Review by Daniel Mansfield

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It’s fitting that, in a week an episode all about the power of storytelling, The Story & the Engine, hit our screens, Big Finish released The Cosmos and Mrs Clarke, a boxset that explores similar themes. And what better TARDIS team to feature in an episode all about the power of stories than the loquacious Sixth Doctor and arguably one of his most intellectual companions, Constance Clarke?

Julian Richards‘ The Story Demon runs with this theme most openly, taking the Doctor and Constance to a forest world whose people are enraptured by the stories told by none other than a Dalek! Villagers Birch (Carly Day), Wyatt (Dominic Vulliamy) and Hoekstra (Cameron Johnson) are threatened by the terrifying Birnamen, who, when they appear outside the gates of their settlement, somehow kill someone inside, but find solace from this horror in the tales told by their beloved Story Demon. But why is a Dalek telling them stories? And is it connected to the deaths somehow?

This story sees one of the most creative uses of a Dalek in a long time, drawing on the chilling strangeness of childhood stories being narrated in the voice of a killer. You’re never quite sure whether the Dalek can be trusted, or how it’s connected to wider goings-on, making for an edge-of-your-seat listen from start to finish.

There’s a particularly effective sequence that draws (and perhaps even improves) on some Dalek mythology established in 2015 episode The Witch’s Familiar, hauntingly performed by Vulliamy and Johnson, beautifully directed by Samuel Clemens and guaranteed to go down as one of the darkest Dalek moments in the whole Whoniverse. A strong start to the set.

Another familiar face pops up in Paul Magrs‘ The Key to Many Worlds – none other than friend of the First Doctor Marco Polo, now played by Terry Molloy. And he’s not the only returning character here. Many years after his famous expeditions across the world, Marco is about to set out on one last journey to transport a mysterious enchantress to Venice – someone listeners might be delighted to hear again, but who the Doctor most certainly is not!

Yes, Marco’s enchantress is none other than intergalactic adventurer Iris Wildthyme (Katy Manning), who has a very clever plan indeed to escape her captor. Swapping bodies with the Doctor, Iris – well, what she actually hopes to gain from this isn’t entirely clear (she doesn’t bother escaping from Marco once she becomes the Doctor), but hearing Manning play the Doctor and Colin Baker play Iris is an utter delight.

Sadly, this is pretty much the only thing this story has going for it. The first part takes its sweet time setting up all the body-swapping shenanigans, ready, we hope, for some hijinks in part two, but the second episode rather disappointingly opens some time later with Iris wanting to go back into her own body again. There’s talk of lots of exciting adventures that happened in the meantime, but these remain offscreen (off-mic?), and all we’re left with is the Doctor and Iris bickering, and Constance pushed into the background.

There’s an attempt to explore Marco’s desire to be young again and relive all his old adventures, but this is secondary to the Doctor-Iris storyline, and feels bolted on rather than tying in with the story at large. And then, things just… end. The Doctor and Iris swap back, and everyone goes their separate ways. Talk about anticlimactic. An uneven story, but with some glimmers of greatness.

It’s back to the future for boxset finale Inconstancy, by Ian Potter, which sees the Doctor and Constance arrive on the highly-regulated planet Hoi. As the Doctor is taken in by the authorities, Constance meets a group of amorphous aliens who take on her form and run riot.

We get some nice exploration of Constance here, Potter portraying her as a kind of beleaguered mother tasked with rounding up her rowdy children. Miranda Raison puts in a brilliant performance full of pathos as the story delves into some of Constance’s past struggles and sees her re-evaluate what kind of person she wants to be.

This story is also partially narrated by Raison and Colin Baker, their characters reflecting on the events that occurred on Hoi some time later. This lends the entire piece a delightfully melancholic feel, the Doctor and Constance working through what happened from a more removed, reflective standpoint.

Overall, this is perhaps the strongest Sixth Doctor Adventures boxsets since the range relaunched in 2022, feeling thematically rich, bursting with gorgeous new ideas and held together with some star performances from Colin Baker and Miranda Raison.

The Cosmos and Mrs Clarke is available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com