Destiny of the Doctor: Smoke and Mirrors

    Big Finish - Special Release


This story makes sense from front to back and back to front. There’s a fairground in London that the Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa, and Adric show up to, called there by a psionic beam sent by Houdini, friend of the Doctor from his third regeneration. There is something mysterious going on and Houdini wants help investigating. Or so he says. But there’s something else going on and the fairground workers seem to be involved in it as well. But what’s really going on?

Well I, for one, won’t spoil it except to say that it all makes sense and each companion has their own adventure with the myriad of creatures that come after them. This story has a definite 5th Doctor “feel” to it but I do wonder why Adric is the third companion instead of Turlough. Perhaps his “out for his own skin” attitude early on in Turlough’s adventures makes him not ideal for this story as Adric does make use of his mathematical knowledge in the story. The companions are given interesting things to do but somehow, this story doesn’t rate a 5. I can’t pinpoint anything specific other than a feeling of just I liked it a lot but I didn’t LOVE it.


Read by: Janet Fielding and Tim Beckmann (Houdini)

Writer: Steve Lyons

Director: John Ainsworth

Release: May 2013

© Laura Vilensky 2019