Picture from Big Finish.com

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 1st 2012.

L.S.Media Rating ****

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, Maggie O’Neil, Amy Pemberton, Stuart Milligan, Michael Rouse, Richard Bremmer, John Banks, James Hayward.

It is a story as old and as dear to lovers of the English language as any…and it also contains the power of Beowulf thrown in for good measure.

Matt Fitton’s Doctor Who audio play for Big Finish, Black and White, combines cleverly the power of Sylvester McCoy’s incarnation of the Doctor and the sheer majesty of the oldest tale translated and written down in the English language and somewhere in between a tale of the future and that of the past merge and blur into legendry Doctor Who status.

It is a story that is about beginnings and endings, of the power of the narrative and even though the play is the second Doctor light(ish) story in the latest trilogy it is also a script that perhaps is one of the best that Sylvester McCoy has had in his time since he joined Doctor Who. It also has the advantage of Ms. Aldred being at her most sarcastic, most perilous and most ace. Such is the writing by Matt Fitton, the character of Ace in this particular episode is the best since 2001’s Colditz story.

Then as now Ace seems more natural, lees forced and she also spars well with Maggie O’Neil’s Captain Lysandra Aristedes. In Colditz, she was able to bounce of the acting talent of David Tennant and the fabulous Tracey Childs and that’s possibly where Sophie Aldred comes into her own is when she has another strong female character to cross swords with. It is certainly is an interesting mix as Maggie O’ Neil is just as driven as her character, again a triumph for the writer.

The only thing that lets down the story is the voice of Stuart Milligan, a fine actor and well suited to the radio but as the listener takes stock of the oldest tale in the English Language mixed with the definition of British Science Fiction, it can’t be helped to realise that the voice he uses of the double dealing toad, Garundel, sounds suspiciously similar to B.B.C.’s American Dad resident alien, this in turn is slightly off putting to the overall dramatic effect of an otherwise brilliant story.

The Doctor may still be missing, his past catching up with him as we hear every so often but as with the first in three part of the trilogy by Big Finish, the companionship of Ace and Hex and that of Private Sally Morgan and Captain Lysandra Aristedes are what make the Doctor Who stories so invaluable to fans. Sometimes the Doctor doesn’t have to be in to make it better.

Black And White is available to buy from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.

Ian D. Hall