Doctor Who review: The First Doctor Adventures: Volume Two (audio)

Following on from the highly successful first volume, Big Finish have now released the second volume of The First Doctor Adventures, starring David Bradley as the Doctor!

When the first volume of The First Doctor Adventures came out on Christmas Day last year, I loved it almost straight away. The distinct Sixties feel, the well-written stories and the excellent cast all helped to make those first two stories feel incredibly authentic to Doctor Who‘s first season. Especially for fans of the original TARDIS team, like myself.

Many months after listening to those first two stories over and over again, we finally have the release of Volume Two. How strong are the next two stories in the series?

In The Invention of Death, the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan land on one of the strangest worlds they’ve visited yet…

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

The Invention of Death

The Invention of Death is a wonderfully pure science-fiction story from John Dorney. It beautifully captures that feeling of exploration and the unknown that were common to those early stories.

What really helps to sell how authentic The Invention of Death is is how slow-paced it feels. That’s not a criticism, far from it, in fact. When the story begins, Dorney presents us with a world and a race so completely alien to our own, that the story needs to take its time to flesh that race out properly.

And it does such an excellent job of world-building with the setting of Ashtallah. It’s interesting that there are only two key characters other than the regulars themselves. But it’s through the two aliens Sharlan and Brenna that we get such a clear idea of how their world works. How their culture is and how they live their lives.

And it’s all built around one crucial difference between their race and the rest of the universe. It’s a brilliantly simple idea that Dorney’s come up with in this story. So exploring how their race and their world face a major change is fascinating to hear.

Even better, along with the rich and interesting themes that this story explores, it’s also filled with excellent drama, too. While it begins light enough, The Invention of Death takes some very dark turns along the way. By the time it finishes, the ending is nothing short of gut-wrenching.

A well written team

Dorney does an excellent job of writing the TARDIS crew, too. Particularly the First Doctor and how difficult he can be with everyone else. He still has far too much arrogance at times, and as much as he believes he knows everything, it’s clear that he still has much to learn. (Especially when it comes to humans, at the very least.) It’s incredibly faithful to how Hartnell’s Doctor was in the first season.

And Bradley portrays that absolutely brilliantly. Honestly, how his Doctor is written in The Invention of Death is incredibly superior to Steven Moffat’s approach in Twice Upon a Time. And Bradley really lives up to that.

All the vocal mannerisms; the moments of sheer awkwardness when he said the wrong thing; the mixture of dangerous arrogance and childlike curiosity that made Hartnell’s Doctor so wonderful. Bradley portrays all of these key little details and more so brilliantly.

And that high quality performance continues in the next story, as the TARDIS crew head to 19th century Japan…

The TARDIS team arrive in 19th century Japan, and become caught in a great deal of political intrigue in The Barbarians and the Samurai. (Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

The Barbarians and the Samurai

Once again, like the first volume’s The Great White Hurricane, we get another excellent historical with The Barbarians and the Samurai.

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In some ways, Andrew Smith takes exactly the same approach as Dorney did with his story. Specifically, he takes his time exploring this very different society, and we’re introduced to a world as different to us as Ashtallah is. Which is exactly how a pure historical like this should be told.

Unlike The Invention of Death, however, The Barbarians and the Samurai has a huge cast of characters. The story is as filled with schemers and power hungry villains as it is with heroes and victims.

The theme of honor is deeply explored, which is very fitting for a story set during this time and location. With this theme, many of the characters are seen to have shades of grey to them. Some situations aren’t as simple as everyone being “good” or “evil”, although certainly, there are some very nasty characters in this story.

The Barbarians and the Samurai is a wonderfully rich story, and once again proves exactly just what The First Doctor Adventures can really do.

A strong second volume

Once again, I’m amazed by just how fantastic The First Doctor Adventures is. Both The Invention of Death and The Barbarians and the Samurai are incredibly authentic stories. Both John Dorney and Andrew Smith completely understand the appeal of the original era, and why those stories still have a strong appeal even now.

At the same time, they also provide a freshness to their stories that avoid simply copying the success of those original serials. Both of their stories are rich in both themes and emotional drama.

So even while they capture that distinct Sixties feel, these two stories also feel modern, too. It’s a difficult balance to get right, but both writers have achieved it incredibly well.

The second volume of The First Doctor Adventures is another amazing success, and I cannot wait for volume three to come out next year.

Next. Series Eleven – five things we can expect. dark

Have you checked out The First Doctor Adventures yet? What do you make of David Bradley’s performance as the First Doctor? How well do you think these new stories capture the feel of the original era? Let us know in the comments below.

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