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| Image (c) Big Finish Productions Ltd |
Freak weather conditions are harmless enough, until a sudden freeze in Hyde Park results in the deaths of hundreds. The only possible witness is the street magician Diamond Jack, the only clue an energy signature from Highgate Cemetery, and bringing the two together might be enough to doom the world.
It feels odd for Mike Yates to be recounting a story to UNIT when his last appearances in the TV series saw him pushed into retirement after a breakdown and his involvement in a plot to exterminate 99% of the human race, but other than that one wrinkle Franklin drops neatly back into the role. Once more we're back with the melancholy nostalgia theme, as Yates recalls his largely unrequited (as a result of underwriting) crush on Jo Grant, and his dependence on the Doctor to provide the solutions.
Diamond Jack is a dizzyingly mercurial character, spinning from showman to rogue to megalomaniac, while Franklin does a fine job of capturing the various voices of his old comrades.
The Magician's Oath is a good story, but suffers for me in that the Hyde Park tragedy is so similar to the Lake of Eratoon massacre in The Prisoner's Dilemma, and that the involvement of untold numbers of children in each hits me hard as a parent.
The next story in the sequence is a real treat; the Chronicle that launched a spin-off (28 plays and counting) and three reappearances in later Doctor Who plays. Not bad for 'companions' who never set foot in the TARDIS: It's Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter, as Jago and Litefoot in The Mahogany Murders.
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