Start to Finish: 8.05 - 'The Beginning'

Image (c) Big Finish Productions

For the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who, Big Finish had a series of event releases, including the 11-part Destiny of the Doctor, a series of three stories for the main range Doctors all set in 1963, the multi-Doctor extravaganza The Light at the End, and a trilogy of Companion Chronicles which began - aptly enough - with The Beginning.

The seditious, disruptive troublemaker known as the Doctor and his granddaughter Susan are pursued by the Chancellery Guard into the workshops beneath the Capitol, where they steal a derelict time ship and flee the stifling confines of Gallifrey. Unfortunately, they are not alone on their conveyance. They have unwittingly dragged a technician named Quadrigger Stoyn with them, and when they encounter an order-obsessed race seeking to seed and control life on a planet called Earth, the Quadrigger might just decide that blood is less important than order.

Told by Carole Ann Ford as Susan, and with veteran audio man Terry Molloy as Stoyn, The Beginning was a bit of a disappointment for those hoping for a definitive account of the Doctor's previous life on Gallifrey, but it did provide another link between the Big Finish continuity and both the old and new TV series, with the Doctor bringing the Hand of Omega aboard the TARDIS after a brief, offscreen consultation with the time-shifting Clara. It also drops out travelers in to the origins of life on Earth, providing a vague rationale for the ship's fascination with that world.

The Beginning is a decent story, but probably the most underwhelming of the Big Finish anniversary entries. The fact that it leaves Gallifrey so soon and offers a first adventure only thematically linked to the reasons for the Doctor's departure are ballast that the story itself - given barely an episode and a half to itself - fails to overcome.