After all these years, we finally have a series of full-cast Fourth Doctor Adventures boxsets with Sarah Jane Smith as the companion, taking place during Season 13! This is what I’ve been longing for since Sadie Miller debuted voicing her beloved late mother Elisabeth Sladen’s iconic role, plus Christopher Naylor as Harry Sullivan (originally portrayed by Ian Marter), in Return of the Cybermen (The Lost Stories). With Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Jon Culshaw) also joining them for these new audios, they’re all keeping the Fourth Doctor himself, Tom Baker, in very good company.
Set after The Android Invasion, the first volume of 4DA Series 15 involves the Doctor and Sarah back on Earth assisting UNIT on two separate missions, as a result of the Brigadier summoning them with the Space-Time Telegraph.
We open with The Ministry of Death (which shares the same title as the boxset), a four-parter by Robert Valentine, where the team investigate bizarre deaths that pinpoint to Diana Stravius (Carolyn Seymour), a mad scientist with an agenda to revive her husband Walter (Richard James, who also voices Deverell). Wayne Forester voices Prendergast and the monstrous Postman, while Carla Mendonça voices Mildred Harbin and Miss Price.
The script brings the gothic horror vibes of Season 13, brilliantly maintaining faithfulness to Philip Hinchcliffe’s vision; Very much along the lines of Classic serials like Pyramids of Mars, The Brain of Morbius, and also The Seeds of Doom. I couldn’t be more impressed with how terrifying and tragic it turned out.
The Inhuman Empire, a two-parter by Phil Mulryne, picks up from where The Ministry of Death left off, as Sarah tags along with her old friend Alison Carmichael (Jayne Ashbourne) to investigate some mysterious alien activities at the National Museum; all surrounding curator Carson Baylis (John Heffernan) and director Sir William Kenyon (Nick Ellsworth). With the Doctor also joining them, they discover that the aliens involved are none other than… the Autons.
I figured that a familiar monster would appear in the story, but I didn’t expect it to be the Nestenes at all, despite the National Museum being the same location that appeared in The Big Bang (which exhibited the Pandorica and a certain Stone Dalek). Their unexpected return had me gasping in shock, as I immediately recognised the sound effects. The script works marvellously well as a spiritual successor to both Spearhead from Space and Terror of the Autons, fresh from rehashing old storylines. On that note, I was somehow reminded of Lewis Greifer’s original script for Pyramids of Mars (later rewritten by Robert Holmes), which involved a similar plot at the British Museum but with the Brigadier possibly being killed off.
Furthermore, I remember emailing Vortex Mail (see issue 149, from 2021) to ask if there were any plans to do a 3DA audio with the Third Doctor (Tim Treloar), Sarah, and UNIT battling the Autons, and Nicholas Briggs simply responded: “These are certainly some exciting suggestions…” Considering that The Ministry of Death and The Inhuman Empire were both recorded in 2020, it’s safe to say my wish partially came true, albeit with the Fourth Doctor and Sarah having their first chronological encounter with the living plastic creatures.
The entire anthology is outstanding — a perfect starting point for Doctor Who fans and casual listeners alike. It’s also an excellent way to introduce the Season 13 era for the 4DA range, after being overlooked by Big Finish for many years, with Invasion of the Body Stealers (from Classic Doctors New Monsters 4: Broken Memories) being the first full-cast audio story to feature the Fourth Doctor travelling with just Sarah. Not to mention that The Curse of Time is also the first original Season 12 audio story, as it celebrates 50 years of Tom Baker’s debut. Well, some of the early 4DA audios were originally planned to feature Elisabeth Sladen before her passing in 2011, which Tom specifically mentioned in his heartbreaking tribute:
“Sarah Jane dead? No, impossible! Impossible. Only last week I agreed to do six new audio adventures with her for Big Finish Productions. She can’t be dead. But she is: she died yesterday morning.”
Nonetheless, I’ll forever be grateful to Big Finish for casting Sadie, whose vocal impression remains marvellously uncanny in her mother’s honour. Since Lis would’ve turned 80 this year, it should also be noted that it was almost 20 years ago when she returned to Doctor Who in School Reunion, before getting her full spin-off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures. (Please do check out the two chapters I wrote for the book Just Sarah!) And talking of spin-offs, it’s also worth checking out Big Finish’s Smith & Sullivan, which very much acts as a sequel to K9 & Company: so wonderful to have Harry meeting K9 Mark III (voiced by John Leeson) on audio!
After the Loch Ness Monster incident in Terror of the Zygons, with The Android Invasion lacking proper closure, it’s so refreshing for the Doctor and Sarah to return to familiar ground and reunite with Harry and the Brigadier. I love how both stories revisit the character traits of this bohemian incarnation wanting to travel the universe instead of working for UNIT, which began in his debut serial Robot. The same goes for the funny moments where the Doctor gets annoyed with the Brigadier about his old job, and also craves for a Knickerbocker glory; I couldn’t stop laughing my head off. Feels like watching an actual episode produced in the 1970s with Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Ian Marter, and Nicholas Courtney.
As the next volume, Lethal Progress, involves the Doctor and Sarah travelling into the future, I’m very curious about what the third and final one will focus on. Maybe it’ll explore their adventures as Orion Hood and Sarah Joan Watson in Baker Street, or the Brigadier will use the Space-Time Telegraph again for another mission. Who knows?
The Ministry of Death is available now from Big Finish.
