Shield of the Jötunn

Main Range #206

Released: 16 November 2015

Listened: 8/29/20

There are a couple of firsts in this story: Louise Jameson, who commonly plays Leela, is the director, and comics writer Ian Edgington makes his debut as a writer. The Doctor and Constance end up in Arizona, 2029, in a rather unlikely Viking burial mound. The Vikings journeyed there to bury a bit of alien technology that lets “frost demons” travel to Earth. There’s a feel of “innocent displaced aliens in need of help,” but that doesn’t actually last very long. This story has a distinctly different feel, with each episode having its own tone, but it zips along rather well for what’s essentially a base-under-siege story. The Doctor in particular is somewhat more verbally adroit than he has been recently, and doesn’t display quite as much concern for Constance’s safety as he does elsewhere. For her part, Constance is even more capable and cool under pressure than she has been, although she displays some curiosity at being in her own future. All the characters other than the Doctor and Constance are American, and played by actual Americans, but they all have that slight over-enunciation that Americans in Big Finish usually have. The ending is a bit overly convenient, but that’s often the case. The difference in tone makes for a nice contrast as Constance wraps up her first trilogy.