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Doctor Who, The Wilderness Years: Companion Novels and Third Doctor Radio Plays Review
Dividing up the content surrounding the Wilderness Years of Doctor Who has been an interesting experiment of trial and error. I had initially planned to read the two Companion Novels during the time time I was listening to the Lost Season 23 audios, but it became clear that these books would be a slow burn, and in the end it did take me about 18 months to get around to finishing them both. Is this a commentary on their quality? Perhaps. I'm still glad I read them though, and it helps provide a good context to where tie-in media was at during this era of the show. I'm also glad I got them out of the way before I dive into the Wilderness Years proper.
I also decided that, since most of the content released during the Wilderness Years is at least somewhat contemporary, I would tackle the two Third Doctor radio dramas beforehand as well. All four pieces of media are set during the original run of the show, and each takes a different approach that I think helps lay the groundwork in a big way for how future works such as the novel ranges in the 90s and Big Finish later on would approach creating content set during previous eras. And I have to say, the audios have already come a long way from where Slipback left off less than a decade earlier.
The two novels were bought used as they are no longer in print, but the two radio plays are available as audio books from sites such as Audible. I've ranked each story based on it's medium, though I found both audios superior to the novels.
Characters
Vislor Turlough - Turlough was one of my favorite characters from Classic Who thanks in no small part to his well-defined character arc, and I think his novel does a decent job of furthering where his character left off, though he does feel a bit static and weirdly more capable than he did during his time on the show. Not that I thought his character was an idiot by any means, but I wouldn't have pegged him to be the one to crack time travel separate from the Time Lords. I do wish his character had more agency at the end of the story, as it was fun seeing him drive the plot forward for the first 3/4 of the story, but in the end his characterization is the least of my criticisms over how it ended.
As far as supporting characters go, Juras Maateh was an extremely fun addition who I found very compelling, which is the primary reason I found the ending such a letdown as her entire arc is essentially erased and made inconsequential. The Magician was interesting as an alternative take on a Time Lord that isn't the Doctor or one of the bureaucrats on Gallifrey, but it never feels like the character ever quite cements himself. Rehctaht worked much, much better as a concept/plot device than an actual character in the story.
Harry Sullivan - Harry Sullivan is an imbecile according to the Doctor and Harry Sullivan's War. Even after finishing it I can't figure out how much of the character's obtuseness was deliberate on the part of Ian Marter. Some of it clearly was, but a lot of it also came across like an actor forcing their character into a heroic role that they weren't really designed for. As a result, it was hard to take the character's point of view seriously, even in parts where he was making smart decisions, and the brief portion of the book where Sarah Jane appeared only highlighted how out of place this character was in this kind of story. Maybe if the BBC had let Ian Marter go through with killing him off, we may have gotten an arc that felt more coherent and purposeful.
As far as supporting character go, they're all pretty rough. It's hard singling any of them out as none of them have any depth beyond what Harry projects onto them, and most of them do not have any sort of resolution as the story is left open-ended for a sequel that never happens. I will give dishonorable mentions to Samantha Shire and Esther Bland, who might be two of the most regressive and underwritten female characters to ever appear in a Doctor Who story.
Jon Pertwee as The Third Doctor - Pertwee might be 20 years older than he was during his era, but his performance feels right at home in that era. Both the writing and acting for the character are on point, and I'm so happy we managed to get these two audios before he passed away. I don't have much more to say that hasn't already been said in previous reviews, but I'm glad we got another fake out death for the Doctor in a story set during a season rife with them.
Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith - I always forget just how good Sarah Jane Smith is as a character until I watch or read or listen to something she's in. While she's famous for her chemistry with Baker's incarnation, she still brings it here and adds extra depth to both her relationship with Pertwee's Doctor and to Sarah Jane's professional life. Classic Who is not known for coloring in the lives of its companions outside the main premise of the show, and it was very fun to get a peek into Sarah Jane's journalism career and how her travels with the Doctor impacted it. Her contemplating giving it all up to become a novelist was not a beat I expected, but her reaffirming her commitment to her craft was a very satisfying moment that I wasn't expecting to get going into these stories.
Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart -The Brigadier has always seemed to occupy the space of a pseudo-companion, but the audios essentially make him a full fledged companion when the first allows him to travel in the TARDIS and accompany to an alien planet. Courtney is as comfortable in the role as always, and it's fun to see the Brigadier in types of situations we didn't see very often during his run on the show. The introduction of his "great uncle" Mario was an unexpected surprise, and it was fun to listen to him command an "army" that wasn't his usual semi-competent band of UNIT soldiers. It was definitely a more flattering portrayal than his appearance in Harry Sullivan's War.
Richard Pearce as Jeremy Fitzoliver - I believe this is the first time a "major" new character was introduced back into an era after the era had already come to an end. It feels like standard practice now, but you can tell the production team put a lot of consideration into how they used this character, having him essentially act as a sidekick to Sarah Jane, and later the Brigadier. Bringing in someone from Sarah Jane's journalism career was a smart move that in hindsight I'm surprised the show proper never utilized, and he acts as a good foil to the other three primary characters who are much more self-assured and competent, allowing for the stories to feel more dynamic than they probably would have otherwise. I wonder, had the audios continued, if he would have become a proper companion or if he wouldn't remained at a distance. It's kind of a shame Big Finish has never used this character in any of their works, I enjoyed him.
I enjoyed the performances from the supporting cast, though I have to give special mention to Jillie Meers as Clorinda, Sarah Jane's boss at the Magazine she was working at. It was a bit part that made me wish even more that the show had been willing to dive into Sarah Jane's professional life.
The Novels
I've ranked the audios based off my own personal preference which is only tangentially related to how good they are on a critical level. I did not cover the third novel in this series, as it is a novelization of the K-9 and Company pilot which I've already covered.
2) The Companions of Doctor Who, Book 2 - Harry Sullivan's War
That said, the biggest drawback to this story is that Harry Sullivan isn't very suited for the role of a protagonist. It's hard to gauge how much of his ineptitude was intentional and what as circumstantial, but the the end product feels like a mix of both. Harry is very quick to buy transparently flimsy excuses and ignore suspicious behavior, and constantly assumes that no female character poses any kind of threat or holds any sort of ill-intention. Samantha is arguably the biggest flaw in this book, as she is very blatantly suspicious every time she shows up, but in a way that is not particularly interesting. Harry's friends Teddy and Esther are so thinly written it's difficult to take anything involving them seriously. None of this is helped by the pacing, which goes from a chapters-long chase sequence to a single page covering the events of an entire week. To say this was a tough book to get through would be an understatement, sadly.
1) The Companions of Doctor Who, Book 2 - Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma
Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma is a mostly well-constructed story that reads extremely well despite its over-reliance on world-building and fake scientific jargon. However, it becomes too ambitious and ends up sacrificing its character arcs in order to resolve it's plot. (x)
The first three quarters of this book is actually very engaging, which is surprising considering how much of it is taken up by very dense world-building and pseudo-science. The book also doesn't take great pains to keep complete continuity with the show, as Turlough's younger brother is notably missing and never receives a mention, even when, spoilers, Trion is destroyed. This creates this weird disconnect where it's hard to reconcile this story with the rest of Doctor Who, and the continuity of Turlough's character as a whole. This is all the more frustrating as it does briefly tie back in with the period of time Turlough was banished on Earth, and by extension the events of Mawdryn Undead.
That said, once I was able to make that separation this book was actually a very fun read, even if the ending does undermine everything in a pretty big way. Turlough manages to feel enough like a continuation of the character last shown in Planet of Fire, and his dynamic with his cold friend Juras Maateh is well-realized and both characters feel dynamic enough to essentially carry the whole book by themselves. The other major character, The Magician, is effective enough even if he is intentionally underwritten. Part of what makes the ending so disappointing is that is essentially nullifies a lot of the well-done character work this story manages to build by pulling out an unwelcome, late stage plot twist followed by a timeline reset that, while expected, undoes far more of the story than one would reasonably expect. It's a shame, because Tony Attwood does a great job at building a inner world for Turlough that I would've loved to see revisited in a future work.
The Audios
I've ranked the audios based off my own personal preference which is only tangentially related to how good they are on a critical level. While other audios were released during this period - most notably by Big Finish, but also by BBV - These two were done notably earlier and felt disconnected enough from that upcoming era (as well as the rest of the Wilderness Years) that it felt more appropriate to consume and cover them here.
2) Radio Play, 6 Parts - The Ghosts of N-Space
This story both feels overly ambitious and lacking at the same time, which is a weird place to be but also not unusual for a Classic Who story. The main thrust of the plot because clear rather quickly, but the story takes a lot of side avenues on it's way to it's final confrontations, with some more fruitful than others. By far the most worthwhile is when the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith travel back in time and become part of the story of this ghostly woman that appears on the modern day cliff-side in Sicily. Not only does it provide a human element to this supernatural occurrence, but also an emotional anchor for the story. Once she realizes what is happening, Sarah Jane Smith is guilt-ridden over her inability to prevent this woman's fate, and in the end goes out of her way to try and save her from an eternity of agony against the Doctor's wishes.
The other aspects of the Doctor and Sarah Jane's journey into the past don't feel quite as fruitful. Sure, we get to see certain events play out with them involved, but all of them were events already described sufficiently in dialog. The side storylines in the modern day with Jeremy and the Brigadier also feel unnecessary, which is bizarre considering the bulk of them involve fighting the story's primary antagonist. The conversations between Sarah Jane and Jeremy also felt like setup for future radio plays that ultimately never happened.
1) Radio Play, 5 Parts - The Paradise of Death
As for the story itself, I would've been happy enough with the initial setup of the virtual reality attraction in London, but the plot moving to a dystopian alien brings it up another level. The society's world-building is detailed enough without becoming overly complicated, and the new characters are well drawn, with the voice actors providing dynamic performances. It also helps that this story touches on several themes that were present both during the Third Doctor's era, specifically environmental concerns, with technology reminiscent of later stories such as Vengeance on Varos. If I were to recommend any older Doctor Who radio play, it would be this one.
Final Thoughts
While I'm glad I read and listened to these stories, I'm a bit annoyed that it took me this long to get through them, finishing the audios on the same day The Power of the Doctor aired. However, I suspect I'll handily get through the rest of the Wilderness Years in the final two months of the year... though part of me wonders whether my practice of putting my initial, bite-sized reaction on Twitter will be able to continue considering... everything that's happening with it. It makes me all the more relieved I took the time to outline and post my thoughts here, a site that weirdly feels more stable than major social networks do at the moment.
My tentative plan is to watch the early Wilderness Years content over the next couple of weeks, and then finally watch The TV Movie on November 23 in celebration of the 59th Anniversary. And then in 2023, having finally finished my years-long goal of watching ALL of Classic Doctor Who, I'm going to rewatch all of New Who as a whole for the first time in nearly a decade, leading up to the 60th Anniversary. The future may look... mixed... but I'm happy I'll at least have Doctor Who to help pass the time.
I also decided that, since most of the content released during the Wilderness Years is at least somewhat contemporary, I would tackle the two Third Doctor radio dramas beforehand as well. All four pieces of media are set during the original run of the show, and each takes a different approach that I think helps lay the groundwork in a big way for how future works such as the novel ranges in the 90s and Big Finish later on would approach creating content set during previous eras. And I have to say, the audios have already come a long way from where Slipback left off less than a decade earlier.
The two novels were bought used as they are no longer in print, but the two radio plays are available as audio books from sites such as Audible. I've ranked each story based on it's medium, though I found both audios superior to the novels.
Characters
Vislor Turlough - Turlough was one of my favorite characters from Classic Who thanks in no small part to his well-defined character arc, and I think his novel does a decent job of furthering where his character left off, though he does feel a bit static and weirdly more capable than he did during his time on the show. Not that I thought his character was an idiot by any means, but I wouldn't have pegged him to be the one to crack time travel separate from the Time Lords. I do wish his character had more agency at the end of the story, as it was fun seeing him drive the plot forward for the first 3/4 of the story, but in the end his characterization is the least of my criticisms over how it ended.
As far as supporting characters go, Juras Maateh was an extremely fun addition who I found very compelling, which is the primary reason I found the ending such a letdown as her entire arc is essentially erased and made inconsequential. The Magician was interesting as an alternative take on a Time Lord that isn't the Doctor or one of the bureaucrats on Gallifrey, but it never feels like the character ever quite cements himself. Rehctaht worked much, much better as a concept/plot device than an actual character in the story.
Harry Sullivan - Harry Sullivan is an imbecile according to the Doctor and Harry Sullivan's War. Even after finishing it I can't figure out how much of the character's obtuseness was deliberate on the part of Ian Marter. Some of it clearly was, but a lot of it also came across like an actor forcing their character into a heroic role that they weren't really designed for. As a result, it was hard to take the character's point of view seriously, even in parts where he was making smart decisions, and the brief portion of the book where Sarah Jane appeared only highlighted how out of place this character was in this kind of story. Maybe if the BBC had let Ian Marter go through with killing him off, we may have gotten an arc that felt more coherent and purposeful.
As far as supporting character go, they're all pretty rough. It's hard singling any of them out as none of them have any depth beyond what Harry projects onto them, and most of them do not have any sort of resolution as the story is left open-ended for a sequel that never happens. I will give dishonorable mentions to Samantha Shire and Esther Bland, who might be two of the most regressive and underwritten female characters to ever appear in a Doctor Who story.
Jon Pertwee as The Third Doctor - Pertwee might be 20 years older than he was during his era, but his performance feels right at home in that era. Both the writing and acting for the character are on point, and I'm so happy we managed to get these two audios before he passed away. I don't have much more to say that hasn't already been said in previous reviews, but I'm glad we got another fake out death for the Doctor in a story set during a season rife with them.
Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith - I always forget just how good Sarah Jane Smith is as a character until I watch or read or listen to something she's in. While she's famous for her chemistry with Baker's incarnation, she still brings it here and adds extra depth to both her relationship with Pertwee's Doctor and to Sarah Jane's professional life. Classic Who is not known for coloring in the lives of its companions outside the main premise of the show, and it was very fun to get a peek into Sarah Jane's journalism career and how her travels with the Doctor impacted it. Her contemplating giving it all up to become a novelist was not a beat I expected, but her reaffirming her commitment to her craft was a very satisfying moment that I wasn't expecting to get going into these stories.
Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart -The Brigadier has always seemed to occupy the space of a pseudo-companion, but the audios essentially make him a full fledged companion when the first allows him to travel in the TARDIS and accompany to an alien planet. Courtney is as comfortable in the role as always, and it's fun to see the Brigadier in types of situations we didn't see very often during his run on the show. The introduction of his "great uncle" Mario was an unexpected surprise, and it was fun to listen to him command an "army" that wasn't his usual semi-competent band of UNIT soldiers. It was definitely a more flattering portrayal than his appearance in Harry Sullivan's War.
Richard Pearce as Jeremy Fitzoliver - I believe this is the first time a "major" new character was introduced back into an era after the era had already come to an end. It feels like standard practice now, but you can tell the production team put a lot of consideration into how they used this character, having him essentially act as a sidekick to Sarah Jane, and later the Brigadier. Bringing in someone from Sarah Jane's journalism career was a smart move that in hindsight I'm surprised the show proper never utilized, and he acts as a good foil to the other three primary characters who are much more self-assured and competent, allowing for the stories to feel more dynamic than they probably would have otherwise. I wonder, had the audios continued, if he would have become a proper companion or if he wouldn't remained at a distance. It's kind of a shame Big Finish has never used this character in any of their works, I enjoyed him.
I enjoyed the performances from the supporting cast, though I have to give special mention to Jillie Meers as Clorinda, Sarah Jane's boss at the Magazine she was working at. It was a bit part that made me wish even more that the show had been willing to dive into Sarah Jane's professional life.
The Novels
I've ranked the audios based off my own personal preference which is only tangentially related to how good they are on a critical level. I did not cover the third novel in this series, as it is a novelization of the K-9 and Company pilot which I've already covered.
2) The Companions of Doctor Who, Book 2 - Harry Sullivan's War
Harry Sullivan's War is let down mostly by it's pacing and ultimate lack of resolution and plethora of red herrings. Harry Sullivan as the protagonist is both an asset and a hindrance to the overall unfurling of the plot, resulting in an extremely inconsistent end product. (x)
I had high hopes going into this story as it was written by the late Ian Marter, published only a month before he passed away. He had written a few novelizations of the classic serials prior to this, so I knew he had experience as a writer and writing Doctor Who. Unfortunately the end result feels very mixed, I suspect thanks in no small part due to the editors making him leave the story open for a sequel when he originally planned on killing Harry off at the end. I'm not sure how tidy the other plot threads would've been wrapped up, but so little ended up getting resolved that just about anything more would've made a world of difference. That said, the biggest drawback to this story is that Harry Sullivan isn't very suited for the role of a protagonist. It's hard to gauge how much of his ineptitude was intentional and what as circumstantial, but the the end product feels like a mix of both. Harry is very quick to buy transparently flimsy excuses and ignore suspicious behavior, and constantly assumes that no female character poses any kind of threat or holds any sort of ill-intention. Samantha is arguably the biggest flaw in this book, as she is very blatantly suspicious every time she shows up, but in a way that is not particularly interesting. Harry's friends Teddy and Esther are so thinly written it's difficult to take anything involving them seriously. None of this is helped by the pacing, which goes from a chapters-long chase sequence to a single page covering the events of an entire week. To say this was a tough book to get through would be an understatement, sadly.
1) The Companions of Doctor Who, Book 2 - Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma
Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma is a mostly well-constructed story that reads extremely well despite its over-reliance on world-building and fake scientific jargon. However, it becomes too ambitious and ends up sacrificing its character arcs in order to resolve it's plot. (x)
That said, once I was able to make that separation this book was actually a very fun read, even if the ending does undermine everything in a pretty big way. Turlough manages to feel enough like a continuation of the character last shown in Planet of Fire, and his dynamic with his cold friend Juras Maateh is well-realized and both characters feel dynamic enough to essentially carry the whole book by themselves. The other major character, The Magician, is effective enough even if he is intentionally underwritten. Part of what makes the ending so disappointing is that is essentially nullifies a lot of the well-done character work this story manages to build by pulling out an unwelcome, late stage plot twist followed by a timeline reset that, while expected, undoes far more of the story than one would reasonably expect. It's a shame, because Tony Attwood does a great job at building a inner world for Turlough that I would've loved to see revisited in a future work.
The Audios
I've ranked the audios based off my own personal preference which is only tangentially related to how good they are on a critical level. While other audios were released during this period - most notably by Big Finish, but also by BBV - These two were done notably earlier and felt disconnected enough from that upcoming era (as well as the rest of the Wilderness Years) that it felt more appropriate to consume and cover them here.
2) Radio Play, 6 Parts - The Ghosts of N-Space
The Ghosts of N-Space has strong performances and atmosphere, but meanders on a bit too long and the present-day battle sequences end up feeling weirdly inessential. The highlight of the story is Sarah Jane’s conflict with the Doctor about saving a woman doomed to die tragically. (x)
This story both feels overly ambitious and lacking at the same time, which is a weird place to be but also not unusual for a Classic Who story. The main thrust of the plot because clear rather quickly, but the story takes a lot of side avenues on it's way to it's final confrontations, with some more fruitful than others. By far the most worthwhile is when the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith travel back in time and become part of the story of this ghostly woman that appears on the modern day cliff-side in Sicily. Not only does it provide a human element to this supernatural occurrence, but also an emotional anchor for the story. Once she realizes what is happening, Sarah Jane Smith is guilt-ridden over her inability to prevent this woman's fate, and in the end goes out of her way to try and save her from an eternity of agony against the Doctor's wishes.
The other aspects of the Doctor and Sarah Jane's journey into the past don't feel quite as fruitful. Sure, we get to see certain events play out with them involved, but all of them were events already described sufficiently in dialog. The side storylines in the modern day with Jeremy and the Brigadier also feel unnecessary, which is bizarre considering the bulk of them involve fighting the story's primary antagonist. The conversations between Sarah Jane and Jeremy also felt like setup for future radio plays that ultimately never happened.
1) Radio Play, 5 Parts - The Paradise of Death
The Paradise of Death manages to evoke the feeling of a 70s set story with a slightly more “modern” perspective. Pertwee, Sladen, and Courtney feel completely at home returning to their roles, and the story manages to build itself up without becoming too difficult to follow. (x)
While this story may not slot neatly into continuity where promo materials suggest it does, everything else about it is a home run. Despite being produced nearly 20 years later, it successfully manages to feel like a lost story from Season 11 both in atmosphere and in plot, even if it manages to accomplish story beats in audio that would've been difficult to do onscreen. Like I said in the character section above, the enrichment of Sarah Jane's professional life is a welcome addition, and adds more dimension to what could've been a throwaway story. It also successfully makes the relationships between the Doctor, Sarah Jane, and the Brigadier feel stronger in retrospect, and pulls it off without feeling like a retcon.As for the story itself, I would've been happy enough with the initial setup of the virtual reality attraction in London, but the plot moving to a dystopian alien brings it up another level. The society's world-building is detailed enough without becoming overly complicated, and the new characters are well drawn, with the voice actors providing dynamic performances. It also helps that this story touches on several themes that were present both during the Third Doctor's era, specifically environmental concerns, with technology reminiscent of later stories such as Vengeance on Varos. If I were to recommend any older Doctor Who radio play, it would be this one.
Final Thoughts
While I'm glad I read and listened to these stories, I'm a bit annoyed that it took me this long to get through them, finishing the audios on the same day The Power of the Doctor aired. However, I suspect I'll handily get through the rest of the Wilderness Years in the final two months of the year... though part of me wonders whether my practice of putting my initial, bite-sized reaction on Twitter will be able to continue considering... everything that's happening with it. It makes me all the more relieved I took the time to outline and post my thoughts here, a site that weirdly feels more stable than major social networks do at the moment.
My tentative plan is to watch the early Wilderness Years content over the next couple of weeks, and then finally watch The TV Movie on November 23 in celebration of the 59th Anniversary. And then in 2023, having finally finished my years-long goal of watching ALL of Classic Doctor Who, I'm going to rewatch all of New Who as a whole for the first time in nearly a decade, leading up to the 60th Anniversary. The future may look... mixed... but I'm happy I'll at least have Doctor Who to help pass the time.
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\o/ I hope you have fun with this last stretch!
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