“The Rings of Ikiria” is a Doctor Who audio drama from Big Finish Productions and is one of the episodes in the range known as The Companion Chronicles. Richard Dinnick is the writer here who provides the prose and dialogue to be performed by Richard Franklin and Felicity Duncan. Franklin relates the tale as Captain Mike Yates as UNIT during the time when the Third Doctor was exiled to Earth. Duncan voices the enigmatic and alluring Ikiria and a couple of other female characters who appear and she was pretty engaging.
This particular installment felt a bit bland and familiar, although that it is not the fault of the performers. I like Franklin’s delivery and performance in these things when he participates, and he certainly does not fail in anyway to help lift the story. The reason it feels familiar is that there is already a television story from the Third Doctor era where some seemingly benevolent visitor from the stars turns out to have more dastardly motives. There are these rings being passed out that end up controlling the minds of the wearer. The Doctor ends up disappearing for a time and is thought by Yates to be dead. Anyway, it does not completely fall apart, but it does not leave much of an impression either.
So the cast and performances were enough to get some level of enjoyment, but the story ended up feeling too overused.
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