Companion Piece

Ravenous 3.2

Released: 9 April 2019

Listened: 12/26/21

The last story had the Doctor and his TARDIS hijacked by the Eleven, leaving Liv and Helen stranded on the research station. So it’s a perfect time to go find out what happened to the Nine or River after “The Crucible of Souls,” several boxed sets ago. Weren’t wondering about that? Well, you’re going to find out, and because it’s John Dorney, you’re going to be entertained. It seems that the Nine, in addition to being a kleptomaniac, is also obsessive-compulsive, and he’s taken it into his head to “collect” all the Doctor’s companions, with River feeding him info to snag them. After he catches Liv and Helen, we see he’s got Jamie, Jo, Leela, Romana, and Adric, as well as someone named Margaret (who won’t appear until “The Ravencliff Witch,” released three years later). Liv and Helen are put in cells next to Charley, although Charley keeps being moved between Corridor 8 and Corridor 6, because the Nine is a stickler for accuracy on top of everything else. By this time, in production order, Rakhee Thakrar had been introduced as Bliss in the Time War stories, so River sends the Nine after her, but the Time War hasn’t happened yet, so she hasn’t met the Doctor, and she’s pretty confused about the whole thing. However, she’s pretty game to help Liv, Helen, and Charley, because they’re all capable people in their own rights. River’s been steering the Nine in specific directions to round up the companions with specific skills for a rescue. Which sounds like it would be awesome, but the plan goes awry and it’s only Charlie, Liv, Helen, and Bliss who get to work together. So while it’s fun hearing Charlie again, all the others are “current” companions, which is a bit less fun. There’s also a small but critical role played by an entirely unexpected companion, which is cool if you’ve heard certain other Big Finish stories. It’s quite good for a Doctor-lite story.