Doctor Who review: The Companion Chronicles: The Vardan Invasion of Mirth

Steven finds himself in the world of 1950s comedy, in the third story of Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles: The First Doctor – Volume Three, The Vardan Invasion of Mirth.

The Vardan Invasion of Mirth. What a fantastic Doctor Who title. It is admittedly a huge giveaway, (the Vardans aren’t properly revealed until over halfway through the story,) but I must admit, it is a good one.

However, the story itself just might be even better. Paul Morris’s and Ian Atkins’s story focuses on Steven in 1950s London, as he finds himself separated from the Doctor. It’s not the first time he’s found himself stuck there – last time, he had been with Sara living an An Ordinary Life.

But this time, he’s on his own. To find a way back to the Doctor, he needs to work in television – and he needs comedian Teddy Baxter’s help to do it…

Morris and Atkins find a right balance between mystery and drama with this story. The first half of the story focuses on Steven being a fish out of water, trying to find a way back to the Doctor while making a living in the meantime. He occasionally gets messages from the Doctor, but not much else, and even those messages aren’t clear ones. So there’s a good bit of intrigue there, especially when we reach the cliffhanger. (Oh, and it might not be what you’re expecting, either.)

Peter Purves and Stephen Critchlow form a great double act in The Vardan Invasion of Mirth.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions. Image Courtesy: Big Finish Productions.)

Comedy and drama

But what really drives the story is how it explores both Steven and Teddy. Teddy’s a great character who’s written well, and he’s very much of his time. He doesn’t believe in television, even while he finds himself working within it. He’s even more afraid of it killing the business for stand-up comedy.

What’s really fantastic about Teddy is that he’s not just a one-dimensional character. He’s not someone limited to just being the comic relief. In fact, he has a lot of hidden depths, as the story reveals. Stephen Critchlow gives a great performance as the character, and the double act he forms with Peter Purves’s Steven is fantastic – one’s a master of comedy, the other hardly gets it at all.

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One thing that really surprised me about this story is how, despite the title, The Vardan Invasion of Mirth hardly features the Vardans at all. Originally appearing in TV story The Invasion of Time before Big Finish fleshed them out, this is the first story where they appear where the title directly references them. So it’s actually genuinely surprising that they don’t appear, or aren’t even directly referred to for most of the story.

Don’t get me wrong, the story works well enough on its own terms, and like I said, the title is fantastic. But it’s surprising that, for a one-off villain that Big Finish have taken and greatly improved into a genuine threat, they hardly appear in one of the only stories that references them in the title itself.

 The Vardan Invasion of Mirth is a really solid story. It’s a great listen with a lot of heart and a lot of nostalgia for a particular era. Another strong story for The Companion Chronicles: The First Doctor – Volume Three.

Have you listened to previous stories involving the Vardans? Do you think that Big Finish have handled them better than what we’ve seen in their brief TV appearance? Let us know in the comments below.