N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

Doctor Who — The Ultimate Adventure is my last so-called sidestep of the show’s classic run.

“We’ve got a long way to go, a lot to do and very little time to finish it all.”

The Doctor, Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure: Act Two

These in-the-main non-televisual sojourns to the cinema, theatre or the armchair next to the radio or record player have been a mixed bag of quality — the Big Finish adaptations of the theatre trips probably being my favourites. Of these, The Ultimate Adventure is perhaps the weakest of the three, possibly because it seems the least like the era in which it was produced.

David Whitaker and Terry Nation had written The Curse of the Daleks in the 60’s (not long after Whitaker had left the role of Story Editor for the television), Terrance Dicks had written Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday whilst still script editor for the show and although it seems John Nathan-Turner wanted Script Editor Andrew Cartmel involved, eventually the job of writing duties for The Ultimate Adventure fell to Dicks once again. It was performed through the Spring and Summer of 1989 with first Jon Pertwee in the role and Colin Baker taking over for the second half of the run, and, with different Doctors and creators at the helm, feels a long way from the mischievous, manipulative stories we had in season twenty-five.

In audio form, it’s still mostly good fun though, with the Daleks and Cybermen suitably histrionic, the theme tune coming across as very much like 80’s prog rock and Colin Baker doing his usual sterling job as the Doctor (I did like his ‘reverse the linearity of the proton flow’ line), but perhaps (ahem) ultimately, it’s best enjoyed in the way Terrance Dicks described it — as “all a bit of a pantomime”.