*The Three Companions

Something that Big Finish does extremely well is experiments. The audio company is always trying to push the boundaries of what it can release, trying new story telling methods and narrative flow. Some of their experiments have been very successful, some have unfortunately failed. And to be honest, I don’t know where The Three Companions sits.
This episode is released very uniquely, twelve ten minute segment across a year’s worth of Monthly Releases. In its original form, I’m sure it would have been quite clunky and slow, but in its edited form, the one I listened to, it flows well. The story is simple yet full of depth.
This Companion Chronicle takes the form of an email for the first two parts. While this is a great idea, it’s not written well. Marc Platt seems to have forgotten that it’s actually impossible to interrupt an email! I suppose it’s creative and original, but it was not executed well at all. It does, however, get the story across well, so I suppose that’s a plus.
It must be said here, Anneke Wills have one of the most soothing voices to listen to. Her narration is by far the best. She plays Polly well and full of range. As Polly is one of my favourite companions, it’s great to see where she is now. However, and it’s sad to say this, but Nicholas Courtney probably shouldn’t have appeared here. As this is his last performance before his untimely passing, you’d expect for him to sound a bit weary, but here it’s actually really hard to understand what he’s saying. Seriously, when he first appears it sounds like he’s moaning in pain. His speech is slurred and his words collide with each other. It makes me so sad to say this, as I love Nick Courtney and the Brigadier, but he’s really not up to doing this, and it really detracts from the story. But my god, John Pickard loves this script! He sounds perpetually excited, and there’s no hint of emotional range besides ecstatic.
This story is divided into three parts, Polly’s Story, Brigadier’s story and Brewster’s Story. They all seem really disconnected and only really feature the same villain/s. It’s like the Monk 3 Parter from Series 9, only not as bad. Polly Story is the best, with a simple premise and a lot of interesting ideas. Then we get Brigadier’s Story, which is less engaging and not as interesting (this is probably due to not being able to understand Nick Courtney, sorry, but it takes me out of the story). And then there’s Brewster’s Story, which attempts to tie things in some sort of reused bow. Another problem is that the story doesn’t know what it is about - is it a thriller, or an environmental disaster? It really can’t make its mind up.
Still, it’s full of great moments, and I really love some parts. It’s an alright experiment for Big Finish, and I suppose it’s only as successful as the listener thinks.
6/10

'The Three Companions' was a twelve part mini-series that was comprised of twelve ten minute episodes, and was included on various releases from the Main Range from April 2009 to February 2010. Written by Marc Platt and directed Lisa Bowerman. This story was recorded in June 2008, and was the last appearance of Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier.

Polly has been attempting to contact the Doctor, and in doing so made contact with the Brigadier. They strike up an email correspondence and exchange tales of traveling with the Doctor. Polly's story involves the Tardis crew and the second Doctor landing on a dead planet, due for cremation. The Brigadier's anecdote involves himself and the third Doctor stuck on a miniaturised version of Earth. While our protagonists are exchanging stories they are being tracked down by Thomas Brewster. Together they set out to prevent the current weather crisis and defeat Gerry Lenz and the Coffin Loaders.

Polly, the Brigadier and Brewster? Was Nicola Bryant to busy? Perhaps Bonnie Langford was too expensive? Or did Big Finish just feel that they needed to put their mark on it by putting a Big Finish creation in this story? Whatever the reason it doesn't feel particularly organic. Anneke manages to do some half decent impersonations but Nicholas doesn't fare as well when having to impersonate Pertwee. John Pickard manages to inject plenty of energy into his performance. The Richard Fox & Lauren Yason is some of the most average and bog standard I have heard from Big Finish.

The episodic feel of three separate yet connected stories is rather disjointed; the whole thing is overly long. If you were to hear this in its original 12 episode format I am sure it would have some entertainment value, but as a two hour long deal it drags terribly. The email correspondence framing device becomes cumbersome after not very long at all, and the characters begin interrupting each other somehow! The idea of that cheeky scamp trying to pass himself off as the Doctor is quite amusing though. I am sure fans of the Companion Chronicles range will enjoy this, but others might not find this so engaging.

"The Three Companions" was originally released over the course of twelve ten minute installments spread out over 12 different Doctor Who Main range releases and featured Anneke Wills, Nicholas Courtney, and John Pickard as the Polly, the Brigadier, and Thomas Brewster with Polly and the Brigadier recalling past adventures while Brewster involves them in the current plot.

Each of the actors brings something different. Wills does a great job capturing her era and giving a great sense of her Doctor and her era. For Courntey, his Third Doctor impression is a bit off but the way he captures the actors is interesting. I like Pickard as Brewster, although since for him this story is set between "The Haunting of Thomas Brewster" and "The Boy Time Forgot," it might be better to call the story, "Two Companions and the Guy Who Nipped the TARDIS."

There's something very charming about the idea of the Doctor's old companions finding each other via email. Although, due to the serialized nature of the adventures, sometimes they don't stick to this sounding like an actual email. (How do you interrupt someone in the middle of an email?) Polly's story of arriving at a city about to be destroyed with everything apparently stopped is very clever and great 1960s Who. There's also some solid mystery in the Brigadier's story as they run into a world with exact duplicates of things that exist on earth including Waterloo station. Brewster's story starts out interesting but looses steam as Platt tries to tie all these plot threads in ecological story that's really hard to keep interest in.

In its original format of ten minute episodes, this story is a bit hard to follow but in one chunk, it's a decent if not great story showcasing three solid actors including the much beloved and much missed Nicholas Courtney. As such, this is worth a listen.

When listening to this in small 10 minute chunks, I found myself lost and kind of forgetful because there was never a good interesting or captivating cliffhanger. However I recently purchased The Three Companions and listened to the whole thing from start to finish, and found that it plays much better this way.

The only trouble to the story I found was that I was expecting Thomas Brewster to be more devious, like when he ran into the 6th Doctor, compared to when we first met him in the Haunting of Thomas Brewster and Time Reef, as the Colin Baker stories are the freshest on my mind.

All in all a very good set of stories and glad I waited to review them after listening to the entire 3 episodes.