The Crimes of Thomas Brewster

Main Range #143

Released: January 2011

Listened: 6/24/20

There’s a bunch of stuff going on in this one. It was the first story recorded with Evelyn in a while, and the first and only set recorded with her after Big Finish switched the Main Range to mostly feature trilogies. It also featured the return of Thomas Brewster, last seen during the Fifth Doctor’s era. On top of that, it has the return of D.I. Patricia Menzies, who had encountered the Sixth Doctor several times before in her timeline (and Big Finish release order), but this is their first meeting from the Doctor’s point of view. On top of all that, this is the first appearance of Philippa “Flip” Jackson, who will eventually become a companion to the Sixth Doctor, and her boyfriend Jared Ramon, but in this story, they’re just minor characters. Plus David Troughton appears in a minor role. There’s also a bit where Menzies pretends to be the Doctor, and various characters react to the idea that the Doctor could be a woman. The pacing in this story is very frantic, starting in media res and never really letting up. It definitely shows the influence of the modern series on the Main Range, more than previous Evelyn stories. As for the plot, you wouldn’t think there’d be any room for it, and there isn’t a ton, but as usual, Brewster is doing some very shady things for what appears to be the right reasons. His happy ending from “A Perfect World” is lost to him, and he’s engaging in reckless behavior as a result. There’s some hive-mind aliens, and a question of whether it’s appropriate to sacrifice one planet to save another. Brewster ends up tagging along with the Doctor and Evelyn, although he’s finding the Sixth Doctor to be rather less tolerant of him than the Fifth was.