I, Kamelion

Interludes #1

Released: 4 January 2022

Listened: 8/7/22

This is the first of the Big Finish “Interludes,” which seem to be kind of a replacement for the Subscriber Short Trips. They appear with some of the boxed sets, and (so far) feature the same Doctor as the boxed set they come with. They’re done audio-book style, with a single narrator, but in this case, that’s Dan Starkey, who’s pretty versatile on the voice front. It’s the first Big Finish story written by Dominic G. Martin, and it finally gives Kamelion something heroic to do. It’s been a while in chronological order since “The Kamelion Empire,” but picks up from there with Kamelion’s wish to be forgotten. The Doctor and Turlough are mostly abiding by it, but when Kamelion malfunctions, they bring him out for repairs on a high-tech planet, which is where the trouble starts. There’s some standard “evil corporation wants to take over the world with tech” story going on, but the key point is that Kamelion gets stuck in an organic body, and has to deal with the ramifications. Starkey does a pretty good Fifth Doctor, sounding slightly breathless all the time, and a decent Turlough as well. However, they’re not in very much of the story, in favor of Kamelion, which seems appropriate. It doesn’t break anything about his established history, and has a sad ending, which also seems fitting.