The Secret History is the 200th release in the
main range and is the final story in the Locum Trilogy. I remember when the
range reached 100 back in September 2007, I wasn’t totally impressed with it
partly because I wasn’t convinced that you could tell a story in 25 minutes and
to do it four times would be impossible. Years later I re-listened to it and
thought that it was a better story than I gave it credit for. This story sees
the Fifth Doctor team up with Vicki and Steven and as they are companions of
the first Doctor it seems inevitable that the story is a historical adventure
and whilst listening to this story I found myself thinking about the 2001
release The Council of Nicaea which I really like and so the idea of this set
up seemed to be the one with the most potential.
The first scene between the Doctor, Vicki and Steven is
dealt with quite quickly. This might be because the third time round the
novelty is becoming repetitive so there is no need for a long scene about the
who’s and why’s. The first part of this story does feel like its going at a
casual pace.
The big reveal of this story is that the person that he has
behind all of the locum trilogy is the Meddling Monk and I didn’t see this
coming although it sort of makes sense when you think about it. The previous
two stories have been dummy runs for the Meddling Monk. The Monk is going to
try and make the Doctor interfere with events forcing the Timelords to notice
and take action against the Doctor. As plans go it’s convoluted to the stage
that the Master would be suing for copyright infringement.
The supporting cast are all entertaining enough. Lysette
Anthony is quite good as Sophia. Anthony has previously appeared as Clara
Harris in Assassin in the Limelight (2008) and as Hazel Bright in Hothouse
(2009) and so she shows us on more than one occasion how good she is. Another
BF regular is Tony Millan who last appeared in Situation Vacant (2010). His
contribution to the story was enough to make his characters memorable. Having
Graham Garden back in Doctor Who is always a good thing and he seems to thrive
playing the Monk so hopefully it wont be another four years before returning.
As a story it worked out quite well. It was a nice setting
that got even better when the Meddling Monk. Peter Davison was on fine form and
it was nice to have Peter Purves and Maureen O’Brien involved in a full cast
audio even though it could be argued that they get pretty close to this type of
story in the early adventures. As the final story in the Locum Trilogy it was
the best largely because it actually attempted to answer the questions as to
why Doctors were popping up where they should. I can’t say that it was a
largely successful trilogy but that is because it had quite a lot to live up to
with the set up and the anniversary.
Big Finish has accomplished a lot in 200 releases and
sixteen years. The stories have been largely good and some classics like Live
34 and The Chimes of Midnight. Its quite impressive that Big Finish have
managed to find 200 stories that could easily work on TV and I look forward to
the next 200 releases.
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