The Wrath of the Iceni (#1.03)

  Big Finish, Fourth Doctor Series

I think this would work great on TV but I didn’t really like it.  It made sense and Leela obviously had a specific “thing” to learn.  But I wasn’t sure she needed to learn to read people and their intentions versus their actions.  In all of her time with the Doctor, hasn’t she learned this?  Perhaps this was just a way to place Leela and the Doctor in a historical audio drama.  I don’t know how it could’ve been improved but it just didn’t work for me.  I read on FaceBook that people loved it but when I finally listened to it, I wasn’t as impressed.  So perhaps those comments prejudiced me?  Could be… 

The Iceni are a group in Britain’s history who are taking revenge for something the Romans did.  Lots of little groups were going around killing people to convince them to join their group, who then get killed by a larger group.  How England wasn’t depopulated was a miracle to me!  I liked how the Doctor and Leela were separated for most of the audio but the Doctor was very foppish and stood back for Leela.  This was Leela’s story of discovery more than it was anything about the Doctor, who seemed almost incidental to the story – only there for the predictions!  So I was a bit disappointed in general but it’s not a bad story.


Tom Baker and Louise Jameson

Writer: John Dorney

Director: Ken Bentley

Release: March 2012

© Laura Vilensky 2019