The Renaissance Man

"How does it feel not being the cleverest man in the room?"

Writer: Justin Richards
Format: Audio
Released: February 2012
Series: FDA 1.02

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Leela

Synopsis

To continue Leela's education, the Doctor promises to take her to the famous Morovanian Museum. But the TARDIS lands instead in a quiet English village, where they meet the enigmatic collector Harcourt and his family.

When people start to die, reality doesn't appear quite what it was. There's something sinister going on within the walls of Harcourt's manor, and the stakes are higher than they can imagine.

The Doctor is about to discover that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Verdict

The Renaissance Man was a fantastic audio adventure! I really liked the concept and murder mystery theme of the story. I think it's really great how the Doctor is trying to educate his companion, Leela, of her heritage. Leela though seems to be getting tired of visiting Earth or something associated with it which I think is brilliant. Now, I'm only two stories into the Fourth Doctor Adventures series but the humour between the Fourth Doctor and Leela is just perfect. It's really superb! Ian McNeice guest starring as the evil Hardcourt was a welcomed bonus and he really suited a harsh villain. His accomplice, Jephson, was equally as brutal, villainous and evil and I thought it was excellent how they were manipulating events in the renaissance section of the Morovanian Museum. The way the Doctor reacted to what was going on, with Hardcourt aiming to know everything, literally everything, was terrific. The Doctor's relationship with Scruffy, a dog, and the continuous references to cow parsley was just wonderful and so typical of the Time Lord. I really enjoyed the concept of everybody in the story (apart from the Doctor and Leela and of course) were just props in a game of soaking up knowledge. And the Doctor's brilliance in feeding false information from his mind was just genius! And then he realised that Hardcourt was a prop too, for the real Renaissance Man who was in the museum. But the Doctor and Leela saved the day in excellent fashion and it left an empty renaissance section in the museum, and that was applauded in fashion. Overall, an excellent theme, great plot and terrific humour!

Rating: 9/10