My trek was sound tracked, of course, by this release from Big Finish. It's the audio adaptation of the Mills/Wagner/Gibbons stories from the earliest issues of Doctor Who Weekly, that are some four decades old.
The Iron Legion introduces Stockbridge, the "Avengersland" community that DW would return to in comics and audio over the decades. Into this world of Trebor Blackjacks and milkmen, beautifully and knowingly opening with Grieg's Morning Mood ( as used in Bugs Bunny cartoons) come robot legionaries and the most absurd Doctor of all, Tom Baker. He is in his element here, accompanying put-upon villagers, Viv and Doug Kirk ( my almost-namesake), Emmerdale types who lead a glorious revolution in a parallel Rome- in their pyjamas, probably.
Pat Mills has actually written three previous BF stories- one of which, Song of Megaptera, was originally planned for TB but was performed by his semblable, CB- Colin Baker. I don't think any other Doctor could exist as quite comfortably in the surreal and grotesque medium of comics as the Fourth however. (4/5 Talmars)
The Star Beast is also great fun. Despite the presence of the real Angela Rippon, it isn't a period piece, like the Early Adventures , the David Bradley/First Doctor or the Tim Treloar/Third Doctor box sets. It feels very fresh.
Strangely, Star Beast reads like a parody of ET, yet unlike Alan Moore's Skizz, it was published before the release of the film. Timey-wimey! There's more post-industrial commentary in Skizz, perhaps but Star Beast encapsulates what is brilliant about DWW. We, the readers, can leave our world of bin men strikes, Two Tone records and crispy pancakes and travel in the Tardis. That's what RTD took from the comic and it's what makes Star Beast an ancestor of Rose.
Homicidal , blimpish tyrant Beep the Meep last appeared seventeen years ago (!) in a free release, The Ratings War and the 2002 song "Beep's Friends", which reminds me a bit of All Things Bright and Beautiful, is reprised here.
I liked Fudge ( Ben Turner) very much in this audio and wish he had gone on to become t' companion. However, Sharon predates Alice Obiefune, Martha Jones and Alison Cheney as the first companion of colour in any medium. Sharon is aged to adulthood here rather than in The Time Witch, so that may mean that story won't be adapted in future but I was delighted with The Star Beast (5/5 Talmars).
Surely there must be more? I think City of the Damned would be a good choice in the same vein and Dragon's Claw could guest star Dan Starkey as the Sontarans. The Tides of Time would be amazing but like Voyager may be too grandiose and beyond the scope of audio. I'd also welcome Grant Morrison's The World Shapers to hear Frazer Hines essay the elderly Mad Jamie. That serial has been referenced on tv in The Doctor Falls, after all.
Ironically, in my teens, I wasn't a huge fan of the DWW strips. I found them too wacky, in the vein, naturally of the irreverent 2000 AD and like many of my contemporary Whovians, I wanted serious scary sci-fi like we thought we had in the Sixties. What I liked best were the features and photos about the b/w classics I never expected to see: Chumblies. Sara Kingdom. Ben and Polly, the ur-companions of my pre-school childhood annual.
The late Michael Craze gets to explore the role of Able Seaman Ben Jackson in The Macra Terror, the 1984-inspired story of alien infiltration in a holiday camp/ outer-space society. Ben was especially overshadowed by the introduction of Jamie but his betrayal in Macra gives his character a bit of colour. No pun intended- the new animated release of Macra is in colour and makes me wish I'd waited for the colour Power of the Daleks in late 2016.
The Macra themselves were considered highly unsuccessful at the time but here, in animation, are more mobile and much more imposing. It's a story I never really warmed to on audio although the hysterical Control voice is quite unsettling. The Chromophone Band music by Dudley Simpson is maddeningly catchy ( as I've known since the 50th Anniversary music collection came out) but I much prefer late 70s Dudley to 60s Simpson.
One of the Easter Eggs is a truncated version of episode 1 of The Wheel In Space. I'd really like to see the complete serial as an animation since it's another story I found difficult to follow and quite tedious on audio. This is an inessential dvd release: it's not a hugely important story for Troughton and there are no iconic sequences really, but it plugs another gap in a largely-lost season.
This weekend, I'm seeing that film ( tomorrow morning) and trying to avoid spoilers. A review next time but tonight, it's an amdram production of the Addams Family musical.
Coming soon : Lo, there shall be an Endgame
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