“The Monsters of Gokroth” is a Doctor Who audio play presented by Big Finish Productions. Matt Fitton is the author of this particular adventure which features Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor. Jessica Martin reprises her role of Mags, who was first introduced in the television serial “The Greatest Show In The Galaxy”. The Doctor first encountered the alien werewolf from Vulpana in the company of intergalactic explorer Captain Cook as they discovered the lethal secrets of the Psychic Circus.
Victoria Yeates and Jeremy Hitchen are included in the cast and do quite well, but that is hardly surprising with a Big Finish cast.
Mags has come to Gokroth to seek help with being able to better controlling her more bloodthirsty tendencies. Her werewolf transformations have become more unpredictable and a doctor is on the planet studying other monstrous beings. Of course, discord and fear erupt between the monsters and the humans just in time for the Doctor to discover Mags and trap them both in the center of the maelstrom.
I may have to give this one another listen to appreciate the basic conflict more. McCoy is great as usual, but I wasn’t drawn that much by the plot. I do think that revisiting Mags is an interesting direction though. It does give Big Finish the opportunity to explore dynamics that could have had potential in the television series, and they usually have been quite successful with these efforts.
I think Fitton is a pretty good writer for the most part, and I may learn to appreciate this episode down the road. McCoy’s Doctor gets a better presentation than he sometimes got in the television series, and his presence is certainly easy to appreciate even here.
Even if this episode didn’t hit it out of the park, in my opinion, it will be fun to hear how things go down between the Doctor and Mags in the upcoming episodes.
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