Review: Doctor Who: The Lost Stories - The Fourth Doctor Box-Set
- Jul 24
- 11 min read
By Matthew Kresal.
Ask fans of Classic Doctor Who whom their favorite incarnation of the Time Lord is and there’s a very good chance that you’re going to get one name more often than not: Tom Baker. With seven seasons and 41 serials, his remains the longest continuous tenure, taking in three producers with very different ideas about the series and Baker’s role within it. It’s no surprise that it also left behind a number of unproduced storylines and scripts for stories that might have been.
Something which, when Baker returned to the role on audio for Big Finish in the early 2010s, also made it possible for two serials to be collected into a six disc box-set as part of their Lost Stories range.
The Foe from the Future
Up first was The Foe from the Future, originally pitched by writer Robert Banks Stewart for the fourteenth season. Banks Stewart was no stranger to Doctor Who, having contributed Terror of the Zygons and The Seeds of Doom for the previous season. Having opened and closed the previous season with Earthbound settings and created two well-received serials in the process, the writer was approached by producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes to once more pen the six-part finale serial for the season. Bank Stewart’s six-parter was set around a village in Devon, with future humans attempting to escape back to the present day, their Earth being overrun by a seemingly alien force and the scientist Jalnik left disfigured by his time travel experiments.
In the process of writing the storyline, however, Banks Stewart started running out of steam. As he admitted on a bonus feature for the serial that eventually closed out the season, only five of the episodes were plotted and submitted to the production office. Before Hinchcliffe and Holmes could respond or a sixth episode could be plotted, Banks Stewart was offered a story executive position on the Thames Television soap opera Rooms by Verity Lambert (who, ironically, had been Doctor Who’s original producer). With a new gig occupying his time, Banks Stewart stepped away and The Foe from the Future was abandoned. As Hinchcliffe would say in the aforementioned bonus feature, the scripts were never commissioned as a result, and Banks Stewart was under no obligation to write them. Holmes returned from a holiday in need of a six-parter to close the season and, drawing on ideas unused for the Master’s return earlier in the season, wrote the Victorian set The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
Those familiar with Talons might already have picked up that each serial’s central villain is disfigured via the time travel experiments that have brought them to the past, something that requires them to wear a leather mask when not staying out of sight, but also forces them to constantly feed to sustain their life forces. Yet Jalnik in Foe and Magnus Greel in Talons are different characters, with Jalnik very much in Doctor Who’s mad scientist mold and deformed ala The Fly as a mix between human and insect, whereas Greel was a war criminal deformed by faulty time travel technology. The manner of their feeding is also quite different, Greel a cross between a vampire and the Phantom of the Opera whereas Jalnik is more in the Hannibal Lecter vein (though dating from before that character’s creation). While Banks Stewart acknowledged that Holmes might have borrowed these very basic ideas, the execution was different enough for him to put it down to coincidence.
This is a sentiment that is borne out in listening to Foe when it came to eventually be adapted by John Dorney. As he notes on the extras for the release, he was essentially having to pick up where Banks Stewart had left off in the 1970s with what was essentially a rough draft of the storyline; this included figuring out what the sixth episode would contain, drawing upon all the elements set up in previous episodes. Dorney also noted the lack of female characters and, drawing inspiration from Classic Who directors such as Pennant Roberts, added a female character in the form of Charlotte from the village and gender swapped others. In a way, Dorney was merely doing what Banks Stewart himself would have done in fleshing out the storyline into a full script, though ultimately from the final episode and the expansions that Dorney had to make, Foe is very much an approximation of what might have been aired, with the writer noting that the produced audio was “50% Robert Banks Stewart and 50% me.”
Even so, the version of Foe presented in the box-set is a veritable feast for Fourth Doctor fans. The Fourth Doctor and Leela (Louise Jameson) trace a rupture in the time vortex to 1977 Devon where a village is haunted by ghosts from the past, centered around a grand house known as the Grange. Alongside Charlotte from the village (Sherlock’s Louise Brealey), the pair investigate, uncovering Jalnik and his butler (named, fittingly, Butler) whose origins lie far in humanity’s future. Moving from 1977 to the year 4000, the Doctor and Leela find humanity under siege by the locust-like Pantophagen (with whom Jalnik has been crossed via his experiments). What should be humanity’s last chance for survival instead threatens the destruction of history itself. It’s a rich mix of elements, one that is a quintessential mix of Doctor Who’s ability to bring past, present, and future together inside a single tale.
It’s also one that is exceedingly well told. In keeping with the Hinchcliffe era six-parters on TV, nothing in Foe is disposable or throwaway with every character and scene contributing to moving the plot forward. Something that, as Banks Stewart did with moving locations from Antarctica back to Britain in Seeds of Doom, is helped by moving from 1977 to 4000 and back again. There is also, via Jalnik initially and via plot developments in the latter instalments, a rich vein of body horror that feels entirely in keeping with the era on-screen. Both of which would likely have pushed the limits of budget and acceptability (the latter especially felt in the televised season thanks to Mary Whitehouse), but which suit it well on audio.
That suitability is felt in other aspects. There’s a solid supporting cast, for example. Paul Freeman (perhaps best known as Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark) offers a classic Who villain in the form of Jalnik, full of intellect but also an increasingly unstable side that feels in keeping with Banks Stewart’s previous villains. Louise Brealy is also a treat as Charlotte, wonderfully playing off Baker’s Doctor but also left to her own devices at times in a role that is very much in the companion mold and at which Brealy shines. Howard Carter’s sound design evokes the mundane and the sci-fi neatly, making it easy to imagine both a grand country home and a domed city of the future though his music score has a sound closer to Murray Gold in the 2000s than Dudley Simpson in the 1970s. Even so, Foe is well represented on audio as a story that might have been, even if Big Finish likely present it on a grander scale than the BBC would have managed.
The Valley of Death
Hinchcliffe left Doctor Who in 1977, his three seasons as producer having been among the strongest in the show’s history. Though the emphasis he and Holmes brought to the series of Gothic horror and cliffhangers angered Mary Whitehouse and seems to have led to the decision by BBC higher-ups to move him to the series Target (where Whitehouse’s complaints followed), Hinchcliffe wasn’t quite done with the series. At the time he received the news he was leaving, Hinchcliffe and Holmes were beginning work on their next season. Not all of their ideas made it to screen, leading Hinchcliffe to decide in November 1978 to pitch to his successor Graham Williams and script editor Douglas Adams a story under the title Valley of the Lost.
The story had a short life as in early January 1979, Williams and Adams rejected it. Something owed in no small part to Valley of the Lost involving a crashed spaceship in the Amazon jungle, a lost city of gold, a time bubble, and a massive alien spaceship hovering over London as the precursor to an invasion! Despite having been the show’s former producer, Hinchcliffe had pitched something well beyond the inflation strapped budget of the late 1970s. Hinchcliffe’s use of the time bubble to freeze and slow down time also had the misfortune both of coming on the back of the serial The Armageddon Factor that used one to stretch its plot out to six episodes and arriving while two other perspective serials featuring it were in development (neither of which made it to the screen).
Hinchcliffe moved on to a long career in British television, the storyline filed to one side, until Big Finish began the Lost Stories range. Big Finish’s contacting Bank Stewart for Foe led to the writer reaching out to the former producer, with Hinchcliffe then contacting the company about his own unmade storyline. Writer Jonathan Morris took on scripting duties, expanding it into a full four-part serial that would be paired with Foe. Now known as The Valley of Death, it would be the concluding part of the boxset.
Valley is a curious mix of elements. Hinchcliffe’s era as producer has been noted by fans for the influence of Gothic horror and everything from political thrillers for its depiction of the Time Lords in The Deadly Assassin to Agatha Christie and Issac Asimov in The Robots of Death. For Valley, Hinchcliffe channeled writers such as H. Rider Haggard and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the first half with the diary of a long-lost Victorian explorer leading his great-grandson Edward Perkins into the Amazon jungle following its discovery. A journey he’s accompanied on by American photojournalist Valerie Carlton as well as the Doctor and Leela, taking them to a fabled lost city guarded by giant creatures and home to a crashed alien spacecraft.
Valley becomes a different kettle of fish in its second half. The craft contains Godrin, supposedly the last of the now dead Lurons, who has been waiting out humanity’s technological development. The action moves to London where Hinchcliffe borrows imagery from Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End with a massive spaceship hovering over the city and Godrin turning out to merely be the emissary for the remainder of his race. Except, this being Doctor Who, the Lurons motives are anything but pure as the threat of humanity’s destruction literally hangs over London.
Valley wears its influences pretty heavily on its sleeve but also manages to be forward looking. Though tapping into the adventure stories of decades past, there’s also something of Indiana Jones in it that was just around the corner when Valley was conceived. The second half, while drawing from Clarke, calls to mind aspects of both the miniseries V and the film Independence Day. Perhaps Williams and Adams were right when they cited budget concerns, given that Hinchcliffe unknowingly mashed up two blockbuster films before either had arrived on the scene. Something that audio drama, with the ability to use dialogue and sound effects to conjure imagery, could accomplish much easier than the various 1970s departments of the BBC.
Which might explain why Valley is entertaining but doesn’t quite work. Perhaps owing to the two halves of the serial being set in different locations and the inevitable shift of tone, it ends up feeling like two unrelated ideas mashed together rather a cohesive whole. Indeed, if it wasn’t for the fact that Edward Perkins and Valerie Carlton carry over between the two, they could very well have been two separate but connected tales. Doctor Who has done such things before, such as 1966’s The Ark which had the Doctor and companions arriving on a generation ship from Earth toward the beginning and end of its voyage, witnessing the impact of their presence centuries later. Perhaps if the first half had been set in 1873 entirely before events move the characters forward in time for the second, the disconnect between the two would have more easily bridged. Instead, Valley is an unsatisfying mash-up combined with a bit of an idiot plot to make it actually function.
Which is a shame as there’s a solid production here. The supporting cast is solid from Anthony Howell as Edward Perkins, playing on his family legacy but out of his depth, while Jane Slavin offers up what sounds like a 1970s BBC idea of what an American should sound like as Valerie Carlton, though her chemistry with Baker and Howell goes a long way to make the character appealing. Nigel Carrington’s Godrin could easily have fit in with a number of villains from late in Baker’s era; the one plus of the two different halves being that listeners get to hear the many facets and deceits Carrington offers as Godrun. On the production side, Andy Hardwick’s sound design gets to cover everything from airplane crashes to an ancient lost city and a city sized spaceship while his music, like Carter’s score for Foe, sounds more akin to an orchestral film score than what Dudley Simpson might have offered but there’s something about that which suits Valley.
Indeed, Valley feels more suited for Baker’s long-planned but abortive attempt at a Doctor Who feature film than a late 1970s BBC television serial. It speaks to the surprising ambition of Hinchcliffe as a writer rather than as the series producer. Yet it’s hard to fault Williams and Adams for their decision, all things considered, given the weaknesses on display.
Baker and Hichcliffe Return
This Lost Stories boxset is also notable for the place it holds within the history of Doctor Who at Big Finish. The set would be the first released work the company would have from two major players in 1970s Doctor Who in the form of both Baker and Hinchcliffe. Though, in the case of Baker, it wasn’t the easiest path getting him to record for the company.
When the company initially got the rights to the series in the late 1990s, they approached the actor with the hope that he would join the company’s roster of returning Doctors. An effort that led to three potential serials being commissioned to entice him. Instead, as Gary Russell related to Benjamin Cook in 2003’s Doctor Who: The New Audio Adventures - The Inside Story, Baker left Big Finish waiting for a reply until a convention appearance. During which Baker, asked by an audience member if he would be recording stories, informed the audience (and Russell, who was in the room) that he had been approached with scripts and had tossed them right into a bin.
(The three serials incidentally were eventually with other Doctors as The Spectre of Lanyon Moor, The Holy Terror, and The Stones of Venice.)
Needless to say, relations cooled between the company and Baker. Enough so that the actor turned down the chance to appear in the company’s version of Douglas Adams’ Shada in 2003 (which led to Paul McGann’s Doctor appearing instead). It was only with the release of the Hornets’ Nest audio dramas from BBC Audio in 2009 that Baker at last reprised the role on audio. Doing so opened a door and after a series of negotiations, rumors began to circulate online. The rumors led on the 18th of March 2010 to Big Finish releasing a statement confirming his involvement with the company, though it would only be in the summer and autumn that recording began. The Lost Stories box-set would be among the first thing Baker recorded with the company, teaming him up with Jameson as Leela following her regular work with the company and friendship with Baker (something which also led to Leela being swapped for Romana in Valley, where presumably Mary Tamm’s incarnation would have appeared).
Hornets’ Nest and its successor sets from BBC Audio were somewhat controversial due to Baker’s performance and the sense that (as with his latter years playing the Doctor on-screen) he was playing himself more than the Doctor. A criticism that likewise extended to his initial run of audio dramas from Big Finish, as well. In Foe especially, however, Baker was closer to his 1970s performances. There’s still flashes of wit and humor but, in keeping with the era it was set in, there’s also a more serious tone that wonderfully presents the level of menace and threat facing the Doctor. Valley leans more toward the comedic end of later Baker seasons, something which the actor clearly relished though his chemistry with both Jameson and Slavin offers a firmer emotional anchor in their scenes together. With Jameson effortlessly slipping back into her role, it was a solid start for Baker at Big Finish with this box-set representing his very first release with them.
Hinchcliffe contacting Big Finish about Valley was also the start of a working relationship with them. The success of the set, as well as Baker and Jameson being reunited, would lead the company to return to the former TV producer for new stories. Teamed with writer Marc Platt, the Philip Hinchcliffe Presents range launched in September 2014 with five serials across four releases in the years that have followed. Hinchcliffe would also sit down for an interview with Samira Ahmed included on the later Lost Stories release Daleks! Genesis of Terror in 2023.
All of which was made possible by the Lost Stories set. For the faults The Valley of Death has as two concepts kitbashed together, The Foe from the Future is a strong six-parter, with both serials anchored by Baker and all the production strengths Big Finish could offer. The results are worthwhile glimpses into what might have been in another time and place.
Matthew Kresal is, among other things, the author of the SLP book Our Man on the Hill and short stories in the anthologies AlloAmericana, The Emerald Isles, and The Scottish Anthology.
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