1963: The Assassination Games

Main Range #180

Released: 15 November 2013

Listened: 11/8/20

This project has been ramping up slowly into Ace’s era, with a handful of short trips among the TV stories, but this is the first Main Range story for Ace in the project. This story is also the final part of the 50th anniversary trilogy of Main Range stories with the “1963” banner, which are unrelated except for taking place around the same time. It also features the Counter-Measures group, consisting of Group Captain Ian Gilmore, Professor Rachel Jensen, and Allison Williams from “Remembrance of the Daleks,” joined by Sir Toby Kinsella. This story is said to take place on November 30, so if “Remembrance” took place on November 23 (which is uncertain, for a variety of reasons), it’s only been a week since they’ve seen the Doctor and Ace, although they act like it’s been longer. Big Finish introduced their Counter-Measures spin-off in 2012, but this story takes place before those events, as Rachel and Allison haven’t fully joined the team yet. With all that going on, the Doctor is in full manipulative mode, having spent months gaining a seat as a member of Parliament, and then serving for some time, with Ace likewise undercover. Ace is in pre-Season 26 mode, very loud, excited, and eager to blow things up. As for the plot itself, it’s very political, with the government developing a new nuclear weapon, anti-nuke groups potentially turning violent, and politicians being ensnared in sex scandals. It’s written by John Dorney, so it’s a pretty complicated story, but not particularly timey-wimey. It does introduce a secretive organization called The Light, which the Doctor indicates will be a problem for him in the future, but they’ve only turned up again in a couple of Counter-Measures stories, so I guess the Doctor took care of them off-screen. It’s tough to beat “Fanfare for the Common Men” from this trilogy, but this one is probably second, and really, all three of them are quite strong.