‘AND YOU WILL OBEY ME’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Fifth Doctor vs. the Decayed Master…But is it Really?

It’s time for us to check out ‘The Two Masters Trilogy’ of ‘Doctor Who’ audios by Big Finish! 🙂

From April to June 2016, Big Finish released their annual multi-Doctor trilogy in the monthly range of ‘Doctor Who’ audios. The theme of the audio trilogy is about the Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy Doctors confronting different versions of the Master in each tale. In theory anyway.

This 2016 audio trilogy has been labelled as the ‘Multi-Master Trilogy’. However, there are only two Masters featured in this audio trilogy, and they happen to be played by Geoffrey Beevers and Alex Macqueen. Therefore, I’m calling this audio trilogy ‘The Two Masters Trilogy’ to reflect that fact.

However, it turns out there is more to these stories than on first glance. Whilst Geoffrey Beevers is the Master in ‘And You Will Obey Me’ and Alex Macqueen is the Master in ‘Vampire of the Mind’, they’re not exactly the Masters that we’re expecting. I will unveil more in ‘The Two Masters’ review.

For now, let’s talk about ‘And You Will Obey Me’. This is a four-part story by Alan Barnes, starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Geoffrey Beevers as the Master. Geoffrey Beevers played the Master in ‘The Keeper of Traken’. He’s also played the character in more Big Finish audios since then. 🙂

In ‘And You Will Obey Me’, we start off with the Fifth Doctor attending an auction in the small English village of Hexford. Yeah, do you recall Hexford? That happens to be the village where the Fourth Doctor was the owner of Nest Cottage in ‘The Next Cottage Chronicles’ BBC audio stories. 😀

I’m surprised the Fifth Doctor didn’t bump into Mrs. Wibbsey in this story. Incidentally, for the Fifth Doctor, this ‘Doctor Who’ story takes place after ‘The Awakening’ in Season 21. This is confirmed by the Fifth Doctor, when he mentions that Jane Hampden has taken Tegan and Turlough to a quarry.

It’s also revealed that Little Hodcombe, the village that was in ‘The Awakening’, is near Hexford. I know these two villages are fictional in the ‘Doctor Who’ universe, but until this story, I wouldn’t have guessed that the two villages are in close proximity to each other. It’s almost quite uncanny. 😀

Anyway, the Doctor meets a young woman in green, who happens to be Sheena Bhattessa as Annie. They bid furiously for a grandfather clock, which happens to be the Master’s TARDIS, of course. Unfortunately, they lose the clock to mysterious phone bidder, but are very determined to acquire it. 🙂

It’s interesting how this story is unravelled and how Peter Davison’s Doctor gets to meet up with Geoffrey Beevers’ Master. I was hoping that the Master would appear sooner rather than later so that he can confront the Fifth Doctor. Sadly, it didn’t happen like that, which I found disappointing. 😦

The story’s focus is about four schoolchildren from 1984 whom the Geoffrey Beevers Master encounters when his TARDIS plummets to Earth. The four children happen to be Alex Foley as Colin, Peta Cornish as Helen, Russ Bain as Mikey and Tessa Coates as Janine. They do the Master’s bidding.

Apparently, the four children don’t age in the story, even by the time we get to 2016. Even though they should be in their forties, they look exactly as they did back when they were teenagers. This is a result of Mikey managing to break out of a deal they had with the Master, which had its side effects. 😐

I’m very curious about why this ‘Doctor Who’ story is called ‘And You Will Obey Me’, whereas it should have been called ‘Children of the Master’. That would have been a more fitting title, although I would have liked to have heard more focus on the Fifth Doctor and the Master’s rivalry in this story.

Peter Davison, as ever, is excellent in this audio adventure. I prefer it when the Doctor is travelling with his companions like Adric, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough, but it’s fascinating to hear a story where he copes without them. It’s quite intriguing how he solves the mystery and what the Master is up to.

He picks up details from people like Annie, Colin, Helen, Mikey and Janine and how their encounters with the Master have affected them as individuals. Even though there isn’t enough confrontation scenes between the two, I liked it when Peter’s Doctor got to confront Geoffrey’s Master in the story.

Speaking of which, Geoffrey Beevers is equally excellent as the Master. It was fun to hear him being so evil and how he manipulated people like Colin, Helen, Mikey and Janine to do his bidding. I know how well Geoffrey Beevers can do the ‘relishing evil’ part when he plays the Master in decayed form.

Mind you, there are aspects to Geoffrey Beevers’ Master that aren’t quite what they seem, as there are times when he becomes desperate for his plans to come to fruition. I’m not sure how this story thread in ‘The Two Masters’ trilogy is going to turn out, but I’m quite fascinated as we progress further.

Sheena Bhattessa as Annie happens to be interested in who purchased the Master’s grandfather clock TARDIS when the Fifth Doctor met her. She could have been a potential one-off Fifth Doctor companion, but she’s in fact an android and part of the Transhuman Sister of the Unholy Protocol. 😮

Alex Foley as Colin and Peta Cornish as Helen happen to be close friends when they’re first introduced in the story. Apparently, they can hypnotise people. I assume they got this power when they were under the control of the Master. It seems Colin happens to have a crush on Helen in this story.

But Helen isn’t interested, as she’s earnest and serious compared to Colin who’s geeky and pedantic. Helen also wanted to pass her mathematics. I wish that the Colin and Helen relationship could have been explored more, as to why Helen wasn’t interested in Colin and why Colin was interested in her.

Incidentally, Pete Cornish also plays Jade Nymph, who happens to be a tall alien dragonfly, whilst Nick Ellsworth plays Gomphus, an older alien dragonfly. Jade Nymph and Gomphus are actually Dragonhunters. They’ve followed bounty hunters to 2016 Earth to acquire an presumed dead Master.

Russ Bain as Mikey’s full name happens to be Michael Masterson. Apparently, the Master made Mikey, Janine, Colin and Helen absorb some of his symbiotic nuclei to become his children. With a surname like ‘Masterson’, Mikey could have easily been the actual ‘son of the Master’ in this story. 😐

As well as Mikey, Russ Bain also plays Grigor, a KGB agent-turned-mercenary. He sadly gets killed by Annie, who returned to ‘collect her handbag’ and shot him. Russ Bain also plays the Master for a bit when Mikey happens to be possessed by him. The Master does have this thing for possessing bodies. 😐

Tessa Coates as Janine happened to be the naughtiest girl in school. She’s also the one who purchased the Master’s grandfather clock TARDIS via phone and she’s introduced when she comes flying in via helicopter. It’s fascinating that she’s in her forties and still a teenager being a mercenary.

As well as playing Gomphus, Nick Ellsworth also plays the auctioneer who was auctioning the Master’s grandfather clock TARDIS in Hexford. I’m surprised the auctioneer wasn’t given a name by Alan Barnes. The auctioneer isn’t happy when he receives a visit from Colin and Helen at his place.

The story concludes with the Master escaping in his TARDIS, after Colin, Helen and Janine used their psychic power given to them by him against him. Sadly, Mikey got killed in the story. I’m not sure where the story arc will go next for Geoffrey Beevers’ Master and how his role in the trilogy will continue.

‘And You Will Obey Me’ is a decent opening story in ‘The Two Masters’ trilogy of ‘Doctor Who’ audios by Big Finish. I can’t say I’m that excited by it, since I would have liked Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor and Geoffrey Beevers’ Master to have met sooner rather than later in the actual adventure. 😦

Also, the story should have been called ‘Children of the Master’ instead of ‘And You Will Obey Me’, given the fact that the Master controls four teenagers in 1984 before they return in 2016. But apart from that, the cast’s performances are good, and Peter Davison and Geoffrey Beevers are excellent.

The CD extras are as follows. On Disc 1, there’s a track of incidental music to enjoy. On Disc 2, there’s trailer for ‘Vampire of the Mind’ with Colin Baker and Alex Macqueen. There are also behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew, including Peter Davison, Geoffrey Beevers, director Jamie Anderson, etc.

If you subscribe to Big Finish for ‘And You Will Obey Me’ via a 6 or 12 CD/download subscription, you’ll get the following extras. There’s a PDF script (which apparently contains spoilers for ‘The Two Masters’) and extended extras of ‘And You Will Obey Me’.

‘And You Will Obey Me’ rating – 7/10

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The previous story For the Fifth Doctor was ‘The Awakening’ (TV) For the Master was ‘The Two Masters’ (Audio)	The next story For the Fifth Doctor is ‘The King of Terror’ (Book) For the Master is ‘The Two Masters’ (Audio)
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