Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, John Leeson, Hayley Atwell, David Warner, Toby Hadoke, Jane Slavin, Duncan Wisbey, Nicholas Briggs, Beth Chalmers, John Dorney.

The Earth is in peril once more and The Doctor and Romana are again caught up between aliens and humanity in what could be the end of all sentient life on the planet. However, the aliens are doing what they need to do to survive, there is a bigger villain at large and it seems they control everything, except for time.

The first of a two part story staring Tom Baker and Mary Tamm as the fourth incarnation and the first Romana sees Nicholas Briggs’ script light up the voice of the much missed Mary Tamm in a way that had been missing so far in this new series of stories. What makes The Sands of Life so much more enjoyable is that there seems to be a flame passing between Mary Tamm and a possible successor in future stories in Hayley Atwell. Ms. Atwell is a woman of superb talent certainly in both film and television roles but there is an acting gravitas that befits the late Mary Tamm in the Doctor Who/Big Finish realm.

This is Hayley Atwell’s fourth separate role for Big Finish/Doctor Who and yet again, even though she is not in the first part for very long, she gives as good a performance as she did as Asha in Blood of the Daleks and the excellent Eleanor in the exemplary The Doomwood Curse.

However good the part is for Hayley Atwell in the story and aside from Tom Baker and Ms. Tamm, there is an actor whose very presence on the disc gives the tale moments of pure and essential solemnness that such an occasion deserves. In David Warner there are not many better at giving the dialogue written by Nicholas Briggs the necessary illuminating reverence it requires. As the all- powerful Cuthbert, the man it seems who controls not just his own business empire but who also pulls more strings than is imaginable and more than is strictly healthy and has more than the ear of any of Earth’s Presidents, he is simply excellent.

A classic Doctor Who story that involves its second home of futuristic science fiction may not be to everyone’s taste, the debate rages seemingly for all time whether the Doctor works better in the future or as part of Earth’s history, but it plays out well and concentrates its theme of who really runs the planet, the Government, the businessmen or a simple spawning animal afraid of losing its young, superbly well.

Of course the longer the new series goes on, one thought will be in the mind of listeners, that of each episode is coming closer to losing Mary Tamm’s charm almost forever with only repeats to keep fans going. In Hayley Atwell though, should the television series wish to bring back Romana for a third incarnation then they couldn’t ask for a better person to take up the mantle.

The Sands of Life is available from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.

Ian D. Hall