The Glorious Revolution

"To sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings."

Writer: Jonathan Morris
Format: Audio
Released: August 2009
Series: Companion Chronicles 4.02

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe

Synopsis

After years as a companion to the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon was returned to his own wolrd and his own time, and his memories of his travels were erased. Until now.

A visitor from beyond the stars needs to explore Jamie's past, and discover what went wrong. What happened in the year 1688, when the TARDIS landed in London, and the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe were welcomed into the court of King James II.

It was the year of the Glorious Revolution. And the birth of a whole new history...

Verdict

The Glorious Revolution was an excellent audio adventure! This was definitely one of my favourite Companion Chronicles to date and whilst it didn't quite secure full marks, there aren't many that have in this range. I thought the concept was fantastic and the idea of a Time Lord from the CIA encountering Jamie some four decades or so after the events of The Highlanders was great. There was apparently a time in history where the intervention of the Doctor and his companions had caused a fluctuation in Earth's timeline and I loved that this occurred in the lead up to the Glorious Revolution. This is a period of history I have studied in a little depth at university so it was good to hear the Doctor and Jamie explaining the historical facts to Zoe who wasn't quite caught up on her history of this time. I loved how Jamie, being Scottish, argued that the Glorious Revolution didn't deserve the name it is now known by and whilst that was the title given because there were minimal casualties, Jamie simply stated that its happenings were only glorious for England. As a Welshman and supporter of Plaid Cymru, I could fully sympathise and appreciated his perspective greatly. This was the first time Jamie had gone into his own personal past so he wasn't quite sure of the ramifications if he altered history but he was absolutely determined for King James to go on fighting and not give up the throne to William and Mary. The way he persuaded James not to run away was actually brilliant but the reaction of the Doctor was equally as good. You could tell he sympathised with Jamie's point of view because of who he was fighting for when he first met him but he had to explain that if he changed history, Jamie would be changing himself. As illustrated by the Time Lord visitor, Jamie would have changed events so that he never would have met the Doctor in the first place. I was very intrigued that the Time Lord so easily gave Jamie his memory back but it was a good way to get around the ending of The War Games. I was honestly stunned by Jamie's declining of the offer to have his memory restored though. I didn't think would have been his answer. Frazier Hines was superb once again with his effortlessly sublime impression of Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor and I liked how Zoe, with the absence of Wendy Padbury, was written into quite a minimal role. The second part had a bit more action which was good and I liked the methods used by Jamie and the Doctor to set history back on its natural course. Overall, this was an excellent audio adventure!

Rating: 9/10