The Many Deaths of Jo Grant by: Cavan Scott and Mark Wright directed by: Lisa Bowerman: Death to Life Over and Over Again

The Many Deaths of Jo Grant is performed by Katy Manning as Jo Grant with Nicholas Asbury as Rowe.  It was written by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, directed by Lisa Bowerman, and was released in October 2011 by Big Finish Productions.

 

Seeing the character of Jo Grant die once would already be hard to watch, but Cavan Scott and Mark Wright write a story in which she dies a grand total of four hundred twelve times, with four of those deaths being shown over the course of the story.  The first of these takes place on Earth during her time with UNIT.  The Doctor is missing while a spaceship materializes over the Earth, aliens called the Xoanthrax are invading, and Jo and Rowe have to defeat them.  The Doctor returns to Earth and it turns out he’s injured himself gravely.  The Xoanthrax wish to destroy humanity.  Jo and the Doctor are in London when Big Ben is infected by some sort of fungus which has infected a UNIT soldier and it is only a matter of time before Jo is infected.  A colony is on the verge of extinction with Rowe as their leader so to find a way to save themselves they decide to sacrifice one Jo Grant to a pit that has a creature living symbiotically with the planet itself.  An Armageddon barge going to destroy a planet with Captain Rowe at the helm and the Doctor armed only with a sonic screwdriver has to stop him, but he is unable to defeat the evil space Captain, but Jo jumps in the way sacrificing herself so the Doctor can live.

 

Then the curtain is raised and we can see what’s really going on which takes place over the majority of the second half of the story.  I won’t spoil it, but Mark and Wright are excellent at writing the plots as they keep you on the edge of your seat to see how Jo is going to die this time around.  They also instill quite a bit of fear and tension as you realize just what is going on when it comes to these deaths.  The biggest problem is one of the deaths really doesn’t sell and you can see it coming a mile away so there’s a stretch of about ten minutes where the listener is just waiting for it to happen.

 

Katy Manning performs admirably in all the scenarios as Jo Grant.  She’s giving the same style of performance as in Find and Replace, and it’s an excellent performance.  Her impersonation of Nicholas Courtney in the first half of the story is excellent, but sadly the Brigadier doesn’t really do much for the amount of time he gets in the story.  This is a story focused on Jo and how much she loves the Doctor which is done excellently.  The second half goes into the feelings the Doctor has for Jo, while he isn’t in love with her, he definitely cares for her deeply.  The character of Rowe is also interesting as he’s played by one actor in five versatile roles.  Nicholas Asbury gives an excellent performance in all the roles that he’s given and is an excellent villain for the story.

 

To summarize, The Many Deaths of Jo Grant is an excellent character examination that has a big problem with lulling in the middle.  Katy Manning is excellent as Jo Grant and the writing from Cavan Scott and Mark Wright is also on top form for the most part.  80/100.