The Yes Men

"They're conditioned to obey."

Writer: Simon Guerrier

Format: Audio

Released: September 2015

Series: Early Adventures 2.01

Featuring: Second Doctor, Polly, Ben, Jamie

Synopsis 

The Doctor, Jamie, Polly and Ben arrive on New Houston, an Earth colony in the Fourth Sector, which the Doctor previously saved from an alien invasion. He wishes to pay his respects to his late friend Meg Carvossa, but something is not quite right with New Houston's subservient robots...

Verdict 

The Yes Men was an excellent story to kick off the second series of Early Adventures! As irony would have it, this actually completes my listening of the second series of the range that I do hope is restored in the future. Thankfully as standalone stories the order to listen to these doesn’t matter much and this serves as a tremendous introduction for Elliot Chapman taking on the role of companion Ben Jackson. I think it’s probably the best of any recast Big Finish have done if I’m being honest, unless you count Frazer Hines portraying the Second Doctor. He did that wonderfully here and with Anneke Wills taking on the role of the main narrator, we had a magical combination! The quartet of the Second Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie is severely underrated and probably under-utilised because a large chunk of their adventures on screen are sadly missing from the archives so expanding on their time together on audio is wonderful. I do hope the Second Doctor Adventures will pick that up at some point. I thought the story started in a fun way with the Doctor not taking too kindly to being challenged on his ability to pilot and direct the TARDIS. Ben and Polly made it clear they did want to get back home to 1966 so the Doctor was on hand to show them he could go somewhere he’d been before. He did just that, but it wasn’t the somewhere Ben and Polly were hoping for. It turned out to be in New Houston instead which was a really fun setting and the political nature of the story was brilliant. I’m always a big fan of political exploration and this was tremendous. The Doctor arriving at the time immediately following the death of Meg Carvossa was really good and I liked the discussion of his previously unheard visit here with Dodo. Just touching on adventures with Dodo as the sole companion is fun as it’s only recently with the First Doctor Adventures reboot that we’ve explored that to any degree. Meg was a brilliant character and whilst the cameo appearance from her in the news bulletin made it a little obvious that she wouldn’t actually be dead, the circumstances surrounding it were fantastic. I liked the political strife and Meg’s rationale for going into hiding was good because her rogue nature was to be revealed. I thought her efforts in lying about the population of New Houston in order to get a surplus of supply and reward herself was superb. It was completely selfish but rather clever! It was easy to fiddle with the data. The Yes Men robots being completely devoted to her was intriguing and I liked the mystery that came from multiple reasons being given for the explanation of Meg’s death. From cancer to a heart attack, there was no consistency and the answer and that would prove important later on. I liked the eery feel of the Yes Men even before Meg was revealed as still very much alive. The claim of there being no crime at all was scarcely believable, especially with the claim that Meg was actually murdered. She would do the murdering herself though in disposing of Nesca Bangate. Whilst it saved his life, the Doctor didn’t approve of her doing that and it was fun to know that he already knew she was still alive. And then of course he would know that she was the culprit behind New Houston’s dodgy dealings. I thought Jamie and Ben were a fun combination and the pair getting involved with the robots was glorious. They were quite mischievous and the cliffhanger to part three with them proclaiming the Scottish battle cry of Creag an tuire! That was pretty marvellous and a really fun moment. It’s not often a cliffhanger is considered fun! I liked how throughout the story we heard the slow decline of Meg and she was moving from being a friend of the Doctor to somebody he needed to stop. He was saddened that things had come to this, especially after he seemed quite chuffed to show her the TARDIS as his proof of being the same person despite his change of appearance. I thought the ending was rather fun as Meg had her true actions revealed with Harriet Quilp to benefit. She was another fine character and her position as Acting Prime was good stuff. The robots now being considered citizens and Meg not being able to show her face was a good way to end things, as she had to face the consequences of her actions. Overall, an excellent story!

Rating: 9/10