nwhyte's review against another edition
3.0
The third series of BBC Doctor Who audios by Paul Magrs, starring Tom Baker, have drastically improved on the first two by shifting to full cast plays and not having Richard Franklin as Mike Yates. The first episode here had us in a cyborg version of the later Russian Empire; here we have something narrsty in a Victorian vicarage, the vicar being ably played by Terence Hardiman. The young boy at the centre of the story is played by Guy Harvey, who struggles a little with the long passages of exposition inflicted on him by Magrs, but otherwise this is a rather good episode, Susan Jameson as the Doctor's companion Mrs Wibbsey being on top form, and Baker himself being unusually disciplined.
nwhyte's review against another edition
2.0
Latest of the Serpent Crest series of Tom Baker audios, with the Doctor and Susan Jameson's Mrs Wibbsey trapped in an underground cavern filled with treasure and a boy called Aladdin (who appears to be the same boy from the two previous audios and is certainly also played by Guy Harvey). It's a bit of a run-around tale, whose most interesting idea is the Doctor's scarf coming to life and acquiring the voice of Andrew Sachs, and need not detain those who have not yet got into this series. I have better hopes for the coming Big Finish audios with Baker reunited with Louise Jameson and Mary Tamm.
nwhyte's review
4.0
On the whole, the BBC audio series by Paul Magrs with Tom Baker reprising his Fourth Doctor have not really grabbed me. But I felt that The Hexford Invasion, the fourth of the Serpent Crest series, was a significant improvement, largely because the excellent Susan Jameson is given her head as the Doctor's housekeeper / companion Mrs Wibbsey. She was rather callously left behind to do the dishes at the end of the last episode; now she must suddenly deal with Mike Yates and UNIT, showing up with a scruffy but authoritative little man who calls himself the Doctor but is nothing like "her" Doctor. Magrs, and even more so Jameson, superbly capture the fannish feeling of confuion and loss when the Doctor one knew best is replaced by someone else (especially if your favourite Doctor is Tom Baker) and though the plot is as absurd as usual the three main cast are all brilliant. David Troughton doesn't sound hugely like his father (I thought he was more Pat-ish in Titus Andronicus), but we are left in some doubt as to whether his character really is the Second Doctor, and anyway he is up to his usual standards. And the Tom Baker / Susan Jameson chemistry has never been better. I hope that the final episode in this sequence matches this.
nwhyte's review against another edition
3.0
I had very much enjoyed the fourth episode in this series, The Hexford Invasion, and had been hoping that the climax would reach the same standards. It didn't, quite; the resolution of why there are two Doctors was pretty much as I had expected, though Tom Baker gets some marvellous carpet-chewing moments, and the resolution of the entire plot of the series does knit up the ravelled strands rather well. But it's vaguely satisfying rather than terribly exciting, and alas we have Richard Franklin returning as Mike Yates to try and carry the narrative. I rather hope that this marks the end of this particular run; it was good to get Tom Baker back in business, but the Big Finish plays he has been doing more recently show more promise.
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