The Rise of the New Humans

Third Doctor Adventures #4.1

Released: 21 March 2018

Listened: 6/21/21

This story takes place after “The Three Doctors,” but the Doctor doesn’t have the TARDIS working to his satisfaction yet, so he’s still primarily occupied with UNIT concerns. In this case, that means a number of mysterious deaths involving people who seemed to be evolving into something new. When the Doctor discovers a private hospital full of anachronistic medical technology, he and Jo naturally suspect the Master -- it is Season 10, after all -- but it turns out to be the Monk, the Rufus Hound version. (For him, it’s after his encounters with the Eighth Doctor and Lucie.) That involves a bit of snarling of the timelines, mostly because Big Finish really likes Rufus Hound’s Monk, and Hound clearly loves playing him, so he gets stuck in all over the timeline. As far as the plot itself goes, the Monk is behind it all, for his own purposes, but as usual he loses control of the goings-on and finds himself depending on the Doctor to save his own skin. There are a couple of twists, but nothing terribly unexpected or surprising. Even the other minor characters are somewhat pale beside the Doctor and the Monk sniping at each other, although all the actors do their best to be distinctive. Basically, this one depends on how much you like Rufus Hound, which for me is a fair bit, so I’m happy.