The Devil's Hoofprints

Third Doctor Adventures #8.2

Released: 19 October 2021

Listened: 7/10/21

After Sadie Miller’s success in "The Gulf", she did another turn as Sarah Jane in the next boxed set. She seems more comfortable this time around, and does a pretty good impersonation of Sarah. In traditional Who fashion, this story takes a known historical event (in this case the Devil’s Footprints phenomenon from 1855) and puts a sci-fi twist on it. This isn’t the first time Big Finish has covered this event, but the last time was a Short Trip, and this time Paul Valentine really seems to have done the homework. There’s also some timey-wimey going on, not unlike “The Time Warrior,” in which the Doctor and Sarah hop back to the past and influence future events. Jon Culshaw plays the Brigadier, meaning that all three leads are played by recast actors this time. However, the Brig doesn’t have very many scenes with the Doctor and Sarah, as they’re mostly in the past, and he’s in the present being hunted by the baddie. It’s a reasonable attempt to keep up the tension, but it doesn’t really work all that well, except to extend the story. There’s also a scientifically-inclined vicar played by Derek Griffiths, sounding enough like Colin Baker that I thought there might be a plot thread there, but I was wrong. It’s a story that would have fit well in Season 11.