Living History

"I meet Winston Churchill and he gets captured by Roman soldiers..."

Writer: Justin Richards
Format: Audio
Released: January 2016
Series: The Churchill Years 1.03

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Churchill, Kazran

Synopsis

Finally given the chance to travel in the TARDIS, Winston Churchill cannot resist the opportunity of meeting Julius Caesar. But the trip does not go quite as planned. With the TARDIS gone, and Churchill stranded in ancient Britain with a young man he barely knows and who comes from the future, it seems things can hardly get any worse.

Until he is captured by the invading Romans.

Still, at least that means Churchill will meet Julius Caesar after all. But then Churchill learns of the Bronze God, feared and worshipped by the Ancient Britons. A god that he recognises as anything but divine when he meets it.

Verdict

Living History was an excellent continuation of the first volume of The Churchill Years and it definitely ranks as the best story in the boxset so far. It really was a terrific audio adventure! I was pleased to hear that the Eleventh Doctor now featured in this story and I liked the change in that Churchill recognised this incarnation of the Doctor following the events of Victory of the Daleks. The recognition from that episode would not stop there though. The placement of this story for the Doctor was very intriguing as it actually took place during the events of A Christmas Carol with Kazran Sardick accompanying him in the TARDIS. I thought it was brilliant to get an insight into that pair between the meetings with Abigail. The way that the Doctor was basically written out of the story for much of its duration was good and we really got to see Winston and Kazran get an adventure of their own. Churchill getting to travel in the TARDIS is just wonderful and I loved how he wanted to meet Julius Caesar. I often advocate more stories set in Ancient History but the likelihood of getting one with Churchill and a Dalek was rare so I loved that here. Churchill recognised the true identity of the famed Bronze God immediately and I really liked how he still referred to it as an Ironside. That was great continuity and I also thought it was good that Kazran knew of them. The battle between the Romans and the Britons was fantastic and the prospect of Caesar and Churchill teaming up to orchestrate a strategy was frightening. The Britons really didn't stand a chance, did they? Tristahna was another terrific character and I liked how we got to learn of her association with her Bronze God. It was a very good flashback and once Churchill and Kazran provided the Daleks with its mean to repair and escape in the ship, it wanted to exterminate all humanity. That led to an unlikely alliance between Caesar and Tristahna's troops which would ultimately end in a truce. Something I'm sure the Doctor would have been very proud of indeed. The way Kazran edited his device to blow the ship up on launch was great and I liked how helpless he and Churchill seemed in their efforts to escape. The belief being that they had perished in defeating the Bronze God was superb and I loved how the Doctor arrived just in the nick of time. He didn't know how long he had been gone for but deduced that the Time Lock and the Dalek had something to do with the untimely takeoff of the TARDIS on arrival. Overall, a brilliant audio adventure! Very close to full marks.

Rating: 9/10