Start to Finish: 4.01 - The Drowned World

Image (c) Big Finish Productions Ltd

So on to the fourth series of The Companion Chronicles, at which point I confess that I have previously been neglecting The Revenants, a limited release Chronicle repackaged with The Light at the End, Big Finish's 50th Anniversary release, which makes the totals 84 plays, of which 26 are First Doctor stories, as is Simon Guerrier's The Drowned World.

The echo of a woman named Sara Kingdom tells stories for her life in her guest house on the isolated, abandoned Isle of Ely. Her questioner asks for one particular tale which might influence the courts in her favour, but will his trust in her remain? And if broken, what would it take to bring him back?

As with Home Truths, The Drowned World is a claustrophobic story - confined to a sealed complex of mining pods assailed by a mysterious, aqueous attacker - and narrated by the thousand year old 'ghost' of Sara to Robert (Niall MacGregor), an officer of the law in a post-apocalyptic Cambridgeshire. Its purpose is to further define the originally scant persona of Sara Kingdom. Last time, the focus was on Sara as an investigator, seeking to make things right by uncovering the truth; this time, it is on her role as protector, willing to give her life for others.

The framing narrative is unusually complete, carrying its own story forward as well as the tale within a tale; a feature shared with the Leela Chronicles. Once again, Jean Marsh invests her performance more with the emotional weight of her relationships than with mimicry of her former companions. It's not quite as affecting as Home Truths, but it's pretty good.

Next, Jamie McCrimmon faces his own past, as a trip to 1688 lands the TARDIS in the middle of The Glorious Revolution.