So Jago and Litefoot are back! Well it’s’ not just them as they are reunited with Leela who they met along with the Doctor in ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’. This is quite a big decision that they have made because they are effectively changing the dynamic of the series. Instead of it being Jago and Litefoot, it’s Jago, Litefoot & Leela. The opening to series three was written by Justin Richards whose previous contributions to this series include ‘The Bloodless Soldier’ (2010) and ‘Litefoot and Sanders’ (2011) which are my favourite stories of those series. The first thing that the story has to deal with is given a satisfactory answer as to why Leela has turned up. Thankfully that explanation is quite good. She has been sent by Romana to locate and repair ‘time leakages. The first leakage takes them to the Thames and we are introduced to a curious individual called Mr Paine who stands out purely by having a mobile phone on him which goes off during the story.
This stories’ villain are the ‘Wet Men’ who are ghosts that come up from the Thames. Now whether this becomes the ‘Sanders’ arc for the series remains to be seen but it’s a wonderful creation cause it congers up a wonderful image in my head. The story is split between the regular place where Jago and Litefoot frequent and The Jolly Roger which is considered a not as sophisticated as the Red Tavern.
There’s a nice familiarity about the supporting characters. Ellie is the most obvious one and is played brilliantly by Lisa Bowerman. Her role has been through a lot over the previous eight episodes and it’s nice that she gets something to do in this one. The fact that she knows when a barmaid is working in another pub was quite an important revelation about the character because it shows how much knowledge and wise she is in the area. Then there is Sergeant Quick (Conrad Asquith) who has become a slightly under written character but whenever he is in a scene he is always entertaining.
Bringing Louise Jameson into the fold was a brilliant idea. It’s another bit of Classic Doctor Who creeping back into one of its audio spin-offs. Despite being set during her Gallifrey days she is different compared to when she first appeared in Doctor Who but it doesn’t show here and despite being fiery she is still out of her comfort zone in Victorian England. There is a lot of comedy around Leela and trying to get her into some suitable attire. There is a reference to what she wore in the TTOWC and I did like the interaction between Leela and Ellie. I also liked the lesson that Leela has about Cockney rhyming slang which she tries to get a handle on but doesn’t always sound convincing.
What with the return of Leela and the Wet Men it’s easy to undervalue Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter. With Series 5 scheduled to be released in 2012 it’s quite astonishing that just two years ago we were still waiting for them to come out for a single return in a companion chronicle. The characters are just superb and don’t put a foot wrong. I am sitting here trying to think of a bad thing to say about either actor and just cant so wont.
Yet again, Jago and Litefoot have started in fantastic fashion. I loved everything about this story and think that if the stories in this season are like this then this will be another cracking series. If I did have a complain then it would be that it should have been longer. Admittedly this story was roughly around the same time as Litefoot and Sanders but when you have stories in Gallifrey that are 70 minutes long and this story could have benefitted from it being 5-10 minutes longer. Apart from that, Justin Richards has written a superb story. Splendid.
This stories’ villain are the ‘Wet Men’ who are ghosts that come up from the Thames. Now whether this becomes the ‘Sanders’ arc for the series remains to be seen but it’s a wonderful creation cause it congers up a wonderful image in my head. The story is split between the regular place where Jago and Litefoot frequent and The Jolly Roger which is considered a not as sophisticated as the Red Tavern.
There’s a nice familiarity about the supporting characters. Ellie is the most obvious one and is played brilliantly by Lisa Bowerman. Her role has been through a lot over the previous eight episodes and it’s nice that she gets something to do in this one. The fact that she knows when a barmaid is working in another pub was quite an important revelation about the character because it shows how much knowledge and wise she is in the area. Then there is Sergeant Quick (Conrad Asquith) who has become a slightly under written character but whenever he is in a scene he is always entertaining.
Bringing Louise Jameson into the fold was a brilliant idea. It’s another bit of Classic Doctor Who creeping back into one of its audio spin-offs. Despite being set during her Gallifrey days she is different compared to when she first appeared in Doctor Who but it doesn’t show here and despite being fiery she is still out of her comfort zone in Victorian England. There is a lot of comedy around Leela and trying to get her into some suitable attire. There is a reference to what she wore in the TTOWC and I did like the interaction between Leela and Ellie. I also liked the lesson that Leela has about Cockney rhyming slang which she tries to get a handle on but doesn’t always sound convincing.
What with the return of Leela and the Wet Men it’s easy to undervalue Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter. With Series 5 scheduled to be released in 2012 it’s quite astonishing that just two years ago we were still waiting for them to come out for a single return in a companion chronicle. The characters are just superb and don’t put a foot wrong. I am sitting here trying to think of a bad thing to say about either actor and just cant so wont.
Yet again, Jago and Litefoot have started in fantastic fashion. I loved everything about this story and think that if the stories in this season are like this then this will be another cracking series. If I did have a complain then it would be that it should have been longer. Admittedly this story was roughly around the same time as Litefoot and Sanders but when you have stories in Gallifrey that are 70 minutes long and this story could have benefitted from it being 5-10 minutes longer. Apart from that, Justin Richards has written a superb story. Splendid.
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