Flash forward twenty years. Sophie and Sylvester walked off-screen four years ago. The thirtieth anniversary celebrations, such as they are, are underway, and fans can look forward to a charity TV special to mark the occasion a few months away. I didn't live through this, but I have to imagine it was kind of a bum event for Doctor Who fans, who after only four years in the wilderness must have started to realize that no new season was coming any time soon. Something curious, though - Jon Pertwee is Doctor Who in a new serialized adventure, on BBC Radio 5.
Really, the most surreal part of this experience for me is that it's not Big Finish, because they are, these days, more or less the sole purveyors of new Doctor Who audio content. I'm aware that BBC produces some of its own, but they don't tend to be full-cast audio dramas like this. So it's easy to see this as a precursor for The Sirens of Time six years later, which is certainly laudable.
The story itself is really nothing special, but it's so nice to hear Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen, and Nicholas Courtney all together again after so many years, and a sobering reminder that none of them are with us any longer. The regulars all perform very well, and they're aided by a few good guest performances. The highlight is clearly Peter Miles as Tragan, who manages to make this particular villain feel different from Nyder and Whitaker, while still delightfully slimy. I wish I could compliment Jeremy Fitzoliver, who I think is supposed to be a send-up of the "screaming female companion" stereotype because he's a boy, but quite honestly I just found him terribly annoying.
Barry Letts obviously has no trouble recapturing the feeling of an adventure from this era, this time seeming to focus on the dangers of "Experienced Reality", or in other words, bad television. Parakon is a world that's given up on anything of serious moral character (see the references to the dissolution of the temples) in lieu of watching enemies of the regime be killed in VR broadcasts as a sort of blood sport. It's certainly interesting, but gets a little confused. I have a sense that this script could have used a few more passes to polish it up a bit.
That said, I found this an enjoyable experience. I'll be checking out its twin story later on this season, but for now it's back to 1974 for Invasion of the Dinosaurs next.
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 10 April 2021.)
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