Daughter of the Gods

"My name is Katarina and I am already dead."

Writer: David K. Barnes
Format: Audio
Released: November 2019
Series: Early Adventures 6.02

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe, First Doctor, Steven, Katarina

Synopsis

When Zoe reattaches an old piece of equipment to the TARDIS console, she, Jamie and the Doctor are very lucky to avoid a collision.

But the place they find themselves may be even more dangerous – because there they encounter another Doctor, a space pilot named Steven... and a young woman called Katarina who really shouldn't be there...

Verdict

Daughter of the Gods was a terrific Early Adventures audio story! It's the first Big Finish audio I've been able to blog in over a month and it is a story that I have been wanting to listen to ever since it came out. It really does seem that there isn't anything Big Finish cannot pull off as here we get the return of Katarina! That was a major selling point for me along with the First and Second Doctors meeting in the earliest of multi-Doctor stories and it definitely wasn't a let down. I really liked the format of the story with the first part mainly featuring the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe and then the second primarily being with the First Doctor, Steven and Katarina. I was very surprised to find that the latter trio had actually been on Urbinia for three months and it was nice to know that, even if it ended up being an alternative timeline, Katarina experienced some sort of life with the Doctor and Steven. She was played well by Ajjaz Awad with her character probably being the companion you can most get away with recasting given her limited stay on the TARDIS. The focus of her character was great and I really enjoyed the continuity to The Daleks' Master Plan. It was brilliant to explore the possibility that the Doctor never got involved in the events of those stories which led to The Daleks roaming the universe with the Time Destructor on their hands. That beggars belief just thinking about! Mixing the companions together as the story went on worked wonderfully well and the way Jamie and Katarina hit it off was terrific. I really enjoyed their relationship and it was nice to hear them both comparing notes on how they met the Doctor. They had disagreements on whether he was a deity though! Her constant referring to the TARDIS as a temple was also magnificent and playing on her beliefs that she was dead, given that she actually should be dead, was excellent. The relationship between Steven and Zoe was less enticing, but having the former with the Second Doctor was really good. Frazer Hines does an incredible job of bringing the Second Doctor back to life and that was no different here. His reaction to finding out that Katarina was still around was very powerful and hearing him talk of the loss he felt for her was brilliant. I thought the meeting between the First and Second Doctor was good, but it could have probably been a tad better and more meaningful. It was still very enjoyable but I think with the First Doctor's personality, it ought to have been something similar to what we saw with the Second and Third Doctors in The Three Doctors. I suppose it is hard without the original actors, but it was still great and just fantastic to have the first two incarnations meet. I'm a sucker for a multi-Doctor adventure! The presence of the Daleks was enough to provide a threat without them doing an awful lot for the most part and that worked well as they weren't needed to do more. The focus on the evacuation was really good and with all of the companions there along with two Doctors meeting, the plot was simple and that's how it should have been. One moment of the adventure that I loved was Katarina completely understanding the concept of regeneration and the Doctor changing face as she saw him as a god and they took many faces. I thought that was outstanding. I was a little surprised that the Time Destructor was actually used, but the Doctors were able to revert things back to normal and the little reenactments we got of The Daleks' Master Plan's opening stages was wonderful. It was also nice for the Second Doctor at the end to get to say an anecdote about Katarina and that she'll never be forgotten. There were numerous references to The Myth Makers which was great, but that was a very good way to finish. Overall, a fine audio!

Rating: 9/10