Death Match (#4.4)

  Big Finish, Fourth Doctor Series

 

The Doctor receives a request for help from Marshal, the rocket man who caught Leela's eye and gave her someone to teach. And they are both off to find Leela, wherever she has been spirited off to. But with the title of this story, it can't be anywhere good. And as you may have guessed, there are fights throughout this story. It reminds me of other stories where people are sent into a maze and must fight for their lives. Except this isn't as much a maze as a bunch of corridors with random people and characters attacking you around every corner. Very space-aged roman colliseum story.

And it's FANTASTIC! It's pretty much part II of the stories with Marshal in them and Leela in her teaching role. We get a really fun argument on morality between the Master and the Doctor, then we get to see Leela and Marshal fighting the red knight. Or should he be green? And even K-9 is helping manipulate events to make things easier on our heroes without even resorting to his laser. Just a wonderfully done story with a bit of a heart-wrenching ending, though it wasn't difficult to predict. Sadly. At least it attempts to make Andred make a bit more sense for Leela in the TV series. Though he doesn't last long in the Gallifrey series!


Tom Baker (The Doctor), Louise Jameson (Leela), John Leeson (K9), Geoffrey Beevers (The Master), Susan Brown (Kastrella), Andy Secombe (Vargrave)

Writer: Matt Fitton

Director: Nicholas Briggs

Release: April 2015

© Laura Vilensky 2019