The Havoc of Empires

There’s no present like the time, is there?

The Third Doctor

Synopsis

The Doctor and Jo take Mike Yates on his first trip in the TARDIS, but instead of the historical cricket match they were aiming for they end up on a futuristic space station in the middle of a diplomatic crisis that might escalate into galactic war.

The alien leader of the Chalnotu Hegemony is marrying the human Director of the Teklarn Incorporation, but there are forces that will stop at nothing to disrupt the ceremony. The Doctor is accused of murder while explosions occur across the station, and only Jo Grant, pretending to be a security consultant, can save the day.

But then, there’s the Eels to consider…

Review

The second story in the first Third Doctor Adventures feels, on the surface, as though it follows a formula of stories of that era. There is a lot of diplomacy regarding alliances between humanity and an alien species in the future.

Why is it we always end up walking towards danger rather than away from it?

Jo Grant

What Andy Lane does is manage to make this story feel fresh, despite retreading ground that has been covered in several stories in the Third Doctor era. I think that this is because of setting the story around a diplomatically arranged wedding, which also feels like it would never have been thought about in the 1970s. Having Jo taking the lead as the security consultant does feel slightly as though Big Finish were anticipating a backlash to the recasting of the Third Doctor, and looked to prempt this by giving Katy Manning a lot to do. Otherwise, the story takes few risks, and does hit traditional story beats. That’s not to say that I did not enjoy this homage to one of my favourite eras of Doctor Who, and The Havoc of Empires does well. Lane paces out his reveals well, even if the resolution feels as though it is very convenient with the space station’s AI feels quite rushed and convenient. There are some fun moments, like the appearance of the Dolphins, who deliver a sight gag in an audio medium, whilst also referring back to Spearhead from Space. If it were a televised story, perhaps the arrival of the Delphons would be where the story falls down, but I found it to be a nice nod to what had come before.

Another comic element is the performance of Helen Goldwyn as the wedding planner, May Zalrick, combined with the station’s AI. Zalrick has ascerbic wit, knowing that she is likely to be in danger if the alliance between the Chalnoth Alliance and Teklam Incorporation breaks down, and several of her lines did make me laugh. The AI is also a strong performance, especially in the scene where it is revealed that the AI knows that Jo is not Filton. Otherwise the guest cast does a particularly good job. Lucy Briggs-Owen and Hywel Morgan are very good as Anderssen and Regent Thalrar, even if their overall arc is a little bit predictable as they realise whilst trapped in an escape pod that the match may be more than simply diplomatic.

With the story set following the events of The Three Doctors, Jo is written particularly strongly. She takes the role of Filton early on in the story, rather than the Doctor or Mike, and more than holds her own, managing to remain undetected by the majority of people on the station, and then only by the AI. It’s a nice way of showing what Jo has learnt over the course of her time with  the Doctor. With her character thrust centre stage, Manning shines. After all, this is taking place shortly before she leaves the Doctor in The Green Death.

With this story being set in Season 10, we also have what I believe to be Mike Yates’ first story travelling in the TARDIS. It seems only fair that he should get his opportunity, following the Brigadier and Benton doing so in The Three Doctors. After initially thinking that Yates was going to be in the mould of Harry Sullivan when he knocks out the original Filton, he instead represents a steady calm in the story. Franklin is solid in this story; it is only a shame that there is not more for him to do and ultimately, that we never got a reunion between him, Benton and the Brigadier, as played by Jon Culshaw, before Franklin’s passing.

I’m coming to these reviews having listened to quite a lot of Tim Treloar’s later performances as the Third Doctor, so finding it so fully formed in both Prisoners of the Lake and The Havoc of Empires feels like a nice surprise. It is not intended to be a pitch-perfect impression but rather an interpretation, but Treloar is solid enough in that interpretation to fully convince as the Third Doctor. Both Katy Manning and Richard Franklin certainly support Treloar’s approach to playing the Third Doctor, with both speaking about him in glowing terms in the behind-the-scenes documentary. It is clear that he has put in a lot of work in putting together this performance, which feels fully formed, including adopting Pertwee’s lisp. He hits all the major notes of what you would expect to see from a Third Doctor performance, even if his Doctor is a little bit sidelined in this story. The Doctor is the one that Jo relies on for sage counsel as to how to proceed, but their roles have been reversed.

Verdict: The Havoc of Empires feels traditional but quietly revolutionary for the Third Doctor. 8/10

Cast: Tim Treloar (Narrator/The Doctor), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Richard Franklin (Mike Yates), Helen Goldwyn (May Zalrick/Harmony Station AI), Hywel Morgan (Regent Tharlar/Alex Filton), Lucy Briggs-Owen (Tina Andresson), Joanna Bacon (Lady Gurlen) & George Layton (Louis Markell/Human Guard).

Writer: Andy Lane

Director: Nicholas Briggs

Producer: David Richardson

Music: Nicholas Briggs and Jamie Robertson

Parts: 4

Release Date: 2 September 2015

Behind the Scenes

• The Chalnoth share their names with a race of aliens in Star Trek: The Next Generation
• The name Attow Eel is an anagram of ‘tea towel’, which was a homage to the Drashigs being an anagram of ‘dish rag’.

Cast Notes

• Helen Goldwyn is an actor, writer and director for Big Finish, which has included appearing in The Spectre of Lanyon Moor, Monsters in Metropolis (The Ninth Doctor Adventures) and Paradise 5 (The Lost Stories).
• Hywel Morgan has appeared in a number of Big Finish plays, including The Fourth Wall and The High Price of Parking and Destroy the Infinite (The Fourth Doctor Adventures).
• Lucy Briggs-Owen appeared in Maker of Demons, The Primeval Design and The Sword of the Chevalier.
• George Layton played Technician Penn in The Space Pirates as well as the Big Finish Fourth Doctor story The Quest of the Engineer (The Fourth Doctor Adventures).

Best Quote

The strongest form of diplomatic alliance is marriage.

That’s not very romantic.

This is business. Romance has nothing to do with it, which is a shame, I suppose.

Tina Andressen and Mike Yates

Previous Third Doctor review: Prisoners of the Lake

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