REVIEW | The Fifth Doctor Adventures: In the Night

After two slightly grim outings in April’s Conflicts of Interest (review here), the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa return for two more adventures in the latest Fifth Doctor Adventures boxset: In the Night. This time we’ve been treated to a four-parter and a two-parter, the first of their kind for the Fifth Doctor since all the way back in January 2022!

The boxset’s longer story is Tim Foley‘s Pursuit of the Nightjar, which sees the TARDIS team land on a spaceship on a vital mercy mission, finding themselves caught up in a series of pivotal historical events. Of course, given that this story is set in the future, these events never actually happened, but their importance is stressed by connecting them with the Doctor’s past; the situation that is about to unfold is the first story he heard after leaving Gallifrey, and so seeing what happens means a lot to him. Imagine his horror, then, when the story he knows turns out to be very different from reality.

This is a very simple story- much of the runtime is just the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa fighting for their lives aboard the Nightjar- but this allows Foley to really hone in on what the characters are thinking and feeling at every moment. The TARDIS team get some of their best character moments here, connecting events in their own lives to what’s going on and ruminating on heroism and legacy, meaning that, even though the story is quite lowkey, everything that happens feels big, because it impacts upon the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan. A delightfully quiet, contemplative piece with a gorgeous atmosphere created by Howard Carter‘s music and sound design, this is truly unlike anything I’ve heard from Big Finish before.

Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding are joined here by Paul Thornley as Captain Goben and Fenella Woolgar as Captain Eslo. Both put in excellent performances, the regular communications between their characters sizzling with chemistry, even though the characters are meant to be enemies. Woolgar is particularly impressive, giving us a convincing American accent (at least to this Brit’s ears!) and some real emotional depth, mining Foley’s script for every ounce of pathos it contains.

Without a doubt the strongest Doctor Who story released so far in 2023 (and the second strongest Big Finish story overall, only behind Foley’s masterpiece Friend of the Family), Pursuit of the Nightjar is a must-listen. Electrifying stuff.

Next up is Sarah Grochala‘s Resistor, which brings us to Poland in 1982. Here, the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa join with a band whose drummer has gone missing under mysterious circumstances and uncover a conspiracy at the heart of Warsaw. There are real-life historical events explored here alongside the traditional sci-fi plot, and, interestingly, the former are far more engaging than the latter. It’s unfortunate, then, that more airtime is given to the fictional than the factual, as the sci-fi plot is quite underbaked and doesn’t really have any attention-grabbing ideas.

Of course, with the sci-fi plot taking up more time than the historical one, the historical plot feels underbaked too. There are some nice character beats, exploring the oppression that occurred in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, but because Grochala switches focus to the alien side of things, we never really get to know the side characters well enough to properly relate to their struggles. The treatment of gay people in the Eastern Bloc is something that isn’t often addressed and so, while it’s nice to have had a bit of exploration here (and I’ve definitely been inspired to do some more research), it’s such a shame we don’t learn more than we do.

Overall, then, Resistor isn’t in any way a bad story, but it definitely prioritises the wrong ideas, leaving the really interesting bits without much emphasis. Thankfully, we have the always-compelling central performances of Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton, as well as some strong guest turns from Niky Wardley, Chris Lew Kum Hoi and Daniel Easton, making this an enjoyable listen despite its flaws.

This is without a doubt one of the strongest Doctor Who releases of 2023, giving us two solid stories full of excellent performances and thought-provoking discussions. Come for the sublime Pursuit of the Nightjar but be sure to stay for the underdeveloped-but-enjoyable Resistor. Highly recommended.