story’s time travel element comes to the fore, The Lady of Mercia gradually morphs from an Adams-esque comedy into a serious historical adventure. Tegan finds herself swept back in time and, despite her best efforts, caught up in the intrigue and politics of 10th century Mercia. Indeed, on three occasions she ends up pretending to be someone she isn’t, initially posing as a "world-renowned" Australian academic historian in 1983, as a princess in England in the Dark Ages and ... well, the third would be a spoiler but insofar as the humour of the story goes, it’s a masterstroke for her bossy character!

Of course, like the Hartnell historical serials, the TARDIS crew, including Tegan, are powerless to stop the natural course of events, despite the sympathies they have for the characters they meet (notably the mediaeval Queen Æthelfrid and her daughter Princess Ælfwynn). And it is in the climax that Magrs is not imaginative enough and overall delivers a fairly dull, disappointing script. If you’re going to create a “warts and all” impression of a historical time, society and place – and Magrs portrays the political situation and the dramatis personae in 10th century Mercia extremely well – then you also need to rock the TARDIS crew to its very core (and through them the listener as well).

I’ve always been struck by the conclusions to other Doctor Who historical tales whereby something tragic happens to a supporting character that you grow to love and respect – if only to reinforce to the companions what an omnipotent , unforgiving mistress history is and how dangerous time travel can be. It happens in Sanctuary (Virgin NA, 1995), The Shadow in the Glass (BBC Books, 2001), World Game (BBC Books, 2005), Doctor Who and the Pirates! (BF, 2003), and even Earthshock (in which, of course, Adric’s demise was part of the web of time). The Lady of Mercia would have benefitted enormously from a similar approach but sadly it peters out to a fairly predictable, lacklustre conclusion. Even then, none of Magrs’ characters – especially the academic characters - are sympathetic enough for the listener to feel any grief if one of them is lost.

Despite the script’s flaws, the production meets Big Finish’s usually high standards and the performances from the cast make the story a lot livelier and entertaining than it truly is on paper. The regulars – Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Mark Strickson – have all commented that they enjoyed the script because it wasn’t overly complicated, although I don’t feel it necessarily does their characters justice. Janet Fielding is wonderfully ballsy as Tegan and relishes playing the part in a more regal, swashbuckling style but the same cannot be said of her fellow travellers. Nyssa is reduced to the archetypal companion, asking the Doctor the usual questions, while Turlough is the teaboy (much to his disgust) at one point and brawls with an undergraduate for comic effect at another ("I’ll tell you what, posh boy, I’ve made a right Eton mess of your nose!" "It’s Brendon, you cretin! Brendon!"). And Mark Strickson used to complain that all too often in his TV series days Turlough would spend too much time in various states of captivity! I’m not sure Turlough’s lot in The Lady of Mercia is much of an improvement.

The other performances from the guest cast are all competent, with four of the actors convincingly taking on dual roles in both time periods. Although the mediaeval accents are very clichéd (evoking for me shades of Games of Thrones!), the fact that guest star Kieren Bew can sound so different as the menacing Dane knight Arthur Kettleson compared to his whining contemporary part as Barry shows just how talented Big Finish’s performers are.

While The Lady of Mercia is not your run of the mill historical, its premise is too lightweight for a full fledged two hour drama. The titular character’s real story has been mostly lost to history and legend and while Magrs offers a plausible interpretation of how events may have played out, it is not “meaty” enough to have warranted a full cast audio drama. Is it any wonder Magrs includes a time travel sub-plot and injects plenty of humour into the script as filler? This story would have fared better as a 60-minute Companion Chronicle, told from Tegan’s point of view, with much of the university/time travel sub-plots jettisoned. In that format, The Lady of Mercia would have been a more compelling story, particularly if narrated by Janet Fielding who would have given it a great stand alone performance.