Doing Season 23 and
Season 27 as Lost Stories adaptations as well as the return of Tom Baker and
some missing sixties stories made Big Finish look at filling in some of the
random gaps in the series with stories that were never made. This was the format mainly used for Season
Three of the Lost Stories which would do a couple of famous 1960s stories,
three stories originally considered for Season 23 after it was announced to be
fourteen, twenty-five minute episodes and beginning with a trilogy of Fifth
Doctor stories up for consideration between the end of Season 19 and Season 20. The format was really just a bunch of random
stories that were thrown together so they could get these stories recorded and
released, which let’s be honest that really isn’t a problem as the two
trilogies and the double feature of sixties is organized well. It keeps the season moving along from Doctor
to Doctor and era to era.
The season opener is The Elite, a release that originates
from a storyline idea from Barbara Clegg and of all the Lost Stories thus far, The Elite had the least material to
adapt available. There were scripts
worked on, but they have been long since destroyed and only some references in
Doctor Who Magazine and a story outline survive. What’s weird is that as a way to adapt this
into an audio, Big Finish brought in John Dorney to adapt it although he had
only written a few other stories up until this point. Dorney actually had the freedom to adapt the
story in whatever way he chose as long as he stayed within the rather broad
storyline Clegg originally set out for the story. The plot had to see the Doctor, Nyssa and
Tegan immediately after Arc of Infinity
and Omega taking a vacation to
Florana, a planet famous for its roses when the TARDIS is thrown off course and
lands in a fascist state ruled by the elite under the Wizard of Oz like High
Priest. The Doctor of course wants to
save everything in the best way he can as he is against fascism in every sense
of the word. The mystery of the story is
what this planet is and who the High Priest actually is, but I will not be
spoiling that as it is a big part of what makes this release work so well, if
you don’t know too much about the plot going in. I will say that this release is what makes
John Dorney really stand out as a writer as he makes every scene in the release
extremely memorable.
Peter Davison as the
Doctor is really at a standout as while the story is a very dark story, it puts
the Doctor in a situation similar to The
Caves of Androzani where the Doctor is the one trying to lighten the
mood. It’s a script that plays to Davison’s
strengths and really makes you feel bad for the Doctor who has had Tegan thrust
back upon him which is hilarious. He
also reacts very coyly to the authority of the planet they land on and just
sort of wanders around through the story.
Sarah Sutton as Nyssa is really the only character who I have a problem
with in this story as she just gets hypnotized.
Sutton has some great stuff early on in the story which works as the
Doctor steals some chocolate from her.
It even has relevance later on in the plot and is honestly a funny
scene. Janet Fielding however is the
crowning glory of this story as she gets to be the mouth on legs we know and
love as well as just being a generally good character. She doesn’t put up with anything the story
has to throw at her which is great.
To summarize, The Elite is a story that is nearly
perfect in almost every way but is an extremely difficult story to talk about
due to the fact of several twists contained involving the characters and the
progression of the story. The acting is
spot on and the writing from John Dorney takes a story outline and turns it
into something brilliant. 97/100
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