Doctor Who: The Marian Conspiracy Review

Released in March 2000, The Marian Conspiracy was the 6th Doctor Who audio drama to be released by Big Finish. It stars Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Maggie Stables as companion Evelyn Smythe. It is written by Jacqueline Rayner and directed by Gary Russell.

Big Finish's synopsis:

"Tracking a nexus point in time, the Doctor meets Dr Evelyn Smythe, a history lecturer whose own history seems to be rapidly vanishing.

The Doctor must travel back to Tudor times to stabilise the nexus and save Evelyn's life. But there he meets the Queen of England and must use all his skills of diplomacy to avoid ending up on the headman's block..."

After listening to the amazing Jubilee, I thought I should listen to some more Evelyn stories, and where better to start than her first adventure? More on Evelyn in a minute, for now I'm going to say that this story is absolutely fantastic. No aliens, just a pure historical story - something that has been very rare since the Hartnell era.

I thought Evelyn seemed like a brilliant companion in Jubilee and it turns out she's amazing from the second she first speaks! I really like the fact that she's a historian as history is one of my favourite subjects. Maggie Stables is an amazing actor, and it's a huge shame that she hasn't been in any recent audios due to her poor health - I really hope she gets well soon. A simply amazing character!

As for the acting, everyone is good but this is not The Doctor's story. This is Evelyn's story. Maggie Stables does a better job than anyone else involved, including Colin Baker (although he too does an amazing job!). Other actors involved are Sean Jackson (George Crow), Gary Russell (John Wilson), Jez Fielder (William Leaf), Jo Castleton (Lady Sarah), Anah Ruddin (The Queen), Nicholas Pegg (Reverend Thomas), Barnaby Edwards (Francois De Noailles) & Alistair Lock (Royal Guard). I can't fault the cast at all. Every single person in it does an amazing job and I'd love to see this entire cast in another audio!

The setting of London in 1555 is captured exceptionally well and the music is great too. The Marian Conspiracy features some of the production team's best work, even as of 2013.

My favourite character in this story other than the main two is Francois De Noailles. Barnaby Edwards plays him extremely well and, honestly, I wouldn't have expected him to be part of a plot to kill Queen Mary. (Highlight that to see it, but please note it's quite a big spoiler).

My favourite line is "What would you say if I were to tell you that I once destroyed an entire race, that I have led friends to their deaths and caused numerous wars, that my intervention has led to peaceful people taking up arms and good people having their faith or reason destroyed? Because I failed to act, millions upon millions of people have been enslaved or killed. What if I had done all of those things but had always, always believed I was doing the right thing?" from The Doctor. As I said before, it's basically Evelyn's story but it does have some very memorable moments for the Sixth Doctor such as this one.

Absolutely excellent story and that's all I have to say. I'd definitely recommend it as your first Doctor Who audio drama, it's a great re-introduction to the Sixth Doctor and I can't recommend it more. I feel I've been giving too many near-perfect & perfect ratings recently, but this one definitely deserves it. I'll review some more average (aswell as some extremely bad) audios soon.

Considering it's just the sixth Doctor Who release from Big Finish, The Marian Conspiracy is a masterpiece!

Overall Rating: 10/10

You can buy The Marian Conspiracy for £2.99 download or £5.00 CD here.