‘THE FIVE COMPANIONS’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Daleks and Sontarans with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Ian, Steven, Sara and Polly

Tim Bradley’s CD cover of ‘The Five Companions’ signed by Sarah Sutton, William Russell, Peter Purves, Anneke Wills and Dan Starkey

Tim Bradley with Sarah Sutton at ‘Big Finish Day 6’, Slough, January 2015

Tim Bradley with Sarah Sutton at ‘Big Finish Day 6’, Slough, January 2015

Tim Bradley with William Russell at the ‘Bournemouth Film & Comic Con 2015’, August 2015

Tim Bradley with Peter Purves at ‘Pandorica 2015’, Bristol, September 2015

Tim Bradley with Anneke Wills at ‘Pandorica 2015’, Bristol, September 2015

Tim Bradley with Dan Starkey at the ‘Bournemouth Film & Comic Con 2015’, August 2015

For William Russell and Jean Marsh

This was a lovely Christmas treat for me from Big Finish back in December 2011. 🙂

I love ‘The Five Companions’ very much! 🙂 This was the 2011 subscription exclusive special of the main ‘Doctor Who’ audio range by Big Finish. It’s an exciting action-packed adventure by Eddie Robson and it stars Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor with five friends.

It also takes place during the 20th anniversary ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Five Doctors’. I did wonder whether the story would occur during the Fifth Doctor’s travels with Nyssa in the Season 19b era of the show and the Doctor would reunite with Ian, Steven, Sara and Polly.

Yes, the five companions are Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, William Russell as Ian Chesterton, Peter Purves as Steven Taylor, Jean Marsh as Sara Kingdom and Anneke Wills as Polly Wright. It’s an intriguing set of ‘Doctor Who’ companions to team up with the Fifth Doctor.

There are also two sets of ‘Doctor Who’ monsters featured in this audio adventure. They include the Daleks, voiced by Nicholas Briggs, and the Sontarans, voiced by Dan Starkey. This was exciting for me, and I did wonder how our heroes would tackle these sets of foes.

I wanted to have this subscriber’s special very much from Big Finish, but at the time in 2011, you could only purchase the audio story via the Big Finish website. You could also only get it via a 12-month subscription of the main rage audio adventures of ‘Doctor Who’.

The subscription would have to include the Eighth Doctor story ‘Army of Death’, starring Paul McGann and Julie Cox. Or you could get it as a special free gift with any subscription you make. You couldn’t purchase it from Amazon. To this day, I don’t think you can get it from Amazon.

Thankfully, I managed to purchase ‘The Five Companions’ when I subscribed via Big Finish in 2011. I’m very glad I did, especially as I signed up for my account with Big Finish in that year. It was well-worth my money in purchasing my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ audios.

Jean Marsh, Peter Purves, Sarah Sutton, Peter Davison and Anneke Wills in ‘The Five Companion’.

‘The Five Companions’ is definitely one of my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ audios and definitely worth-having, since it contains plenty of nostalgia and has an exciting adventure with the Fifth Doctor and his companions against two well-known opponents. A joyful experience!

I’m pleased that as of 2024, you can purchase ‘The Five Companions’ as a free download from the Big Finish website. This of course was on the day to celebrate the 61st anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’ on the 23rd of November 2024. A fitting story for the occasion.

I’ve had my CD cover of ‘The Five Companions’ signed by the lovely Sarah Sutton at ‘Big Finish Day 6’ in Slough in January 2015. I’ve also had my CD cover signed by William Russell and Dan Starkey at the ‘Bournemouth Film and Comic Con’ in August 2015. Yay!

I’ve also had it signed by Peter Purves and Anneke Wills as ‘Pandorica 2015’ in Bristol in September 2015. I’ve yet to have it signed by Peter Davison, Jean Marsh and Nicholas Briggs. At this point in time, I’m pleased I’ve had my CD cover signed by five people in total. 🙂

Like I said, ‘The Five Companions’ takes place during the events of ‘The Five Doctors’. In the story, Ian, Steven, Sara, Polly and Nyssa are trapped in an alternative environment for the Death Zone, containing Daleks, Sontarans and dinosaurs like a T-Rex to trouble them.

The five companions don’t know how or why they got to the place they’re in in the first place. I like how they meet each other with Steven meeting up with Ian, and Sara meeting up with Polly. Nyssa is already a prisoner of the Daleks, and she’s forced to work for them.

Eventually, the Fifth Doctor turns up to find himself up against a Sontaran. Fortunately, he’s saved by Ian and Steven, with Ian using an empty Dalek shell to confuse the Sontaran. I like how the Doctor reunites with his five friends, and hopes to keep them safe.

‘The Five Companions’ was a joy for me to listen to. 🙂 I was surprised that Nyssa was the only young companion featured in this story whilst Ian, Steven, Sara and Polly were older. I imagine Ian, Steven, Sara and Polly are meant to be in their 1980s (sort-of) stages in life?

Also, I’m guessing this adventure is presumably set after their initial travels with the Doctor. I’m making that judgement based on what I’ve heard in the story for the umpteenth time, though there could be more to it depending on how you hear the tale. 🙂

I was so pleased that Sarah Sutton as Nyssa was going to be in this ‘Doctor Who’ audio story and it’s nice that she gets to be in an adventure with Peter Davison as her Doctor and with four classic companions from the 1960s where they face Daleks and Sontarans.

It’s also good Nyssa is in a story that takes place during the events of ‘The Five Doctors’, since Sarah didn’t get to be in that story herself. I reminded Sarah she wasn’t in ‘The Five Doctors’, but was in ‘The Five Companions’ at ‘Science of the Time Lords’ in Leicester in January 2016. 🙂

It’s interesting that ‘The Five Companions’ seems to take place sometime after Nyssa left the Fifth Doctor, presumably after ‘Terminus’ and presumably before she reunites with him, Tegan and Turlough in ‘Cobwebs’, though that can be open to speculation on many levels.

I mean, this story could take place between ‘Dawn of the Dwaxi’ and ‘The Stockbridge Terror’ in my ‘Fifth Doctor’ series of ‘Doctor Who’ stories. I like that Nyssa reunites with her Doctor and I like how she shares an adventure with Ian and has nice scenes with him.

William Russell and Peter Purves in ‘The Five Companions’.

William Russell is a joy to listen to as Ian Chesterton in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. It was great to hear that Ian had married Barbara Wright, as I’m sure many fans assumed would be the case after they parted ways with the First Doctor in the TV story called ‘The Chase’.

I enjoyed Ian’s interaction with the Fifth Doctor and how they reminisce old times. It was good to hear Ian reunite with Steven from meeting him in ‘The Chase’. I liked he had an adventure with Nyssa and that he got inside an empty Dalek, echoing the first Dalek story.

Peter Purves is very good as Steven Taylor in this ‘Doctor Who’ audio adventure. I like how the story opens with Steven being the first companion to encounter a Dalek before he’s rescued by Ian. I like how a reference is made to Steven’s final adventure with the Doctor.

That being ‘The Savages’. At the time of this review, I’m looking forward to how that story will be interpreted in animation compared to hearing the audio TV soundtrack. I like how Steven reunites with Ian. It’s interesting how he reunites with Sara, recalling her dying on Kembel.

Jean Marsh and Anneke Wills in ‘The Five Companions’.

Jean Marsh reprises her role as Sara Kingdom in this ‘Doctor Who’ audio adventure. It was fascinating to hear Sara in this story, and I was quite surprised since, like Steven, I thought she aged to death in ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’. How could she be alive in this audio story?

It turns out there’s been a story going on in ‘The Companions Chronicles’, including ‘Home Truths’, ‘The Drowned World’ and ‘The Guardian of the Solar System’, that explain how Sara survived her death from Kembel. I like she gets to be an action woman in this. 🙂

Anneke Wills is equally a joy to listen to as Polly in this audio story. I like how she met up with Sara Kingdom and that they dodged dinosaurs and Daleks. I enjoyed the scenes she shared with the Fifth Doctor and how he shared to her that she was an inspiration for him.

I was pleased to hear from Polly that she and Ben are still together after their travels in the TARDIS. It’s a contrast to certain stories depicting that not to be the case, including the short story ‘Mondas Passing’. I also like Polly recalled the Doctor being able to regenerate.

It was great to hear Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor in this audio adventure. For Peter’s Doctor, this story occurs for him when he used the transmat beacon that he picked up from the Master to escape the Cybermen in ‘The Five Doctors’. Nice how he’s introduced.

I enjoyed the Doctor’s interaction with his companions and when he shows concern for them, as he’s trying to keep his friends alive. It’s also intriguing how he copes under pressure when he and his friends are enclosed in a small space that’s within the Death Zone itself.

Left photo: Jean Marsh and Peter Purves in ‘The Five Companions’. Right photo: Director Ken Bentley, Nicholas Briggs, Sarah Sutton, Peter Purves, Jean Marsh, William Russell, recording engineer Toby Hrycek-Robinson, Anneke Wills, producer David Richardson and Dan Starkey in ‘The Five Companions’.

The Daleks are great in this audio adventure, brilliantly voiced as ever by Nick Briggs. Of course, all five companions have encountered the Daleks in their travels. Ian met the Daleks in their first story as well as ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’ and ‘The Chase’ after that.

Steven and Sara faced them in ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’, Polly met them in ‘The Power of the Daleks’, and Nyssa has met them in the Big Finish audio stories ‘The Mutant Phase’, ‘Renaissance of the Daleks’, ‘Plague of the Daleks’, ‘Alien Heart’, ‘Dalek Soul’ and more. 🙂

Nyssa has also met the Daleks in my ‘Fifth Doctor’ series of ‘Doctor Who’ stories, including ‘Doom of the Daleks’ and ‘Return to Christmas’. It’s ironic that Nyssa met the Daleks multiple times in spin-off media compared to not meeting them in the TV show. 😐

I equally enjoyed the Sontarans featured in this audio adventure, and they’re all amazingly voiced by Dan Starkey. Dan has played the Sontarans in the new TV series of ‘Doctor Who’. It’s nice he gets to play them in the Big Finish audios in the classic series era.

It’s intriguing that Steven knew about the Sontarans already in ‘The Five Companions’, but then this story was made before the audio story ‘The Sontarans’ came along. Nyssa also happens to know the Sontarans, since, for her, this takes place before ‘Heroes of Sontar’.

Of course, there has been another ‘Doctor Who’ story in comic form called ‘Prisoners of Time’ where the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric have met the Sontarans and the Rutans. I’ve also written some stories featuring Nyssa having encounters with Sontarans.

This includes ‘The Stockbridge Terror’ as well as the two ‘Sunfire Chronicles’ stories ‘Romance and the Cow Creamer’ and ‘The Race of Endurance’. I’m amazed by how much variety Dan Starkey can provide with voicing Sontaran characters such as Skarl and Grex.

The story concludes with the Doctor and friends managing to defeat the Daleks and the Sontarans and saving themselves from destruction before they’re sent back home. Or at least the Doctor is sent back to the rest of ‘The Five Doctors’ whilst the others return home.

I like that the story concludes with the original Delia Derbyshire theme music used for the William Hartnell era of ‘Doctor Who’ compared to how it began with the Peter Howell theme music used for the opening credits. It’s quite a nice echo of ‘The Five Doctors’ there.

The Five Companions! From left to right: Anneke Wills, William Russell, Jean Marsh, Peter Purves and Sarah Sutton.

‘The Five Companions’ has been tremendously enjoyable to listen to. This was my Christmas present for 2011. I was so pleased to hear the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Ian, Steven, Sara and Polly fighting against the Daleks and the Sontarans in an alternative Death Zone.

The performances of the cast, including Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton William Russell, Peter Purves, Jean Marsh, Anneke Wills, Nicholas Briggs and Dan Starkey have been great, making it a very pleasurable, listening experience. It’s a story I’m extremely fond of.

The CD extras are as follows. There’s a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘The Companion Chronicles’ story called ‘The Anachronauts’, starring Peter Purves and Jean Marsh. There are also behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew, including Sarah Sutton and Nicholas Briggs, William Russell and Peter Purves, Jean Marsh and Anneke Wills, and Dan Starkey.

If you subscribe to Big Finish for ‘Army of Death’ via a 6 or 12 download subscription with ‘The Five Companions’, you’ll get the following extras. As well as this story in mp3 and audiobook form, there’s a PDF script for ‘The Five Companions’.

‘The Five Companions’ rating – 9/10