Daniel Mansfield reviews Old Sixie’s 40th anniversary extravaganza release from Big Finish
It’s been 40 years since Colin Baker sat up in the TARDIS and, still wearing Peter Davison‘s costume, uttered five immortal words to his bewildered companion Peri (Nicola Bryant). “You were expecting someone else?”
And so the Sixth Doctor was born.
Four decades later, Big Finish are celebrating the Old Sixie’s ruby anniversary with six hours of brand new audio adventures, all coming together to form a story punnily titled The Quin Dilemma.
In Jacqueline Rayner‘s opener, The Exaltation, we’re introduced to the main storyline of the boxset: King Otho of Arunopal has stepped down, but does not know which one of his five quintuplet sons (or Quins) should succeed him. To solve this conundrum, he gives them a task. The Quin who brings him the head of the Doctor will ascend to the throne.
Over the next four episodes, the Doctor and his companions encounter different Quins as they each attempt to kidnap the Time Lord and bring him to their father. We’re treated to a nice variety of tales here, from the historical Escape from Holy Island, the action-packed Sontaran two-parter Sibling Rivalry/Children of the Revolution and the quieter, more contemplative Thousand Year Thaw. Due to their short length, none of these stories are particularly mindblowing, but they each have some nice moments, particularly the lattermost, which delves into the Doctor and Peri’s rocky relationship in a surprisingly affecting way.
It’s lovely to hear from some characters we haven’t had adventures with for a while – we’ve heard a lot from Bonnie Langford‘s Mel in both the Sixth and Seventh Doctor ranges recently, but Miranda Raison and Lisa Greenwood make a triumphant return as the delightful double act of Constance and Flip, and Nicola Bryant‘s Peri proves her mettle leading armies, while also wearing her heart on her sleeve as she confesses to the Doctor her initial misgivings about continuing her travels after his regeneration. Herbert (aka H.G. Wells) also pops up here, having previously adventured with the Doctor and Peri in TV story Timelash and, while he’s well performed by Philip Labey, his inclusion here does feel a little baffling as he doesn’t actually do much.
Similarly baffling are the titular Quins, all performed by Jonnie Broadbent. While Broadbent does a solid job at differentiating the five characters, they’re written and performed in an extremely childish way, meaning they never really feel like much of a threat, and more of an annoyance. While their arc across the set is nicely done, Rayner’s finale The Firstborn wrapping up their story in a satisfying way, they don’t have enough individual character to make much of an impression, each having a single trait which seems to be the only thing that defines them. Similarly, in most of the stories they’re a background presence, only appearing in a few scenes, meaning we don’t actually hear enough of them for them to make an impact.
While the stories themselves may be uneven, The Quin Dilemma absolutely succeeds as a celebration of the Sixth Doctor, taking us all through his timeline and showing us what makes him, and his companions, so special. Bombastic but caring, verbose but heroic – here’s to Old Sixie! Long may his adventures continue.
The Quin Dilemma comes with The Ultimate Poe, a bonus Interlude narrated by David Monteath. At 90 minutes long, this is the longest Interlude yet, pretty much half the length of The Quin Dilemma! I’m not sure the story needed to be quite this long, but equally I enjoyed listening to it far more than any of the individual stories in the boxset – there’s some great imagery, a nice surprise twist and some gloriously evocative narration from Monteath. It’s almost a shame this wasn’t performed as a full-cast audio. And bonus points for the title!
The Quin Dilemma is available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com
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