Doctor Who: The First Doctor Adventures, Volume 5

Two more stories featuring the original TARDIS crew, one set in the future, and one a pure historical.

For the Glory of Urth – The TARDIS lands in what appears to be Earth in the far future, to discover it is ruled by a brutal dictatorship hostile to all aliens and constantly on the brink of a war that never comes. It's primarily a story of survival, with the characters split up early on and then spending most of the story imprisoned in one way or another and trying to get back together so that they can escape.

Which isn't such a bad idea in itself. While we may expect futuristic fascist states to be overthrown in this series (as, for example, in The Sun Makers or Enemy of the World) realistically, that won't always be an option. The Doctor being unable to change the world of The Aztecs or The Massacre is something we expect, and it's a good fit for his era even here. Unfortunately, the story just isn't very good. That's largely because almost everyone in the story other than the regulars is either an idiot or insane (or possibly both) and the whole thing is just completely implausible. It could be that it's intended as a comedic farce, and for some reason, I kept thinking of one villain as being played by Hattie Jaques, which wasn't helping. But, if it is intended as a comedy, it's sorely lacking in laughs, unless you find stupidity funny in itself.

There are some positives in amongst the dross. There are a few clever ideas, including one alien character and, arguably, the eventual explanation for the setup. Susan gets a decent chunk of the plot, although Barbara is rather less well-used. But, while there I also have some minor gripes about the science (such as a confusion between bacteria and viruses) it's the characters and the disjointed and unfocussed plot that really let this one down. 2 stars.

The Hollow Crown – The second story, fortunately, is much better. This sees the Doctor arriving in London on the eve of the spectacular failure that was the Essex Rebellion of 1601. This probably isn't a well-known event in English history but no prior knowledge of it is required from the listener beyond the fact that it obviously didn't end with Queen Elizabeth I being deposed. Here, Essex is portrayed as noble and decent, while the real villains of the piece are his sister Lady Rich and, to a lesser extent, Essex's real-world nemesis Lord Cecil.

Into this recounting of a minor piece of English history the story also throws William Shakespeare, in a far more central role than he played historically. The story doesn't ignore the fact that both he and the Queen have previously met the Doctor, although only one of the prior encounters has an effect on the plot. A downside is that Barbara is underused here; she gets to deliver a few bits of historical exposition, but most of those are provided organically through the characters involved. Susan, Ian, and the Doctor all have rather more to do, with Ian putting himself in danger, Susan generally getting into trouble, and the Doctor trying to sort it all out.

There are naturally some adjustments to real-world events to accommodate the story, which pushes the regular characters right into the middle of the rebellion. But, on the whole, it fits well enough with history as we know it, and the fact that it's a relatively obscure incident to modern people makes it easier for the events to carry the story. Some of the tension comes from whether or not history can be changed enough to ensure an at least partially happy ending – reference is made here to a story in the previous collection where the failure of the characters to alter events left an emotional scar on them, as well as to obvious comparison point The Aztecs. (There's a red herring here about the existence of a particular character implying a different history track, but the explanation is obvious from pretty much the first time they open their mouth). With plenty of Shakespearean quotes dotted through the dialogue, this is a good historical story, lacking in aliens but still very much connected to the Doctor Who universe.

Ends on a cliffhanger that (as of August 2023) there seem to be no plans to resolve. 4 stars.