Jeremy Remy is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.
Big Finish has announced their most recent in growing line of NuWho characters to enter their ongoing Classic Who audios.
This November, Strax—the Sontaran commander turned nurse/Victorian butler and member of the Paternoster Gang—will join Henry Gordon Jago and George Litefoot in Jago & Litefoot & Strax: The Haunting. Strax suffers an attack and becomes disoriented, causing him to mistake Jago and Litefoot for Jenny Flint and Madame Vastra. (Of course being disoriented is almost an unnecessary plot device, since Strax has regular difficulty differentiating between non-Sontarans or recognizing gender.) Together, they investigate a brain-stealing creature and a haunted house.
I’ll admit I’m cautiously curious about this story. It wouldn’t be the first time a somewhat silly character has trod through the streets of Jago & Litefoot (I’m looking at you, Encore of the Scorchies). Nor is it the first suggestion of the Paternoster Gang existing in the same version of Victorian England as The Talons of Weng-Chiang (The Brilliant Book 2012 claims Vastra was the star of a young Jago’s “Monstre Gathering” act). The biggest concern I have is that we’re entering a new era of Big Finish, one where New Series characters are beginning to cross over into territory that has always been focused on Classic Who.
The narrative quality and consistent entertainment value of Big Finish’s Doctor Who stories (and DW spinoffs) often surpass the revised televised series. But offerings since the announcement, earlier this year, of a revised series of UNIT have regularly included NuWho elements. In addition to UNIT—The New Series, in Classic Doctors, New Monsters the Fifth Doctor will take on the Weeping Angels, the Sixth Doctor the Judoon, the Seventh the Sycorax, and the Eighth the NuWho version of Sontarans; Strax will co-star in a special Jago & Litefoot; River Song will have her own series (The Diary of River Song) and will guest star in the Eighth Doctor’s The Doom Coalition; and Churchill has been given his own Companion Chronicles-style series, The Churchill Years, which will include Kazran Sardick (from A Christmas Carol) and Lilly Arwell (from The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe).
While it is exciting to see Big Finish’s license expanded to provide the ability to address the wider Whoniverse, there is reason for potential concern. One could argue that some of the failures of the revised series are attempts to focus on what Doctor Who “should be.” When the focus is too much on the younger audience, we end up with fart jokes and fat shame (ah, Slitheen). When the focus it too much on the mythology, the Doctor becomes a messiah and love conquers all (even Cybermen and moon-monsters).
The sudden surge of NuWho suggests the immediate and complete merging of Classic and Nu Who “should be.” It would be a shame to see this negatively impact the quality of existing Big Finish products. In particular, the Judoon were a parody version of the Sontarans when they first arrived in Smith and Jones. Whereas the Sontarans (including, and perhaps due to the success of Strax) have eliminated the need for the Judoon, by becoming a parody of their former Classic Who selves. Adding these characters to the Sixth and Eighth Doctor’s adventures and to Jago and Litefoot’s investigations may serve to cheapen otherwise long-running and well-loved series.
Still, with Iris Wildthyme’s return, The Last Adventure of the Sixth Doctor, Romana joining the Fourth Doctor for new adventures, and Frazer Hines continuing to honor his late friend as the Second Doctor, there are several offerings that promise Big Finish will continue to create audio dramas to suit the needs of all Whovians. What do you think? Are you excited for the upcoming NuWho presence in Big Finish audios? Are you approaching it with trepidation? Do you think these audios will offer something new and worthwhile to Classic Who stories? Or, are the NuWho mashups just getting a little silly?
The post A Classic/NuWho Mashup Too Far? Jago & Litefoot & Strax in The Haunting appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.