Big Finish Productions releases an enjoyable Doctor Who audio boxset celebrating forty years of Colin Baker as the Doctor’s sixth incarnation. The Quin Dilemma contains six interlinked stories written by three authors and directed by Samuel Clemens. Bonnie Langford and Nicola Bryant reprise their roles of Melanie Bush and Peri, respectively. Miranda Raison and Lisa Greenwood return as Constance Clarke and Flip Ramon, a pair of companions created by Big Finish. Phil Labey accompanies the Doctor as a certain Herbert George Wells in one of the stories.
The Exaltation by Jacquelin Raynor kicks off the set and has the Doctor and Mel on the planet Arunopel where the Time Lord is checking out a temporal anomaly. The king is about to step down, but he is uncertain as to which of his five sons is going to inherit the throne. The king believes the Doctor responsible for the disappearance of his wife many years ago and sets his sons out to find him in various points in his timeline.
Chris Chapman picks up the story with Escape from Holy Island where the Doctor, Peri, and a young HG Wells are visiting an island in the year 739 on the eve of a Viking invasion, however the raiders that are coming may be something else.
It’s a pretty good continuation, and the idea of HG Wells being in the TARDIS beyond the one television adventure Timelash is a fun if rather predictable idea.
Robert Valentine brings in a two-part story featuring the Doctor now traveling with Mrs. Clarke and Flip Ramon on a planet in the midst of a civil war, and Sontarans interfering. Sibling Rivalry and Children of the Revolution are the titles of these two episodes. Also, the Doctor has to contend with potential kidnappers in the shape of two of the quintuplet princes on the hunt for him.
Chris Chapman returns to the story roster with The Thousand Year Thaw in which the Doctor and Peri encounter another of the Quin princes, a pleasant walk turns into another familiar fight for survival.’
This story is pretty notable because there is a very charming and enlightening scene in which the Doctor and Peri reflect on their friendship and recall the Doctor’s rather manic reaction to his regeneration. I always thought this Doctor’s introduction was one of the clumsiest introductions in the series. In The Twin Dilemma, the Doctor nearly throttles Peri to death in a fit of mania induced by the trauma of his transformation. Chapman comes up with a pretty plausible explanation as to why Peri decided to continue her travels with the Doctor after that horrendous episode. It was a great scene, and Baker and Bryant perform it masterfully.
Finally, we get the amusing pleasure of watching several versions of the Sixth Doctor interact with each other in Rayner’s The Firstborn. The various companions also meet up to find the answers to this potential paradoxical catastrophe.
Somehow the idea of four different versions of the same Doctor meeting up seems like it wouldn’t work on audio, but it comes off pretty well without as much expected confusion. Colin Baker sounds fantastic throughout this set.
Some stories are a little better than others, and I was rather pleased that some of the seemingly inexplicable choices that Peri made in the television series were addressed.
Jonnie Broadbent is the actor portraying the Quin brothers and does a pretty good job at vocally differentiating between the characters.
I have had mixed feelings about the Sixth Doctor before Big Finish rehabilitated him with much better writing that fleshed out the more appealing sides of his personality. Although much of his familiar brashness was kept, he also displayed far more moments of compassion and cleverness than in the television series.
There is a bit of muddling in the plot, but the performances and intended celebration of this Doctor makes it tolerable. Besides, Doctor Who is a bit of a muddle anyway.
The Quin Dilemma is a set that shouldn’t be passed over. May Colin still have many more years with Big Finish as well.
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