A Feast of Steven: The Doctor's Gambit

"We are playing games."

Writer: Jacqueline Rayner

Format: Audio

Released: June 2025

Series: Short Trips Special 1.02

Featuring: First Doctor, Steven, Dodo

Synopsis

On an alien world, the Doctor, Steven and Dodo are drawn into a mysterious contest. With lives at stake and a hidden enemy in control, every move could be their last in the deadly game.

Verdict

The Doctor's Gambit was a good little story to conclude my listening of the A Feast of Steven bonus Short Trips special release! It's still such a treat to get this batch of adventures free of charge to celebrate sixty years of the wonderful Steven Taylor and hearing Peter Purves reprise his role all this time later remains a privilege. He really is ageless and he still seamlessly steps back into the role which is tremendous. This was a different TARDIS trio to the opener in the release and I think that was a good thing to keep things fresh. We never got enough of Dodo on screen so I'm really appreciative of the work Big Finish are doing in expanding her character's adventures. Her relationship with Steven was captured well here and I liked how a lot of that came from a continued fear of the possibility of still being in the Celestial Toyroom. I like to think this adventure follows on from the events of The Celestial Toymaker for the TARDIS trio as the references were rife. It very much felt like that was an extremely recent experience for them all. Steven deducing the chequerboard as them being chess pieces was great and it painted some quite stellar imagery. It wasn't quite the way of being playthings of a god, but the mystery of the game was still also pretty interesting. The chess analogies continued and were very strong and it's a really good game to incorporate into a Doctor Who story. The use of it as the basis for a battle between two opposing sides when it literally got physical. The Doctor turning out to be a King piece from almost behind the scenes was a fun moment and it was almost comical that Dodo was just a pawn. Steven as a knight made sense and the foreshadowing of events to come for him in alluding to his fate in The Savages in becoming a King was nicely done. It almost feels a little bit like cheating when we get foreshadowing like this but I love it. It's a great use of the time a story is written and does things that just couldn't happen on screen or have meaning on television. I thought it was nice for Steven to reflect on these he's lost in the likes of Sara, Brett, Katarina and Oliver, and it was powerful stuff for him to contemplate killing. It was good that he was worried what the Doctor might think of him had he gone through with that brief desire. He had to act before in defence, but never as a thirst for blood. That was intriguing and I'd have actually liked more on that. It was a powerful concept. The way Dodo brought the game of chess into play and turned herself into a Queen as a pawn can by reaching the other side of the board was good fun although I had to chuckle at the in-humour admittance that the resolution was convoluted! It didn't seem to make much sense with all the science goo ga, but that was fine in a story like this. The fact it was laughed about within the episode actually made it more acceptable for me! I did appreciate the link to A Forest of All Seasons at the end with Steven making a conscious decision to look towards the future now and not dwell on the past or what might have been. That was good to set him back on his adventures in time and space. Overall, a decent way to conclude a very welcomed release! 

Rating: 7/10