David Ferguson turns the spotlight on five First Doctor audios to listen to, four set during The Daleks’ Master Plan and the fifth featuring companion Katrina, influenced by the story…
The discovery of two missing episodes of The Daleks’ Master Plan (1965 – 1966), now available to watch on BBC iPlayer, has excited the Doctor Who fandom.
Coming into that story The Doctor’s travelling companions were Steven (Peter Purves) and Katarina (Adrienne Hill). The character of Steven debuted in The Chase (1965), replacing original companions Barbara and Ian, and his debut story is still available in its entirety. Katarina, however, only debuted in the previous story, The Myth Makers (1966), which is completely lost. The addition of episodes one, “The Nightmare Begins”, and three, “Devil’s Planet”, to The Daleks’ Master Plan’s available episodes brings her available episodes up to three, adding to episode two, “Day of Armageddon”.
The story adds the character of Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh) to the TARDIS crew, but Marsh herself did not consider herself an official companion as she was never announced as one. Episode ten, “Escape Switch”, is her only surviving appearance.
As you may know from my previous article, I am a fan of the Big Finish audio dramas and the company has done a lot of stories set in The First Doctor Era. These include a number of stories set during The Daleks’ Master Plan, specifically between episode seven, “The Feast of Steven”, and episode eight, “Volcano.”
In addition to that, they have brought back the character of Katarina, with Ajjaz Awad replacing the Adrienne Hill, who sadly passed away in 1997. I thought I would look at some of these audios, outlined here in release order.
Home Truths (2008)
Written by Simon Guerrier
Cast: Jean Marsh and Niall MacGregor
• Available direct from Big Finish here
Plot: There’s an old house across the waters at Ely where an old woman tells strange stories of her travels with a man named Steven and the mysterious person known as The Doctor.
This Companion Chronicles episode sees Jean Marsh return to the character of Sara Kingdom for the first time since 1966. Niall MacGregor acts as narrator and plays Robert, a man visiting the old house to hear Sara Kingdom’s story. Those familiar with the character’s continuity will wonder how this is possible and I was unsure of the story at first. However, Simon Guerrier has come up a brilliant idea and once it all clicks in place it is a wonderful story.
This is a self-contained story but I do recommend the other two stories in the trilogy, also by Guerrier, called The Drowned World (2009) and The Guardian of the Solar System (2010).
The Anachronauts (2012)
Written by Simon Guerrier
Cast: Jean Marsh and Peter Purves
• Available direct from Big Finish here
Plot: An experimental timeship smashes into the TARDIS. The Doctor, Steven, Sara and the crew of the other ship wake up on a desert island. The TARDIS is nowhere to be found.
This story is set directly after the events of “The Feast of Steven” as The Doctor and his companions celebrate Christmas at the beginning of story. Peter Purves does a pretty good First Doctor and this almost feels like a full cast audio. With four parts, there is plenty of space to expand on the characters and in particular the relationship between Steven and Sara. Some interesting twists and turns.
An Ordinary Life (2014)
Written by Matt Fitton
Cast: A full cast including Jean Marsh as Sara and Peter Purves as Steven and The Doctor.
• Available direct from Big Finish here
Plot: 1950s London saw many newcomers from places like India and Jamaica. Added to them are some people from further afield. The TARDIS crash lands and Sara and Steven end up stranded in an era that is thousands of years before their own times.
The full cast of An Early Adventure brings more actors who help Matt Fitton paint the picture of the ordinary lives of 1950s immigrants, The Newmans. This is the kind of story Fitton excels at with an apt title for the writer. There is comedy in Sara and Steven trying to adapt to their new normal, as this is a Doctor-lite story. Again, the story builds on their relationship.
The Sontarans (2016)
Written by Simon Guerrier
Cast: A full cast including Jean Marsh as Sara, Peter Purves as Steven and The Doctor and Dan Starkey as various Sontarans.
• Available direct from Big Finish here
Plot: The TARDIS arrives on a moon-sized asteroid orbiting two gas giants. It is a chance for the Doctor, Steven and Sara to unwind after their recent adventures. They quickly find themselves up against foes familiar to Sara and Steven, but not The Doctor. The Sontarans.
The simple title is reminiscent of classic TV stories like The Daleks (1963-1964) and The Ice Warriors (1967). Named after the alien adversary making their debut. While not the first appearance of the Sontarans, it is established as the first time The Doctor meets them. Dan Starkey’s voice adds to the authenticity of the villains and this one is action packed. It feeds directly into episode eighth of The Daleks’ Master Plan, “The Volcano”.
Daughter Of The Gods (2019)
Written by David K.
Cast: A full cast including Ajjaz Awad as Katarina, Peter Purves as Steven and The Doctor, Wendy Padbury as Zoe and Frazer Hines as Jamie and The Doctor.
• Available direct from Big Finish here
Plot: Zoe finds a piece of equipment and reattaches it to the TARDIS console. It detects another ship in the vortex, which they narrowly avoid. When the land they encounter another Doctor, a space pilot named Steven and a woman named Katarina, who really shouldn’t be there.
This is my favourite multi-Doctor story, for several reasons. It features my favourite TARDIS team of Zoe and Jamie. There’s the interesting idea of using Katarina, and both Frazer Hines and Peter Purves do my favourite impressions of their respective Doctors.
Big Finish put it together to celebrate 20 years of producing Doctor Who audios: the title is a reference to a monologue from The Daleks’ Master Plan and the story heavily influenced this one.
Interestingly, this not Ajjaz Awad’s first appearance as Katarina, as she had appeared in “Companion Piece”, a part of The Eighth Doctor boxset, Ravenous 3. Outside of these stories, Jean Marsh also appears as Sara in Daleks – The Destroyers (2010), a Lost Story based on a script for a Dalek spin-off series, The Five Companions (2011) and The Light At The End (2013). Peter Purves has appeared in many audios, too numerous to list here.
I will note the Companion Chronicle, The Perpetual Bond (2011) as I enjoyed that one and it takes place directly after The Daleks’ Master Plan.
David Ferguson
Big Finish Productions is a production company, publisher and distributor, producing CDs, downloads and books.
They are perhaps best known for their Doctor Who ranges of full-cast audio dramas (and its various spin-offs) but they also produce a wide range other series, including Torchwood, Blake’s 7, Dark Shadows, Terrahawks, The Avengers, The Prisoner, Survivors, The Omega Factor, Space: 1999, Adam Adamant Lives!, Timeslip, Callan, Sherlock Holmes and more.
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
David is a writer of stuff on comics and pop culture for GCN.ie. He is also a contributor and editor (Hugo nominated) for Journey Planet
Categories: Audio, Digital Media, Doctor Who, downthetubes News, Other Worlds, Science Fiction, Television
Revisiting the comic strips that inspired “Doctor Who: The Vampire Plants & Other Stories” 
Five Places To Start Listening to Doctor Who Audio Adventures 
The World of Doctor Who: Panel to Panel interviews artist Martin Geraghty 
New Fifth Doctor Audio Adventures announced for 2025 from Big Finish
Leave a Reply