Doctor Who Review - The Fourth Doctor Adventures 2.1 - "The Auntie Matter"
rating 4.5
It is a bittersweet thing to listen to the first story in Big Finishs second season of Fourth Doctor adventures. Its nice to have Tom Baker back, and the story is as good as anyone could want from them. ButMary Tamm. Poor, dear, Mary Tamm. This story is chock-full of Season 16 goodness. It starts with the Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Mary Tamm) leaving the TARDIS to spend some time on Earth. The TARDIS itself has had its randomizer turned on so that it can lead the Black Guardian on a merry chase while K9 stays inside to keep it company. Meantime, the Doctor and Romana set up housekeeping in London in the 1920s. While this is going on, a young man (Robert Portal) is having a problem with his aunt (Julia McKenzie). It seems said aunt keeps killing his fiancées and stealing and stealing their bodies, then erasing his memories of this happening. Romana meets this young man when she goes wandering away from her townhouse, while the Doctor starts detecting signs of alien technology. He takes a housekeeper (Lucie Griffiths) with him on a hunt to find the tech while Romana gets courted and threatened with marriage. Soon the two stories will converge There was much to enjoy here! Tom Baker, after sounding more like Tom Baker and less like the Doctor in last years subscriber bonus, The Stormcrow, is back to sounding more or less like the Doctor once more. He also brings out a lot of the manic energy he had during the sixteenth season, and while K9 is sorely missed, we do at least have Romana for him to (occasionally) bounce off of. And, yes, Romana. We must address the elephant in the room, mustnt we? This story, and the others in this season, were recorded not long before Mary Tamms death last year (its been a particularly hard couple years for Who fans, hasnt it?). Tamms performance is excellent, and leaves one wondering what the next couple years of audios would have been like with her, as well as wondering what the last couple years of Bakers time on TV would have been like had she stayed on the show. Still, at least we get these last few stories with her, and we should certainly treasure that. Normally Ive skipped most of the special features on these discs, but Ive started listening to them with this story. Here you get a nice tribute to Mary Tamm, with several wonderful words from Baker about how much he cared for her. It was very touching and worth hearing, especially for Tamms comments. You also get the usual stack of interviews and a trailer for next months story, The Sands of Life. If youre even remotely interested in the Fourth Doctor and his adventures with the first Romana, this is a must get. Its available for download and CD purchase from Big Finish, and the download is dirt cheap. You really cant do much better than this as a starting point if you havent heard any of Big Finishs audios before. I highly recommend this one. Next month, David Warner and K9! Hooray!