The Seventh Doctor returns for a couple of new audio adventures with Harry Sullivan and Naomi Cross in this boxset of Doctor Who audio plays entitled Far From Home from Big Finish Productions. The set also includes a short audiobook entitled Frozen Worlds performed by Sophie Aldred. Sylvester McCoy reprises his role as the Doctor’s seventh incarnation and is joined again by Christopher Naylor as Harry Sullivan and Eleanor Crooks as Naomi Cross. Samuel Clemens is the tapped to direct this set. There are two full-cast episodes and an audiobook.
The first story is Operation Dusk by Alfie Shaw and has the Doctor and his two friends facing off with those shadowy creatures known as the Vashta Nerada during the London Blitz during the Second World War in 1940. The story begins with the Doctor being requested to help investigate the death of a female British agent. The Doctor finds that the Vashta Nerada have been weaponized by another extraterrestrial presence, and a Nazi invasion may be the least of the threats facing Britain.
The guest cast is made up of Pepter Lunkuse, Leon Parris, Emily Raymond, and Nicholas Rowe. Rowe is best known for a long-ago role in Young Sherlock Holmes and is fantastic as the duplicitous Sebastian Hardcastle.
It’s a solid story, but the Second World War is getting a little overused in this range. The Seventh Doctor has spent a lot of time in that era, and it’s getting hard to see episodes as particularly special when he visits the war and the Blitz yet again. The story is interesting enough, and I am enjoying the banter between this Doctor, Harry, and Eleanor.
Naylor has been playing Harry Sullivan for some time now, but the part was originated by the late Ian Marter during the first season of Tom Baker’s era. Naylor does a pretty good job of capturing Sullivan’s awkward charm as well as his steadfast courage even when he yearns for a quieter life. Crooks continues to become more captivating as Naomi Cross, who is more willing to face the challenges and dangers of traveling with the Doctor. Cross shares a lot of similarity with many of the Doctor’s more recent female companions in that she is spunky and liberal-minded. There is kind of a deadpan humor to her demeanor that does make her stand out a bit more. The more time I spend with Naomi, the more I come to appreciate her and her relationship with Harry.
The Vashta Nerada being Earth is bound to happen, and it’s kind of a fun idea to have an earlier Doctor face adversaries that the audience first met in the rebooted television series. There are some interesting twists and reveals, but the episode was of fairly average quality in spite of the best efforts of the cast. I think the overuse of the World War II setting sort of soured my enjoyment of this episode, but Shaw is still a thoughtful and imaginative writer and will hopefully remain a consistent contributor to the range.
The second story is Naomi’s Ark by Alison Winter and takes the TARDIS crew far out into space and well into the future. The guest cast is made up of Bethany Antonia, Nino Furuhata, Indra Ove, and Bridgitta Roy.
Naomi gets separated from the Doctor and Harry during an evacuation of a space station during a supernova. A traveling group of colonists rescue the Doctor and Harry while Naomi is picked up by what is apparently the galactic equivalent of teen-agers taking the parents’ car out for a joyride.
Naomi gets a well-deserved moment to shine as she tries to take responsibility for her rescuers and reunite with her companions. Crooks’ performance as Naomi starts to understand the situation her hapless, immature saviors are in is quite well executed. It was done with some of the typically quirky Doctor Who humor, and Crooks delivers masterfully.
The Doctor has his own hands full trying to convince the leader of the colonists to turn back to retrieve his TARDIS and he uses some powers of persuasion that does not sit well with him. McCoy remains in top form as well.
I think the second story is better overall. Operation Dusk isn’t really bad, but I just connected better with the second one. The set overall is still worth the time.
Finally, we have this little audiobook written by Katharine Armitage called Frozen Worlds. Sophie Aldred puts in a compelling performance, but the story was not that interesting to me. Ace has fallen into some portal where she is in different dimensions and trying to get back to the Doctor. Armitage is a competent writer, but I had some trouble staying all that interested in the story despite Aldred’s obvious vocal talent. I may just need to revisit the story to see if I can understand it better.
Far From Home as a whole has a few cracks in the overall experience, but there are some powerful moments. The main cast work together well. McCoy still maintains a commanding presence with his version of the Doctor.
The quality of the soundscape is still top tier from Big Finish. Even is this set does not quite hit it out of the park for me, it’s still a worthy addition to the Big Finish collection.
Reviews, Musings, and Other Things... 