Thicker Than Water

Main Range #73

Released: September 2005

Listened: 9/14/20

In Big Finish, the Sixth Doctor never seems able to escape his own past, and keeps revisiting the fates of his companions. Here, close to the end of his tenure, he does it one more time, with Evelyn. The Doctor seems to have backslid a bit in his personal growth, and Mel is becoming irritated with him, so the Doctor decides to introduce her to Evelyn. It’s been about three years on Vilag since “Arrangements for War,” Evelyn has married Rossiter, who is now one of the leaders of a united planet, and she’s taken up a political post herself, working with groups researching all the alien debris left behind from the invasion. She’s also had a medical procedure to help her heart condition, and while it worked, she’s been more angry and short-tempered ever since. She also fails spectacularly to get along with Rossiter’s daughter Sophia, who opposes the research efforts. When Evelyn is kidnapped after a big speech, Sophia’s the likely culprit, but she doesn’t act like it. The Doctor and Rossiter investigate from another direction, and uncover a story that’s satisfying in how it resolves, even though there’s not a lot of suspense about who the bad guy is. The story also features flashbacks to Evelyn’s departure from the Doctor (he doesn’t handle it particularly well, but to be fair, he pretty much never does), and to her wedding, at which she hoped the Doctor would turn up, but he didn’t. The best part of the story is the conversations between Evelyn and Mel, as they talk about the Doctor and what being a companion means (a year before Rose and Sarah Jane had a much more melodramatic conversation). There’s also an interlude with the Seventh Doctor, letting Evelyn know who Hex is, and how he’s doing. That seems a bit jammed in, but this probably seemed like the only opportunity to tie up that loose end. We’ll say goodbye to Evelyn for the Sixth Doctor’s era, but she’s not entirely done in this project.