London Orbital

Sullivan & Cross: AWOL #1

Released: 8 November 2022

Listened: 1/21/23

This gets a bit complicated: At some point, the Fourth Doctor reunited with Harry Sullivan, and picked up Naomi Cross. They had some adventures, and then he thought he put them back where they came from, except he actually dropped them in the 2010s. Except as of this writing, those stories haven’t been released yet. But that doesn’t stop Big Finish from using characters they like, and given the dates, Harry and Naomi have appeared in some modern UNIT stories already. In this story, though, they’re feeling a bit forgotten, working on “crank file” reports. One of them reminds Harry of something odd that happened to him just before he joined UNIT (so right before “Kaleidoscope,” from his point of view), so he and Naomi go off to investigate. Along the way, they run into the Seventh Doctor, who’s alone at the moment. Unlike a lot of his solo stories, though, he’s not expressing much regret for past actions. In fact, he seems pretty jovial, cracking jokes from time to time, as well as dropping in meta references to Lord of the Rings. He is, however, at his most enigmatic, especially because the story involves elves and magic. Specifically, two groups of warring elves from another dimension where magic is science, and who’ve slipped into London through a dimensional crack. The Seventh Doctor in particular loves being cryptic about mystical stuff (unlike other Doctors who are irritated or dismissive), and intervening in an elvish civil war is right up his street. However, the story belongs mostly to Harry and Naomi; the Doctor barely appears in the first half. This is a John Dorney story, but indulging in his enjoyment of fantasy more than his usual time-twisting stories. The elvish politics has a twist, but unfortunately, it’s not too difficult to figure out, as it’s a pretty common trope. Ultimately, this is more about establishing Harry and Naomi than anything else, but if your brain can supply some Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones style visuals, you’ll probably have a good time.