The Second Doctor Box Set

Doctor Who: The Lost Stories

By: Dick Sharples, Simon Guerrier, Terry Nation, Nicholas Briggs, John Dorney

Narrated by: Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, Jean Marsh, Nicholas Briggs

'Prison in Space' by Dick Sharples, adapted by Simon Guerrier: A relaxing break for the Doctor and his companions Jamie and Zoe becomes something decidedly more sinister when they are arrested for trespassing. But what has happened to the planet Earth? And how has the malevolent Chairman Babs gained control? As the Doctor and Jamie are incarcerated in a prison that they can never escape from, Zoe is forced to change sides....

'The Daleks -The Destroyers' by Terry Nation, adapted by Nicholas Briggs and John Dorney: When the crew of Explorer Base One is attacked by the Daleks, Space Security Agents Sara Kingdom, Mark Seven and Jason Corey are sent to investigate. They discover a plan that threatens the future of the entire galaxy....

Directed by Lisa Bowerman.

©2010 Big Finish Productions (P)2010 Big Finish Productions

Not all Doctor Who stories.

The Dalek story doesn't even have The Doctor; feels like bait-and-switch. The first story is excellent but that's all the Doctor you are getting. The problem is that the cover art is reproduced at such a small scale that the average person is not going to be able to read the green text in the upper right corner "Plus the U.S. Dalek pilot". I had to magnify the browser page to 400% to read it. The second story is problematic in that it is about 30% narration, 10% sound effects which gets tedious after a while. I don't buy "book readings" and would have avoided this if I had know. Finally, there is almost a full-hour of re-hash of how it was all made. Which is fine if you were not expecting 4 hours of actual "Doctor Who". Certainly there is a place for "making of" material but in this case it is 50% of the true Doctor Who material.

A Great Look At What Could Have Been

Although neither story is exactly 5 star material, they both are great for what they are. The first was definitely the better of the 2. I understand the criticism for the sexism in the story, but I can ignore it since no one with the tiniest shred of common sense can not know to expect extreme sexism from a story written in the 60s about women taking over and being as chauvinistic as men were in the 50s.

The second story sounded like it had potential, but I just couldn't get into it beyond the curiosity of a Dalek episode that never got filmed. I wish I had known before listening that it was the pilot for a spin off type show that was intended for American audiences. I would have listened eventually, but I would have been in no rush if I had known.

Frazer Hines performance as the Doctor is so perfect it makes the first story much more enjoyable than it otherwise might have been. I had to laugh, because in the extras when he talked about how he was trying to do the scene where the Doctor escapes, I had actually pictured the same scene in my head that he said he was trying to emulate.

A Mixed Adventure

I had rather enjoyed the First Doctor Box Set and was eager to explore a Second Doctor adventure as admittedly he's one of the incarnations of the Doctor that I've had little exposure to. The resulting story was certainly a product of its time with some depictions of gender concepts being a little problematic. The story is meant to be a somewhat lighter episode in terms of its tone and it certainly has its fun moments.

The second story in the set is actually based on the script of the unaired pilot for a US-targeted Dalek story that is all about the exophobic aliens and with no appearances by the Doctor. It's an interesting story in itself and it feels totally Terry Nation in feel.

No doctor in third story.

For those of us who did not live through the original Doctor who series and have only seen the surviving episodes, Sara Kingdom is not very well known. Thus, the third story in this set that only had her character and no doctor is a let down. Plus, the third story has a cliff hanger ending. Maybe those who saw the original series know what happened next, but for the rest of us...

Two fun romps into what could have been!

Two unused scripts from the 1960's Doctor Who canon. the first, a rejected 2nd Doctor story and the second the, sadly, unmade American Dalek series pilot from the same period. Both are well worth experiencing!

Narrated excellently

The narrators are two of the original companion actors, that also reprise their roles. One of them does a brilliant job as a mimic of the Second Doctor.