My dislike of the BBC Audio 4th Doctor range, beginning with Hornet’s Nest, is a well known fact to long-time readers of my marathon. I have covered two instalments of that series in the earlier part of my marathon: the 11th Century set ‘A Sting in the Tale’; and the 19th Century set ‘The Circus of Doom’. The main issue I have with the series is the performance of Tom Baker. He is not performing, in my opinion, as the Doctor, but as ‘Tom Baker’ and specifically, the eccentric, odd performance piece he presents as his public persona. It’s the ‘I have my own gravestone; what is this ‘whippet-¤¤¤¤’ bombast that a section of fandom seems to adore but that frankly leaves me cold. I may have mentioned before seeing him on stage at a convention years back where he took to the stage for a panel. All the other panels had been of the traditional ‘interviewer/interviewee’ structure but Tom was alone on stage directing a stream of consciousness at the audience. He told some stories, none of which had a point – or an ending, as far as I remember – which the majority of the audience seemed to lap up with guffaws and rapturous applause but left me sitting there with a polite smile on my lips wondering what the fuss was all about.

And this is what I feel like when I’m listening to this range. I feel like I’m listening to Tom Baker – the eccentric – reading a script by one of Doctor Who’s more out there writers: Paul Magrs. He isn’t playing the Doctor, he’s playing himself. It is accentuated by the presence of the most ridiculously named companion ever – Mrs Wibbsey. Don’t get me wrong, Susan Jameson is a great actress and she performs well but with the Doctor calling her ‘Wibbsey’, which sounds very undoctor-like anyway, her character is dragged down to Tom’s eccentricity. This is a shame because, with a less silly name and approach from Tom, Fenella Wibbsey could be a great companion. She’s the older female ala Evelyn Smythe or Professor Rumford (from The Stones of Blood) but seems squandered in a series of stories which make her relatively one-dimensional through writing and performance.

After listening to Hornet’s Nest (which thankfully I got for free through a newspaper promotion) I vowed not to seek out the two subsequent series: Demon’s Quest and Serpent’s Crest (see what they did there?). However, Hornet’s Nest has been transmitted on Radio 4 Extra quite a few times and there was always a chance the follow-ups would be too. And so it was that in December 2016, Demon’s Quest received its first transmission on the radio. Seeing as it was free, and unable to fight my fan completionist gene, I downloaded all 10 episodes ready for listening. Three of the instalments fit into periods of history already passed through in my marathon: the 1st and 19th centuries so my marathon brain wanted to plug those gaps even if it meant torturing my ears to do so. I’m also, as you know, of the opinion that even if Who is bad, good things can be found and enjoyed and any Who is better than no Who.

So, what of the first instalment, The Relics of Time. The Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey are drawn back to 46 AD by a piece of mosaic and a picture of said mosaic which depicts the Doctor. Mrs Wibbsey had traded some vital components of the TARDIS at the church jumble sale for a bag of documents, one of which was this book about the Romans in Britain. Other items included a 19th Century French poster, a book of fairy tales and a comic book from the 1970s. These will come into play in the later instalments as they drag the Doctor, Mrs Wibbsey and Mike Yates to various times and places.

In Roman Britain, the Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey meet who they first assume to be Emperor Claudius who is, apparently, desperate to hide away in seclusion in Ancient Britain. It turns out, though, that there is more to him than meets the eye and the Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey realise they have only just begun a quest to find out who is trying to trap the Doctor.

In the course of this story, the Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey meet some local Britons who do very little except decide the TARDIS travellers are wizards and demand for their help in defeating the ‘wizard’ of an  opposing tribe (who is the faux-Claudius). The characters don’t even get names, merely described as male and female warrior in the cast list. There’s an elephant and some dessicated corpses in a valley.

Somewhere in this production is a fun story which I can easily see coming out of the Big Finish stable. Unfortunately its obfuscated by Tom Baker’s performance and, to be honest, the format used for these audios which is a mix of narration and performance. I know this is a more common format for radio drama on the BBC than what Big Finish produces (having listened to the recent radio dramatization of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust which was of a very similar structure) but it just doesn’t quite work for me.

That said, though, I think I like this a little more than Hornet’s Nest although it remains to be seen how charitable I will continue to feel towards the story once we move through the next 8 episodes.