Trail of the White Worm

Fourth Doctor Adventures #1.5

Released: May 2012

Listened: 2/28/22

Since the only Master who Big Finish had access to in 2012 was Geoffrey Beevers, they mostly didn’t use him, but if they’re going to do a Fourth Doctor series, he’s fair game. He seems to have recovered a bit from the events of “The Deadly Assassin,” so he’s a little more physically capable, but this version of the Master is more cruel and less suave than the Delgado or Ainley versions. This story is set in a contemporary time to where it would have fallen in the classic series, although it’s set in Derbyshire, so the values are a little old-fashioned. And that’s what it appears to be at first: a murder mystery in the country, with legends of a monster, and a couple of eccentric figures for the Doctor and Leela to bounce off of. Except it’s not that at all. There is a monster, the titular White Worm, but it’s not monstrous. The Lord of the Manor isn’t just eccentric; he chases Leela around with a tank. And on top of all that, the Master is here, with a typically convoluted plan. Because this is the first half of a two-part story, it gets more time to breathe, which really just means the Doctor and Leela are separated, and spend a fair amount of time running around on their own. The oddly named Demesne Furze is played by Rachael Stirling, known as the daughter of Dame Diana Rigg, both of whom appeared in “The Crimson Horror” in the new series not long after this. However, I wouldn’t get used to any of the characters from this story, as they won’t stick around.