Primord

Third Doctor Adventures #5.1

Released: 8 May 2019

Listened: 6/14/21

This is another story from later in the Third Doctor range, where Big Finish was willing to take more risks with recasting: In this case, the first appearances of John Culshaw as the Brigadier, and Daisy Ashford as Liz, both of whom we’ve already heard in this project. Because Liz comes back! Or more specifically, the Doctor and Jo go to Cambridge at Liz’s invitation. Jo is pretty intimidated about meeting Liz, which makes sense, as Liz does have a lot of credentials, but they get along fine. The Doctor spends most of the rest of the story with Liz, and Jo with the Brigadier, so the interaction between Jo and Liz is limited after Part 1. Also, Liz isn’t telling the Doctor everything, for good reasons, but it casts her as a baddie for much of the story, which makes me wonder about Big Finish’s confidence in the character. The bulk of the story is about the Primords, the ape-like creatures seen in “Inferno,” but mostly in another dimension. Writer John Dorney is smart enough not to just repeat the “drilling accident” story, but instead speculates on what the military would do if they knew about these creatures. So we get some corrupt soldiers and one corrupt MP for the Brigadier to deal with, while the Doctor tackles things from a scientific angle. As usual with these Third Doctor adventures, I think the pace could be a little better, but it’s a deliberate choice to mimic the era the story represents.