After years as a travelling companion to the Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon was returned to his own world and his own time, his memories of his travels erased by the Time Lords - until now. A visitor from beyond the stars needs to explore Jamie’s past, and discover what went wrong. What happened in the year 1688, when the TARDIS landed in London, and the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe were welcomed into the court of King James II of England (James VII of Scotland)? It was the year of the Glorious Revolution, and the birth of a whole new history…

Confusingly, the back cover of this CD claims that this chronicle takes place between The Space Pirates and The War Games, when actually the events occur between The Seeds of Death and The Space Pirates (as is correctly stated on the product page for this release on Big Finish’s website). At the start of the story, the Doctor’s companions complain about the fact that they are still on Earth and that it is still raining, a reference to The Seeds of Death.

However, The Glorious Revolution harks back to an earlier point in Jamie’s (Frazer Hines) travels with the Doctor. For the first time, the TARDIS brings the Scotsman to a point in history that is, to him, the past. Moreover, it’s a point in history that has a direct bearing upon the subsequent Jacobite Rebellions, in the second of which Jamie was fighting when the Doctor met him in The Highlanders. Though the so-called Glorious Revolution, in which James II was overthrown by William of Orange, was an almost bloodless coup so far as England was concerned, it ultimately led to many Scottish lives being lost - and Jamie wants to change that. Here we see a return to the “action hero” Jamie of Seasons 4 and 5, in particular the passionate and decidedly aggressive character we encountered in The Highlanders, rather than the figure of fun he became in Season 6 when in the company of the futuristic and more educated Zoe.

As was the case with The Drowned World, the cliffhanger ending to Part One of this two-part story affects both the flashback narrative and the frame story - and it involves something of a nod to the Back to the Future trilogy.

Events take a more light-hearted turn early in Part Two, when the Doctor and Jamie have to disguise themselves as washerwomen (recalling the Doctor’s penchant for disguise in The Highlanders). Zoe doesn’t get much of a look-in, but once again Hines demonstrates his uncanny ability to mimic the vocal qualities of Troughton’s Doctor, complete with his characteristic (ahem) little coughs.

Glorious and revolutionary.

9

Richard McGinlay