Start to Finish: 6.09 - Binary

Image (c) Big Finish Productions Ltd

We now come to a rarity; a Chronicle that is presented as a small-cast play rather than an enhanced audio book with a framing narrative, and which is also a three-hander. Eddie Robson's Binary features Caroline John as Liz Shaw, aided and abetted by Joe Coen and Kyle Redmond-Jones as UNIT soldiers Childs and James Foster.

UNIT have captured an alien computer. Liz has disabled such a device before, but that was with the Doctor's help. This time, the Doctor isn't around, and Liz will have to solve the problem on her own, and from an unfamiliar perspective.

Binary takes the old 'inside the computer' trope and applies it with an interesting mechanical twist, with Liz shrunk and placed in a manual repair network, rather than digitised, which feels far more apt for the era of the story. It also allows the Doctor to appear, when he does, as a remote voice rather than an overriding presence, and gives Liz a chance to spread her wings a little.

Liz's supporting players have similar voices, but present quite distinct characters, both offering hints that neither of them is quite what they seem. Liz herself is able to shine without the Doctor's direct presence, even in a field which - as is made clear - she is not uncommonly knowledgeable.

If it suffers, Binary suffers from the fact that it is not significantly distinct from a regular Big Finish pay, save in the size of its cast, such that it feels more like a limited play than an expanded Chronicle.

Next up, we're back in Russia with the First Doctor for The Wanderer.