Originally published by L.S. Media. July 8th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Geoffrey Beevers, Michael Cochrane, Dan Starkey, John Banks.

Just who do you trust when you cannot even tell your enemies from those that look and act like your deadliest foes!

The second part of Alan Barnes’ story involving the Doctor’s adversary and fellow Time lord, The Master has one of those wonderful plays on words that ingratiates you into the story long before the end credits. Titled The Oseidon Adventure, (think of the 1970’s disaster film The Poseidon Adventure) the action follows on The Trail of the White Worm and the pace, the tempo and overall enjoyment of the writing picks up a notch from the semi lacklustre affair of the previous episode.

Perhaps the main reason why the story has a stronger second half is the strong influence that Geoffrey Beevers has on the story. A strong and deceitful character portrayed by a fine actor is always going to pick up the interest in a story. The Doctor needs The Master, as much as he needs the likes of the Cyber-King, Davros and Rassilon, for what is a hero without his dark side, the Moriarty to his Holmes? In turn the amount of time that Geoffrey Beevers spends in the audio play gives extra dimension once more to Louise Jameson who revels in playing against a man she calls ‘charcoal face’.

This last audio play from the first series involving Tom Baker has been on the whole superb, a great throwback and remembrance to the classic series  and its high points in the 1970’s. Of course there were moments where the action dipped and the audios became a pale shadow of what audiences would remember. Thankfully in this last episode the overall standard was driven upwards and the re-introduction of one time villains The Kraals gave the episode a much loved old time honesty to the show to the audio play, some sense of fun that had been missing throughout and in Dan Starkey as Marshall Grinmal the old adversaries of the Doctor were given new impetus and a fresh disturbing appeal.

Although the element of their agents, the androids is obviously left lacking and left very much up to the audience’s imagination, the writing doesn’t shy away from getting the point across in asking just who is the enemy and who is really pulling the strings?

The sad epitaph to this story is that the wife of Geoffrey Beevers, the wonderful Caroline John, passed on just recently. Her time as Liz Shaw, a huge part of the show under Jon Pertwee’s tenure as the Doctor will be remembered fondly by the shows fans and its testament to Geoffrey Beevers and the Doctor Who world that these audio programmes get the airing they deserve.

The Oseidon Adventure is available to buy from World’s Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.  Tom Baker will return next year as The Doctor for Big Finish.

Ian D. Hall