The Green Man

Second Doctor Adventures #2.2

Released: 25 July 2023

Listened: 9/6/23

Now that we’ve got Jamie, he and the Doctor can go off having Series 6B-type adventures, which they do in a montage sequence that includes the Third Doctor story “The Annihilators,” but also leaves plenty of room for other stories. It’s pretty clear that Raven isn’t to be trusted, and although the Doctor thinks she works for the CIA, I have my doubts. When Jamie complains about wanting a break, she sends them to a health resort called “The Grove,” with a bit of a mission to retrieve a missing Time Lord. Of course, there’s all sorts of trouble, and nothing is what it seems. The Doctor and Jamie get to work their double-act of pretending to be stupid while actually doing something else altogether. Jamie ends up doing a lot of the physical work, as the Doctor is confined to a wheelchair as part of their cover story. In fact, Jamie seems to be asked to do a lot, for someone of his age, who only had access to 18th Century health care for most of his life. It’s probably better to think of him not as the Jamie on the cover (Frazer Hines’ age at the time of recording), but rather as the 40-ish Jamie of “The Two Doctors.” Newish writer Paul F Verhoeven intended this story to be an homage to Rear Window, which is pretty clear, but it’s not long enough to have more than surface similarities. In fact, the story as a whole seems rather short. It starts at a sedate pace, fitting for its era and the Rear Window reference, but it feels like it skips Act 2 and goes right to the climax. A lot of the early-Doctor stories try to capture the feel of the original stories, and so feel padded. It’s pretty rare for one to feel too short.