Two’s Company

You’ve regenerated! But Doctor, it’s the wrong face! You should have turned into my Doctor, except not here, not now.

Harry Sullivan

Synopsis

Back on Earth, the Doctor finds a clue in the search for the origins of the degeneration weapon. In his Sixth body, he meets Jackie Tyler and Lady Christina de Souza – thrown together by fate, or something more? – in pursuit of a powerful item of jewellery.

Meanwhile, a Time Lord renegade has duped Harry Sullivan into helping him stop the Doctor’s travels before they begin – and all are set on a collision course.

Review

With Two’s Company, we have reached the halfway point of Once and Future, the overarching storyline for Big Finish’s celebration of Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary. I think it’s safe to say that your mileage may vary when it comes to this one.

Two’s Company is a little big of a romp and it is mostly a fun ride, which doesn’t focus massively to the mysteries of the ongoing arc and is a lot of fun. There is a part of me that would have hoped that, given that the Two features in this story, that we would have perhaps got more substantive answers to the Doctor’s degeneration crisis, but I am confident that we will get those answers too. It is fun to have this story set in the early part of the revived series, with some time having passed since Harry travelled with the Doctor. The story does indicate that River is manipulating this storyline behind the scenes to ensure that the Doctor has the friends that he needs for the situation he finds himself in here, and there is perhaps potential for her showing up later, despite not being named in the original press release about the cast of Once and Future. I did appreciate that Two’s Company does give us an answer as to whether the companions will remember these encounters with the Doctor, which is something that has been on my mind since Past Lives. It is perhaps a little frustrating that the Doctor’s degeneration crisis ultimately leads to the solution to this story, following it being key to the conclusion of A Genius for War, but I did like the use of the telepathic circuits to defeat the Two.

One of the criticisms that I have seen levelled at Two’s Company is that it is symptomatic of Big Finish using a dartboard approach to bringing characters into the narrative. On the surface of it, the combination of an older Harry Sullivan, Jackie Tyler and Lady Christina de Souza does seem a little bit random and it is perhaps unsurprising that Lisa McMullin was given a combination of characters to work with rather than plot beats that she needed to hit. Overall, I think two out of the three of these characters make sense to be there. Unfortunately, Lady Christina does feel as though she could be any other character, with the exception of the scenes where her cat burglary expertise allows the Doctor to access the time portal. That being said, the class dynamic between Christina and Jackie Tyler is quite a fun element in this story. I will confess that I’m not the biggest fan of Lady Christina, but I have not listened to any of her Big Finish spin-off. Given when this story is set, she hasn’t met the Tenth Doctor yet and I’m not sure this story has very much to say about her character, except for Jackie attempting to mother her.

Esoterium cells are always trying to find each other. Elsewhere in London, there’s another sample calling out to this one like Cathy at Heathcliffe’s window.

The Sixth Doctor

Jackie and Harry, on the other hand, feel like much more natural characters to crop up in this time period. Jackie is just a lot of fun, getting to butt heads with a third incarnation of the Doctor and comes face to face with an old companion of the Doctor, who knows what can happen to unfortunate companions. There is a slight issue here, as the story states that Jackie is familiar with the idea of regeneration, so it could be assumed that Rose is currently off with the Tenth Doctor, however, in 2006 in the revived series timeline, Rose should still be off with the Ninth Doctor following the year in which she went missing. It would be unfair to solely blame this timeline discrepancy on McMullin, as other writers have also made the error, but did give me pause. It’s good fun to have Camille Coduri back though, and Jackie is desperate to look after Lady Christina, who she states is the same age as Rose, and she believes is in desperate need of a parental figure. Harry comes across as being perhaps more imbecilic and clumsy than he has in the more recent stories featuring him, but there is something endearing about the character and the way Christopher Naylor tries to portray the role. Harry is almost unwavering loyal, and having learnt through UNIT’s research into the Time War has learnt that only the Doctor has survived and evidently feels as though he needs to do anything to help his friend. Whilst some might think that Harry is too easily duped, he does mention that he did run tests on the Two to prove that he is a Time Lord.

The Two joins the list of incarnations of the Time Lord initially introduced as the Eleven in Doom Coalition, and I think that Michael Maloney does a good job, both in his disguised appearance as a future Doctor to Harry but also in his original form. The Two is coming to terms with his regenerative dissonance and clearly is concerned about the potential of being joined by more and more voices of his past selves as his life goes on and he regenerates to the extent that he has consulted with the Sisterhood of Karn to see his future and how the Doctor has repeatedly got in his way. This has perhaps led to him reaching the conclusion that he needs to stop the Doctor before his travels can even begin. I think Maloney does bring nuance to this incarnation of the Renegade Time Lord, even if I feel as though there could have possibly been more of him in this story.

You’re at the start of your travels, old girl. Look after each other, won’t you?

The Sixth Doctor

It almost goes without saying that Colin Baker slots into the role of the Sixth Doctor effortlessly and Lisa McMullin certainly does well writing for him on her first attempt. Baker is comfortably one of the most consistent performers for Big Finish and particularly sparkles in his scenes with Camille Coduri. He is perhaps more critical of Harry than other incarnations would have been, but there is obviously some fondness underlying the frustration, which Baker does well to capture.

Verdict: Two’s Company is a lot of fun but is certainly flawed. I don’t feel that one of the guest cast is really necessary and perhaps may take away time from the villain of the piece. I enjoyed this a lot more on a second listen! 7/10

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Camile Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Michelle Ryan (Lady Christina), Christopher Naylor (Harry Sullivan), Michael Maloney (The Two), Charlie Tighe (Jonty/The Postman) & Tim Treloar (The Third Doctor).

Writer: Lisa McMullin

Director: Helen Goldwyn

Producer: David Richardson

Music: Howard Carter

Release Date: 16th August 2023

Behind the Scenes

• When the Doctor returns to 1963, the song playing is by John Smith and the Common Men, from the Big Finish audio 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men.
• This story is the first to explicitly state that the Doctor’s clothing is changing when he is degenerating.

Cast Notes

• Michael Maloney has appeared in numerous Big Finish stories, including Patient Zero, Zygon Hunt (The Fourth Doctor Adventures) and Grand Theft Cosmos (The Eighth Doctor Adventures).
• Charlie Tighe previously appeared in The Rotting Deep, playing Carl Price and Dean.

Best Quote

Jackie, these future versions of me – get on with them, do you?

Like a house on fire.

The Sixth Doctor and Jackie Tyler

Once and Future

Past Lives

The Artist at the End of Time

A Genius For War

For more Sixth Doctor stories, click here.