Voyage to the New World (2012)

Voyage to the New World is the final story of the specials and the second adventure for Jago and Litefoot travelling with the Doctor. This story has been written by Matthew Sweet and one thing that can be guaranteed is that his story wont be a linear script and that is exactly what we get here. After an adventure on another world, it seems like a logical step to take them to a new world. Roanoke Island in 1590. The story deals with a secret concerning a lost colony. I will be honest that I found this story very hard to follow. No matter how many times I started to listen to it from the beginning I just found myself struggling to follow who was who and what exactly was going on. About 40 minutes had gone by before I even started to follow the plot which in a story that is around 75 minutes long isn’t a good thing. I was kind of hoping that the story would be a pure historical story with the Doctor, Jago and Litefoot would be trying to deal with a  non-alien situation but I suppose that would have been a let down for some people.

The central performances were all as you would expect. Colin Baker’s performance was rather laid back than what we have previous been use to. It’s not to say that it was lazy or complacent but the performance was suited to the scenario that the story was set it.  I quite like the scene where he is reading John White’s journal as he gave it great importance and elegance. Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter both did well with Benjamin just edging it partly due to the wonderful way that Jago reacts to his surroundings and to what is going on. Other performances are quite good with Philip Pope putting in a solid performance as John White and Mark Lockyer gives a nice performance as Sir Walter Raleigh.

There are things that I like about this story. For one the dialogue in VTTNW is funny and interesting. Sweet has written for the Jago and Litefoot series before and so understands how the characters talk and it comes across well here. The final scene was very intriguing. The Doctor has left Jago and Litefoot in the Red Tavern but not in the time that they were originally from. Some seventy years has gone by and this is clearly a teaser for anyone who wasn’t going to by it. I was already going to by it and now it serves to increase my expectations for the next series.

As much as it pains me to say this about a Sixth Doctor and Jago and Litefoot story, I really didn’t get this one and as a result thought it was the weakest offering of all the specials. It’s not terrible but its hard for me to really rate this highly. Out of the two Jago and Litefoot specials that there have been I must say that the Venus story was more satisfying. As much as I have liked the idea of Jago and Litefoot travelling in the TARDIS, I think that there are limitations to this idea and two stories is just the right amount of time for this concept to be worked on. Jago and Litefoot have grown and deserve their own series and so Jago and Litefoot’s journeys in time and space is an idea that can be checked off every fans wish list.