The Architects of History, by Steve Lyons (Big Finish Audio)

Elizabeth Klein comes close to her goal of creating an eternal Reich, but her work is interrupted by the invasion of the Selachians.

*Spoiler Alert!*

For some reason, I was convinced the title of this was The Architects of Infinity (even after listening to it). I think that sounds better than The Architects of History, but I imagine there was bound to already be a science fiction story called The Architects of Infinity.

Author Steve Lyons (who gave us the magnificent NA Conundrum) states "I'm not keen on alternate timeline stories because there's always a reset switch looming at the end of them, but perhaps, just perhaps, there was a way..." Unfortunately, there was not and we end up getting a big reset switch at the end. I suppose given this trilogy began with a survivor of a lost timeline, the trilogy was bound to end up with a mess of alternate timelines at the climax.

As much as I have enjoyed the Klein trilogy, I am not at all happy with the notion that history can be mucked about with so easily in the Whoniverse. I know things have moved on since Season 1 and it is undeniable that history can sometime be altered, but I think there are good reasons for thinking that history in Doctor Who is at least normally immutable. Nevertheless, it's been fun and it has been great to enjoy Tracey Child's glorious performance as Elizabeth Klein.

I think it's fair to say that The Architects of History is the weakest of the Klein trilogy. We get no explanation as to how the Doctor passed from the end of Survival of the Fittest to his present circumstances as a prisoner of Klein in this story. The ending is also utterly baffling. The Doctor persuades Klein to execute herself by removing herself from the timeline. The Doctor assumes that this will allow time to unravel itself. This makes no sense. Surely it would unwrite Klein's part in Colditz and thus allow the timeline with the Nazi victory in the Second World War to prevail? Even more baffling, Klein is not really removed from the timestream and we get a nice un-Nazi Klein at the end who is working for UNIT.

Despite the radical nature of this story, it relies on that old Doctor Who format of the 'base under siege.' In this case, the alien monster invading the moonbase are the Selachians, a shark-like race introduced in the BBC novels. The Selachians are more interesting than other monsters on a physical level (they are fish wearing water-filled armour), but their behaviour is the same as Daleks, Sontarans, Kraals and other assorted Returning Monsters.

The Doctor in this story is the dark Doctor of the New Adventures who manipulates everybody and does some rather questionable stuff. This is the Doctor I love, but if you hate the New Adventures, it is safe to say that you will hate this story. The grim and downbeat climax is certainly very NAish.

Leonora Crichlow puts in a great performance as a companion of the Doctor in an alternate timeline who is lost with this one. There is a real tragedy in that not only is her coming to exist jeopardised with the termination of this timeline, but she may exist but never meet the Doctor and experience the things he has shown her. However, her romance with a moonbase crew member is a bit irritating.

The musical score is dramatic and very strong. It is included as a music track at the end (I like it when Big Finish audios do that). The CD insert also features some great artwork. It's nice when Big Finish go to the trouble of making a really good package.

It would be nice to see more of Klein. It's been so wonderful to have an attractive, elegant and mature companion in the TARDIS. I know we have an older companion in Evelyn Smythe, but Klein is a lot more glamorous. There is a gap between A Thousand Tiny Wings and Survival of the Fittest, so future audios or novels could explore Klein's travels with the Doctor. Alternatively, we could have some adventures with the un-Nazi Klein who works for UNIT, though she is probably a less interesting character.

I want to thank Big Finish for the fun I have had with the Klein trilogy. It was a really dynamic and imaginative story arc. Of the three dramas, the first one, A Thousand Tiny Wings was the best, but the other two are well worth buying.

Survival of the Fittest, by Jonathan Clements (Big Finish Audio)

The Seventh Doctor shows Klein the universe, but can they stay friends?

* Spoiler Alert!*

This is the second part of the Klein trilogy, which sees the Seventh Doctor taking the unusual companion, Elizabeth Klein on a voyage to discover the universe. Klein is a Nazi scientist from an alternate timeline in which the Nazis won the war. This timeline was wiped out by the Doctor, leaving Klein stranded in real history.

I personally don't care for Doctor Who dealing with history being altered. I think it goes against the initial premise of Doctor Who that history cannot be altered, not one line. I know that later stories challenged that assumption and that Big Finish delight in alternate timeline stories, but I don't think it is territory that is natural for Doctor Who. Nevertheless, I really like the Klein trilogy, despite my dislike of time alteration stories. It is fascinating to see the Doctor taking on a companion who holds to a very different philosophy. Plus, it is great to see the Doctor hanging out with a sophisticated mature woman, as opposed to endless teenage and twenty-something girls. I find it easier to see the Doctor debating ideology with an intelligent lady like Klein than falling head over heels for a young girl as shallow as Rose. I might even go so far as to say that Klein is my favorite Seventh Doctor companion; I certainly prefer her to Bernice Summerfield.

This drama is preceded by Klein's Story a bonus episode-long tale, in which Klein narrates the circumstances in which she travelled back in time to the Second World War. This story features Paul McGann ("dark and handsome in a rather Gothic way"- Klein). This is pretty good. Of course, those who have listened to Colditz will know the basic story of this, but Klein's Story adds a little flesh to it. We find out that the regenerated Doctor in the alternate timeline had been aiding the victims of Nazi oppression. It is interesting that the Eighth Doctor chooses to help the oppressed even in a timeline that he is working to eradicate. It seems hard to imagine the Seventh Doctor being so distracted from his purpose.

After Klein tells her story, she is unable to understand who the mysterious 'Schimdt with his gothic good looks really was. The Doctor then makes the mistake of explaining that this is his regenerated self manipulating her within the lost timeline. Klein is horrified to realise she has been manipulated by the Doctor and determines to get even at the game. Here we come back to that old chestnut of the early Virgin New Adventures; the dark side of the Doctor. I imagine those listening who don't like the NAs must have groaned. Ace came to hate the Doctor when she realised that he was taking advantage of her with his constant Machiavellian games. Klein also comes to realise that she has been taken for a ride by the Doctor and comes to hate him.

At the start of the story, the Doctor has already shown Klein a number of worlds. This brief continuity gap opens the possibility of other audio dramas or novels featuring the companion team of the Seventh Doctor and Klein. Am I being too optimistic? Well, they can count on me to buy them. I love Klein.

The insectoid Vrill are wonderfully conceived. Jonathan Clements has thought really hard about just how sentient insects might think. Remarkably, we learn that the TARDIS gives the Doctor (and every other character, including the human adventurers on the planet) the ability to communicate with a species that use scent as a language. As much as I like the New Adventures, I am not convinced by the view taken (and later adopted by RT Davies for the BBC Wales series) that it is the TARDIS that enables communication between the crew and those from other cultures and species. The Doctor's comment about language in Masque of Mandragora suggests that it is a personal ability that he posesses as a Time Lord and grants to his companions. Given that the TARDIS crew are often separated from the TARDIS, sometimes by time and space, it makes sense that this linguistic ability is independent of it. It may be that the grant of this Time Lord gift is a permanent bestowal; Vicki did not seem worried that she would not be able to communicate with her new husband Troilus.

The human adventurers in this story are a great bunch and well played. I like the way Klein adopts a posture of superiority towards them. Despite being a Nazi, Klein oddly comes to share the Doctor's stance of opposition towards the humans' exploitation and abuse of the native Vrill. It seems that her experiences are affecting her values.

I find it unconvicing that at the climax, the Doctor ends up losing his key. I know even the Doctor is fallible, but you would think with a Nazi who is desperate to steal the TARDIS and get even on the team, he would be a bit more careful. After all, it's not like he has not been protecting that key from evil villains, renegade Time Lords, Daleks and Cybermen for hundreds of years. Needless to say, we fans know that in some stories, only the Doctor can use the TARDIS key.

The musical score is really excellent. This is a great second part to the Klein trilogy and if one has listened to Colditz and A Thousand Tiny Wings, this is definitely worth getting hold of.

A Thousand Tiny Wings, by Andy Lane (Big Finish Audio)

During the height of the Mau-Mau rebellion in British-ruled Kenya, the Seventh Doctor meets an old adversary who has no place in space or time.

Given that the fate of Elizabeth Klein was left uncertain at the end of Colditz, it was fairly likely that she would return as a villain. But who would have guessed that Big Finish would bring her back as a companion? The Klein trilogy is an absolutely brilliant idea, perhaps one of the best that Big Finish have come up with.

To set the scene, Elizabeth Klein (played by Tracey Childs) was a Nazi scientist from an alternate timeline in which the Third Reich won the war. This timeline was erased by the Seventh Doctor in the events of Colditz. Klein was left stranded in our timeline, unwilling to accept that 'our' version of history was correct (presumably two Elizabeth Kleins exist at the time of this story; the alternate Klein and the real one, as Klein was born before the war. Thankfully they do not meet). At the start of this story, Klein is trapped with a group of British women in a remote house in Kenya, fearful of Mau-Mau rebels. Add the Doctor to this situation, plus a series of horrific killings.

A Thousand Tiny Wings is very much in the vein of traditional Doctor Who and is effectively a 'base under siege' story. The incredibly high standard of acting helps to reinforce a real sense of claustrophobia, as a small group of strong characters have to deal with a terrifying situation. The alien menace they face is a very interesting and unusual one (no spoilers here). Unsurprisingly, given this is by Andy Lane, it has very much a Virgin New Adventure feel. The Thing From Another World is a definite influence in terms of the format, but the tropical setting helps to give it some originality. The music score is very effective in setting the mood.

The Doctor and the fascist Klein have a great chemistry together and spend a lot of time arguing about ideology and philosophy, though they make a very effective team. Klein's insight of seeing history in her timeline plays a key part in helping the Doctor to deal with the alien menace. In the end, the Doctor invites Klein to come aboard the TARDIS to 'expand her horizons,' and invitation she accepts. The idea of making Klein a companion is brilliant, not just because her way of thinking clashes so much with the Doctor's, but also because she is an older companion (she must be in her forties following on from her displacement in Colditz). It does get tedious that the Doctor so often takes young people as companions. It's nice to have an attractive, elegant mature woman on board the TARDIS.

The guest part of Sylvia O'Donnell, played by Anne Bell offers some friendly right-wing camaderie for Klein. The British upper-class woman turns out to be a bigger racist than Klein. Personally, I thought it was unnecessary for O'Donnell to have been played as such a clear Nazi sympathizer (were there that many in 1950s British Kenya?). Would it not have been enough for her just to be a racist colonial? My favorite line was Klein's comment that in the event of a nuclear holocaust, the BBC World Service would still be playing light classics to an audience of mutated cockroaches!

I also love the fact that the Seventh Doctor is wearing his New Adventures safari suit. I absolutely hated the tweed suit and waistcoat combination that he wore in the TV Movie. It simply did not suit his character. That the Seventh Doctor is wearing his safari suit indicates that this story is set sometime in the New Adventures continuity during the absence of both Ace and Bernice.

This is a truly great Dr. Who drama that is well worth ordering.