Doctor Who: 1963: The Assassination Games

This is the last of three releases for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who , each set in the year of that first broadcast, and featuring historical or pop cultural events of the time. In this case, it's not the one that you'd probably think from the title, but rather the theme of nuclear paranoia - with a side-helping of the Profumo Affair.

It's also, as is apparent from the cover, both a sequel to the 25th anniversary TV story Remembrance of the Daleks and a prequel to the audio series Counter-Measures. In fact, the Doctor and Ace make only brief appearances in the first section of the story, which is instead told mainly from the perspectives of Gilmore and Professor Jensen. Alison has, unfortunately, rather less to do; while she may complain about not wanting to be the “damsel-in-distress” character, that's basically what she is.

The story concerns political machinations in the British government that revolve around the testing of a new nuclear missile launch system. Assassinations are involved, and they do at least parallel conspiracy theories about the one in Dallas, TX. It's a twisting, turning, story and it takes some time for it to become clear exactly what the villains are trying to achieve. In some ways, its reminiscent of a more complicated version of the TV story Aliens of London/World War Three.

In fact, the villains' scheme does seem overly complex, and one can certainly argue how plausible it all is. There are also some fairly lengthy scenes of military combat, which rarely works well on audio. Despite these flaws, the mystery is engaging, with a number of real-world touches that, for me, improved the story. To be honest, though, if it wasn't for the characterisation (Ace is particularly good in this one), it'd be just 3 stars. But, as it is, I can justify pushing it to four.

And is it just me, or does the idea of assassinating Alec Douglas-Home not have quite the same political/historical resonance as that of JFK did in reality?