The Plague of Dreams

Companion Chronicles #11.4

Released: 15 June 2017

Listened: 3/6/20

This is another by Guy Adams, and it’s quite metatextual. We get an explanation of both the TARDIS getting diverted back in “The Bonfires of the Vanities,” and of the small time-glitches that have been happening throughout this boxed set. The Time War has come for the First Doctor, with his enemies trying to divert his timeline early in life. Another Time Lord is sent to try to put him back on track, except they can’t really talk about Time Lords or the Time War, so it’s all veiled. There are more references to the Doctor being weakened and his time running out. There’s yet another contrivance to let the Doctor speak with Polly’s voice, explaining Anneke Wills’ interpretation. The story itself revolves around a “psycho-active virus,” which basically means dreams coming to life, and the characters having to embrace the “power of stories” to avert the problem. Which means it’s a story about stories, and that’s more important than the plot itself. It’s a rather short recording, but if you hang around through the extras, you can hear the trailer for this box set, which explains the timey-wimey. This is the last Big Finish appearance of Polly and Ben in this part of the chronology, as it leads directly to “The Tenth Planet,” for real this time, but they’ll be back in the next era.