The Age of Endurance

"Soon the people of this village are going to know fear."

Writer: Nick Wallace

Format: Audio

Released: September 2016

Series: Early Adventures 3.01

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace

Synopsis 

The TARDIS materialises on board a still and eerie spaceship. When a squad of soldiers land, they realise they've found themselves in the middle of a war zone. With one of their crew trapped by the enemy, the Doctor and his friends find themselves loved in a desperate race for survival. Vast warships manoeuvre around each other as both sides try to out-think their opponents, flying into ever more dangerous areas of space.

The stakes could not be higher. But as ever in war, the lines between good and evil are hard to define. Will anyone survive to claim the moral high ground?

Verdict 

The Age of Endurance was not my most favourite of stories to kick off the third series of Early Adventures. I’m not entirely sure what it was, but I couldn’t find myself fully invested into this story which was a shame as I was so looking forward at being reunited with the first TARDIS team of the First Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara. It’s pretty cool that this serves as Jemma Powell’s Big Finish debut as Barbara and she does the character justice in my opinion. I am of course hugely familiar with her in the role from the First Doctor Adventures so it was nice to actually have her alongside both Carole Ann Ford and William Russell as the authentic Susan and Ian. She fitted in well and whilst Barbara was absent for a large chunk of the story, when she was around it felt authentic and that’s all you can ask for. I thought the use of the First Doctor was slightly underwhelming which is a big shame because William Russell does a fantastic impersonation of William Hartnell’s incarnation. It just felt like he was close to the end with how old and frail he was presented. I understand the need to focus on Ian and Susan with those actors being the performers here, but why not utilise the talents of Russell? That was a bit of a shame. The spaceship settings of the Endurance and Vanguard were pretty good and I appreciated how this felt quite unique for the first TARDIS team. They didn’t really get to visit many spaceships so I liked that happening here. Susan felt a little more grown up in this adventure which was good for her and something we definitely should have seen more of on screen. It was fun for her to mention an encounter with clones prior to Ian and Barbara joining them in the TARDIS. I’d love to hear or read that adventure one day! I thought the theme of endurance worked pretty well but unfortunately I just wasn’t hugely interested in the story behind the race and Myla as the mother. It was a little convoluted in my opinion and by the time we learned of Olivan’s revelation as the child one thousand years in the making it just didn’t seem to have the impact or desired effect that it ought to have had. The Shifts weren’t enticing or particularly interesting as an enemy and Arran as the leader just never felt imposing. I was not a fan of their voices either which in the audio format is so important. It just sounded generic and like a childish monster. I thought some of the cliffhangers were pretty good and the moment where it appeared Barbara was lost and Ian had to leave her was sensational stuff from William Russell. It was Ian’s reaction that really made that such a powerful and shocking moment. It was so well done and I did like that she was absent for a good chunk of the story thereafter to sell that she might actually be dead or lost. Of course, we know Barbara’s fate is alongside Ian and they depart in The Chase but hearing how Ian would react to losing her was fantastic. It was probably the story highlight for me. The Doctor also then going missing into the cloud was a little less impactful as it felt slightly repetitive, but the way he re-emerges onto the scene with the hidden morse code message was fun just as Ian was about to tell Susan that her grandfather was dead. Myla was adamant that was the case, but of course it wouldn’t be that way. I thought the fate of the ship being flown into the radiation stream was pretty good but as a whole, there was just something missing from the adventure and I couldn’t get fully invested to give it a higher rating. Overall, far from awful but not entirely great. 

Rating: 6/10