Peter Purves


This Sporting Life is the fifth story from Big Finish‘s sixth series of Doctor Who: Short Trips, this time featuring the First Doctor, Steven Taylor, and Dodo.  The title is a play on the 1963 Richard Harris film This Sporting Life which featured, among others, William Hartnell. This Sporting Life […]

DWST6.05 – This Sporting Life


The fifth adventure in series seven of Big Finish‘s Companion Chronicles range does what it says on the tin and it sees the Return of the Rocket Men.  This time they’re encountered by Steven (Peter Purves) with the first Doctor and Dodo.  The villain of the Rocket Men is this […]

CC7.05 Return of the Rocket Men


Big Finish‘s 200th main range adventure sees the merging of two eras of Doctor Who. The Secret History sees Steven (Peter Purves) and Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) team up with the fith incarnation of the Doctor (Peter Davison). The first episode opens with a magical scene, the type that we watch […]

200. The Secret History



Previously … The Beautiful People … The second series of Big Finish‘s range of The Companion Chronicles begins with Mother Russia.  A break from the first series that focussed on four of the female companions, this is the first to feature a male companion – in this case, Steven Taylor.  […]

CC2.01 Mother Russia


Doctor Who, season 3 continues … The Savages is a 4-part early Doctor Who adventure that no longer exists in the BBC archives. In order to watch the serial, I’ve discovered the “Loose Cannon” reconstructed version.  This version employs the audio of the story matched against telesnap (still images), descriptive […]

117 – 120. The Savages


Doctor Who, season 3 continues … I enjoyed the remaining two episodes of The Gunfighters as much as the previous ones.  Without hamming it up, it’s pretty clear that Hartnell is enjoying himself, Jackie Lane is having fun, and Peter Purves mostly continues to look bewildered by the whole thing […]

115. Johnny Ringo, 116. The OK Corral



Doctor Who, season 3 continues … The Gunfighters is often seen as a comedy/joke story and, whilst its true that the contrast between it and the previous couple of stories is quite staggering, The Gunfighters does come across well compared to the relatively poor stories that we’ve had in season […]

113. A Holiday for the Doctor, 114. Don’t Shoot the ...


Doctor Who, season 3 continues … Of the final two episodes of The Celestial Toymaker, only the final episode exists in the BBC archive.  For the other, I’m relying on the CGI recreation by Who Recons. The the live-action episode does help to lift the adventure up a peg or […]

111. The Dancing Floor, 112. The Final Test


Doctor Who, season 3 continues … The Celestial Toymaker, is another Doctor Who story that I’ve wanted to watch for years but, with three episodes missing from the BBC archive, it’s taken until I discovered the CGI recreations by Who Recons before I’ve made the effort to watch. Based on […]

109. The Celestial Toyroom, 110. The Hall of Dolls



Doctor Who, season 3 continues … The Ark, which is fully available as a live-action story, is fairly familiar to Doctor Who viewers by now, I’d imagine. The most intriguing thing is that now, having had Dodo’s proper introduction, we move straight to her first story – with her brash […]

105. The Steel Sky – 108. The Bomb



Doctor Who, season 3 continues … The Massacre is another early Doctor Who adventure that doesn’t exist in the BBC archives anymore, and so I’m “watching the audio” thanks to the CGI created by the clever people at Who Recons. The CGI of this story benefits from having more sets […]

101. War of God – 103. Priest of Death