Doctor Who: Counter-Measures – A spin-off of two eras

The Counter-Measures cast, L to R: Hugh Ross (Sir Toby Kinsella), Pamela Salem (Professor Rachel Jensen), Simon Williams (Group Captain Gilmore), and Karen Gledhill (Allison Williams).

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

With its recent return, we look back at the history of Doctor Who audio spin-off Counter-Measures. What is it, and what makes it so special?

Out of Big Finish’s many audio dramas, Counter-Measures is definitely one that stands out. For almost eight years, it’s been one of the more successful Doctor Who spin-offs from Big Finish, with seven series, two eras, and even a couple of direct crossovers.

Of course, the story of Counter-Measures begins much earlier than that. In 1988, Sylvester McCoy’s second season as the Seventh Doctor kicked off in a big way with Remembrance of the Daleks. Clever, exciting, and action-packed, Ben Aaronovitch’s story also featured many distinctive characters.

Three that stood out, in particular, were Professor Rachel Jensen, Group Captain Gilmore, and Allison Williams, played by Pamela Salem, Simon Williams, and Karen Gledhill, respectively. Initially a group investigating strange goings-on at Coal Hill School, they proved to be more than effective allies for the Doctor during the course of the story. However, as great as the characters were, I don’t think anyone could have seen what would happen with them over two decades later.

In 2012, Big Finish decided to create a brand new spin-off based on these characters. This was a considerable risk: while Remembrance of the Daleks is an undeniably massively popular story, there were many reasons for its success beyond its guest characters. It didn’t help that we only barely got to know this team during this one story. Would a spin-off focusing on them be worth it?

A clear success

When Counter-Measures: Series 1 was released back in 2012, it was a clear success for Big Finish. It established an audience extremely quickly, and it’s easy to see why.

Firstly, the characters are, perhaps unsurprisingly, considerably more fleshed out. Taking inspiration not just from the original serial, but even its novelization, we got to find out a lot more about each of the main characters’ personal lives, their beliefs, and their shared history. Combined with strong performances from the original cast members, and you had a hugely appealing team of characters.

Of course, let’s not forget the only original regular character of the series: Sir Toby Kinsella. A British civil servant who oversaw Counter-Measures, you often have the sense that he’s working towards his own agenda, and you’re never sure whether to completely trust him, especially during the early volumes. Hugh Ross plays Sir Toby with precisely the right amount of charm and dryness that a character like this needs, and feels as essential to Counter-Measures as any of the pre-existing characters.

A gritty tone

On top of that, the spin-off also features a rather distinctive tone, especially during the early volumes. When the series begins, it’s set firmly in the Sixties, and indeed, the makers of the series aimed to capture that early Sixties-style as much as possible.

Along with a distinct tone of hard-edged sci-fi mixed with gritty realism and paranoia, the music and sound design manage to capture that Sixties vibe perfectly. With the team’s investigations into the strange and unknown, the series came across like a Sixties version of The X-Files or Fringe.

For the first two box sets, most of the stories were heavily standalone, although hints of an arc would crop up which would be tied up in the final episode. But in series 3, Counter-Measures became even more arc heavy, focusing on a conspiracy that was explored even further in the fourth box set – a set that seemed to end with the destruction of the entire team…

After an explosive ending, the spin-off was refreshed in a big and bold way as The New Counter-Measures.

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

The New Counter-Measures

A year after Counter-Measures ended, the series was brought back in 2016, but with an “updated” take. The New Counter-Measures brought back the whole original team but set ten years later.

Unsurprisingly, the Seventies setting provided a different tone for the series. While The New Counter-Measures still gave us stories with a more grounded approach in its sci-fi, (at least, generally speaking,) the tone was distinctly lighter overall and featured more of a global scale.

Sadly, The New Counter-Measures wasn’t quite as successful as its predecessor and was canceled after two series. However, while it looked like The Hollow King would be the spin-off’s final story, it turned out that Big Finish had decided to end the series on a high. And so, last week saw the release of not one but two brand new special stories. Stories that were very closely linked: The Movellan Manoeuvre and The Dalek Gambit.

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Other appearances

Is this the last we’ll ever hear from the Counter-Measures team? It’s difficult to say. While The New Counter-Measures wasn’t quite as successful as the original era, there is no doubt that the overall series has its fans.

On top of that, the characters have featured in other stories, including Seventh Doctor audio The Assassination Games (which in fact proved to be rather pivotal to the original era of the spin-off), the Seventh Doctor’s own comic series, and even Big Finish’s twentieth-anniversary box set The Legacy of Time. In fact, in the last example, rather than pick just one era of the spin-off, the episode featured the team in both the Sixties and the Seventies!

So I’m sure we’ll hear from the characters again eventually. But will it be in their own series or in others? Only time will tell…

Have you checked out Counter-Measures? Are you a fan of the team’s original story, Remembrance of the Daleks? If you haven’t checked out the series, is it a spin-off that appeals to you? Let us know in the comments below.