The Auton Infinity

Forty #2

Released: 7 September 2022

Listened: 1/7/22

This story, which makes up the whole of the second “Forty” boxed set, is one bumper-sized six-parter. Except this time-lost version of the Doctor isn’t really the focus this time, and in fact doesn’t appear until part 3. Which makes this story a bit tricky to describe for this project. This Doctor is still bouncing through time, and ends up much, much later in his tenure, shortly after “Frontios.” He drops in on an adventure on Earth in the 80s, when he, Tegan, and Turlough accidentally crash a UNIT training exercise with the Brigadier as an observer. An awful lot goes on that’s fairly spoilery, but we get the origin of the Autons (maybe), two different Doctors, and the Master trying to interfere as always. John Culshaw stars as…lots of folks: the Brigadier, the Master, and Kameleon. As an anniversary story, the whole sequence is a bit confused, as it can’t really change anything we know about the Doctor’s history, nor can it be a fun reunion-type story, because of Adric. I’ll have to call it a good try, and leave it at that.