A Thousand Tiny Wings

Main Range #130

Released: 21 January 2010

Listened: 3/7/21

We’re going back a ways in Big Finish production order, to a time when trilogies, or linking the plots between the trilogies, were a relatively new idea. In this case, there are three stories with Elizabeth Klein, the Nazi scientist from “Colditz.” Trapped in the 1940s of an unfamiliar history (to her) after that episode, she followed many other Nazis to South America, and then went to Kenya in the 1950s. In her history, she’d been in charge of investigating a disease that appeared in Kenya around that time, and she sees this as a second chance to get it right. However, in this history, the Mau Mau Uprising is occurring, putting her in danger. She’s holed up at a country house with some British expatriates (mostly wives of officers) when the Doctor shows up. It’s not that straightforward, though, as there’s at least two different aliens in the jungle, and the disease she’s investigating turns out to be extraterrestrial. The key element of the story isn’t really the disease or the aliens or the uprising, but rather Klein’s interactions with the Doctor. She’s entirely unapologetic for her Nazi views and her attempts to change history. She also doesn’t back down in the face of the Doctor’s indignation, of which he has plenty. That said, each recognizes that the other has decent scientific skills. In the end, the Doctor decides he can’t leave Klein on her own, and takes her on as a hostile companion, in the hopes of showing her that there’s more out there than she’s imagined. The story consists of mostly women, all of whom are nicely differentiated, and they brought in Lisa Bowerman to direct as well, in a rare Main Range outing. The history and characterization are strong, and the alien is a high concept we haven’t seen before, and probably deserved more exploring than it got. Given its intensity, I think this is a good story.