Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Jamie Newall, Nigel Carrington, Alix Dunsmore, Joe Jameson, Beth Chalmers, Philip Bretherton, Ben Porter, Tim Bentinck.

The world of Doctor Who is seemingly entrenched into two distinct realms of story-telling themes, the historical, whether that comes down to the gothic fancy, the accurate, with the only that those writing about The Doctor can employ a good science-fiction twist too or the warning from the past in which holds a mirror to the present day audience or the category that is so steeped into invention that the monsters come from out of nowhere and place themselves at the very heart of Humanity’s future. Both are equally enthralling, both as enjoyable as its counterpart and yet rarely do the mix well.

The Peter Davison era tale The Visitation is one in which is a prime example of how to get the mixture just right and it is in this mould that the second offering by Big Finish in the Philip Hinchcliffe Presents Box-Set, the hugely entertaining and deliciously spine jangling The Devil’s Armada, lives fully up to.

The first Elizabethan era, one in which poets have extolled the virtue of and hailed as Gloriana, was as dangerous a place to be as any other. The War of the Three Kingdoms might have been nearly a century away, the plagues that ravaged across Europe a nightmare still to come and the terrifying spectacle of the Icarus-like Oliver Cromwell who would be tyrannical against all who opposed him, a mere glimpse of the religious authoritarian that so many other culture have bred, all were part of a history yet to come. Suspicion, superstition, accusations of witch craft and mystical portents of England’s imminent downfall to the Spanish King and his Armada also played their parts; these were indeed terrible times for Gloriana.

The Doctor stumbles into the wake of chaos, as he can only do best as the country is fighting a war on two known fronts and a third, hidden just out of sight but whispering in the dark and stoking the fires of fear and panic, is ready to take apart the remains.

The Spanish may be at Dover’s door, the Witch Finder General William Redcliffe is chasing not only sorcery but also anybody of a Catholic persuasion but it is the Devil himself that pulls the strings to England’s discord.

It is stories such as The Devil’s Armada that keep bringing fans back time and time again and with great performances by the consummate Philip Bretherton, Ben Porter as Father D’Arcy and the revered Tom Baker continuing his role as the fourth incarnation of The Doctor, The Devil’s Armada is one to take great pleasure in. Adapted by Marc Platt, Philip Hinchcliffe’s work has added another layer of spell-binding trepidation the canon, it is one not to miss out on hearing.

The Devil’s Armada is available to purchase as part of the Philip Hinchcliffe Presents Box-Set. The Box-Set is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.

Ian D. Hall