Doctor Who review: Mary Shelley and other Eighth Doctor companions feature in The Company of Friends
By James Aggas
Released back in 2009, Doctor Who: The Company of Friends explores several of the Eighth Doctor’s companions – including the legendary author Mary Shelley!
Ten years ago, and ten years after their first Doctor Who story was released, Big Finish released The Company of Friends. This wasn’t a special tenth anniversary release, but an interesting anthology focused around the Eighth Doctor. Each episode focused on one of his many companions. Not on television, of course, but from various media, with most of them appearing on audio for the first time.
Having said that, the first companion to feature is a major exception: Bernice Summerfield. A character who’s had an extremely successful life on audio, this adventure takes place alongside her own solo series, which had already been going on for over a decade when this was made.
While she had been mainly a companion to the Seventh Doctor, she had met the Eighth Doctor once before, in the novel The Dying Days. (There’s a nice nod to the, er, rather notable ending to that story in this episode.)
It’s nice to hear Benny alongside the Eighth Doctor. Even moreso after hearing their reunion in this month’s The Legacy of Time. While the Eighth Doctor in that story had been suffering from dealing with the Time War, in this much earlier meeting, Eight’s still fun, as he and Benny get involved in a mad adventure involving the TARDIS key.
The plot is simple, allowing for plenty of banter between these two characters. It’s a shame that these two don’t have adventures together more often, but Lance Parkin’s story does make it clear that, by this point, they’ve each got their own separate lives to lead.
Fitz and Izzy
The second episode features Fitz Kreiner, a (wannabe) ladies man originally from the Sixties. Matt di Angelo (best known to UK fans as Dean from EastEnders) does a good job performing the character and bringing him to life. There’s a good amount of humor in this episode, particularly on how the Doctor sometimes has to save planets more than once and can’t always be there to save the day. In some ways, the plot is light, but at the same time, it does leave you guessing.
Comic companion Izzy Sinclair features in the third episode. Izzy is a huge geek, something that this episode focuses on in a big way. It’s unsurprising, as the episode is written by Alan Barnes, who’s not only written many strong audios, but has also worked in comics. As a result, this episode is a huge tribute to British comics in general, with more than a wink to 2000AD (a comic that I’m still a fan of). Jemima Rooper plays Izzy, and she brings the character to life with a great deal of enthusiasm.
Mary’s Story
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All the stories in this anthology are enjoyable (if rather light or silly). But my favorite is definitely the last one, a considerably darker episode that introduces a previously unexplored companion for the Eighth Doctor: Mary Shelley. Yes, the Mary Shelley.
The audios had hinted about the Eighth Doctor knowing Mary for a long time, and this episode reveals how they met. Jonathan Morris writes an episode that’s absolutely rich in atmosphere, and unsurprisingly, has more than a nod to Frankenstein.
But there’s another layer that makes this episode so strong. The story feels like a true celebration of the Eighth Doctor. From his beginning to his end, or near enough. It highlights the journey that we know the Eighth Doctor goes on, both through the many stories that had been told already and the many more that had yet to be told. This was released at a time before Big Finish could truly explore the Time War, and yet Morris does an excellent job of making it a cast a long shadow over the episode.
It’s unsurprising that, out of all the companions featured in this anthology, it’s Mary Shelley that got several full stories with the Eighth Doctor. This is due to the quality of the story itself as well as how strong Julie Cox is as Mary. Overall, The Company of Friends is a fun anthology, but Mary’s Story definitely stands out as the strongest episode.
Next. Mary Shelley, Cybermen and what this could mean for Big Finish. dark
Have you listened to The Company of Friends? Do you have a favorite Eighth Doctor companion? If so, have they been explored on audio at all? Let us know in the comments below.