To start off the new year, and before Big Finish’s monthly releases fill up my schedule, I wanted to right a wrong by listening to a release that I’d overlooked several months ago.

Bad Terms is the latest Sixth Doctor Adventures boxset that sees his continued adventures with companion Peri post-TOATL (Trial of a Time Lord), with 2 three-part stories. Saoirse of the Seven Seas, written by Nina Millns, is the first of these adventures, promising a story full of swashbuckling heroism, Irish justice, and ghost ships.

Saoirse O’Grady, Queen of the Irish Sea, teams up with the brave Captain Peri (and her lowly second-in-command, the Doctor) to fight for justice for her people and her homeland. But her English foe, Sir Kenneth Rushworth, doesn’t just have the law on his side – he has allies not of this Earth. Allies who have a very particular interest in Saoirse…

Big Finish Synopsis

For those familiar with the 6^th Doctor’s appearances on Big Finish, they’ll know that his incarnation is no stranger to pirate-themed escapades. One of his most beloved stories on audio, after all, Doctor Who and the Pirates, is an era-defining spectacle that is still talked about today. So, when a new adventure hoisted beneath a Jolly Roger is announced, especially for this Doctor, there is a heavy burden and expectation placed on it (perhaps unfairly) from the outset.

Saoirse of the Seven Seas does little to alleviate these burdens with its standard approach to Doctor Who storytelling. We have The Doctor entering and meeting a historical figure, a cartoonish and villainous rival hanging around, and aliens causing untold havoc for reasons unknown. Although there’s nothing wrong with writing within a set formula, it does end up opening the story to stronger critiques when it doesn’t go quite right. Before getting into this, however, I would like to highlight Millns’ strong writing on the struggles of the Irish against British rule. Throughout the story, these issues are always at the forefront and act as a personal driving force for Saoirse. 

The key to understanding these storytelling issues lies in the choice of dialogue and character dynamics. From the outset, when The Doctor and Peri enter the scene, it is clear that things aren’t quite clicking. The usual jabs and smarmy comments the pair often share together are either absent or don’t land as intended. As a result, the comedic undercurrent that has characterised all eras of the show falls flat, and the story loses important engagement. The lack of interesting character dynamics can also be felt in its side cast, too. Despite its potentially interesting roster of Irish pirates, strong female characters and an alien baby subplot, the line upon line of forgettable script creates a barrier that distances listeners from the intended emotional weight and character motivations.

These weak character dynamics and forgettable motivations ultimately snowball to create the story’s biggest problem, its twist climax. While the stage for a pirate giving birth to an alien Zorathon child is as bonkers as can be expected from this show, it hinges on the believability of a ruthless alien commander staying on a backwater planet for the sake of his child and the love he has for Saoirse, his one-night stand. The plot device doesn’t work because the story’s weak character dynamics causes the two to have little chemistry together.