Heritage: Merry Christmas, Mr Jago

"Everything has its time."

Writer: Paul Morris

Format: Audio

Released: October 2020

Series: Paternoster Gang 4.01

Featuring: Vastra, Jenny, Strax, Jago

Synopsis

As Vastra searches for relics of prehistory, Jenny worries about security, and Strax wants to find a suitable gift for his friend.

Henry Gordon Jago has been invited to spend Christmas at Paternoster Row – but when presents are unwrapped, the surprises inside could prove deadly!

Verdict

Merry Christmas, Mr Jago was an excellent start to the fourth and final series of Heritage for the Paternoster Gang! Whilst I'm yet to hear how events conclude for this terrific trio, I do hope this isn't the last of series for the gang. They're marvellous and it was so fun for them to link up with Henry Gordon Jago here. A clash of two eras in the Victorian times was bound to happen eventually given the respective spinoffs for Big Finish, and it certainly didn't disappoint! Although I am still a mile behind on the Jago & Litefoot spinoff, it was lovely to hear Jago alongside the Gang here and they all seemed to have mutual knowledge of one another which was fun. Given what they were involved with, that's hardly a surprise. I liked how with a main cast of four characters, we split them off into pairs and the combination of Strax and Jago just could not be topped. They were so good together and I have to say that this must go down as one of the best stories for our loveable Sontaran. Strax was in fine form and had conjured up quite the defence systems against the awful nuisance of carol singers. His references to not having an acid moat installed because of the issues it would cause to the milkman was hilarious and I loved the silliness of him not being entirely sure on how his own security systems worked. Vastra's request for training was met with a dumbfounded reaction because the less people that knew how they worked, the more effective security it was! There was some sort of lost logic there. It was just amusing and I really love Strax. The pairing with Jago worked well and the pair really bounced off each other well. The relationship between Vastra and Jenny here was great as always and I liked that Smallpiece was back as the organiser of an alien auction. That went against his arrangement with Vastra so a bidding war ensued between her and a fellow masked bidder for a relic from the Silurian era. Or was it Eocene? That comment was a nice way to pay homage to The Sea Devils. I liked the concept of Vastra being afraid of something that caused terrible issues to the Silurians back in her own time, so she couldn't resist the humorously named Gribblites from getting loose in the Victorian era. Except, that was of course exactly what happened. Their ability to reproduce quickly caused quite the flurry of activity for Strax in his defensive actions. He seemed a little admiring of their ability and how that aided them from being defeated which I really enjoyed. Alice was a fun character with it working well that she was the mysterious bidder all along. That wasn't a huge surprise, but Vastra knowing it to be so because her scent was a wonderful moment. Alice had her own collection of alien artefacts and that explained her interests. I thought the conclusion worked well as all of the characters came together and with Strax's calculations of four minutes before the critters were unstoppable, the solution was found with Alice being critical to that. Vastra was genuinely scared of what might happen should they all get loose, so it was neat and tidy for them to all be in one place for their finality. The Christmas setting was a lot of fun and just the image of Jago in a Father Christmas costume was enough to provide the humour! Overall, a lovely little audio!

Rating: 9/10