Big Finish - Colditz

This is the first of three Big Finish titles I bought in their recent £5 sale. Colditz by Steve Lyons, written by Gary Russell, with Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace, Tracey Childs as Klein and David Tennant as Kurtz.

Growing up in the 1970s it is impossible to hear the name Colditz without thinking of the long running BBC series with Bernard Hepton, Robert Wagner, David McCallum and Anthony Valentine amongst others. Listening to this Big Finish production I could see the austere castle and its courtyard which apparently was filmed at Stirling castle in Scotland. The Doctor and Ace turn up in the wrong place at the wrong time and are soon prisoners. While Ace tries to join an escape attempt, the Doctor is interrogated and then handed over to the mysterious Klein who seems to know some of the secrets of his Tardis.

Maybe it was the deliberate harking back to the TV series and the real history it was based on but this was a terrific story. McCoy's Doctor seems to have met his match to some extent in the character of Klein but that doesn't stop his trademark manipulations of his enemies. Meanwhile the boisterous Ace is almost too much for the reserved British prisoners. This story was released in October 2001 when David Tennant was just a jobbing actor so it his fun to hear his recognisable voice doing a German accent.

I enjoyed this so much that it passed almost too quickly. Once thing that I did miss was the 'DVD extras' that BF now put on their CDs. It's always nice to hear writer, director and actors discussing the production at the end of the second CD, but these early releases don't have that bonus track which is a shame.

Despite that this story gets a good 4 out of 5 Balsa wood gliders. Next up is Master.