The Havoc of Empires, by Andy Lane, is the second story in Big Finish’s The Third Doctor Adventures, volume 1 box-set from Big Finish.  Featuring, as before, Tim Treloar as the voice of the Third Doctor and narrator, together with Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Richard Franklin as Mike Yates.

THE THIRD DOCTOR ADVENTURES, VOL. 1

Jo turns up in the Doctor’s lab, all dressed up for an evening out with Mike Yates.  The Doctor has forgotten that he promised to take them anywhere they want to go for their liaison.  He’s been fiddling with the TARDIS’s automation circuitry and, in order to fulfil his promise, he now needs to pilot it manually.

The TARDIS arrives, not at a historic cricket match to allow Mike to get his cricket ball signed by W.G.Grace., but on a space station of the far future in some unknown corner of the galaxy.

With the TARDIS stuck in the docking bay for several hours whilst the bay undergoes quarantine, the Doctor and his friends try to stay out of trouble.  However, they quickly get mistaken as the entourage for a security specialist and, before they can be exposed, Mike’s judicious use of his cricket ball sees the security man unconscious.

Due to questions of size, Jo takes the uniform of the unconscious man (after all, his name “Alex” could be a woman’s name just as much as a man’s), with the Doctor and Mike being her assistants.

They’re soon to learn that the space station is in neutral space, bordering two vast empires – one is human, a corporation-run empire that’s guided by accountants seeking profits; the other, a proud warrior-race that values honour.  To avoid conflict, a wedding (or business partnership, depending on your perspective), is to take place between prominent leaders of their respective empires.

With neither side trusting the other, the security specialist is a neutral observer not wanted by either side, but needed by both.

After some cursory inspections by Jo, and with the Doctor and Mike having met the prospective marriage incumbents on their respective sides, they’re interrupted by the arrival, in the now accessible docking bay, of the man who negotiated the wedding the first place.  With a view of slipping back to the TARDIS once they reach the docking bay, Jo arranges for her, the Doctor, and Mike, to meet the negotiator.

Just as the negotiator leaves his ship, a massive explosion rocks the docking bay…

The Havoc of Empires starts out promising to be an excellent Third Doctor story, even more so than the previous one, Prisoners of the Lake.  Whilst it’s difficult to prevent yourself from smiling at the older voices of Jo and Mike behaving like their youthful versions of the 70s, as they play-flirt their relationship in front of the Doctor in his lab, this actually adds to the charm of the piece.  The years don’t disguise the fun that comes from this playfulness of three friends enjoying their characters and this helps to firmly plant the story back in the 70s.

The plot, as it is so far, feels relatively simple because it’s one of those formulas that has been done so many times before.  The ludicrousness of two vast Empires on the verge of warring with each other, with both apparently think that two people getting hitched will solve all of their differences, is a thinly-disguised powder keg for the heroes to prevent from igniting.

However, it is just the first episode and, if the previous story is to be any guide, there will be plenty of other strands to it before the end.

Oh, and does anyone believe that Jo Grant would fit into the uniform of a similar-height man?  Really?