My review of Big Finish Doctor Who adventure #6 The Marian Conspiracy staring Colin Baker as The 6th Doctor and Maggie Stables as Dr. Evelyn Smythe is available at Amazon.com here.
For some reason I kept managing to lose this episode on eBay till I finally broke down and bought a new copy mail order from Mike Comics out of Worcester (they managed next day delivery without my asking, definitely worth your time). After listening to the story it’s a real shame I waited so long.
In my opinion it is one of the most important adventures of the run. First of all it was the first Big Finish to introduce an original companion to the series. It established an independence to the series that was necessary, after all we all know the fates of the doctor and each of the companions of the series (except for Ace) very limiting. She proved so popular that Baker didn’t have a different companion for over 18 months.
The second was what it did for Colin Baker. He was not a popular Doctor and his departure from the series was not a happy one. His initial story was of a poor quality. A second bad story would have really damaged the whole series. Remember at this point 8th doctor adventures were not part of the series. If he had been given another clunker that’s every third episode that doesn’t sell.
Anyways this one is very worth your money and time.
Update: Forgot to put in the cover.
Update 2: Colin Brockhurst has done some first rate alternate covers for Big finish products, with his permission I’m including his alternative cover on this post, and will include them in future reviews. As you can see they are pretty good.
