Doctor Who: The Legacy of Time review: The Avenues of Possibility reveals the major enemy of the box set
By James Aggas
The Sixth Doctor and Charley are facing problems from alternate timelines, and the enemy is fully revealed in the penultimate episode of Doctor Who: The Legacy of Time.
The fifth episode of Doctor Who: The Legacy of Time features the Sixth Doctor and Charley reunited with their friend DI Patricia Menzies. A Manchester cop they first met in The Condemned (well, technically), Menzies has become something of a key figure when it comes to dealing with aliens and strange events. (And if you think the idea of a sarcastic Northern cop dealing with stranger cases sounds perfect for a spin-off, you’re not the only one!)
The trio have to investigate mysterious portals leading to the past. But when dangerous armed forces turn up, they find out that things are about to get much, much more complicated…
Honestly, listening to this trio again gave this writer a huge feeling of nostalgia, and I’m sure that will be true for many long-term Big Finish listeners, too. The Condemned and The Raincloud Man were two very strong releases, and that was because of how strong the trio of Six, Charley and Menzies was.
Whereas those previous stories had been written by Eddie Robson, Jonathan Morris writes for this particular team this time. He handles them extremely well, and it certainly helps that he’s written for Six and Menzies before in The Crimes of Thomas Brewster. (In which Menzies met the Doctor for the third time, but it was the first time that he met her.)
DI Menzies first met the Doctor and Charley in 2008’s The Condemned.
(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
The threat revealed
The threat in this story is an intriguing one, as the story explores alternative timelines. An armed force has arrived to terrorize the inhabitants of the Eighteenth century – but who’s helping it?
The Avenues of Possibility is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a key episode in the arc told by The Legacy of Time, as it reveals in full exactly who the major threat of the box set is. This was something strongly hinted at in previous episodes, but it’s with this episode that they step out of the shadows.
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What’s even better is how Charley is used in this story. For reasons specific to her character, Charley becomes a key plot point late in the episode. Her character has been keeping something secret from the Doctor for a while, something big. Is the Doctor about to find out at the worst possible time?
It’s unsurprising to know that, originally, this episode was meant to feature the popular duo of Jago and Litefoot. This box set has been in the planning stages for an extremely long time, and initially, it wouldn’t have made sense for a box set that felt like a cross between multi-Doctor epic and Big Finish universe crossover not to feature the two leads from one of their most successful series.
Sadly, Trevor Baxter’s death in 2017 meant that the story had to go through some radical changes. But the two characters of Henry and John Fielding work very well in their place. Mainly because they’re definitely not Jago & Litefoot. They’re distinctly their own characters, and work very well with the Sixth Doctor, Charley and Menzies. It’s sad to think of what might have been, but the episode still works extremely well in its own right.
The Avenues of Possibility is another strong episode in The Legacy of Time. Like the previous episodes, it works at being a decent standalone story. But it also works at putting the key elements of the major arc into place for the final story. Does that episode live up to expectations? Expect our final review for The Legacy of Time very soon…
Next. Review – The Fifth Doctor meets his daughter in Relative Time. dark
Have you listened to previous stories with the Sixth Doctor, Charley and DI Menzies? Would you like to see Menzies appear in more audios? Let us know in the comments below.