Written by Lauren Mooney Stewart Pringle James Moran

Starring Peter Davison and Janet Fielding

Originally released : April 2026

Listened to: April 2026

Context: not been with the 5th Doctor for a while so looking forward to getting a listen of these three adventures, also slightly different TARDIS team from my last few 5th Doctor listens, with Teegan and Turlough sans Nyssa this time. Be interested to see how they use Turlough in this boxset.

Episodes

Field of Miracles by Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle

Helter Skelter by James Moran

Land of Fools by Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle

THE REVIEW

What I thought

Field of Miracles by Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle – straight into the action with this two parter, probably my favourute length of classic who BF audio, I like the tight pacing and speed this structure of adventure tends to adhere to. This one doesn’t dissapoint in this regard, with the team embrollied in a weird 1950’s English village, events spiralling very quickly (my mate Dan would have loved this setting, bless him wherever he may be) and we get to learn of these odd wish fulfilled events, villagers sacraficing items and people to some earth dwelling god creature (which turns out to be the wish fulfilling, magical, made of star dust, timelord fairytale, the Asteri…lovely creation) – neat alien idea, introduced very well here. I particularly liked the parts of the story with Revered Bowers, great charater, well played by Matthew Cottle here. The ending is perhaps over too soon but there is a real Astari threat here, baby Michael’s story is a sad part of the story but the notion of his mum sacraficing herself so her child could live rings very true for me, and added emotional depth to the story, great start to this boxset.

Helter Skeltor is another story that starts well, with the breathless fifth doctor trying to take Turlough and Tegan somewhere fun/less dangerous than their usual destinations. The setting of a planet that is a giant theme park is pretty cool, with lots of lively excitement from Turlough and the Doctor geeking out over the science and engineering behind the fake core of the planet. Soon it becomes clear that all is not as it seems (who would have thought…; ), with only Tegan realising that there is some weird time loop-y shennanigans going on. There is some hilarious stuff in this, with the Doctor repeatedly offended that as a timelord he can’t sense what Tegan can. The whole story is a series of times around the loop, Tegan trying to change things and make her companions see what is going on, then working out its all a massive ploy by the doctor himself! Lost me a little in the end but overall made enough sense to be great fun.

Land of fools brings the boxset full circle, with an adventure that at first is pretty shady in terms of what is actually going on, a slightly weird 1980’s London in the context, and then as our hero’s split up we start to see how this version of the period is being run by some weird cult….which seems to be able to grant wishes?! As obvious as this seems now in retrospective I didn’t get the hint, nor that M could stand for others things than ‘Master’. The Asteri are back, the Doctor having failed to completly eleminate their presence in the first episode of this boxset, and M is Michael the baby! Turlough gets a lot to do here, some of which is under the control of M/The Astari. The scenes where Michael interacts with his long dead mum via Asatri wishes are brilliant, and sad, making for a strong final episode. Great stuff.

Rating: 4 out of 5 wishes: I struggle to give a 5 as this isn’t extraordinary but this is a very very good set of episodes. There is a great Tegan centric story in this one, and a finale that gives Turlough lots to do. This group of actors know their respective chatarcter, and each other, so well this shines through. It’s a lovely set of adventures for this TARDIS team, great stuff.

What I felt: very happy to be back with the 5th Doctor and his crew, fantastic set of episodes, great fun. Loved to be in Turloughs company for these adventures.

What am I left thinking?

• Are we going to get more Turlough adventures now (a 6th Doctor box set with Turlough next up for this ginger kid).
• This one tested my Who knowledge, I haven’t watched any 5th Doc classic who for an age!

Memorable bits

• ‘I am a Timelord and I know about time loops’….very very amusing
• Tegan is great in all of these episodes
• Turlough adds a different dimension to the TARDIS crew
• Turlough is a companion I am not terribly familiar with so it is great getting to know him a bit better in these adventures
• The Astari are a lovely idea, wishes and all!