Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Colin Baker, Camille Coduri, Michael Maloney, Christopher Naylor, Michelle Ryan, Tim Treloar.
The Time War rages, and the Doctor is unable to offer much help; and for once it is because he is trying desperately to help himself in solving perhaps one of the greatest threats to all his existence ever.
Degeneration is the key, and whilst the Doctor has felt its effects as the process, he perhaps has not gleaned the full problem that awaits, and who finer to paint the picture than the recent addition to the Whoniverse than that of the fearsome Timelord, The Eleven.
In the latest special release created by the keepers of all things audio, Big Finish, as the long running British science fiction serial gallops towards its immense 60th anniversary, the Doctor regenerates into the guise of that of his sixth incarnation, played with ever immense gravitas by Colin Baker, and introduced to two allies for their first time, and to an old friend that has not changed since he first met the mad man from Gallifrey many years before.
To bring back the name of Harry Sullivan is always welcome, and whilst the actor who first portrayed him on screen, the impeccable Ian Marter, has long since departed this world, so the character lives on, and in Christopher Naylor studied and well-versed tones, that sense of 1970s bonhomie with his friend is recaptured and celebrated with a keenness of observation.
It is perhaps though to Camile Coduri and Michelle Ryan, no strangers to the world of Big Finish, in their respective roles as Jackie Tyler and Lady Cristine de Souza that the energy and playfulness of the piece is revealed. It is also one that is much needed as the seriousness of the split personality of the Eleven, in his early incarnation of just voices in one mind, begins to seize the opportunity to take advantage of his hated foe’s continual decline.
The Once and Future series really comes to life in Two’s Company and showcases once again just how important a decision it was in 1999 to make sure that Colin Baker was part of the revival of Doctor Who in audio form.
Ian D. Hall