| THE MARIAN CONSPIRACY by Jacqueline Rayner |
| Story 5 Synopsis: Dr Evelyn Smythe's history lecture is interrupted by a stranger making bleeping noises. She abandons the lecture, and is not impressed with the stranger claims she is part of a time anomaly. She agrees to show him her family tree, but finds it disappearing. He decides to pop back to the 1550's, which may be the start of the anomaly. She persuades him to take her along. Whilst he heads off to court, she visits a tavern, where she mistakenly toasts Good Queen Bess - Mary is still on the throne. The Doctor makes an ally of Mary. Evelyn is spirited away by a group plotting to knock Mary off. She thinks she is well in, but when she hears that the Doctor has requested her, she rushes off. But having given her a gizmo to protect her from the anomaly, she leaves it behind. Luckily, one of the plotters brings it to her, as it contains pills which he will use to defame her as a traitor. But when this happens, the Doctor explains that the pills are a simple medicine. The grateful Queen arranges for the Doctor to marry her maid, Lady Sarah Whiteside. Evelyn is tickled to think the Doctor is her ancestor, but he reminds her that said ancestor was beheaded. The plotters are still at large. The Doctor and Evelyn are put in the Tower, where they deduce the plot will be to kill the Queen when she takes sacrament. But after they escape and use a barge to reach the place where the Queen is at Mass, they realise that the holy plotters would not disturb a holy rite. Then the Doctor realises that Sarah was wedded to the chief plotter, Reverend Thomas Smith. She was tasked with delivering the poison. Thomas refuses to recant, and is condemned to death. Sarah is pregnant, so the Queen sends her into house arrest with her sister Elizabeth. Her son will be John Whiteside Smith - Evelyn's true ancestor. Evelyn cons the Doctor into letting them rescue a couple of the other plotters, who didn't deserve Mary's wrath. The Doctor agrees to letting Evelyn stay with him a while longer. |
| Review:- Introducing Big Finish's 1st new companion, the mould-ignoring Doctor Evelyn Smythe, erstwhile history lecturer and cocoa-addict! The whole question of time paradoxes forms the crux of the story, as a crucial time in England's history is threatened in the name of religion, and Evelyn makes some faltering first steps as a time traveller. Her initial scepticism soon gives way to a gung-ho spirit of adventure, but her mistakes are small and elementary, which make her seem so warm and well-rounded. The blithering fondness for cocoa, and her casual blunder over her headache tablets are subtly presented, becoming more important when it turns out that poisoning is the jist of the big plot. It's easy to appreciate why she makes the mistake, and how dangerous it could have turned out to be. She is also lucky when her initial error in praising Elizabeth turns out to be politically unsound. It tips her straight into the arms of the plotters, where she blithely feels safe, despite it not being the case. January 1555 might not be the best-known date in history books, but the setting combined with her history background adds depth to an otherwise simple tale. It is somewhat in keeping that the Doctor should be able to charm the monarch, even one with as poor a reputation as Queen Mary. Her religious devotion is as much as part of her make-up as her delusions over her pregnancy, and this latter point makes her more vulnerable than might otherwise have seemed the case. The double dealing Reverend Thomas and sneaky French ambassador de Noailles add a little contemporary colour, with their differences of approach leading them to conflict rather than unity. Given their bumbling over the pills, it's almost a wonder they make poisoning their actual plan, although perhaps it is the shame of their failure that drives them harder to succeed. Lady Sarah's mysterious suitor is the other mystery, which is foreshadowed during her talk to the Doctor about marrying men of religion, and the fact that Thomas is never referred to by surname keeps his identity secret until it becomes necessary to know. Though whether the Doctor's sudden intuition that Sarah is pregnant is shrewd or silly plotting is another matter. The rather sloppy conclusion, where Evelyn cons the Doctor into rescuing her friends from the Tower of London is rather insulting to the intelligence, which is a shame after such trouble has been gone to, to make Evelyn such an interesting, rounded companion. Her predicament drives both the first 2 cliffhangers, as well as the subplot of the time paradox. Her love for cocoa and her legendary chocolate cake are a more welcome quirk than some I could mention, too. So, it's a harmless little tale (unless you believe Queen Mary is irredeemable, obviously), that shows the possibilities for historical stories anew, and presents the all-new Doctor Smythe. And for that, it deserves a fair hearing. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |