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The Third Doctor Adventures #12
Doctor Who: Intelligence for War
The Doctor and Liz Shaw investigate a disturbing incident in the quiet Norfolk village of Huncleath, involving a vanishing Nazi soldier. Is time travel technology to blame? And what is the link between the disappearance of the village’s wealthiest resident, Francis Teeling, and anti-war campaigners in Cambridge? As the Brigadier mobilises UNIT, a secret branch of the British military has serious concerns about UNIT’s scientific advisor — Dr Elizabeth Shaw. In the ensuing struggle, Liz must make connections with her past, consider her future and fight against both incarceration and an unusual alien weapon. And try as he might, the Doctor may not be able to help her!
Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart © Haisman & Lincoln and used under licence. With thanks to Hannah Haisman and Candy Jar
Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart © Haisman & Lincoln and used under licence. With thanks to Hannah Haisman and Candy Jar
- GenresDoctor WhoAudiobook
Audio CD
Published October 1, 2023
21 people want to read
About the author
Eddie Robson
158 books111 followersEddie Robson is a comedy and science fiction writer best known for his sitcom Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully and his work on a variety of spin-offs from the BBC Television series Doctor Who. He has written books, comics and short stories, and has worked as a freelance journalist for various science fiction magazines. He is married to a female academic and lives in Lancaster.
Robson's comedy writing career began in 2008 with material for Look Away Now. Since then his work has featured on That Mitchell and Webb Sound, Tilt, Play and Record, Newsjack, Recorded For Training Purposes and The Headset Set. The pilot episode of his sitcom Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on 5th July 2012. It starred Katherine Parkinson and Julian Rhind-Tutt.
His Doctor Who work includes the BBC 7 radio plays Phobos, Human Resources and Grand Theft Cosmos, the CD releases Memory Lane, The Condemned, The Raincloud Man and The Eight Truths, and several short stories for Big Finish's Doctor Who anthologies, Short Trips. He has contributed comic strips to Doctor Who Adventures.
Between 2007 and 2009, Robson was the producer of Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield range of products, and has contributed four audio plays to the series. He has also written books on film noir and the Coen Brothers for Virgin Publishing, the Doctor Who episode guide Who's Next with co-authors Mark Clapham and Jim Smith, and an illustrated adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Robson's comedy writing career began in 2008 with material for Look Away Now. Since then his work has featured on That Mitchell and Webb Sound, Tilt, Play and Record, Newsjack, Recorded For Training Purposes and The Headset Set. The pilot episode of his sitcom Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on 5th July 2012. It starred Katherine Parkinson and Julian Rhind-Tutt.
His Doctor Who work includes the BBC 7 radio plays Phobos, Human Resources and Grand Theft Cosmos, the CD releases Memory Lane, The Condemned, The Raincloud Man and The Eight Truths, and several short stories for Big Finish's Doctor Who anthologies, Short Trips. He has contributed comic strips to Doctor Who Adventures.
Between 2007 and 2009, Robson was the producer of Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield range of products, and has contributed four audio plays to the series. He has also written books on film noir and the Coen Brothers for Virgin Publishing, the Doctor Who episode guide Who's Next with co-authors Mark Clapham and Jim Smith, and an illustrated adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 19, 2024
Reports of people from the past being seen get the Doctors' attention, is someone using time travel and could it help him to fix the Tardis?
I was a little dissapointed when The Annihilators came out in the fact that it was a seven part story, but short episodes. This is the same, the shortest is slightly less than 20 minutes not that I mind that much but it feel a bit of a cheat.
Daisy Ashford (Liz Shaw) Ive only hard once as Liz and I wasn't that taken to her but she's grown on me here, though the chemistry between her and the Doctor needs working on though. The whole Doctor who team here are now played by different actors, but it still works - it feels the same.
To begin with this audio feels a bit like The Daemons: A remote village, the Doctor going off to investigate, the locals, UNIT etc.There's an interesting plot point of whats happening to Liz? She's taken away on suspicion of treason and things get odd. The cliffhanger at the end of episode 3 was terrific. But by episode four it kind of veers off, the village setting has gone and its not the story that it felt it was going to be.
There seemed to be two story lines: one was about Pinpoint, who took LIz, and have thier own agenda and the other reguarding a suitcase and a weapon. The trouble was everytime I came back to continue listening I was confused; slight jumps in narrative, different characters and different plot strands. It was a case of hang on whose this? What are they doing? I kept going back and relistening to try and work out what was going on, but by the last episode I couldn't be bothered.
There are some really good ideas here, one character changes reality/perception to escape, they do it a couple of times and you could of had a story based on that. There's Pinpoint trying to usurp UNIT. The weapon thats intelligent. But perhaps they should stuck with the the best idea?
It is more of a Liz story than anything - delving into her backstory, her motivations and helping to make sense of her sudden departure in the TV series.
It was a good start, but felt crowded, the characters, ideas etc. The Brig feels almost redundant at times.
Good, but not as great as it could have been.
I was a little dissapointed when The Annihilators came out in the fact that it was a seven part story, but short episodes. This is the same, the shortest is slightly less than 20 minutes not that I mind that much but it feel a bit of a cheat.
Daisy Ashford (Liz Shaw) Ive only hard once as Liz and I wasn't that taken to her but she's grown on me here, though the chemistry between her and the Doctor needs working on though. The whole Doctor who team here are now played by different actors, but it still works - it feels the same.
To begin with this audio feels a bit like The Daemons: A remote village, the Doctor going off to investigate, the locals, UNIT etc.There's an interesting plot point of whats happening to Liz? She's taken away on suspicion of treason and things get odd. The cliffhanger at the end of episode 3 was terrific. But by episode four it kind of veers off, the village setting has gone and its not the story that it felt it was going to be.
There seemed to be two story lines: one was about Pinpoint, who took LIz, and have thier own agenda and the other reguarding a suitcase and a weapon. The trouble was everytime I came back to continue listening I was confused; slight jumps in narrative, different characters and different plot strands. It was a case of hang on whose this? What are they doing? I kept going back and relistening to try and work out what was going on, but by the last episode I couldn't be bothered.
There are some really good ideas here, one character changes reality/perception to escape, they do it a couple of times and you could of had a story based on that. There's Pinpoint trying to usurp UNIT. The weapon thats intelligent. But perhaps they should stuck with the the best idea?
It is more of a Liz story than anything - delving into her backstory, her motivations and helping to make sense of her sudden departure in the TV series.
It was a good start, but felt crowded, the characters, ideas etc. The Brig feels almost redundant at times.
Good, but not as great as it could have been.
August 25, 2025
The seventh season of the classic series is notable for having a different tone to any other in the show's history. Here, we have a story set in that era (in the gap between seasons 7 and 8) that fully embraces that atmosphere. For one thing, like most of the TV serials, this is a 7-part story. Having said which, the individual episodes are around 25 minutes, closer to the TV format than the usual audio one, so it's no longer than most 6-part audios - around three hours.
Despite the length, it feels less padded than some of the originals, with the plot managing to move on rapidly from a Norfolk village to Cambridge to two different military bases. Compared with other audios, the shorter episodes keep things moving, even if they also bring with them reprises that are a little tiresome if you're listening to episodes back to back. (On the other hand, given the length of it, you're probably going to take a break at some point, and then they're actually useful, serving their original televised purpose). The cast is also unusually large, although this had the downside that I at least found it hard to distinguish some of the characters based on voice alone.
The story initially concerns an apparent time slippage at the Norfolk village, but soon turns into something much more, an espionage story about alien tech, secret military programs, and left-wing student politics. It's easy to imagine this as a '70s story, partly aided by the style of the incidental music, even without it throwing direct historical references our way as some earlier volumes in this series have done. It's positively trippy in places, thanks to some clever use of the alien device at the heart of the story, and the action scenes are short enough not to be a problem on audio. Liz is also strong, in a story that spends some time delving into her background.
A strong evocation of the era without doing a knock-off of any of its broadcast stories. 4.5 stars, due to some of the downsides mentioned above, but I'll round up.
Despite the length, it feels less padded than some of the originals, with the plot managing to move on rapidly from a Norfolk village to Cambridge to two different military bases. Compared with other audios, the shorter episodes keep things moving, even if they also bring with them reprises that are a little tiresome if you're listening to episodes back to back. (On the other hand, given the length of it, you're probably going to take a break at some point, and then they're actually useful, serving their original televised purpose). The cast is also unusually large, although this had the downside that I at least found it hard to distinguish some of the characters based on voice alone.
The story initially concerns an apparent time slippage at the Norfolk village, but soon turns into something much more, an espionage story about alien tech, secret military programs, and left-wing student politics. It's easy to imagine this as a '70s story, partly aided by the style of the incidental music, even without it throwing direct historical references our way as some earlier volumes in this series have done. It's positively trippy in places, thanks to some clever use of the alien device at the heart of the story, and the action scenes are short enough not to be a problem on audio. Liz is also strong, in a story that spends some time delving into her background.
A strong evocation of the era without doing a knock-off of any of its broadcast stories. 4.5 stars, due to some of the downsides mentioned above, but I'll round up.
January 13, 2024
The Third Doctor Adventures is a very hit-and-miss range with some of the boxsets being solid releases, whereas others are serviceable at best. However, I will admit their recent 6-7 parters have been quite a consistent success. Intelligence for War is a boxset upon being revealed I was very intrigued, especially since it would be a Liz-centric story. I love Season 7 and love Big Finish's contributions to that season so far.
When a nazi soldier appears in a small English village, The Doctor is immediately intrigued if perhaps someone is using time travel technology which would be great considering he might be able to use said technology to fix The Tardis. However, when it turns out alien technology from another world is being used, it seems that isn't the case. But there are more pressing concerns however, Liz Shaw has been arrested for treason and there's a conspiracy within the government going on against UNIT.
Eddie Robson has written a very well-paced 7-parter that is honestly a lot of fun and fits right at home with Season 7. The government conspiracy aspect of this story was the strongest element here and involving Liz Shaw at the heart of it is a brilliant choice, really delving into her character and Cambridge days. The cast was on fire in this and the story goes into some very interesting psychological scenes that test our characters to their limits.
Overall: A brilliant story that I actually feel is very underrated considering the other reviews I've read. A really solid tale. 9/10
When a nazi soldier appears in a small English village, The Doctor is immediately intrigued if perhaps someone is using time travel technology which would be great considering he might be able to use said technology to fix The Tardis. However, when it turns out alien technology from another world is being used, it seems that isn't the case. But there are more pressing concerns however, Liz Shaw has been arrested for treason and there's a conspiracy within the government going on against UNIT.
Eddie Robson has written a very well-paced 7-parter that is honestly a lot of fun and fits right at home with Season 7. The government conspiracy aspect of this story was the strongest element here and involving Liz Shaw at the heart of it is a brilliant choice, really delving into her character and Cambridge days. The cast was on fire in this and the story goes into some very interesting psychological scenes that test our characters to their limits.
Overall: A brilliant story that I actually feel is very underrated considering the other reviews I've read. A really solid tale. 9/10
October 16, 2023
Well....
The performances were great. All the actors are really growing into their roles and they are pretty close to their 70s counterparts.
The sound effects and music also are doing a great job emulating a 70s story.
Performance wise, my only gripe is the guy playing the Nazi- I have no idea what language he is supposed to be speaking, but it surely is not understandable German (I am German, I tried to understand). I know, Big Finish has a long history of atrocious accents that make your ears bleed, but they have also shown that they can hire native speaking actors instead of having a cast member phoning in the German lines.
Otherwise, as I said, performances are great.
However, the story loses steam in the middle and it just misses a sense of urgency.
I think one of the issues is the villain- they just do not come across as very threatening and from the get go it is hinted at that they can be pretty reasonable.
So we are left with a decent run-around where the only pressure is to be in time to reason with the villain before they do something catastrophic.
The idea of the monster / villain is a good one, but it reminded me of other sci-fi stories where a similar trope was used.
So in the end, we have a decent audio, with great performances, but which just misses the necessary "oomph" and excitement.
Which might just be due to emulating a long 70s story.
The performances were great. All the actors are really growing into their roles and they are pretty close to their 70s counterparts.
The sound effects and music also are doing a great job emulating a 70s story.
Performance wise, my only gripe is the guy playing the Nazi- I have no idea what language he is supposed to be speaking, but it surely is not understandable German (I am German, I tried to understand). I know, Big Finish has a long history of atrocious accents that make your ears bleed, but they have also shown that they can hire native speaking actors instead of having a cast member phoning in the German lines.
Otherwise, as I said, performances are great.
However, the story loses steam in the middle and it just misses a sense of urgency.
I think one of the issues is the villain- they just do not come across as very threatening and from the get go it is hinted at that they can be pretty reasonable.
So we are left with a decent run-around where the only pressure is to be in time to reason with the villain before they do something catastrophic.
The idea of the monster / villain is a good one, but it reminded me of other sci-fi stories where a similar trope was used.
So in the end, we have a decent audio, with great performances, but which just misses the necessary "oomph" and excitement.
Which might just be due to emulating a long 70s story.
December 1, 2024
A really strong story which perfectly fits Season 7. It's a perfect story for Liz Shaw, the plot gives her alot of focus and stuff to do. The plot itself is great and keeps you engaged for the 7 part 3 hour runtime with lots of twists and turns which feels authentic to the era e.g. humans being a threat such as in Ambassadors of Death
December 18, 2023
oh YEAHHHHHH. i just love this era.
a really interesting story with great performances.
so excited for the next 3rd doctor story :)
4/5
a really interesting story with great performances.
so excited for the next 3rd doctor story :)
4/5
September 3, 2024
I really like how Liz-centric this one is. Touches on university stuff for a bit. Great performances all around.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews