Harry Houdini’s War written by Steve Lyons and directed by Ken Bentley

What’s it About: The world is at war, and Harry Houdini wants to fight for his adoptive country. He might get the chance, when an old friend crashes his New York show. The Doctor is on the trail of a Central Powers spy ring, which has somehow acquired unearthly technology. But he is also keeping a dangerous secret… Finding himself on the run behind enemy lines, the world’s greatest escape artist has to work out who he can trust – and fast.

Softer Six: Listen as the Doctor makes his way through the New York crowd; deftly avoiding women in uncompromising positions, elephants and men screaming abuse. Colin Baker is a dab hand at this audio lark by now and effortlessly commands attention even when he is wandering a crowd on his own. He tries to tell Houdini that he is not exactly breaking the laws of time but he is breaking them a little…but Houdini can finish the sentence for him because he’s heard it all before. He’s still handy with Venusian Akido but he forgoes the ‘Haaaaaaai!’ these days. He came prepared to save Peri, bringing Houdini along with him to engineer an escape…or so it seems. The cliff-hanger to episode one comes as a total surprise as the Doctor exposes Houdini and reveals it was his intention to deliver him all along. Why would the Doctor be helping the Nazi’s to win the greatest war the world has ever seen? I mean we all knew that Sixie could be a bit of a bastard, but this? Listening to him sharing drinks with a fascist is a discomforting experience. Houdini has known many Doctors with many different faces but he trusted all the others…this time he wonders if the change went wrong and he is on the wrong side of the moral scale. If he kept to his own business, he would have far fewer books backed up to read. When the Doctor is told to keep his voice down because a Brit is hardly welcome in wartime Berlin, he boldly states that he can fit in anywhere. The Doctor touts statistics to hurt, he states that he finds the 37 million lost during the Great War a very significant number. I love the idea that the Doctor might travel the universe with his two friends ‘Peri and Harry.’ The Doctor tells a German officer that he is losing a world war and threatens that if he makes an enemy of him then he can take that war to an inter-planetary scale.

Busty Babe: Do you know what the difference between Nicola Bryant on television and audio is? She’s so much more confident as a performer these days. There was a nervousness to her performance when she was on TV, which happily sprung naturally from the character who was trying to escape the clutches of the Doctor’s hands around her throat and all kinds of alien nasties that wanted to either experiment on her or make her their wife. Big Finish delivers a more rounded, in control Peri and Nicola Bryant delivers a far more self-assured and charismatic performance. It comes as no surprise to me that what was considered something of a poison chalice on television (this relationship of Doctor and companion) is now celebrated on audio. Houdini knows the Doctor of old and he usually has a beautiful girl alongside them. Peri is impressed by Houdini’s escape efforts and she’s not sure why she is surprised. Usually she is stuck in a cell for hours on her own pondering her life choices. How nice for her to be able to spring free with one of the greatest escape artists of all time. Even Peri is questioning the Doctor’s choices in this one, in a time long after she has come to terms with his erratic personality. She seems to veer from one dangerous situation to the next no matter who she is travelling with. If she thought she was going to be safe with Houdini, she’s very much mistaken as he takes to the air in a by-plane and gives her the ride of her life. Her eyes are shut the whole time. On the back of this she is almost tortured for information. It’s no wonder she spends most of episode three in a hysterical state. Peri gets a far more impressive slice of the pie these days whilst still being recognisably still Peri. I loved how incrementally Bryant’s performance shifts in the latter half of the story to the point where you realise this isn’t confidence on Peri’s part but there is something very wrong with her.

Harry Houdini: Part time entertainer, part time spy; we’ve heard an awful lot about Harry Houdini and it is a good thing that thanks to John Schwab’s brilliant performance that he does not disappoint. He has been assisting and teaching the Doctor the art of getting out of a tight fix for centuries and when a man turns up on at his show demanding help in a ridiculous coat and with a bad attitude, he knows exactly who it is (‘Who else?’). He goes along with the Doctor’s fools’ errand because of his loyalty to their friendship. His water torture chamber is aptly named and he’s never had to sneak out of one of his own shows before. The modern-day audience is too smart for its own good and cannot just enjoy the show anymore (there’s a lesson to be learnt there, I’m sure). He asks if it is another alien invasion, so he has certainly helped to save the Earth with previous (or post) Doctors before. He mentions the Ovid, the Kleptons and the Selachians. Listen as Houdini tries to figure out what the sinister plot is with only the Doctor testing a tuning fork as his only clue – he’s written as an incredibly smart man. He’s not above knocking out a woman if his life is in danger but he is very apologetic about it. Once the Doctor fesses up his plan, Harry wonders how the Doctor could possibly think he could put him in a trap and expect not to try and wriggle his way out. He finally gets to ride in the TARDIS and he sleeps through the whole thing.

Standout Performance: John Scwab has the biggest amount of work here because the story is ostensibly his story. The Doctor is there as his assistant, then his enemy, and then the story considers how he might have mis-appraised him. Putting a character directly opposed to the Doctor should make him the villain of the piece but quite the contrary, Schwab’s Houdini is absolutely the hero.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘I’m sure there’s much to be gleaned from a detailed inspection of this mans smalls.’
‘I suppose it never occurred to you that your enemy might not be mine.’
‘You’re supposed to ask Doctor Who?’

Great Ideas: There was a recent, rather enjoyable comic strip, featuring the 12th Doctor meeting Houdini and I am pleased to say that thanks to Houdini’s recognition of the Doctor, that this does not contradict that at all. A trans dimensional gateway to where? Punching holes in the universe is rarely neat. Houdini’s magic is so spectacular that the Germans believe that he has harnessed the same inter-dimensional technology that they have and is performing his show using it. The Germans are looking to make the gateways the ultimate weapon, using the portals as a means of swallowing a city whole. London or New York could be wiped off the map in seconds. The Astrarti vessel collided with the TARDIS and ended up on Earth. The pilot clung onto the TARDIS in the vortex and borrowed a reassuring form from his recent memories – Peri! The Doctor has merely been trying to get a stranded alien home.

Audio Landscape: There’s an action sequence in a by-plane that is brought to life with absolute clarity and real excitement. That’s no mean feat on audio.

Musical Cues: A fantastic musical score courtesy of Joe Meiners. Playful, evocative and atmospheric.

Isn’t it Odd: As usual with the main range, this story could easily have an episode lopped off without doing too much damage to the plot. I wasn’t too enamoured with the aliens turning up at the climax to make the whole piece easily solvable. The Peri is the villain bit has been done before, and a lot more effectively. Lyons has a bit of an obsession with Germans in Doctor Who, but this story lacks a definitive figure from their ranks to stand out. There’s no Klein here.

Standout Scene: The first cliff-hanger forces the narrative to lurch in a completely different direction. The story is bouncing along amiably enough as a light spy thriller before pitching headfirst into science fiction and a grand scheme to bring germans onto American soil via a dimensional gateway. What the hell is going on? And why is the Doctor complicit in this? I also love the scene where the Doctor drops Harry home before he ever picked him up; it makes this entire adventure something that technically didn’t happen from people’s perspective in the show he is putting on at the beginning but it has been a life changer for Houdini. He wants more and the Doctor tells him he can count on it. Delightful.

Result: A huge surprise from the main range after a wealth of crud; Harry Houdini’s War was charming, amusing, exciting and effortless to listen to. The first episode is a particular delight; highlighting the Houdini/Doctor relationship beautifully and leading up to a terrific cliffhanger that pulls the rug from under the audience and the protagonist. This is the Steve Lyons of The Fires of Vulcan not Warlock’s Cross. The characters are lively and memorable and the story is extremely well paced, never staying still for too long but long enough to learn some interesting things about Houdini. John Schwab is an excellent choice to bring the great man alive; absolutely convinced of his own intelligence and ability but still caught up and surprised by the machinations of the plot. His relationship with both the Doctor and Peri is a joy to behold and I punched the air at the point where he was in the most danger and he laughed his head off saying this is the life he’d always dreamed of. If you find Colin Baker’s Doctor a little too meek of late then this might be the story for you. He’s living the dream as the anti-hero; cavorting with Germans in wartime, betraying his friends and by all accounts turning the tide of the war in the wrong direction. If ultimately the uncovering of the Germans' plans or the Doctor’s intentions isn’t too revelatory, the journey getting there is at least a huge dollop of fun. The three main characters get all the best material and Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant don’t disappoint. If you’re a fan of this pair, you’re in for a treat. This is far more Houdini’s story than the Doctor’s and that puts a whole new slant on the celebrity historical. For the most part, the Doctor is the villain of the piece. Harry Houdini’s War won’t change your world…but it is a rollicking good time: 8/10