Doctor Who: The Emerald Tiger
Written by Barnaby Edwards
Published by Big Finish
A gripping and disturbing prologue throws the listener straight into the action in early 20th century India at the start of this new Fifth Doctor audio drama, the first in a new trilogy featuring combative companions Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough.
In India to attend a cricket match (what else), the Doctor is quickly forced to live up to his name when Nyssa is bitten by an apparently rabid local. In a left luggage mix up, the Tardis and its handy medikit are bundled onto a private train, so Tegan and Turlough jump aboard while the Doctor, Nyssa, and a helpful professor, played by Sam Dastor, follow by various period means.
Add an accomplished thief, the titular crystalline creature and its brethren, and a wealthy woman with a dark secret (Cherie Lunghi) and you wonder how writer and director Barnaby Edwards holds the plot together. He does, with aplomb, and the cast do him proud, with a thrilling sequence onboard a runaway train the central highlight.?From there the story delves into the Indian jungle, with some amusing nods to both Kipling and Rice Burroughs along the way.?
Sarah Sutton’s Nyssa always struggles to hold her ground when up against the fiesty characters of Tegan and Turlough, but here she has space away from them to provide a sympathetic viewpoint of the creature at the heart of the tale. Peter Davison excels with a highly active performance, though this is one story where the Doctor is certainly not in full control of the plot.
It may be an audio that needs repeated plays to catch all the subtle nuances, but that’s fine. The superb performances, music and, as ever, immersive sound design are sure to have many fans hunting this tiger over and over again.
