Start to Finish: 6.11 - The Jigsaw War

Image (c) Big Finish Productions Ltd

Cementing the move away from the standard enhanced audio book format of the early Chronicles, Eddie Robson's The Jigsaw War is a four-man play with a cast of two.

Under arrest and interrogated by an officer of a harsh, military regime, Jamie is pressed to question his loyalty to the Doctor. When events begin to fall out of sequence, however, Jamie is given a chance to escape, but is he doomed to join the Doctor's enemies, or is it all a trick of the mind?

The Jigsaw War is a one room interrogation play, with Dominic Mafham as Moran, the man asking the questions. The twist is that the scenes of the play are out of order, as Jamie is thrown about in time by the mysterious Si and challenged to work out the correct sequence of events. Si only ever communicates by psychically possessing Moran, and allows the Doctor - his true opponent in the game - to speak through Jamie, thus doubling up the cast within the play as well as without.

The play works on the idea of trust; how far does Jamie trust the Doctor, and why? How far does the Doctor trust his own understanding of the state of affairs on an otherwise unknown planet? How far does the audience take it on trust that the Doctor is infallibly on the side of the angels? It's also fun to work out how the pieces fit together. The puzzle isn't perfect and there are a few rough edges, but overall it's a good listen.

Our final entry in series 6 will be a Third Doctor adventure for Mike Yates of UNIT, in The Rings of Ikiria.