Doctor Who: Classic Doctors, New Monsters: Faithful Friends from Big Finish Review

With the appearence of the Fugitive Doctor in Most Wanted, Classic Doctors, New Monsters: Faithful Friends includes the first appearence of a Thirteenth Doctor creature, the Lupari who played a big part of Flux and marks the first time the Doctor would encounter them.

This set also brings back Ray, the could have been companion from the Seventh Doctor story, Delta and the Bannermen as a full time companion, though we’ll have to wait a little longer to hear their first full adventure together.

Tim Foley’s The Dying Breed which sees the Fourth Doctor, Leela and K-9 arrive on the Lupari home world and they soon find themselves up against the wrath of the Great Lord’s Daughter. Foley wastes no time in throwing us into the story and its a fairly standard affair but he does go to a great deal to explore the Lupari culture.

Leela and K-9 work brilliantly in this story, and Louise Jameson and John Leeson step up to the plate as they both get great material. It’s so fun to hear K-9 being worshipped because he is a dog and clearly loving every minute of it! And Leela gets paired with Kira, the daughter of the Great Lord, who really doesn’t like her.

It’s a shame that the story feels a little sluggish, though, and even the appearance of Miriam Margolyes as a Lupari Soothsayer can’t save the day. I said above it’s a standard affair, and I think that’s the best way of describing The Dying Breed. This is far from Foley’s best script, but as a first appearance of the Lupari, it’s a lot of fun, and the cast seems to be having a ball.

John Dorney’s The Krillitane Feint works as a really tense base-under-siege story for the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. Actually, the first story of this set works brilliantly paired with the third story of the set, The Krillitane Relic, which sees the Seventh Doctor and Ray, reunited in a yet unreleased set after Delta and the Bannermen. Feint is tense and claustrophobic, and Dorney manages to really give the sense that things are going to go wrong at any given moment and shows how well the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe work together.

The twist won’t come as a surprise to anyone if they have been paying attention and have some knowledge of the Krillitane’s from School Reunion, however, that doesn’t undermine how powerful the twist is. What I also liked was how this story explored how the Doctor (or is it?) can always bring out the best in people.

The Krillitane Relic sees Sylvester McCoy getting to reunite with Wendy Padbury’s Zoe, and their interactions are definitely the highlight of the story. They give us delightfully wistful performances, with the Doctor still haunted by their treatment from the Time Lords at the end of The War Games. Sara Griffiths is brilliant as Ray, too, and it’s brilliant to hear she is coming back properly as a companion.

Here, though, she doesn’t get much to do, and while I like Big Finish occasionally introducing new companions a little out of order, it’s a shame that, as this is her first story, she doesn’t get much to do. But then they did the same thing with the Sixth Doctor’s companions Flip Jackson and Constance Clarke, and they went on to be one of the best Doctor and Companion teams, so I’m looking forward to hearing more from them!

Wrapping the series up is Tim Foley’s other script for the set, Five Hundred Ways to Leave Your Lover, which sees the Eighth Doctor having to save his boyfriend and the pair facing off against the Twelfth Doctor villain, The Monks. Now I’ll be honest, the Monk trilogy is hardly the most dazzling of Capaldi escapades, but hearing the Eighth Doctor in a rom-com set across a number of weird and wonderful locations trying to save his boyfriend Chris, the Monks do feel a little surplus to requirements.

Much like their television appearance, they don’t get to do much but stand in the shadows and be a little menacing, but they don’t bring much threat to the proceedings. The highlights of this story are Paul McGann and Charlie Condou as the Doctor and Chris, who have a lot of brilliant chemistry, and it’s a shame that Chris doesn’t get to go off with the Doctor at the end for his own series of adventures.

It’s good then that the two leads manage to hold things together because there really isn’t a lot to do with the Monks who really were a one trick villain after their initial appearence in Extremis. And given what happens to them in that television story, it won’t come as a surprise to find out how they are treated and what they are up to now.

Faithful Friends is a very successful entry into the Classic Doctors, New Monsters series mixing a tense base-under-siege tale, alien worlds and Rom-Coms together in a set which offers a lot for various listeners. And while it might not have been as good as some of the other entries in the range, it sure is a lot of fun and and that end of the day, that’s all you really want with Doctor Who!

Doctor Who: Classic Doctors New Monsters 5: Faithful Friends is available on CD and digital download now from Big Finish.