Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, Julia McKenzie, Robert Portal, Lucy Griffiths, Alan Cox, Jane Slavin.
Even if it just for a collection of stories, the fact that the listeners of the Big Finish Doctor Who range get to hear the one of the most celebrated companions reprise her role again, a role that she played with a sense of elegance that really has never been matched in all the years following her departure, then the second series of Tom Baker’s tales and the appearance of Mary Tamm as Romana is something to be celebrated and enjoyed. However it is an enjoyment that is tempered by the knowledge that Mart Tamm sadly passed on in the last year.
In The Auntie Matter, the first of the new series, Tom Baker’s incarnation of the Doctor is trapped in the roaring 20s, a time of style and decadence and P.G. Woodhouse. The Doctor’s Tardis and faithful companion K9 are caught in the ether and it is up to the Doctor and Romana to get them back. However this is not the frantic race against time in which the Doctor frets about his beloved home being missing somewhere in the vortex, indeed as is usual with Tom Baker he aims to bring some fun into the life of the Doctor and alongside Mary Tamm, the verbal sparing is one that in all truth has been much missed.
The story is one that sees writer Jonathon Morris capture the essence that sparked and rolled between the two is there for the audience to hear, it is testament to how Mary Tamm was thought of during her time by the fans that she naturally fitted back into the costume and voice of the female Timelord.
What is unsatisfying is the well used stereotypes that the usually excellent Jonathon Morris sees fit to do to some of the characters that within the framework of the story. The use of Reggie as a rather cumbersome and dim-witted man is a character plot devise that feels is aimed to play along with the listeners sympathies rather than get the story to high peak that it deserves to be. Whilst it is also superb to hear the wonderful Julia McKenzie back on a Big Finish recording it also feels as if she has been let down by the script and not used to her full potential.
The Auntie Matter is rescued by the excellent humour that exists between the Doctor, Romana and Lucy Griffiths as the maid Mabel. It is also an excellent premise of an idea to see the Doctor and the first Romana stuck on Earth and making the most of it rather than sulking about not being able to see other times and worlds. To bring back Mary Tamm, no matter for how short a time that it turned out to be is a fitting nod to classic era Doctor Who and one that will have older fans wistfully remembering her with the fondness she deserves.
The Auntie Matter is available from Worlds Apart, Lime Street, Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall