Start to Finish: 7.07 - The Flames of Cadiz

Image (c) Big Finish Productions

Back to the First Doctor, and back to the purely historical. We're in 16th Century Spain, a bad time to be as unrepentantly British as a TARDIS crew, for The Flames of Cadiz. Once more, William Russell and Carole Ann Ford share the narrating duties, and British-Moroccan actor Nabil Elouahabi voices Esteban, a Christian Moor.

The TARDIS lands in Spain, and even as Ian is musing on his own rather parochial understanding of the world, the crew learn that they are in Cadiz in 1587. The country is in ferment, the fires of the Inquisition are everywhere, and a grand military undertaking is prepared against the arch-heretic Elizabeth in England. Still, it will all be fine if they keep their heads down and don't go getting all righteous at anyone.

The core of The Flames of Cadiz comes down to a clash between the Doctor and his human companions, as the First Doctor's incomplete knowledge leads to a misguided attempt to 'correct' the history that Ian and Barbara are trying to see kept on course. There is also a slightly weird subplot featuring Miguel de Cervantes and the inspiration for Don Quixote, which despite its oddity is entirely appropriate to the First Doctor's era, and probably to most of the others. It suffers a little from an apparent lack of stakes, even in its most dramatic scenes, as the TARDIS crew are obviously never in danger, and in particular when Esteban stabs a monk (in an act of public defence,) they basically just help him to hide the body and move on.

From a flawed historical we go back to outer space with our next story, as the Second Doctor and his companions visit the House of Cards.