The Burning Prince

Main Range #165

Released: 19 September 2012

Listened: 2/1/20

This is one of Big Finish’s “multi-Doctor trilogy” entries, in which a single story crosses between the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors, who all operate without companions. Which means for the Fifth Doctor, it takes place as he’s trying to get back to Amsterdam, but he ponders taking a more scenic route until he can come to terms with having Tegan back on board. The story is by John Dorney, but it’s one of his earlier stories, so perhaps not quite as twisty as you’d expect. It’s a story of politics, war, and a royal wedding that’s supposed to solve everything, but in typical Fifth Doctor fashion, it doesn’t, there are betrayals galore, and everybody ends up dead. Oddly, the legitimate monsters, the Igriss, don’t seem to figure all that much, except being a generalized threat for much of the story, and the “burning” aspect of the burning prince doesn’t seem particularly relevant, although there’s hints that it could become important in the next story. The Doctor is written as particularly snarky in this one; perhaps he gets that way when Tegan’s not around. It’s a decent enough solo story, but as always with these trilogies, probably best listened to together, which I’m not doing in this project.