Klein's Story

Main Range #131

Released: 18 February 2010

Listened: 3/8/21

At this point in Big Finish’s history, they were fond of “3+1” releases, a three-part story followed by a one-part story. Normally, the one-parter is on the end of the disc and formed kind of a coda. In this case, the one-parter comes first, but comes immediately after “A Thousand Tiny Wings.” The Doctor is ready to leave, and acknowledges that he doesn’t like or trust Klein, but he feels he has to bring her along. So he prevails upon her to explain how she got to Colditz in 1944 in the first place. In the version Klein lived, Ace was executed in 1944, the Doctor escaped to 1955 to try to fix things, but was killed and the TARDIS captured. Except the Doctor’s body vanished, after which a mysterious man calling himself “Johann Schmidt” turns up and helps with Klein’s researches...and he’s played by Paul McGann. That makes for a pretty nice twist; normally when an “outside” Doctor turns up for a cameo in a story, it’s just hinted at, rather than bringing the actor in to play the part. When Klein figures out who’s really responsible for her being a remnant of an aborted timeline, she gets pretty cold, but immediately covers it, something the Doctor really should have noticed.