Prisoners of the Lake

An underwater archaeological expedition makes a startling find in the deepest part of a lake in England: a completely air tight stone building. Inside, a stone statue stands vigil until it begins to speak and move. Trespassers are not welcome. Mike Yates is already on scene to deal with reports of artifacts removed from the site going missing, but when he realizes he is out of his depth he calls for the Doctor and Jo. At first the Doctor is not interested, until he sees a transcript of the statue's words and realizes that this is more than just a building. This is a spaceship, and it is carrying several hardened alien criminals to their trial, but that was thousands of years ago and they have been dormant the whole time. And with the trial date missed, the prisoners are no longer to be held.

Big Finish had toyed around with a few third Doctor stories with the Short Trips and Companion Chronicles lines but here for the first time is a full cast audio story with two original cast members (Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Richard Franklin as Mike Yates) along with astounding Jon Pertwee soundalike Tim Trelaor. With the first and second Doctors effectively re-cast it was just a matter of time until the third was added to the list, and the result is I'd say about 90% effective. The chemistry between the third Doctor and Jo is captured very well though, and even though Ms Manning has had to make herself a bit squeakier to recapture her youth on audio, it is definitely them. And to make everyone get their money's worth out of it, Prisoners is the first of two full audio adventures in the first volume of Third Doctor Adventures.

The narrative doesn't give a precise idea of where this takes place in the third Doctor's timeline; there is no mention of the TARDIS or being in exile so it could really go either side of The Three Doctors. The Doctor initially sounds like his exile self though, busy with something of his own and not interested in the comings and goings of the people of Earth, or of those in UNIT. Missing from that equation, though, is the fantastic back and forth between the Doctor and the Brigadier; it's just not the same to have the Doctor brush off the other UNIT guys, they give up too easily. But alas, with the former stars of such a long run series no longer with us there is only so much that can be done with soundalikes, and the Brig is confined to narration, his interaction only with Mike Yates as he reports on the situation at the Lake.

Big Finish have managed to address the biggest gap in their audio range almost perfectly here; next challenge would be to convince Christopher Eccleston to return to his role as the Doctor under their direction. But even if that doesn't happen anytime soon, the third Doctor is back, good and proper.

NEXT EPISODE: CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS