Doctor Who: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster

Big Finish: Monthly Range #143

by Jonathan Morris, Nicholas Briggs (Director), Maggie Stables (Narrator)

Sent down south to assist the Metropolitan Police in their efforts to investigate the gangland kingpin known only as 'the Doctor', Detective-Inspector Patricia Menzies finds herself up to her neck in laser-armed robot mosquitoes, gun-running criminal overlords, vanishing Tube trains... and not one, but two Doctors.

Meanwhile the real Doctor, and his academic assistant Professor Evelyn Smythe, have become ensnared in the machinations of an old acquaintance – time-travelling Victorian guttersnipe Thomas Brewster. But what's Brewster's connection to the rapacious robot Terravores? And can anyone contain the gathering swarm?

Genres: Doctor Who, Audiobook, Science Fiction, Time Travel

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Jonathan Morris is one of the most prolific and popular writers of Doctor Who books, including the highly-regarded novels 'Festival of Death' and 'Touched by an Angel' and the recent guide to monsters, 'The Monster Vault'. He has also written numerous comic strips, most of which were collected in 'The Child of Time', and audios for BBC Audio and Big Finish, including the highly-regarded comedies 'Max Warp' and 'The Auntie Matter', as well as the adaptation of Russell T Davies’ 'Damaged Goods'.

Recently he has started his own audio production company, Average Romp. Releases include a full-cast adaptation of Charles Dickens' The Chimes', an original play, 'When Michael Met Benny', and three episodes of a SF sitcom, 'Dick Dixon in the 21st Century'.

For details visit www.averageromp.com

He also originated his own series, Vienna and script-edited the Nigel Planer series 'Jeremiah Bourne in Time'. He’s also written documentaries and for TV sketch shows.

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally, Thomas Brewster is listed in the cast credits AND he actually appears in the story. Color me shocked! As for the story itself? Well, there it fairly straightforward with some attempts at making things more interesting by inserting meeting a character out of sequence and with people who are pretending to be the Doctor. Unfortunately, it just feels crowded and falsely complicated to try and take your attention off the lack of an interesting or compelling plot. So entertaining but nothing special, unless you count the presence of Thomas Brewster.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is... fine. The issue is that it's doing way too much, it's got the introduction of the character Flip and her fiance, the reintroduction of Thomas Brewster, a re-return of DI Patricia Menzies with some Terravores, Evelyn Smythe and the Doctor.

The main plot is rather bland. Evelyn is fun in this until she gets possessed. The whole plot about the Doctor meeting DI Menzies after she's met a future version of him is cool but with everything else there are too many moving parts. If this story was to do anything, I think the introduction of a later companion Flip Jackson should have been saved for later.

[Finlay O'Riordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so things get really timey wimey here, but in a good way. DI Menzies returns from "The Condemned" but this is an earlier point in the Doctor's timeline so he doesn't recognise her (although, let's just say, he's not stupid) and Brewster returns following two adventures with Six's previous incarnation.

I think this story works really well. A good mix of past characters, great artwork and a familiar setting which is easy to envision.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

We associate The Doctor meeting people out of order with River Song and NuWho, but really it was a Sixth Doctor thing before that. So it’s kind of funny having the Sixth Doctor experience that here. The comment about how it would be odd for The Doctor to regenerate into a woman didn’t age well, though.

[Sara Habein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first audio adventure I've heard with Evelyn Smyth, but unfortunately she was possessed by an alien most of the time, ha. But I'll be glad to hear more in other adventures. This one was pretty good nonetheless.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never liked the Sixth Doctor on TV but on audio and with Evelyn he's much better

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have kind of mixed feelings about Thomas Brewster - I liked the character when they initially introduced him, but I've never thought that Big Finish ever made it fully plausible that a Victorian orphan, even an admittedly bright one like Brewster, would have the nearly effortless ability to master future technologies and societies that Brewster does. And somehow I think that prevents me taking as much pleasure in Brewster's antics as I should. Or maybe it's the way Brewster is always trying to justify himself as having noble ends. I think I might actually like him better if he were a more straightforwardly self-interested liar and thief.

(At the same time, I think I remember complaining when I reviewed what was ostensibly Brewster's final story that I thought there was more potential in the character and that it was a shame that Big Finish hadn't kept him on for more stories. I don't think I'm being inconsistent here - I do think there's potential in the character. It's just not being developed in the way I might prefer.)

On the other hand, I was delighted to discover that this audio features the return of D.I. Patricia Menzies, who is one of my favorite recurring not-quite-companion characters ever.

Of course, with Evelyn Smythe also appearing, it makes for kind of a crowded companion line-up. Brewster actually works well here, though. The 6th Doctor, Evelyn, and Menzies are all much less inclined to cut him any slack than the 5th Doctor and Nyssa were.

The story is pretty much a fun romp, starting with the Doctor and Evelyn being chased in a speedboat down the Thames by a giant robot insect, and proceeding to London tube commuters fighting more giant robot insects on an alien planet and assorted mistaken identity hijinks in which nearly everyone seems to get a turn at pretending to be the Doctor. Not a classic, but not the dull exercise of tying up continuity loose ends on Thomas Brewster that I had initially been anticipating.

[Jamie Revell · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better recurring guest characters from Big Finish's line-up (DI Menzies) meets one of the less successful ones (Thomas Brewster) in this tale of robot mosquitoes, alien jungles, and London criminals. In fairness, Brewster here is a lot better than in most of his other appearances, and it's probably relevant that the only previous two instances that worked were the ones written by Morris. Indeed, there's a clear link with the character's debut in The Haunting of Thomas Brewster, giving him a sense of background, rather than merely being annoying.

There are also some really great scenes in here, from the action set piece on the Thames to the transportation of a tube train to the afore-mentioned alien world (one should note, though, that this was likely written after the broadcast of the TV episode Planet of the Dead, which does something similar with a bus - although Morris may, of course, have come up with the idea independently at an earlier date). The plot is also a good one, with quite a few strands going on, and making full use of the 2-hour running time.

There's some humour to be had, with various people trying to impersonate the Doctor, and some digs at his usual choice of attire. David Troughton does a great job as a gangland boss, and even the minor characters of Flip and Jared come across well. Overall, it's perhaps not a quite a classic, but it's certainly very good, and I might have rated it higher, had it not been for what I listened to immediately afterwards...

But, as it is, 4.5 rounded down to 4.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

My expectations were low of this month's Big Finish main sequence release, The Crimes of Thomas Brewster, mainly because I was never impressed by the eponymous character, played by soap heart-throb John Pickard in three Fifth Doctor stories in 2008 and then as one of the Three Companions whose story was released episodically by Big Finish in 2009-10. But actually it was not bad at all: there wasn't too much Brewster in it, in any case Pickard seems to have raised his game significantly, and the Sixth Doctor / Evelyn Smythe interaction is hugely lifted by the reintroduction of Anna Hope as Mancunian police detective Patricia Menzies, after her appearance in two 2008 Big Finish plays also with Colin Baker but set later in the Sixth Doctor's continuity; and David Troughton turns up as a wonderfully gravel-voiced East End crime boss. The story is basically a standard alien invasion of contemporary London, with the point being to get Brewster back in the regular cast for the next two stories, but there is some quite clever stuff with working out what people actually know about the Doctor, and who he is. And the cast seem well up for it (Maggie Stables gets to be the voice of an alien intelligence as well as her usual inimitable Evelyn). Reasonably accessible for non-fans, given that the three recurring characters other than the Doctor are from different places in Big Finish continuity and so need the background helpfully explained to them.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one on the other hand I thoroughly enjoyed! SO happy that DI Menzes was back. She was just as fantastic, if a little less dark, than she had been in her other adventure. Evelyn was brilliant as always and it was wonderful to here Maggie Stables as the evil alien as well. It was great to see how Flip was introduced (and she was much better than I remembered). On many levels introducing so many past and future characters this shouldn't have worked but it did. I think perhaps because everyone was established there was a much greater sense of character than you can get in some of the audio dramas. Likewise it was a good tight story that started in with a great scene of action and wonderful banter with the Doctor and progressed in an interesting and very unexpected way. I accidentally listened to these out of order and listened to the one following this first. But that was fine. Greatly enjoyed this and would highly recommend it as a wonderful Evelyn story.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

In modern-day London, Detective Inspector Patricia Menzies is investigating a strange new mob boss known as the Doctor. Meanwhile, the real Doctor is being chased by giant robot mosquitoes and Evelyn Smythe is taking the tube to an alien world.

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doctor and Evelyn show up on earth and are attacked by robot misquotes that are looking for another Doctor. AKA really Thomas Brewster. What will he do next.

[Michael Holloway · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little adventure, but the numerous cases of faking identities and the sidelining of a main character makes this story drag on more than it should.