"The TARDIS lands in a forbidding castle in a time of religious upheaval. The old god has been overthrown, and all heretics are to be slaughtered. Obviously it isn't the sort of thing which would happen there every day - just every few years or so."

And so it was thus. After reigning for twenty five years, the immortal Robert Holmes was overthrown and a new god took his place. All hail Shearman, all hail the big talking playwright. He that will be our immortal god for the rest of time, at least until we can decide whether Russell T Davies is the new god or not. But that is heretical talk and I must recant lest I be horribly executed. Let the recantation and penance begin.

Even within the Shearmanverse there has been a sense of overthrowing one god and replacing it with a new one. The Holy Terror was the greatest of the great until the Chimes of Midnight came along and replaced it. But while that is one fabulously creepy episodes, two marvellously inventive episodes and a slightly disappointing finish, the Holy Terror is a thing of beauty from start to finish. Both plays have things in common – death is inconsequential, there is a rigid order which those who are subject to it can’t (and don’t want to) change and all the action takes place in a single building which no one can leave. The third piece of this trilogy is his pseudonymously penned BBV Audio "Punchlines" which is well worth getting if you like his work. If you don’t, you’re either not reading this or you haven’t lived.

The Holy Terror was the first Big Finish classic. We’d had some good stories, some great stories and some meh stories but this was something special. A quality guest star in Sam Kelly who really shows the value of getting a "proper" actor in from time to time. Not to pour scorn on the BF Rep Company but Kelly gives one of the greatest performances the company has ever seen. Like Michael Sheard in Castrovalva, he delivers his paradoxical lines with such conviction.

Frobisher came as a surprise too. I’d never seen him in the comics and was only vaguely aware of his existence. The idea of the Doctor travelling with a talking penguin was not something I relished. Robert Jezek is used a little too often by Big Finish for someone with such a distinctive voice. If they like working with him so much then why not simply bring the big talking bird back a bit more often? If Big Finish can make Mel and beloved part of Wholore then they shouldn’t have a problem with Frobisher. Like Mel he needs a certain type of story to work as a character but if you start with the character and tailor a story to meet his strengths then I don’t see why it wouldn’t work every couple of years.

The Holy Terror works because it so perfectly combines history, satire, comedy, horror, tragedy, visual humour (!) and rational explanations for all of the above. It has already become a cliché to praise Robert Shearman to the skies but, without even a Krotons or Kroll to darken his memory, he may very well be the most talented writer in Doctor Who’s forty year journey.

So join with me – "All hail Shearman, all hail the big talking playwright"

CD Facts

Part 1 - Tracks 1-6

Part 2 - Tracks 7-12

Part 3 - Tracks 1-7

Part 4 - Tracks 8-14