Big Finish, The Early Adventures, Season 3
Overall the plot for this story is rather crazy. How many times can Steven be tortured in one story line, anyway? And the beginning was either not playing right on my device or things jumped around like mad, which made it confusing. First the Earth Security forces are going to shoot the Doctor and Steven, then Sara Kingdom shows up and kicks butt so they’re not shot on her orders, then a Sontaran saves Steven in order to torture him, it’s just a bit harsh for a first Doctor story. It fits the era but at the same time, they do things that never, ever would’ve been shown on TV!
The story begins with the TARDIS crew landing on an asteroid covered in flowers. Sara walks off to investigate and Steven and the Doctor are quickly captured and threatened with being shot, then Sontarans show up, all guns blazing. Yet we discover later that they’re not at war with the Humans, only the Ruutan. So why are they there shooting up the Humans? Why bother? That’s never quite clear to me.
Sara and the Doctor stay with a couple of the Earth Security forces and manage to get to the target, a weapon they need to get rid of before it can fire on the convoy of ships that is passing through the system. Then things get even weirder with the Sontarans and the Doctor does manage to save the day but if it wasn’t for Peter Purves’s excellent acting in this one, I think I might not have made it through. He really makes this story work!
Peter Purves (Steven/The Doctor/Narrator), Jean Marsh (Sara Kingdom), Dan Starkey (Corporal Ellis/Slite/Shrok/Stack/Commander), Jemma Churchill (Captain Papas), John Banks (Corporal Gage), Rosanna Miles (Tinder/Human Soldier)
Writer: Simon Guerrier
Director: Ken Bentley
Release: December 2016