Plight of the Pimpernel

 

Plight of the Pimpernel by Chris Chapman

Plight of the Pimpernel is excellent partially because of how much it sneaks up on you with you thinking it's going to be a run of the mill historical story with campy everyday Doctor Who nonsense. It just sort of gets up, is like "oh, look at me, I'm a classic doctor who story" and then it goes off and does something completely different that happens to be extraordinarily good. Of course, me telling you that does sort of give away quite a bit, but in truth, very few will not be surprised where Plight ultimately goes. It's the best kind of Doctor Who in that it's inherently unique and a damn good showing for The Sixth Doctor and his relationship with Peri in Big Finish, both of who get plenty of magnificent things to do. It's a really good spot for Six and Peri, the point in their relationship that I always loved that you can see in The Mysterious Planet. That sort of point in the two characters where they've known eachother for quite a while, and we see a sort of new dynamic, much less acerbic and much more competitive. A developed version of the two of them that no longer see each other as bicker partners - although they do love bickering, but sort of as equals, even if Doctor Who is usually the smartest person in the room. Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are part of what really makes Plight work. Well, coupled with the magnificent writing of course. I've tried my best to be as vague as possible, but this is sincerely one of the best examples of how wonderful we have it with the Sixth Doctor at Big Finish - my Doctor, even. The astonishingly varied guest cast, headed by Jamie Parker are the other reason why it works so well. Once in a while you just get what is objectively perfect Doctor Who. 

But that's not a very good review, is it? So I'm going to nitpick. Some of the French accents in the audio are difficult/very bad. A small amount of the large supporting cast is underused, and as such some of the extraneous characters could have been cut down. The serial is perhaps a little too long - most Big Finish audios are these days, regardless of quality. It's not a flawless script, this one, but the final moments of the whole thing, essentially the entirety of Part Four do justify any of the story's prior weakness. I sort of think that if I had heard this story at any other time it might be a ten, but I'm sort of rather fatigued of the Main Range at the home stretch. 9/10