James Robert McCrimmon: Jamie

"It's a question of memory."

Writer: Mark Wright

Format: Audio

Released: July 2023

Series: Second Doctor Adventures 2.01

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie

Synopsis 

Mysterious dreams of lives never lived haunt an ailing prisoner in Edinburgh Castle, in the year 1776. Meanwhile, the Doctor arrives on another reluctant mission for the Time Lords, with the enigmatic Raven observing his every move.

How is the Doctor's erstwhile travelling companion, Jamie McCrimmon, connected with the terrifying deaths that plague the streets in the shadow of the castle? And will Jamie ever really know his true self again?

Verdict 

Jamie was a really good and intriguing start to the James Robert McCrimmon second series of Second Doctor Adventures! After an enigmatic start of Beyond War Games, I feel that after this story we’re now ready to really delve into further adventures for the Second Doctor and that famed and mythical land of Season 6b. It’s a wonderful concept and whilst he appears a little older on the artwork for this boxset than he appeared on screen, this could set us up nicely for The Two Doctors and beyond with Jamie accompanying the Second Doctor on his travels after the events of The War Games where nearly all of his memories of travelling in the TARDIS were wiped. I thought the continued presence of Raven was superb and she’s such a fun character. It’s not often we’ve had a chance to delve into a Time Lord this early on in the chronology and she definitely feels in line with what we saw in the Second Doctor’s swan-song. The Time Lords seem more open for bending the rules here even though Raven insisted she couldn’t be seen to interfere in affairs, and she was far from complimentary of the people and city of Edinburgh in the seventeenth century. That was really good and she was almost ridiculing the Doctor’s interest in Earth and its people. Her reaction when seeing the local medicine of the time in action when Jamie got into a bad way was great as she described it as barbarism at work. Right before her eyes. It was fun for her to gloat about always being in control of the Doctor as that was the price he paid for his freedom. Except he wasn’t free at all. The two versions of Jamie were fun and I liked the reference from one of them regarding The Enemy of the World and it being like the Doctor’s situation with Salamander. It wasn’t quite to that scale but it was still fun to acknowledge. I thought the Holo Wraiths were a strong enemy and the fact the Doctor and Jamie had defeated them before on Zeiton was decent, but just a shame that adventure doesn’t exist in any format. If it did, this would be even better in my opinion. The concept of the Time Lords mucking up the memory wipe of Jamie is excellent and that having an impact on the Holo Wraith memories buried deep in Jamie’s consciousness and bringing the threat to life again was very well done. I thought the first part in particular was a little confusing with everything that was happening with the two versions of Jamie but his nightmares of Culloden and journeys with the Doctor were good to delve into. The moment where the Doctor and Jamie were reunited was a really heartfelt moment as the impact of the botched memory wipe and the Holo Wraiths meant Jamie had his memories back! The Wraiths were feeding on the trauma of his suppressed memories which was a little gruesome, as was the fact Raven was waiting all along for the Doctor to work that out and stop it! She was devious and I really do hope she sticks around as I’d love to explore more into the purpose behind some of these Time Lord missions for the Doctor. Their research has showed that he works better with a companion and had particular fondness for this one, so Jamie would accompany the Doctor once more! That sets us up nicely for adventures to come. I also thought it was clever to establish that the encounter on Zeiton was right after the events of Fury from the Deep and leaving Victoria, so Zoe wouldn’t have had Holo Wraith interaction meaning her memory wipe should be intact. A small but important detail. Overall, a really strong audio to kick off an exciting series!

Rating: 8/10