Mrs. Wibbsey has returned to her relatively humdrum life caring for Nest Cottage and its grounds, and it has been months since the Doctor left in the TARDIS to return Alexander and Boolin to their home planet to fulfill their destinites. So it comes as something of a shock when Mike Yates – back in uniform – and UNIT come knocking on the door, insisting upon setting up shop at Nest Cottage. Mike says that the Doctor will explain everything, but the short, whimsical, recorder-playing man who shows up is as far from the Doctor as anyone Mrs. Wibbsey could imagine. Furthermore, she’s convinced that this new Doctor is up to no good, and is unable to convince anyone of this. But things change when an enormous alien spacecraft appears in the sky, and then the TARDIS materializes and “her” Doctor steps out of it. Unable to remember some of his second incarnation’s exploits, for once, the Doctor isn’t sure if his earlier self is on the side of right or not. But when the entire village of Hexford is ripped out of the ground and taken away from Earth, the Doctor realizes that he may have to fight his younger self to get it back.
written by Paul Magrs
directed by Kate Thomas
music by Simon PowerCast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Susan Jameson (Mrs. Wibbsey), David Troughton (The Visitor), Richard Franklin (Mike Yates), Cornelius Garrett (Reverend Tonge), Nerys Hughes (Deirdre), Joanna Tope (Tish)
Notes: David Troughton is one of the late Patrick Troughton’s sons, and has appeared in television Doctor Who before (The Curse Of Peladon, Midnight). The second Doctor makes references to the Yeti and the Great Intelligence (The Web Of Fear) and the Cybermen in the London sewer system (The Invasion).
Timeline: several months after Aladdin Time and before Survivors In Space; prior to The Ribos Operation
LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green
Review: Insert an appropriately Troughtonesque “oh dear!” here. Now, it’s not as if Big Finish hadn’t already more or less recast the second Doctor – Frazer Hines’ vocal impersonation of the late actor is uncanny and has been put to great use – but here AudioGo did that thing that Big Finish’s FAQ always promised never to do: ask David Troughton to play his father’s role.
As it turns out, though, he’s remarkably good at it; there are a few places where the differences can be easily spotted, but in other places it’s about as eerie as Frazer Hines’ Troughton voice. But of course, as the story unfolds, there is one easy escape hatch – the junior Troughton doesn’t have to duplicate his father’s performance perfectly…