Fifth up (and that means only one left) for the Legacy of Time and it’s Jonathan Morris with the Sixth Doctor, Charlie Pollard and DI Menzies. The last time we had this grouping was in Jonathan’s Crimes of Thomas Brewster, a great story whose characters also included Evelyn Smythe and Flip Jackson in her first appearance. I was hoping for the best and wasn’t disappointed.

Avenues of Possibility

Unlike some of the previous character focussed episodes (eg Relative Time) in The Legacy of Time, Jonathan Morris brings us plenty of plot with more time damage to Earth’s history, this time mixing DI Menzies’s world of 2009 with the eighteenth century. Here’s the synopsis:

DI Patricia Menzies is used to the strange, but even she is surprised when the eighteenth century itself falls onto her patch. Fortunately, she has the founders of modern policing to help with her enquiries. And when the Sixth Doctor and Charley arrive, they find armed and hostile forces trying to change Earth history forever.

So, we have Henry Fielding and his brother along with various elements from a parallel (and darker) version of history. Into this mess add the Doctor and Charley trying to sort out breaches in time. There’s plenty of trans-temporal adventuring, some gung ho ideas from Charley and lots of fun.

I was really pleased with how DI Menzies has evolved in her role as police office who also deals with weird stuff including time travel and I hope we see more of her in future releases, perhaps even a Torchwood crossover?

The story brings back something from the very beginning of the Big Finish main range and Charley’s unique nature is also important to the story’s resolution. Stakes are raised, and while I still wonder about exploding TARDISes, I also wonder if this is a massive red herring, or have we now met the big bad for this boxset? Next up Collision Course.