The Scream of Ghosts written by Guy Adams and directed by Nicholas Briggs

What’s it about: When the Brigadier and Jo are called in to look into a breakthrough in the field of portable communication, the Doctor has to stay behind with communications problems of his own – a strange signal coming through the TARDIS console that’s burned out its circuits. When Benton approaches the Doctor with an odd story about an old friend, the Time Lord realises his troubles and the Brigadier’s investigations may be connected, and hot-foots it in pursuit. Soon they discover that terrifying sounds are walking in the woods of the English countryside... but what lurks behind those sounds may be even more dangerous...

The Mighty Nose: He wishes the human race would cotton on to wireless technology. The Doctor is an impossible man but the brigadier wouldn’t have him any other way. To hear the third Doctor doffing his cap at Oliver Harper was a lovely touch. It reminded me of him name dropping Ian, Barbara and Susan in Planet of the Daleks. There’s a lovely moment where Jo has absolute faith in the Doctor when everybody else doubts him. It suggests that winning chemistry between him and Jo without ever dwelling on it for too long. He loves the idea of spaceship that keeps moving as long as you keep on applauding it.

Dippy Agent: After Liz, Jo is getting quite used to women in authority. She knows what it feels like to be general dogsboddy but still introduces herself proudly as the Doctor’s assistant and tea maker, brow mopper and asker of all the right questions. The most important woman in the whole world, according to the Doctor.

Stiff Upper Lip: The Brigadier gets exasperated by the amount of times he brings a crisis to the Doctor’s attention and yet he continues to play about in the TARDIS. The Brigadier’s car has a roof, which to Jo makes it one up on Bessie. When the Brigadier states the name of the organisation that he works for he simply gets the response: ‘what a mouthful.’ He’s been an unwelcome guest more than he’s had hot dinners but this is by far the rudest eviction he’s ever had. The Brigadier of these audio stories is much more in the vein of the season seven and season eight version of the character rather than the comedy sidekick of the latter Pertwee seasons. He’s incisive, intelligent and just a little bit chauvinistic. Insane is what he’s paid for. I loved the line ‘I may be without my scientific advisor but I’m not without my intelligence!’ When did his life become full of preposterous nonsense like protecting himself against fire extinguishers.

Sidekick: John Levene might be the most alarming oddball in real life, but nobody charms like Benton in a Third Doctor Adventure. Having him involved in this story is rather novel. Benton is never going to set your world on fire but he provides a lot of warmth and authenticity to the story. He’s talking with people all over the world after realising that his mates are a pretty small group and confined the UNIT canteen.

Standout Performance: Rosalyn Landor played Brenna Odell in the Star Trek The Next Generation episode Up the Long Ladder. A piece of television that exists in its own bubble of awfulness. It was very useful when the Doctor finally meets Caldicott because until then she was just a one note bossy scientist with very little shade. In steps the rudest Doctor you are ever likely to meet if he comes up against a stiff authority figure and sparks fly. ‘I’d rather like both us to survive this conversation!’ Manning is still putting on that weird baby voice. It's distracting at times, and convincing at times.

Sparkling Dialogue: ’Who is it that’s talking and who is it that’s threatening?’
‘A television begging for it’s life?’

Great Ideas: The Pertwee era really has become my go to era for comfort Doctor Who. I’m saying it is all happy go lucky and reassuring viewing (The Mutants – eeek!) but simply that it is an era that I grab for first whenever I need to escape from the day and indulge myself in pure honest-to-goodness Doctor Who. There are a number of reason for this and it might explain why these Third Doctor Adventures are clicking so well for me. For one there is Pertwee’s glittering, masterful portrayal of the Doctor. Far from perfect and often irascible and accusatory, he’s nevertheless a rock-solid Doctor who manages to bring out the drama in any situation and who charms his way through the era, becoming ever softer and more human. Then there are his three companions – Liz, Jo and Sarah – all three of which are a delight to watch and who in very different ways show the range of the Doctor Who companion. UNIT provides stability and some grit in the early years and buckets of charisma and comedy in the latter years. Terrance Dicks creates the Doctor Who formula (he intends to go somewhere nice, ends up somewhere horrible, gets entangled in the situation, sorts it out – with difficulty- he departs) and learns over five years how to shake it up. His very clear and reliable plotting is a guiding hand through the era. And finally Barry Letts, possibly the greatest contributor to the show and a supervisory moral force, willing to attack politics, religion, history and always imbuing the material with a respectability and ethics. It’s a terrific fusion of all these things and some experimental directors and musicians, fabulous alien designs and plenty of excitement and humour. Even the worst of stories have something to recommend them. If I am perhaps inclined to be kinder to a particular era because Big Finish choose to honour it, perhaps this will explain why.

Ever since the Doctor upgraded Jo’s radio all it plays are weird, alien sounds. A signal is coming from space that sounds awfully like a scream. Jo’s reaction to a mobile phone is an absolute scream. Caldicott’s mobile telephone is way out of Earth’s frame of technology in this period and so the only rational explanation is that she has been receiving help from elsewhere. The Doctor winds up in a data network comprised entirely of solid sound forms. The Vardans are obsessed with two things; gathering knowledge and acquiring new territory. They are a telepathic race and brain waves are just another way for them to travel. Osgood retired after the Devils End business but that doesn’t stop Jo turning to him in crisis.

Musical Cues: ‘Music Concrete. A form of experimental music that often uses recorded and manipulated sounds to achieve atonal, challenging, melodic forms.’ I’ve always said talking about music is like dancing about architecture, it is impossible to capture the depth of the experience. However, the Doctor has a god go here and explain why so many of the early black and white Doctor Who scores were so eerie, and effective. Another shout out for Briggs’ score, which is overly dramatic, atmospheric and occasionally completely tuneless noise. A synthesis of all the Pertwee musical styles.

Standout Scene: ‘I suspect we’re looking at an invasion of Earth.’ This is set during the third Doctor’s era. What an incredible surprise. I love the moment when the Doctor realises that he has underestimated the Vardans. He assumes that the want to take over the Earth because that is exactly what aliens do at this point in the series. The fish they want to fry is Time, something the third Doctor era shies away from.

Result: It’s actually fairly easy to pull together a nostalgic third Doctor adventure; an earthbound setting, a threat to the planet, the UNIT regulars and an authoritative Doctor. However, it takes skill to utilise those elements in a way that entertains and doesn’t feel tired and an exercise in nostalgia for the sake of it, which Guy Adams achieves very well with The Scream of Ghosts. It’s one of those rare occasions where a Big Finish story utilises sound as an integral part of the story rather than just being the medium in which the story is told. If you’re savvy you might guess who the villains of the piece are by the authentic use of their soundscape from the TV series. A lot of the enjoyment here comes from the full cast nature of the story with the Doctor, Jo, Benton and the Brigadier all contributing well and written recognisably. They form different pairs throughout the story and each one works. The plot is interesting but perhaps a little thin for a two-hour story. There is a great deal of to-ing and fro-ing without much pace of development but when the big twist hits it is a doozy. The third episode was massively enjoyable, taking place mostly inside a simulacrum where the villains are finally revealed. This is one villain that was poorly realised on TV that has been snapped up by Big Finish and given brilliant treatment. It has been commented that Treloar doesn’t really sound like he is doing an impersonation of Jon Pertwee but I would counter that he was never really doing that anyway. His is an impersonation of the third Doctor with elements of Pertwee. The Scream of Ghosts sees him flying in the role, having to deliver a great deal of exposition and carry much of the story. Treloar is the Doctor for me now, and he carries the same authority and good humour as Pertwee did. This story is a great deal of fun to listen, but possibly a little too long for its own good but it pulls itself together for a rousing climax: 8/10