‘PURSUIT OF THE NIGHTJAR’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Aboard the Nightjar with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan

It’s time to check out ‘In the Night’, the second 2023 ‘Fifth Doctor Adventures’ audio box set! 🙂

I do wonder what goes into the conception and production of these latest ‘Fifth Doctor Adventures’ box sets of ‘Doctor Who’ by Big Finish. That isn’t meant to sound like a criticism. It’s something that has me curious, especially concerning when doing boxed set stories instead of ‘Monthly Adventures’.

When you have two box sets spread out in terms of release in one year – ‘Conflicts of Interest’ was released in April 2023 and ‘In the Night’ was released in September that same year – you’d expect a kind of progression between the two sets, especially to develop the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan as characters.

It made sense with the two ‘Forty’ box sets in 2022 because they followed the mystery of the Fifth Doctor shifting back and forth in his personal timeline as well as to celebrate 40 years of the Fifth Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’. With ‘Conflicts of Interest’ and ‘In the Night’, there’s not much progression.

Personally, I expected Tegan being upset from the end of ‘The Edge of the War’ to be continued in ‘Pursuit of the Nightjar’. But it doesn’t get touched upon at all. And despite the 2023 Fifth Doctor stories being set between ‘Snakedance’ and ‘Mawdryn Undead’, not much is handled regarding that.

No mention is made of Tegan recovering from her trauma with the Mara and no mention is made of Nyssa recovering from her ordeal with the vampires in ‘Goth Opera’. I might be overthinking this, but it’s so surprising Big Finish didn’t take up the opportunities to have these stories interconnected.

As is often the case with ‘Doctor Who’, these Big Finish audio stories are left open to interpretation and listeners can decide on whether certain stories connect to each other well or not. And despite the missed opportunities made, it’s still a terrific treat for me to check out the ‘In the Night’ box set.

After all, this is Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding reprising their roles as the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan again. And any Big Finish audio release that has Sarah Sutton (my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companion) in it, is going to have me hooked to hear it, regardless of continuity issues.

Instead of two three-parters, as was the case in the ‘Conflicts of Interest’ box set, we have a four-part story in ‘Pursuit of the Nightjar’ by Tim Foley and a two-part story in ‘Resistor’ by Sarah Grochala. Personally, I would have had ‘Resistor’ be a four-parter and added a fourth disc to the set.

I hope future Big Finish box set releases featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and other ‘Doctor Who’ characters will end up being four-disc sets instead of being three-disc sets. Whilst I appreciate the experimentation of these box sets, having four-discs instead of three permits lessens the limits of stories. 🙂

As a box set, the two stories in ‘In the Night’ have a theme of the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan ending up trapped in certain historical events and discovering that history isn’t what it seems. Would I enjoy the stories in ‘In the Night’? Would they keep me engaged in the same vein as ‘Conflicts of Interest’?

Let’s find out! 🙂 As stated, the first ‘In the Night’ story is a four-parter called ‘Pursuit of the Nightjar’ by Tim Foley. There’s another Tim Foley-penned story set in the Fifth Doctor era of ‘Doctor Who’. 🙂

In the ‘Forty’ series, Tim wrote the six-part adventure ‘The Auton Infinity’. I enjoyed his take on the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan in ‘Pursuit of the Nightjar’, especially since the story has a small cast. 🙂

In ‘Pursuit of the Nightjar’, the TARDIS materialises inside a spaceship called the Nightjar, helmed by the legendary Captain Goben. The captain is on a vital mission of mercy. To deliver medical supplies.

These medical supplies are for a distant colony in the middle of a devastating war. Goben’s act of bravery will trigger an end to the conflict. The Doctor always wanted to meet the legendary captain.

With Nyssa and Tegan joining him, the Doctor gets to witness the historic events. However, once finding themselves aboard the Nightjar, things aren’t always what they seem concerning history. 😐

I like how this story is self-contained, which is rather surprising for a four-part story such as this. The Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan take up most of this story, especially as there’s only two guest stars. 🙂

Paul Thornley guest stars as Captain Goben and Fenella Woolgar guest stars as Captain Eslo. Whilst reaching for the distant colony, Goben is being pursued by Elso. She helms the spaceship Nemesis. 😐

It’s not quite clear why Elso is pursuing Goben, other than she’s on the other side of the conflict. It’s easy to be misled into thinking there’s a bitter rivarly between Goben and Elso before you hear the story.

But as the story progresses, it’s fascinating to learn how Goben and Elso have a mutual respect for each other. This is especially when recordings of their conversations are being presented in this audio drama.

This is elevated once Goben tragically gets killed at the end of ‘Part One’. The Doctor is shocked and horrified by this occurrence. He can’t understand why history did not play out the way he was told it.

I like how the story unravels by ‘Part Four’. It turns out that Elso is to take Goben’s place in history and she’s to deliver the medical supplies to the colony to end the conflict. It’s quite an unusual twist.

Paul Thornley is no stranger to Big Finish, since he’s guest starred in stories like ‘Criss-Cross’, ‘The Company of Friends: Fitz’s Story’ and ‘Seven Keys to Doomsday’. I enjoyed him as Goben in this story.

As well as the Big Finish audios, Fenella Woolgar played Agatha Christie in ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’. She also played Sister Hilda in ‘Call the Midwife’. Intriguing that she did an American accent for Elso.

One of the advantages of ‘Pursuit of the Nightjar’ having a small cast, especially in a four-parter, is that it allows more of the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan to be featured and developed in this story. 🙂

Peter Davison continues to be brilliant as the Fifth Doctor. I like how he’s full of admiration when meeting Captain Goben aboard his ship and how he becomes shocked by his tragic untimely demise.

The scene between him, Nyssa and Tegan in ‘Part Three’ when he feels like giving up and they encourage him not to was so mesmerising. I also like how he encourages Elso to take Goben’s place.

Sarah Sutton is equally brilliant as Nyssa. There are some lovely scenes between her, the Doctor and Tegan. I found it very fascinating when Nyssa took the photo that contained Goben and his family. 🙂

Nyssa shares with Tegan about the time when she had a portrait taken of her by an artist on Traken and she didn’t like it. Her anxiety on being lonely for the rest of her life gets touched on in this story.

Janet Fielding is very good as Tegan in this audio adventure. I enjoyed how she interacted with an avian-like robot called an LV, whom she names Alfie (I believe). He communicates to her in beeps. 🙂

In ‘Part Four’, Tegan ends up drifting in outer space, only to be saved by Alfie in the nick of time. I really like how Tegan’s friendship with Nyssa is touched upon, especially when their lives are in peril.

In the story, the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan wear their space packs from ‘Four to Doomsday’. I wondered whether they’d be used again in ‘Doctor Who’. They’ll soon return in one of my stories. 😀

The story ends with the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan witnessing Elso being Goben, as she delivers the medical supplies to the colony. They also reflect on how future history ended up becoming different.

‘Pursuit of the Nightjar’ is a very enjoyable and thought-provoking four-part story. I like how more of the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan is handled and how the twist of the Nightjar story gets unravelled.

At the end of Discs 1 and 2 of ‘In the Night’, there are behind-the-scenes interviews on ‘Pursuit of the Nightjar’ with the cast and crew, including Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Paul Thornley, Fenella Woolgar, director Ken Bentley, etc. I like how the cast and crew talk about their heroes at the end of Disc 1, including Sarah who mentions her heroes are two air-pilots – Amy Johnson and Yvonne Pope Sintes. Sarah Sutton is one of my heroes, as she’s exactly who I expected her to be when I meet her at conventions. She’s kind, friendly and puts others before herself.

‘Pursuit of the Nightjar’ rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Fifth Doctor was ‘The Edge of the War’ (Audio) For Nyssa is ‘The Edge of the War’ (Audio) For Tegan is ‘The Edge of the War’ (Audio)	The next story For the Fifth Doctor is ‘Resistor’ (Audio) For Nyssa is ‘Resistor’ (Audio) For Tegan is ‘Resistor’ (Audio)
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