Thicker Than Water

"If the Doctor's not here, it means he's found something..."

Writer: Paul Sutton
Format: Audio
Released: September 2005
Series: Main Range 73

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Mel, Evelyn

Synopsis

Three years after Vilag was all but laid waste by the Killorans, the Doctor is back alongside a different companion. And a lot has changed,

Now elected Principal Triumvir, head of tripartite government, Rossiter is working to secure a peaceful future for the planet by researching the technology the Killorans left behind. But he has to contend with opposition from his daughter, Sofia, who heads a public campaign demanding the destruction of all alien artefacts.

Politics has caused a rift between father and daughter, and as if that wasn't enough, Sofia doesn't approve of her new stepmother either. Emotions soon boil over into violence - violence that seems to have gripped the entire city.

Friendships bind people close, but they say blood is...

Verdict

Thicker Than Water was a very good audio adventure from the Main Range of Big Finish audios. It wasn't quite what I was expecting from the cover but the story was quite a significant one for me personally as it was my 900th blog entry! It's been a lengthy period of dishing out my verdicts on all kinds of Doctor Who stories ranging from television and comic strip to audio and novel but I'm now only 100 blog entries away from what will be a hugely impressive landmark if I do say so myself. After coming this far, I can't ever imagine not blogging any story I do and even though I'm not at all far away from the four figure mark, I still have a quite ridiculous amount of content to get through. And that starts right here with these audios and this range in particular. I'm so determined to catch up but there's also so much other content that I want to do and as I'm in the middle of studying for my degree, time and money is the issue. This though was a very good story and I must admit I didn't think we'd be hearing a sequel to Arrangements to War. That story was quite powerful with the interactions between the Doctor and Evelyn and this was a very interesting take on the aftermath of that. She actually started off the story not as companion which was strange but it explained how Mel would fit into things. We got a brief flashback of how Evelyn said her goodbyes to the Doctor and decided to stay with Rossiter but I think doing that farewell as a full story would have made more sense. The Doctor wasn't surprised by her decision to leave but you could hear in his voice that he was actually rather sad. I was happy to hear though that he told Mel all about his former companion. I didn't start out as a massive fan of Evelyn but she had grown on me recently but now I do think that's she simply become too old to be a companion. In the Doctor's world, she just isn't up to scratch anymore which sounds incredibly harsh but I just think that's the case. If this is the last we hear of her then I think she'll have left in a good way and the closing scene with the cameo from the Seventh Doctor was absolutely wonderful. She knew right away who he was but the future incarnation of the Doctor seemed so joyful to be seeing his old companion. It was terrific that he was there to tell her of Hex and how he was now all grown up from being "little Tommy" and was travelling the universe in the TARDIS. The events of Project: Lazarus had a huge effect on Evelyn but she could afford a smile on this occasion. She was thrilled with the news which was great. The aftermath of the Killorans causing havoc on Vilag was good and I liked how three years on there were still debates about the incident. People, such as Evelyn, wanted to use the technology and learn from it but the more popular opinion was on the side of Sofia who wanted to get rid of it all. The fact that the pair were stepmother and daughter made family feelings very intense and Rossiter was almost stuck in the middle! The kidnapping of Evelyn was intriguing and unexpected and I liked how it did appear to be orchestrated by Sofia but that wouldn't turn out to be the case. It was actually the work of Szabo who was a good villainous character although I was a little surprised by his motive. There were good references to The Trial of a Time Lord, The Marian Conspiracy and The Harvest and I also really liked how the Sixth Doctor acknowledged how aggressively natured he was at the start of his incarnation. The ending was pretty calm considering some elements of the story and the one it was a sequel to but it was all about Evelyn really and how her days in the TARDIS seemed over. The meeting with the Seventh Doctor was a marvellous finish though and I really did enjoy the story. Overall, a great audio adventure!

Rating: 8/10