“Memories of a Tyrant” is a Doctor Who audio drama released by Big Finish Productions. This particular episode is brought to us by Roland Moore and finally reunites Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Sixth Doctor and Peri, respectively. Listeners haven’t heard Bryant in this range for a couple of years, but she slips quite nicely back into the part, and the two resume their familiar and enjoyable chemistry.
The Doctor brings Peri to a space station known as the Memory Farm where technology is able to access memories that are thought to be quite buried. There they find a patient who may or may not have been a ruthless dictator and the scientists trying to verify his identity. Of course, things take a dangerous turn when the Doctor gets himself caught up in the experiment.
The guest cast includes Joseph Mydell, Charlotte Stevens, and Sean Connolly. These are actors with whom I am not familiar, but they seem to be well chosen as what can usually be expected from Big Finish.
The episode has a pretty fascinating concept and becomes something of a classic murder mystery at the beginning and shifts into something I found to be a little confusing after the second episode. I probably just need to have another listen to grasp the middle of the episode a little better.
I will say that it was still great to have Baker and Bryant together again. Baker still continues to muster the same energy in his performance. The relationship between his Doctor and Peri continues to have a much more meaningful dynamic than what was sometimes presented in the television series. Although I enjoy this Doctor’s interaction with the other Big Finish characters such as Evelyn, Constance Clarke, or Flip, I have no issue with revisiting this particular team either.
Moore leaves some unanswered questions when this episode comes to a close, however I found myself not minding that due to the uniqueness of the plot. Of course, this TARDIS crew being together again does help me shrug off what would normally be an annoyance to me. There are some elements of the story that are a little hard to follow, at least on the first listening, but this is another example of why I still get an enormous pleasure out of the Big Finish contributions to Doctor Who.
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