Start to Finish: 4.05 - Ringpullworld

Image (c) Big Finish Productions Ltd

Our next story once more revisits the Fifth Doctor and the era of unavailable (for now) companion Tegan. This time, we're a little later; post-Nissa, and thus narrated by the sneering Vislor Turlough (Mark Strickson) in Paul Magrs' Ringpullworld.

Turlough is in trouble again, and this time it's because he's trying to do something right, something heroic. He knows what it is to be trapped somewhere with limits placed on your horizons, and he won't let that happen to anyone else; even if they are the militaristic descendants of an infamous race of genocidal warlords.

The main story of Ringpullworld is a pretty stock Who yarn; a pocket universe locked away (a la Planet Krikkit in Life, the Universe and Everything, which was of course adapted from the unproduced Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen), a means to let it out and the question of whether it is wise to do so. The point of the story, in this case, is actually the framing narrative.

The Doctor and his companions have attracted the attention of three of the legendary Novelisers of Verbatim Six, who have parasitically attached themselves to the three travellers in order to record their actions for posterity. This involves narrating what they are doing in their own style, in the case of Huxley - Turlough's Noveliser - a particularly flamboyant style; a habit which maddens Turlough far more than it informs the audience. Thus, Turlough has decided to provide his own text. In the first half of the story, he recounts the events leading up to his decision to pop the 'ringpull', the seal of the pocket universe. In the second, having been captured, Huxley helps him to explore the 'best possible future', the one in which they don't die, as a flash-forward.

The interesting narrative device, Strickson's performance and the illumination of one of the Doctor's more enigmatic companions make up for the simplicity of the central plot. Strickson is allowed to have a great deal of fun with the voices, managing a fair Davidson, but providing only a deliberately broad and whiny caricature of Turlough's nemesis, Tegan. Huxley is an entertaining foil, and it is easy to see how someone linked to a Noveliser would soon want to be rid of them.

Up next, we have our first non-television companion, as frequent Companion Chronicle director Lisa Bowerman goes front of mic for Bernice Summerfield and the Criminal Code.