Doctor Who: The Glorious Revolution

A Second Doctor story told from the perspective of Jamie.

Jamie never really travelled into his own past in the TV series, and anyone who knows both their British history and their Doctor Who companions will know why the Glorious Revolution of 1688 would have particular significance for him. They'll also have a pretty good idea what he's likely to try and do once he realises where he is.

The story follows historical events surrounding James II's first abortive flight from London fairly closely, inserting the Doctor and companions seamlessly into the narrative. That it's not a historical event that's been told many times in TV dramas or the like makes even this quite straightforward re-telling feel more entertaining than it might if it were something more familiar. On top of that, of course, there's the matter of the time paradox that Jamie inevitably sets up, although this perhaps less of a major element in the story than one might expect.

The play naturally suffers from the usual limitations of the Companion Chronicles series, in that it only has two actors and so largely has to be narrated. Here, however, this is offset by the fact that Frazer Hines is almost uncannily good at imitating Patrick Troughton - arguably better, perhaps, than he is at imitating a young Frazer Hines.

An unfortunately nonsensical framing device aside, this is one of the better straight historicals, and a good use of a companion's backstory in a way that we don't often see.