Doctor Who: How Big Finish’s Third Doctor Adventures are a wonderful tribute to a much-loved era

The Third Doctor Adventures, which have recast Tim Treloar in the iconic lead role, have been very successful. But what makes them such a strong success?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions. Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

With Jon Pertwee’s centenary and Big Finish celebrating twenty years of their Doctor Who audios this month, we’ve decided to look at how their Third Doctor Adventures are a wonderful tribute to Pertwee’s legacy.

Big Finish have taken many risks over the past twenty years. Whether it’s creating a bold new spin-off, teaming New Series characters with Classic Series ones, or pushing their favorite characters into bold and radically different directions, the company has never shied away from taking risks. In fact, it could be argued that making Doctor Who stories on audio in the first place was a huge risk, considering how limited the market for the medium can be compared to television and films.

But perhaps their biggest risk was The Third Doctor Adventures. In 2015, Big Finish decided to try a new way of telling stories with the Third Doctor. Whereas before, his part would usually be voiced by someone who had played a friend or companion of the Third Doctor – often, while they were telling a story from the companion’s perspective in The Companion Chronicles – this time, they wanted to go for full-cast stories. With a new actor playing the role of the Third Doctor.

Considering that a huge part of Big Finish’s appeal was how they used the original actors to play the Doctor, this was a bold move for them. Especially compared to the early days, when they made it clear that they would not recast any of the Doctors. If it went wrong, they could easily have lost a huge part of their audience.

But it didn’t. For several years, The Third Doctor Adventures has been a series that many fans look forward to. And there are several key reasons for that.

Strong stories

Like most of Big Finish’s other Doctor Who series, The Third Doctor Adventures have been extremely effective at recapturing the original era. They feature many stories that feel appropriate to the feel and tone of those rather colorful years.

One thing that helps is that most of the sets are neatly divided into Earth invasion stories and off-world adventures, the latter of which usually feel somewhat political. Considering how often the Third Doctor’s TV stories were extremely politically influenced, this works very nicely at recapturing that era.

More than that – they’re really solid adventures. Stories like The Havoc of Empires, The Transcendence of Ephros and Storm of the Horofax, to name a few, are all brilliant listens. What really makes these stories stand out is that, along with capturing the style and fun of the original era, they also have an added emotional weight to them, too.

This is true of many of Big Finish’s Doctor Who stories in general, in fact – adventures that understand the appeal of the original era, while having a hint of something new and fresh, too. It’s a combination that works very well, and it’s continued to work well for The Third Doctor Adventures.

And the stories in the series have continued to be extremely strong ones. Just a couple of months ago, volume five of The Third Doctor Adventures was released. Once again, the quality of the stories was amazing.

What was particularly impressive was the casting of both Jon Culshaw as the Brigadier and Daisy Ashford as Liz Shaw. Both of these characters are an iconic part of this era, and recasting both roles was risky. But, at the same time, they also worked brilliantly, and helped to make The Third Doctor Adventures feel even more authentic.

Speaking of recasts…

Tim Treloar does an excellent job at recapturing Pertwee’s performance, and along with Katy Manning, really helps to bring that 70s magic back.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions. Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Tim Treloar

Of course, one key reason for the series’ success is who Big Finish cast in the role of the Third Doctor: Tim Treloar. Originally voicing Pertwee’s incarnation very briefly in fiftieth anniversary story The Light at the End, Treloar was then given the role fully in the first volume of The Third Doctor Adventures.

Initially, he also served as the narrator too – partially, as a way to say that he wasn’t simply voicing the character directly, just filling in his voice when the narration required. But this was completely phased out in subsequent volumes, due to how well his casting had been received by the fandom.

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It’s not surprising. Treloar does an extremely good job at capturing Pertwee’s Doctor. The voice isn’t a perfect impression, but it does an excellent job at capturing Pertwee’s vocal mannerisms and quirks. After a while, it becomes very easy to forget it’s a recast and imagine Pertwee completely.

Recapturing the magic

What perhaps sells it best – more than the performance itself – is the amazing chemistry Treloar shares with Katy Manning. Manning had a close working relationship with Jon Pertwee, and she could have easily said no to working opposite someone playing his old role. But she didn’t, and in fact, has welcomed Treloar with open arms.

More than that: together, Tim and Katy have recaptured the magic that Katy originally shared with Jon in the original episodes. And that’s an incredible achievement. Doing a good performance as Pertwee’s Doctor is one thing – a performance that continues to get better and better with subsequent volumes. But the magic between two such iconic characters is even more special and difficult to recapture, and the fact that this has been achieved so easily is arguably the greatest success of The Third Doctor Adventures.

For all of these reasons, Big Finish and everyone involved have done an excellent job at bringing back such a greatly loved era. It’s a huge achievement, and I hope that Big Finish continue to make such excellent stories for a long time to come.

Have you listened to The Third Doctor Adventures? Do you think it’s successful at recapturing such a greatly loved era? What do you think of Tim Treloar’s performance as the Third Doctor? Let us know in the comments below.