The Home Guard

Early Adventures #6.1

Released: 13 November 2019

Listened: 9/25/20

This is one of those “everything you know is wrong” stories, where the crew are living in an English countryside village, in a nation that’s at war, with plenty of “pull together” spirit, but it’s later than WWII, judging by the level of technology. Of course, the Master is involved (not a spoiler; he’s on the cover), which means nothing is what it seems. How long that goes on, and how they come back to reality, are both somewhat unexpected, though. In fact, the remainder of the story, and the outside threat, is somewhat underplayed, but the focus is on the interplay between the characters. Ben has more spotlight than usual in this story, as he’s something of an idea person. There’s clearly something going on between him and Polly, but it’s still unspoken as yet. This is the final appearance of Elliot Chapman as Ben for Big Finish, as the actor said he did not want to play Ben in more stories than Michael Craze did, out of respect. The Doctor has slightly less to do than in other Early Adventures, due to the nature of the story. James Dreyfus returns as the Master, having appeared in “The Destination Wars” with the (recast) First Doctor team, and once again seems to be playing a slightly less polished version of the Roger Delgado Master, which works pretty well for the story. The atmosphere makes this one nicely memorable.