In a way, the Big Finish Universe was straitjacketed from the off. Gary Russell would, in the old days, often talk about the difficulty in creating story arc's, the lack of character development possible in old companions and the general fact that most of these plays have to end primed to link into a TV story screened decades ago. But it does go deeper than that. Conceptually, plays set between TV stories can't move. From the Doctor's mood and character, to the costumes we envisage and the very 'style' of each story, when they move into unfamiliar ground they are pushing against our satisfaction because we expect them to be authentic. While listening, we're in a rut where everything has to be predictable to keep us happy, and anything refreshingly new or different doesn't fit in. Perhaps this explains why, even when having to incorporate a talking penguin, it took a dive into a wholly unreal continuity gap to produce what the consensus generally regards as the first Classic Big Finish.

It's this sense of the new - rather than the "oh no, not Sarah Sutton again" - that drives "The Holy Terror", along with the horror of the central concept and the as-then unexplored writing talents of Rob Shearman. Isn't it odd that "The Holy Terror", with its torture, dungeons and extracted tongues, doesn't seem remotely at home anywhere near Season 22? Perhaps it's merely because here we aren't worried about fending the moral majority of our viewing audience. Or maybe it's because the light-hearted mood of the play sits in contrast with its morbid trappings - this is part-comedy, part-tragedy. But I suspect Frobisher is the key - the "talking bird" achieves more than one first realises in clearly grounding this play in his natural habitat of Marvel Comic Strips.

It would be interesting to hear the views of someone who had never read any Frobisher stories in DWM, but for now he lends the mental imagery of the play a whimsical, rather than gritty feel. Think, of a moment, how you see this story in your head. "Fairytale" is the best description I can manage of my own perception, a castle full of grand turrets and winding staircases, not unlike that seen in contemporary strip "War Game". It's hard to even imagine how it would have been realised on TV (as perhaps one strives to do with the Peter Davison stories) because of THAT penguin again, which would have been impossible when the latest technology they had was incapable of even running up a convincing BBC Micro Kontron time tunnel. This perception adds far more to enjoyment of the proceedings when it robs from the denouement - when, quite fittingly, the castle itself transpires to be a fiction.

Now, the trick is sullied somewhat in being repeated in "The Chimes of Midnight". But then, it was just the breath of fresh inspiration needed to provoke nothing less then a rapturous reception. After all, how were Big Finish ever going to produce a classic THEY could lay claim to when their very remit was to fill in gaps around others work? Ironically, the freedom that both Doctor Who's format and the audio medium provided had previously been stifled. Imaginations were straining at the leash! Only when "The Holy Terror" set them completely free were we able to appreciate how good the deal was.

CD Facts

Part 1 - Tracks 1-6

Part 2 - Tracks 7-12

Part 3 - Tracks 1-7

Part 4 - Tracks 8-14