The Founding Fathers

Companion Chronicles #9.3

Released: 3 June 2015

Listened: 2/6/20

This story is a shorter-form Companion Chronicle, but unlike many of the others, the frame story is almost as important as the flashback, and the frame story forms a sequel to the frame story of “The War to End All Wars,” which comes much later in this project, and unusually, that later frame story really is required listening for this one. The story continues into “The Locked Room,” which takes place at the end of this era. Turning to the flashback story itself, well, I’m a Philadelphian, so any story involving Benjamin Franklin and the Penn family will have some personal appeal for me. Knowing what I know about Franklin’s history, I think the story treats him fairly. It also has a trick for forcing the travelers to stick around that I haven’t seen anywhere else -- the Doctor locks himself out of the TARDIS accidentally. How you get from that to Franklin is kind of a stretch, but there’s a strong implication that the Doctor is manipulating events so that he can meet Franklin. Because this is a Companion Chronicle, Peter Purves plays Steven, the Doctor (fairly well), and Franklin...somewhat less well. He’s clearly aiming for a generic American accent, which probably isn’t accurate, but it’s reasonable for Steven telling a story. Alice Haig does a decent job playing Vicki, but she doesn't have a lot of lines. The story itself has some decent misdirection, but it’s a bit slight.