“Tom Baker reprises the role of the Fourth Doctor in five thrilling brand new exclusive audio adventures, with Richard Franklin as Mike Yates.  Episodes include: The Stuff of Nightmares—The Doctor and Mike are again on the brink of an enormous adventure.  As the Doctor relates his recent escapades, it becomes clear to Mike that they - and the Earth at large - are facing an enemy of unimaginable power and horrific intent. The nightmare is only just beginning.  Features Susan Jameson as Mrs. Wibbsey and Daniel Hill as Percy Noggins.  The Dead Shoes — Visiting the English seaside town of Cromer in the summer of 1932, the Doctor happens upon the strange world of the Cromer Palace of Curios. The young Ernestina Scott is unusually beguiled by one of the museum's exhibits, and when the Doctor befriends her, they unwittingly embark upon a terrifying escapade. Circus of Doom — In Blandford, 1832, ringmaster Antonio exerts a strange influence on the townsfolk. When the Doctor steps into the ring, he discovers that Antonio has some familiar demons of his own. Sting in the Tale — In a bleak midwinter, an order of nuns protect their Mother Superior from ravaging dogs. But something is very wrong here indeed - and the Doctor is about to get badly stung. Hive of Horror — The Doctor and Mike must face their enemy in a final battle. They have an unwilling accomplice - and loyalties are about to be tested to the limit.”

Back in 2009, the BBC scored a major coup when they convinced Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor himself, to come out of “retirement” and contribute to a series of Doctor Who audiodramas.  As Baker himself has mentioned several times, this rekindled his appreciation of the long-running series, and since then, he has contributed to a number of audio productions for both BBC and Big Finish, the publisher that has released Who audio excellence for quite some time now.

As part of my ongoing project to educate myself on the entire Classic Who saga, I recently finished Season 15, roughly the middle of the Fourth Doctor’s run.  Given that the BBC audio productions are firmly set directly after the concluding serial of Season 15, “The Invasion of Time”, it made sense to segue into these stories before resuming the televised adventures.

The story itself is an interesting oddity.  On the one hand, the most beloved seasons for the Fourth Doctor came towards the beginning, when Sarah Jane was his Companion and the series had its infamous “gothic horror” period.  Those stories tended to emphasize “body horror”, among other things, and that is a big part of this particular story.  More than that, Peter Magrs’ script is laced with a style that lends itself to the gothic feel.

Yet if one were to mention the name Mike Yates to a Classic Who fan, they would immediately think of the Third Doctor, not the Fourth.  And the “gothic horror” period had long since given way to a less consistent and sillier tone by the end of Season 15.  So it is not what one would expect of a story taking place at this point in the timeline, so to speak.

It turns out that this unusual mix is actually a strength of the format; what never happened in the actual show is more than possible in an audiodrama, and feels more substantially convincing than some of the novels that attempt similar convergences.  And the presence of Mike Yates is explained relatively well in the story itself, covering the question of why the Doctor, long since moved on from his time with UNIT, would call so specifically on his old sometime ally.

What can be off-putting is the nature of the production.  Big Finish is better known for its Doctor Who audio productions, and the majority of them are true audiodramas: events play out with relatively little narration.  They do have the Companion Chronicles line, however, that was essentially a series of reflective recollections by the Doctor’s Companions, told from their perspectives, with perhaps one or two guest cast members.

“Hornet’s Nest” is much closer in format and style to the Companion Chronicles than a traditional audiodrama, which can result in a few somewhat awkward transitions, as the narration shifts from the Doctor to Yates and so forth.  But it also means that Tom Baker is very much the star of the production, and he gets long stretches of monologues that are simply a pleasure to experience.  His enthusiasm for the telling of the tale is palpable!

The five individual “episodes” all comprise a single story arc, which is a nice nod to the Classic Who era, and each episode is roughly 70 minutes long.  It amounts to nearly 6 hours of Fourth Doctor goodness that truly evokes the best of that period of Who history.

Price: (~$49.99 US, total retail)
Acquisition Method: This review is based on the Audible.com versions