Scott Lopes reviews the latest instalment in the Fourth Doctor Adventures range

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This month’s Fourth Doctor Adventures set, Metamorphosis, sees the Fourth Doctor finally face off against the Toymaker, have his long-awaited reunion with the Master, and do battle with… wombats?

Aurora Fearnley’s opener, Matryoshka, sees the Fourth Doctor and friends pulled against their will to a toyshop on Earth. A child is missing, there are voices in the walls, and, as the group is forced into an unnatural game, it very quickly becomes all too obvious who’s pulling the strings.

This story is mostly a really strong start to the set. Everyone sounds at the top of their game, especially the newest actor to lend their talents to the character of the Toymaker, Annette Badland. Unfortunately the Toymaker may also be the focus of the lowest point of this story as well. Without going too much into spoilers, while the Toymaker was great, her reasoning for her new form was slightly disappointing.

Overall, however, the story is really fun and was definitely one of the Toymaker’s best outings. Seeing her finally face off against the Fourth Doctor was a lot of fun and, as an extra bonus, it works as a great sequel (prequel?) to The Giggle and a fun accidental tie in to the current TV season. 

Matthew Sweet’s second episode, The Caged Assassin, sees the Doctor, Harry and Naomi arrive on Earth in the 1800s where they immediately find themselves involved in a plot to seemingly take over the world involving radioactive tigers and vengeful wombats. 

This episode was a really huge surprise. At first glance, a story about a wombat with a gun may not stand out as much to some people- especially in a set with such iconic villains as the Master and the Toymaker- but it may very well be the best episode in the set. It’s a genuinely funny and amusing story, and it really feels like everyone, especially Tom Baker, is having a great time.

Jamie Robertson‘s music music is also a huge highlight of this story. While great throughout the set, his work particularly stood out here not for being accurate to the era, but really fitting this story perfectly. Overall The Caged Assassin is a lot of fun and definitely the strongest tale here in pretty much every way.

The final story and namesake of this set, Metamorphosis, by Lisa McMullin, gives us the long-awaited rematch between Tom Baker‘s Doctor and Geoffrey Beevers‘s Master. The TARDIS team arrive on the planet Jaxus, where people are mysteriously disappearing and, as the Doctor investigates, he finds evidence that his oldest foe is behind the kidnapping. 

Metamorphosis is a really strong finish to the set. Getting to hear this Doctor and Master face off is always a lot of fun, and it’s no different here. Geoffrey Beevers especially steals the show here, showing as usual that he was born to play the Master. Lisa McMullin has proved time and time again how great she is at writing the Master and it was definitely a great idea to finally let her write for this incarnation.

It’s always really interesting to see just how unique and terrifying this Master can be. Even though he’s a decaying corpse he’s still able to manipulate and charm people just as easily if not more so than any other Master, and it just makes him that much more terrifying. Also (no spoilers!) but there’s a really fun surprise towards the end that any Beevers Master fan will really enjoy.

Overall, Metamorphosis is a great set and one of the better of the more recent Fourth Doctor Adventures. It is a shame Big Finish has dropped releasing these individually because this set feels like it may have benefited from that option, but overall it’s really fun and I’d definitely recommend it to any Fourth Doctor fans, or fans of the current season interested in the newly established Pantheon.

Metamorphosis is available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com