The Wanderer (2012)

There is always something of a buzz when I hear that there is a William Russell Companion Chronicle coming out. It might have something to do with the fact that Russell is fantastic in whatever story he is in. Even in The Rocket Men which I wasn’t wild about I still liked Russell’s performance. The story sees the TARDIS crew arrive in Siberia at the turn of the century, the Doctor and Susan become ill and Ian has work with a mysterious wanderer (hence the title) called Grigory who believes that he has the power to heal people. Grigory goes by another name and that is Rasputin. The story also has a science element when there is an alien device that has the potential to do what the Doctor at this time in the shows history was unable to do and that is to take Ian and Barbara back to 1963.

The story starts off in quite a slow fashion but that suits the setting of the story. Normally I’m a bit slow to pick up on clues but even I managed to guess it was Rasputin but that doesn’t mean it was badly done. I’m just quite chuffed with myself for getting it before the reveal. The story deals with the issue of being a wanderer very well as of course the TARDIS crew are wanderers themselves. The fact that Ian and Barbara would look for any opportunity to get home and this was the closest that they had managed at the time to getting back to 1963. I thought that the alien aspect was rather well done but this definelty felt like a character piece as opposed to a sci-fi adventure. It’s this series that allows this sort of story to thrive and Richard Dinnick has written a sound story.

William Russell is brilliant in this and as mentioned in the extras, he could literally read the phone book and it would sell. Russell has a wonderful voice and manages to set the scene at the beginning far better than the music and sound effects. Ian Chesterton is one of my favourite characters and I suppose that I am slightly biased with my reviews but I think that Russell drives the story and makes it’s the main selling point. As the other cast member, Tim Chipping was really good as Grigory/Rasputin and he had some really good scenes. It’s a very intriguing character and Chipping does his best to show this. The two of them worked very well together and its this working relationship that is essential in determining whether a story will be poor, average or brilliant.

The Wanderer is a good story which has an engrossing plot, compelling and more importantly entertaining. If I had to pick a fault and it’s a tiny fault then it’s that William Russell’s impression of the Doctor isn’t as good as Peter Purves’ but Frazer Hines is king of the impressions.