Doctor Who: The Fifth Traveller

Once again, we reach the second season of the TV series, with Vicki replacing Susan. The release is notable for being (I believe) the last performance by William Russell before his final retirement from acting, and he voices both Ian and the Doctor here. In the previous release, this was assisted by the latter being missing for much of the story, but this time, the Doctor has a larger part to play, so instead they take the simpler solution of having only Maureen O'Brien (Vicki) doing the narration.

That, in turn, is possible because she doesn't also have to play Barbara, whose role has been recast for this particular part of the audio series. She had barely any lines in her previous appearance in The Age of Endurance but this time, she too, has more than a token role. It's really the first time in this series that we have had all four of the characters from the TV show play a full part in the story, and the result is stronger for it. Obviously, while Jemma Powell's impression is reasonable, she doesn't actually sound identical to Jacqueline Hill... but then William Russell isn't 30 any more and at times it's hard to distinguish Ian from the Doctor, so there are always going to be limits.

The story sees the TARDIS landing on an alien planet, and one far beyond the capability of a TV budget to realise. The descriptions of it are wonderfully exotic, and the local inhabitants are also the sort of thing that would require more than a rubber costume to bring to screen. Despite which, much of the story does resemble the kind of thing that happened in the Hartnell era, with perils including quicksand, dangerous ravines and the like, reminiscent of some scenes in, say, The Daleks. For a fair time, it's the TARDIS crew versus the topography and the local fauna, painted on a dramatic (and mostly yellow) canvas.

Ironically, given that it's the first time that all four main characters have plenty to do, the story is also about a fifth member of the crew, who turns up in the opening segment out of nowhere, and is immediately treated by everyone (including the narrator) as if they've been there for multiple previous episodes. This is the meat of the story, and becomes more dominant in the second half, along with a sub-plot concerning a cultural dispute among the local aliens. The solution, when it comes, is probably not going to be a great surprise, since it isn't as if many alternatives exist, but it is handled well.

So this isn't one of those audio plays that really could have come from the era in question - the plot is probably more involved than was usual back then, and technically it would be impossible even today without animation or a movie-sized budget. But a number of the tropes are present and there's bonus points for giving Barbara a proper role for once.