The Children of the Future

We all must be ready to face the Sontarans in 1994. Their invasion cannot succeed. The children of the future must possess our strengths to stop them in their tracks.

Captain Saint

Synopsis

The Brigadier is used to the Doctor acting strangely, but this time there’s something decidedly different about the whole affair. As he looks into the Time Lord’s odd activities outside of UNIT, there’s a mystery that’ll take Lethbridge-Stewart to a site very familiar to Sarah Jane Smith.

Can the Brigadier trust his old friend? Who are his mysterious new allies? And is the future of humanity really at stake? A Sontaran threat could spell the end of their long-standing friendship… and the entire planet!

Review

The Children of the Future serves as a sort of pseudo-sequel to The Time Warrior, giving the Third Doctor a story facing off against the Sontarans’ foes the Rutans, set in the same location as the Sontarans’ debut. Whilst it might seem odd to have the Sontarans be completely absent from a story that is part of a miniseries to celebrate their half-century, but actually I think it does a good job of developing the dangers posed by the Rutans.

I think that this story is a love letter to the Third Doctor’s era, especially the relationship between the Doctor and the Brigadier. This story features a Doctor who knows that he is approaching his end, whilst the Brigadier is also quietly resigned to the fact that the Doctor will move on without him. This makes the Doctor try and prove that he can still solve problems by himself, getting involved with the soldiers without letting either his boss or friend know what he’s up to. This story is more to do with the relationship between the Doctor and the Brigadier, and does establish them as being friends rather than simply

This story feels as though the focus is more on Sarah Jane and the Brigadier, as they investigate why the Doctor appears to be acting strangely, and in fact the Doctor doesn’t meaningfully appear for the first fifteen minutes. It’s quite fun to see a bit more of these companions of the Third Doctor interact, as they don’t have much time together on screen when compared to Liz or Jo, due to the fact that the show had moved on from the more Earthbound adventures. They do make a good team, finding out what is suspicious about the soldiers taking up barracks in the ruins of Lindsay Castle and mounting a successful infiltration of the base. The dynamic between Sadie Miller and Jon Culshaw is a highlight of the story, and both really shine here. I think of the two, Sadie Miller really shines and that Tim Foley uses her journalistic skills to good effect to be able to progress the plot. Sarah uses her journalistic

Verdict

Cast: Tim Treloar (The Doctor), Sadie Miller (Sarah Jane Smith), Jon Culshaw (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Nicholas Boulton (Captain Saint), Lucy Goldie (Sergeant Moss) & Jeremy Ang Jones (Stanley).

Writer: Tim Foley

Director: Ken Bentley

Music: Joe Kraemer

Sound Design: David Roocroft

Release Date: 8th February 2024

Behind the Scenes

• Lindsay Castle is named for Kevin Lindsay, the first actor to play a Sontaran in The Time Warrior.

Cast Notes

• Nicholas Boulton played the Businessman in Gridlock. He has also appeared in numerous Big Finish stories, including Meanwhile, Elsewhere (The Eighth Doctor: Time War) and Kippers (The Second Doctor Adventures).
• Lucy Goldie has appeared in the Big Finish audio productions The Grey Man of the Mountain, Winter of the Demon and The Curse of Lady Macbeth, amongst others.
• Jeremy Ang Jones has appeared in the Big Finish stories Interstitial and The Secrets of Det-Sen.

Best Quote

Previous Sontarans vs Rutans review: The Battle of Giant’s Causeway

Previous Third Doctor review: Planet of the Spiders

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