The Haunting of Thomas Brewster

Main Range #107

Released: 30 April 2008

Listened: 12/21/19

This story introduces semi-companion Thomas Brewster. As with many stories in Victorian London, it’s fairly dark, and the haunting use of “Oranges and Lemons” will make it more of an earworm than it already is. It’s also got a lot of time travel and paradoxes in it, showing a fairly clear influence of the new TV series. Brewster himself is both sympathetic and entirely untrustworthy, an interesting combination for a companion, and perfectly suited to take advantage of the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa, who are both fairly trusting, especially without Tegan or Turlough nearby to be more skeptical. At the end, Brewster steals the TARDIS and leaves, creating a rare cross-story cliffhanger, or at least rare for this era of Big Finish.