The Scream of Ghosts

Third Doctor Adventures #5.2

Released: 8 May 2019

Listened: 6/15/21

Whereas the last story had Liz, this one has John Levine as Sgt. Benton, who hadn’t appeared in too many Big Finish stories before. So once again, we’ve got a full set of UNIT characters to work with. In this case, there’s a lot going on with radio and sound waves: a scientist is inventing the mobile phone slightly before it should have been, and Benton is revealed to be a CB radio enthusiast with a friend who likes to make musique concrète. All of which ties in to an enemy who didn’t have a lot of time on TV, but has gotten their due from Big Finish [spoiler: it’s the Vardans]. In appropriate fashion for this era, the mystery builds for a while, and the villains aren’t revealed until about halfway through. Jo gets a fair amount of agency in this one, especially at the end, where the Doctor basically needs her to save the day in a fairly new-series manner. Benton doesn’t really have a lot to do, but then again, that’s not much different than it ever was on the show. The main appeal for both stories in this box is getting the characters together, and at that, it succeeds.