The Sixth Series kicks off in an unusual way. This sees the return of Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso return to the Doctor Who world but they aren’t playing their 1996 TV Movie characters. The fact that a companion chronicle is being driven forward by two characters that we have never heard of until today is quite a different way of presenting a Companion Chronicle. That said it’s written by Jonathan Morris who’s track record is rather good. The story is set in a UNIT base under the Angel in the North in Gateshead and it is where all the alien artifacts are kept that UNIT have been storing for safe keeping. Captain Ruth Matheson (Ashbrook) is showing Warrant Officer Charlie Sato (Tso) around and telling him some stories involving Steven Taylor, Zoe Heriot, Jo Grant and Romana I.
The story takes quite a while to settle down but once it did I was able to enjoy it. I thought at first that the stories the companions were telling were all unrelated but then a coat gets mentined again and its importance was made clearer. There are also other things that are made important. A painting mentioned in the Fourth Doctor story that shows you how you are going to die and a crystal that contains the memories of Zoe. The coat has a soul in it and that occupied Sato and there is quite a good moment where Matheson has to dilemma as to whether to shoot the possessed Sato but then a clever twist comes in and the conclusion is something that to be honest I didn’t see coming but was one of those instances of it being obvious once it was revealed. I must admit that I was slightly disappointed when the recording appeared from the time released booth. I instantly thought that Sara Kingdom was going to make a shock appearance but sadly it wasn’t the case and to further compound this disappointment, Dodo was mentioned in the story.
As the main characters in this, both Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso both do well in this story and at no point did I think that they were the characters they were in 1996 but completely new ones. Ashbrook’s character probably was the stronger one of the two but that’s purely because Tso’s character did the stupid thing of putting the coat on. All the proper companions do well in their brief stints. I thought that everyone of them had a reason for being there but it was Wendy Padbury who’s involvement was the most important. She was just a memory in the crystal but it was when she was smashed to pieces that it became quite sad and I thought that she had done the best out of the four.
Tales from the Vault is an interesting story but it does feel a bit too much like the Short Trips than I would have liked. I know that you could argue that the Companion Chronicles are Short Trips but stretched over an hour but Big Finish have done a good job in keeping the two separate. On this occasion, they have blurred it a bit too much and that would be my only issue with the release.
The story takes quite a while to settle down but once it did I was able to enjoy it. I thought at first that the stories the companions were telling were all unrelated but then a coat gets mentined again and its importance was made clearer. There are also other things that are made important. A painting mentioned in the Fourth Doctor story that shows you how you are going to die and a crystal that contains the memories of Zoe. The coat has a soul in it and that occupied Sato and there is quite a good moment where Matheson has to dilemma as to whether to shoot the possessed Sato but then a clever twist comes in and the conclusion is something that to be honest I didn’t see coming but was one of those instances of it being obvious once it was revealed. I must admit that I was slightly disappointed when the recording appeared from the time released booth. I instantly thought that Sara Kingdom was going to make a shock appearance but sadly it wasn’t the case and to further compound this disappointment, Dodo was mentioned in the story.
As the main characters in this, both Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso both do well in this story and at no point did I think that they were the characters they were in 1996 but completely new ones. Ashbrook’s character probably was the stronger one of the two but that’s purely because Tso’s character did the stupid thing of putting the coat on. All the proper companions do well in their brief stints. I thought that everyone of them had a reason for being there but it was Wendy Padbury who’s involvement was the most important. She was just a memory in the crystal but it was when she was smashed to pieces that it became quite sad and I thought that she had done the best out of the four.
Tales from the Vault is an interesting story but it does feel a bit too much like the Short Trips than I would have liked. I know that you could argue that the Companion Chronicles are Short Trips but stretched over an hour but Big Finish have done a good job in keeping the two separate. On this occasion, they have blurred it a bit too much and that would be my only issue with the release.
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