Reviews

Written by Matt Fitton

Directed by Jamie Anderson
 

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Miranda Raison (Constance Clarke) Lisa Greenwood (Flip Jackson), Matthew Cottle (Henry Clarke), Joel Fry (Kinvar/Rogers), Oliver Cotton (Major Callahan), Kate Kennedy (Ana), Robbie Stevens (Boyarov/Vilal General).
 

Big Finish Productions – Released December 2016

Picking up immediately from the end of AbsolutePower, Quicksilver finds the Doctor and Constance returned to Bletchley Park some months after they originally left at the end of Criss- Cross. For Constance there is bad news in the form of a telegram advising her that her husband Henry who had been absent on a classified operation is now missing presumed dead. However, there is also a reunion in store for the Doctor as this story sees the return of Lisa Greenwood as popular companion Flip Jackson. 2014’s Scavenger ended with Flip falling through the earth’s atmosphere. She then reappeared in an episode of TheSixthDoctorTheLastAdventure set at an earlier point in her travels with the Doctor, allowing the Valeyard to tease her eventual fate. However, the ambiguity had already been cleared up in The Widow’s Assassin, in which the Doctor revealed to Peri that he had intervened to save Flip and take her back to 2012, and had subsequently received an invitation to her wedding. Flip’s wedding invitation makes a reappearance as a convenient plot device to allow for her to be brought back in time in what seems an almost too obvious nod to the 2006 Christmas special The Runaway Bride.

The Doctor and Mrs Clarke meanwhile, are caught up in an alien invasion plot which conveniently links to the undercover project codenamed Quicksilver which Lt Cmdr Clarke was working on. This allows for a convenient transposition of events forward a few years in time to post-war Vienna, in which Matt Fitton effortlessly evokes the spy-movie atmosphere of The Third Man. After the slightly hit and miss antics of the previous play, this story is back on solid ground with clever use of characters and settings. In particular, the device of keeping the Doctor separate from both of his erstwhile companions for a large section of the story is well-used. Instead Constance and Flip are inadvertently paired together as a wonderfully chalk and cheese team who end up complimenting each other very well, sharing scenes which are an enjoyable contrast to previous occasions where past and present companions have met up.

As usual there is a reliable supporting cast with particular mention going to Matthew Cottle for bringing to life Constance’s much talked about husband Henry who has formed the centre of her story arc since her first appearance in 2015. Despite emerging as an unsympathetic character, he plays in very well in scenes with Miranda Raison’s Constance, allowing for a worthy conclusion to this stage of the character’s journey.

With the ending suggesting that, for a brief time at least, Colin Baker’s Doctor will, for the first time ever, have two companions in the TARDIS simultaneously, it seems that Big Finish are continuing to keep him in the excellent storytelling to which he has become accustomed. Overall, 2016’s main range releases have generally been a very strong collection of stories with much to recommend them. Quicksilver has rounded them off on a high note which has left this reviewer very keen to hear what will happen next.

Quicksilver is available now from Big Finish and is on general release from January 31st 2017