In Review: Big Finish – Doctor Who: The Early Adventures 2:1 – The Yes Men

Synopsis: The Doctor, Jamie, Polly and Ben arrive on New Houston, an Earth colony in the Fourth Sector, which the Doctor previously saved from an alien invasion. He wishes to pay his respects to his late friend Meg Carvossa, but something is not quite right with New Houston’s subservient robots…

Review: One of my Big Finish highlights of last year was the first series of their ‘Doctor Who: Early Adventures’ range, which was a fantastic treat and opportunity for me and many fans to enjoy some new ‘First Doctor’ adventures.

The series is of course back and this time out it focuses on some new second doctor adventures, which feature his original Tardis crew made up of Polly, Ben and Jamie.

The story is very much a second doctor style adventure and rather political in a sense.

While visiting New Houston to pay his respects to Meg Carvossa the Doctor finds that all is not as it seems and winds up inadvertently drawn into a robot rebellion.

The acting performances in this are top notch. Elliot Chapman does a fantastic job of playing Ben who was originally played in the classic show by the late Mike Craze. Praise also should go to Frazier Hines who once again does double duty as Jamie and the second Doctor. His interpretation of the Doctor is pretty much dead on with how the late Patrick Troughton voiced it.

It was also fantastic to hear the return of Anneke Wills as Polly who did double duty as the stories narrator.

There are some fantastic touches in the story, which help ground it as being a work of 1960s Doctor Who. A great example would be the ‘Flat Computer’ as apposed to a tablet.

The sequence in which the robots take Jamie prisoner give some fun insights into Jamie’s time as a soldier fighting for his clan. And the playful banter between Jamie and Ben is a lot of fun.

The story, which is written by Simon Guerrier and directed by the fantastic Lisa Bowerman is a super start to the early adventures of the second doctor. I can’t wait for next months release.

• You can get your own copy of ‘Doctor Who: The Early Adventures 2:1 – The Yes Men’ at: www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-yes-men-1076