Last of the Romanovs

First Doctor Adventures #4.2

Released: 18 March 2020

Listened: 3/24/20

This is the true historical for this boxed set, and as you might expect from the title, it’s a grim one. The TARDIS lands in Russia in 1918, right outside the palace where the Romanovs are being held, because of course it does. To their credit, as soon as the Doctor and company realize where they are, they immediately want to leave, but of course it’s too late. In a twist, Ian and the Doctor are merely sent to hard labor, but the women end up caught in a British plot to smuggle the Romanovs out of Russia. Interestingly, Susan is displaying a much broader independent streak, which fits with “Tick-Tock World,” but wasn’t much in evidence in “Return to Skaro.” The plot itself has the characters wandering around, trying not to get killed, and bumping into the Romanovs, but a number of the secondary characters are not what they seem. In the background, though, there’s some “Aztecs”-like discussion of what can and can’t be changed, with the Doctor invoking “fixed points” quite deliberately. In the end, though, he seems to be questioning just how fixed they actually are, putting a new-series tinge on everything.