Start to Finish: 5.06 - Quinnis

Image (c) Big Finish Productions Ltd

Before he ever travelled with a single human, the Doctor travelled with his granddaughter, Susan. Marc Platt's Quinnis tells the story of one of those early adventures.

The planet Quinnis in the Fourth Universe is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there. Unfortunately, when the TARDIS - currently disguised as a market kiosk - is lost, there may be little choice, especially if the Shrazer has its way.

Quinnis taps a long-running concept in the show, an alien who wants to be taken away in the TARDIS for nefarious purposes, as well as a wider plot about the Doctor getting caught up as the result of a boast of his scientific genius. The genral plot is taken from a throwaway line in the TV serial Edge of Destruction, which is why the story has to take place in a parallel(ish) universe (classic series technobabble being what it was).

Carole Anne Ford channels her younger self perfectly, and continues to provide a good range of other voices. Our actual other voice is Tara-Louise Kaye, Ford's daughter, as Meedla and the Shrazer, a bird of ill-omen, with some relish.

Quinnis is an interesting addition to the pre-series deuterocanon, although it sits at odds with works (such as Here There Be Monsters) which characterise Susan as young for a Time Lady, but still older than most humans, instead presenting her as the age which she appeared to be. Overal, it's a good story, embracing the weird alienness of First Doctor SF episodes, in a setting that the TV series could not have recreated.

Next, another double bill, as Peri Brown appears with the Fifth and Sixth Doctors in Peri and the Piscon Paradox.