Start to Finish: 7.12 - Council of War

Image (c) Big Finish Productions

Action! Adventure! Romance! The oft-overlooked quiet man of UNIT is back, as John Levine performs Council of War in the character of sturdy, dependable bringer of tea, Sergeant John Benton. Sinead Keenan provides backup as Kettering Councillor, Margery Phipps.

A series of ghost sightings and a mystery disappearance attract the attention of the Doctor, and with Mike Yates laid up it's down to Sergeant Benton to go undercover at Kettering Town Council's Christmas Dinner and Dance. Here he meets militant enviromentalist councilwoman Margery Phipps, who turns out to be the target of the abduction attempts, as the inhabitants of the planet Kettering want to put her on trial for laying out the principals of pacifist, environmentally sensitive government which created their civilisation and then left it vulnerable to the depredations of ravening star groaties. It's up to Benton to form a ragtag band of pacifists into a convincing fake militia, and Margery to inspire them to put off the coat of non-violence and stand up for what is right.

With only a brief appearance by the Doctor in the final act, this is another two-hander with no particular audience, although I find I mind less. Perhaps that's because so much about it is new: New old companion, and a wonderful mix of James Bond espionage and civic bureaucracy. There are some awkward spots as Benton clumsily negotiates the unfamiliar waters of 1970s feminism, but all in all the leads complement well, and the story is a delight. It's almost a shame that the Doctor has to show up and hog the glory in the end, but I guess it is his series.

Another short break now, before I come back and take a swing at the eighty and final season of the original run of The Companion Chronicles, beginning with Captain Ruth Matheson and WO Charlie Sato of UNIT, as they face off against the totally and one-hundred-percent surprise antagonist of Mastermind.