STORY PLACEMENT

 THIS EPISODE TAKES

 PLACE BETWEEN THE

 BIG FINISH AUDIO

 DRAMA "EXCELIS

 RISING" AND THE NOVEL

 "MISSION:

 IMPRACTICAL."

 

 WRITTEN BY

 ROBERT SHEARMAN

 

 DIRECTED BY

 GARY RUSSELL

 

 RECOMMENDED 

 PURCHASE

 BIG FINISH CD#33½

 (ISBN 1-903654-90-4)

 RELEASED IN NOVEMBER

 2002.

 

 BLURB  

 It was just another

 quiet day on the mean

 streets for Frobisher,

 private eye. But then

 a dame walks into his

 office offering him a

 case he just can't

 refuse...

 

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The Maltese Penguin

NOVEMBER 2002

(70-MINUTE EPISODE)

 

 

                                                       

 

 

I was not sure what to expect of this exclusive ‘subscribers only’ special release from Big Finish. Whatever reservations I may have had were put to rest as soon I pressed play and Robert Jezek began to narrate Frobisher’s story over the wonderfully clichéd ‘private eye’ music…

 

Rob Shearman’s story is set prior to “The Holy Terror” (an earlier release featuring the Doctor and Frobisher travelling together in the TARDIS) and deals with Frobisher re-joining the Doctor in the TARDIS some time after their comic strip adventures. This is not a Doctor Who story per se though – the sixth Doctor appears briefly at the start, in the middle, and at the end of the play but it is the Whifferdill who takes centre stage and the story is all the more refreshing for it.

 

“The Maltese Penguin” is more or less an all-out comedy with a few moments of jeopardy woven into a nice little detective mystery plot. For the majority of the story, Colin Baker plays Frobisher in the form of the Doctor whilst Jezek narrates the story superbly. Baker relishes the opportunity to over act with a ludicrous accent, ‘smooch with dames’ and do all the things that the Doctor cannot do.

 

Shearman’s story, whilst not being as profound or chilling as either “The Holy Terror” or the more recent “The Chimes of Midnight” is every bit as entertaining. The seventy minutes fly past in the blink of an eye and you are left longing for more adventures with the Doctor and his mesomorphic companion…

 

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006

 

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

 

  

This play sees the Doctor reunited with his occasional travelling companion Frobisher after a time apart. We have therefore placed it just prior to the novel Mission Impractical, which must be set after the Doctor’s trial depicted in The Trial of a Time Lord as the trial is mentioned frequently throughout.

 

The placement after Excelis Rising simply reflects the plays’ respective release dates.

 

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