Continuing with the 6^th Doctor and Peri’s adventures that were never meant to be, the third story in the Lost Stories series comes with nowhere near the same level of infamy that the previous two garnered. Written by Brian and Paul Finch, Leviathan was originally intended as a story for season 22 and features The Doctor and Peri as they come across a strange medieval village where its residents are besieged by a mythical hunter.  

No one lives to old age in the village. When their Time is come, they are taken and never seen again. That is The Way. And, should anyone try to break with the established order of things, then the fury of Herne the Hunter is unleashed…

When the TARDIS materializes near a castle in this medieval society, the Doctor and Peri befriend Gurth, a terrified youth who is attempting to flee his fate. And Herne is closing in…

Why does the local baron impose the culling? What is the secret of Zeron? And who are the Sentinels of the New Dawn? The answers lie within a cave…

Big Finish Synopsis

Following on from the disappointments of The Nightmare Fair and Mission to Magnus, the Lost Stories’ third entry is a much-needed breath of fresh air.

Leviathan starts its journey strong with an easy-to-grasp yet intriguing mystery for its first part. Landing the TARDIS in what seems like medieval Earth, The Doctor and Peri quickly find the place filled with anachronisms. There are strange murals adorning every house, plenty of white bread on the table, and most blinding of all, a masked hunter and a set of androids are stalking the village’s young with laser crossbows – so where the hell are they?

While these breadcrumbs are plentiful, the writers have done well to steer clear of the pitfall of having them point to one conclusion or another. These clues give just enough to successfully keep your engagement high without detracting from the intended reveal during the story’s cliffhanger.

Bolstering this story’s mystery is a strong performance from its cast, and while everyone has their moments, it’s Baker’s performance as Six that is a particular highlight. Less arrogant and more charismatic, his version of the Doctor is in fine form as he makes inroads with everyone from villagers to lords and even AI supercomputers to solve the mystery.  

As the adventure progresses into its second half, however, the story struggles somewhat to keep the inertia created by its mysterious beginnings. After revealing that the medieval society visited by The Doctor and Peri is artificial and that they are actually on a spacecraft, the plot never quite manages to overcome the hole that the lack of mystery creates.

Instead, part two focuses on an uprising and the introduction of a team of ruthless scrap salvagers. While neither is necessarily bad, both plots fail to capture the imagination quite in the same way as their mystery counterpart, with the latter often feeling superfluous despite its instrumental use in how The Doctor saves the day.   

However, Leviathan’s second part isn’t all doom and gloom. The writers’ sense of worldbuilding carries over into the story’s last hour with a vivid imagining of the dangers posed to Earth in the near future. In this universe, these dangers are posed by a secret society known as The Sentinels of a New Dawn. As the architects behind the spacecraft project, they were a group powerful enough to create biomechanical assassins before the people of Earth forced them towards greener interplanetary pastures.