Doctor Who‘s sixtieth anniversary extravaganza from Big Finish continues with Two’s Company, the fourth instalment in the eight-part Once and Future saga. Like the series opener, Past Lives (review here), this is more of an inconsequential runaround, revelling in the excitement of pairing up lots of different characters, rather than focusing on exciting new ideas or character examination.
This is most clear with the characters of Jackie (Camille Coduri) and Lady Christina (Michelle Ryan), who have some admittedly great scenes together, but who seem to contribute very little to the plot beyond a moment where they help the Doctor break into a facility. Christopher Naylor‘s Harry Sullivan fares a little better, torn between his loyalty to the Doctor and his current project, but still feels a little underused overall. This trio is probably the most random group of side characters in the series yet, and it definitely shows, the plot being quite contrived to get them all to the same place at the same time.
Colin Baker makes his second Once and Future appearance here, this time as the actual Sixth Doctor, and is undeniably the highlight of this story. His relationship with Jackie is even spikier than the Ninth and Tenth Doctors (if you can believe that!) while he has some touching scenes with Harry as the two are reunited after so long. His best scenes, though, are with Michael Maloney as The Two, a character who isn’t the best served by Lisa McMullin‘s script, but who, on the strength of what’s there both in writing and performance, I’d be very happy to hear from again.
While the script is very simplistic, I think the biggest problem with Two’s Company is the post-production. This story has possibly the most lacklustre music and sound design I’ve heard from Big Finish in recent memory, with some scenes feeling very flat and one performance in particular being so muffled it sounds like it was recorded on the other side of a door! Poor form indeed from the usually very reliable sound team.
Overall, while this is definitely the weakest story in Once and Future so far, it’s by no means bad, just underbaked. If you’re looking for a fun way to spend an hour, this is it. For something more exciting or thought-provoking, however, the previous two stories in the series are far more effective.
Two’s Company is available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com
Once and Future continues with The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50 in September
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