The Outlaws

What is the meaning of this? One minute I’m a guest, then a prisoner, then a guest again, and now I’m being dragged around this castle by these ruffians of yours!

The First Doctor

Synopsis

Landing in 13th-century Lincoln, the Doctor and Dodo are soon caught up in the battle between Sheriff Nicholaa de la Haye and outlaw gangs in the nearby forest. King John requires funds for his conflict with France, and Nicholaa is determined to provide them, whatever the efforts of William of Berkshire and his gang of wolves’ heads…

After taking refuge in Lincoln Castle, the Doctor and Dodo are separated. The Doctor is detained at the pleasure of the Sheriff, while Dodo indulges her adventurous spirit and plays forest outlaw with William’s gang.

But William is not acting alone. The outlaws’ true leader knows the Doctor and has a plan for revenge. A man with a passion for meddling. A man who wears a monk’s habit…

Review

The Outlaws is the starting point for a new run of adventures featuring the First Doctor, played by a new actor, Stephen Noonan. This is a historical tale too, something that I do enjoy!

I will admit that I do like Lizbeth Myles. She is my favourite of the six co-hosts of the now on hiatus podcast Verity. Her writing for Big Finish was just a pleasant bonus! It’s clear that Myles has taken inspiration from the legend of Robin Hood and put her own spin on it. This turns into a metaphorical battle between the romanticism of legend and the likely reality. Characters like Dodo, Ideona and Will believe that romantic image. Ideona is Will’s Maid Marian proxy, Will believes his own hype and Dodo is swept up in the whole affair. The Doctor, Nicholaa and to an extent are the pragmatic opposition to this. The Monk has cynically taken the opportunity to get himself rich rather than helping the poor. The Doctor is sceptical about the whole thing, whilst the Sheriff, Nicholaa is a realist and loyal to King John. I quite enjoyed the conflict between the two in this story. The story definitely fits into those more humorous historical stories in the later Hartnell era.

The guest cast are solid here. The standout is undoubtedly Glynis Barber as the sheriff of Lincoln, Nicholaa de la Haye, who is certainly not a person to cross. Even more remarkably, she is a real historical figure, who defended Lincoln from two sieges. Her hatred of Richard makes sense when you realise that she and her first husband lost their titles during his reign. Barber is authorative and wonderfully no nonsense. Christian Edwards is also rather fun as the pastiche of Robin Hood, William of Berkshire.

Harmless?! You may very well have ruined everything!

We can only hope!

The Monk and the First Doctor

The Monk makes his return in this story, again plotting to interfere with history for his own gain. Here he is posing as the central Robin Hood-style character, wanting to overthrow King John in revenge for his brother, Richard the Lionheart, throwing him out of his court. The Monk is out for his personal gain in this story, without consideration of the wider implications for history. This, of course, puts him into direct conflict with the Doctor. He doesn’t want the invading French prince, Louis, to win the throne of England, but the indifference to the consequences is a problem.

The decision to have Dodo be the companion for these rebooted First Doctor Adventures is an interesting one. Dodo has a very inconsistent time aboard the TARDIS, joining at the end of The Massacre and having an off-screen departure in The War Games. The production team don’t even seem to be able to agree on where she comes from, with a northern accent appearing and suddenly disappearing at random between stories. None of that is the fault of the original actor, Jackie Lane, who has since passed away. It gives Big Finish a relatively blank slate to play around in. The role is taken over by Lauren Cornelius, who debuted the role in The Secrets of Det-Sen. Dodo retains her original northern accent as a result, and Cornelius is good in this role. I’m not sure Dodo will go down as anyone’s favourite companion, and she is rather naive here, easily trusting Will and the Monks and speaking her mind to the loyalist Sheriff of Lincoln. The opportunity afforded to her to have more stories is not a bad thing.

The chemistry she shares with the new First Doctor, Stephen Noonan, is also a compelling enough reason for more adventures with this pairing. They do seem to have a close bond, and it surprised me to learn that they had not met before recording this box set. I remember the announcement of Noonan as the new First Doctor being met with a mixed reaction. A lot of fans are attached to David Bradley’s version of the role from An Adventure in Space and Time, and felt that he should continue in the role. Big Finish have since made him a version of the Doctor separate from the main canon in their Unbound range of stories. Whilst Bradley is a great actor, he doesn’t sound a lot like Hartnell. Noonan has definitely done his homework, and there are moments where I genuinely forgot that I wasn’t just listening to William Hartnell. It’s not a perfect impression, and Noonan is better in the more irate moments than the quieter ones, but there are definitely signs of promise here. He is particularly good in his scenes opposite the Monk.

Verdict: The Outlaws is a solid start to the new First Doctor era at Big Finish. 8/10

Cast: Stephen Noonan (The Doctor), Lauren Cornelius (Dodo Chaplet), Rufus Hound (The Monk), Glynis Barber (Nicholaa de la Haye), Christian Edwards (William of Berkshire/Gregory), Carly Day (Idonea de Camville), Sam Stafford (Sir Hugh de Courtney/Eustace) and Barnaby Edwards (The Messenger).

Writer: Lizbeth Myles

Director: Nicholas Briggs

Music & Sound: Toby Hyrcek-Robinson

Original Release Date: 12 April 2022

Behind the Scenes

• The first First Doctor Adventures release not to feature David Bradley and the rest of the An Adventure in Space and Time cast.
• Lizbeth Myles states that the story is intended to be the first story for the First Doctor and Dodo after Steven’s departure.

Cast Notes

• Glynis Barber has also appeared in the Fourth Doctor audio story The Sinestran Kill.
• Christian Edwards has also played the Seventh Doctor’s companion, Will Arrowsmith.
• Carly Day has also appeared in The Flying Dutchman, Scream of the Daleks and The Story Demon.
• Sam Stafford has appeared in a number of Big Finish audio plays, including London Orbital and Conspiracy in Space.
• Barnaby Edwards is a writer and director for Big Finish. He is also a Dalek operator for the revived series.

Best Quote

Interfering with history will always be harmful, you conceited ninny? Why can’t you see that?

Nonsense, I’m barely interfering here. It’s not as though I’ve told the French how to make machine guns.

And you think that that make it alright?

Why must you always be so self-righteous and a hypocrite to boot? I know what happened in Troy!

The First Doctor and the Monk

Previous First Doctor review: The Tenth Planet

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