The Church and the Crown

"There's a little law in this country. What the King wants, the King gets!"

Writers: Cavan Scott & Mark Wright

Format: Audio

Released: November 2002

Series: Main Range 38

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Peri, Erimem

Synopsis 

A nation divided...

A Queen's life at risk...

A net of conspiracy closing in...

Sometimes being a time travelling adventurer just isn't easy...

For a start there's a temperamental TARDIS that lands a few thousand years off course in 17th century Paris. But why shouldn't the Fifth Doctor, Peri and their travelling guest Erimem take a look around the city on the morning of King Louis' annual State Ball?

As Peri becomes embroiled in a plot to kill Queen Anne and smash the unity of the Church and the Crown, the Doctor finds himself duelling musketeers on the streets.

With Peri missing, Erimem catching King Louis' eye and a Musketeer's sword at your throat, could things get any worse?

Probably.

Verdict 

The Church and the Crown was an excellent audio adventure! A brand new TARDIS trio and a pure historical, this story really did have all the elements of a great story and it certainly didn't disappoint. This was a pleasure to listen to for the 103 minutes that it was on for. The length was very good and I thought the pace of the story flowed brilliantly and was very consistent which is always a bonus. I count this as the first official adventure with the Fifth Doctor, Peri and Erimem and what a wonderful trio they were! The chemistry was magnificent between them and I think it's certainly helping things that even for just the pair of the Fifth Doctor and Peri, it's still relatively new seeing as the only two adventures they shared together on television were Planet of Fire, where Peri arrived, and The Caves of Androzani where the Fifth Doctor departed. Now we get a whole bunch of adventures in between, though I remain skeptical about how much you can include between those stories. I'm not too technical though, where there's a gap there's endless possibilities for stories and I'm loving that they're exploited. For Erimem's first adventure in the TARDIS, I thought she was terrific. I really liked her in The Eye of the Scorpion, which was nicely referenced but also seems quite a while ago no, and I'm glad that she didn't disappoint in her follow up story. It seems that this TARDIS trio is going to grow to become a big favourite of mine, that I am sure! The Fifth Doctor has often been criticised in audio stories and although I'm still relatively early in the Main Range running order, I can see why from stories such as Red Dawn. However, Peter Davison was excellent in this story and gave a real assured performance. Not too long since watching Black Orchid, I think it's rather ironic that I get another doppelgänger-like story! Where in that TV story it was Nyssa who bared an uncanny resemblance to an Ann, it was Peri here who looked exactly like the Queen of France! I'm not sure if I agree with the comparison but in audio you can get away with details like that. No split screen or constant change of clothes required, just Nicola Bryant using a different accent. I really liked that this was a pure historical and I'm certainly a fan of Big Finish returning to a practice often affiliated with the First Doctor era. I'm shortly moving out and heading for university to study History so I'm a big fan of these types of adventure. You don't need an alien threat in every story to make it good or dangerous. Here we just have the TARDIS trio getting caught up in 17th century Paris and all the trouble that went with it. The loose references to the Three Musketeers was cleverly referenced and I liked the Doctor's dilemma of meeting King Louis when he already has but in the future of the monarch. I thought Delmarre and Rouffet were quite a comedic bunch and I loved how Peri escaped them with ease. Erimem having her way with them to get an audience with the King was also marvellous. The Doctor really was impressed! I loved her princess facade throughout and Peri's reaction to hearing of that was great. The Duke of Buckingham almost acting as the villain was an excellent bit of irony. After all the times the Doctor saved England, it was the Prime Minister who he was trying to prevent takeover France! It even acted as a cliffhanger. Peri questioning whether history could be changed once again cast my mind to that enormously important scene in The Aztecs. You can't rewrite history - Peri would soon learn. The climax was very good and logical and I liked how it kept with the pace despite it being the longest part at nearly thirty minutes. Overall, a fantastic little audio adventure and I look set to enjoy this TARDIS trio very much. 

Rating: 9/10