Doctor Who: The First Doctor Adventures: Fugitive of the Daleks from Big Finish Review

When we last heard from the First Doctor at the end of The Incherton Incident he vanishes and leaves Dodo alone in the TARDIS so it’s strange that when this story opens, the TARDIS arrives in ancient Carthage where his former companion Vikki finds her friend in a bad way.

The story wastes no time in kicking things off with Vikki and the injured Doctor seeking aid at a space station and then fleeing across time and space from the Daleks. Fans of The Chase will see the similarities between the two stories and might even see the big twist in the middle of the story coming a mile away, but author Jonathan Morris makes sure that things are necessarily what they seem.

With the first three episodes feeling similar to the cosmic run-around that we got in The Chase and getting to visit different periods throughout history, things soon settle down and begin to wrap up the plot threads left by the previous box set.

Maureen O’Brien steps up to the plate as the lead actor in this set perfectly. She’s still the same feisty Vikki who travelled with the Doctor in the 1960s but she is enjoying getting to play the older version of the character we saw in the trailer for the Series 2 boxset. She brings an air of maturity to the role and that adds to the story which could have easily felt like a fanfic otherwise. She also has great chemistry with Stephen Noonan the First Doctor. I’ve taken a bit of time to get used to Noonan as the Doctor but this story helped settle something for me.

My issue with his take on the Doctor isn’t with him, it’s the writing which – in trying to be more realistic to how Hartnell performed it originally – gives him plenty of fluffs. However, these fluffs aren’t a part of the character of the Doctor as much as they were a result of Hartnell’s growing ill-health. It kind of feels a little insulting to William Hartnell here that they are still included as I doubt they were something he wanted to include as the Doctor when he first took on the role.

Dodo has also been treated to something of a renaissance of late. I think it’s safe to say that she isn’t the greatest companion the Doctor has ever had but she does have a few cool moments. Sadly, the original actress Jackie Lane had such a bad experience with the production team in the 60s that she refused to ever come back in any shape or form and so following her passing a few years ago, it now falls to actress Lauren Cornelius to take up the reigns. She has proven to be delightfully bolshy as Dodo over the last few ranges and even though she doesn’t appear here until the third act, her shadow looms large over proceedings as Vikki has to figure out what has gone on since she left.

Fugitive of the Daleks is a fun listen if a little all-over-the-show in the first act before feeling a little more coherent towards the end. Luckily though Morris keeps things from feeling too much like a retread of The Chase and Vikki feels like an essential inclusion to the plot rather than just something added in because the production team could. But there are some great ideas and concepts on offer here and it works as a fantastic tribute to the First Doctor’s era as a whole.

You can pick up Doctor Who: The First Doctor Adventures: Fugitive of the Daleks from Big Finish on both digital and CD now.