The Tactics of Defeat

Companion Chronicles #12.4

Released: 20 June 2018

Listened: 10/23/20

This one is quite unusual, in that it’s not really a Companion Chronicle at all. It’s told by Captain Ruth Matheson, played by Daphne Ashbrook (Grace Holloway), and in the present tense, but her colleague Charlie Sato isn’t present. There’s no narration, for one thing, and the first half of the story is just Ruth verbally sparring with a bad guy played by Matthew Brenher, using an Australian accent, so there are no proper English accents for the first half-hour. Wendy Padbury plays Zoe, but the Doctor and Jamie are taken out of action almost immediately, presumably to give Frazer Hines a break, because he was already in the other three stories in this boxed set. The story ties more to Ruth’s other Big Finish appearances (even a Short Trip) than it does to anything Zoe’s done; she just happens to be the one here for this part. It’s a somewhat twisty story, fitting for one set in a Mayan temple, but how much you enjoy it depends on whether you want a Second Doctor story or a modern-series-ish story.