1940, and at the University of St Andrews, the Merfolk are meeting on a nearby beach. To clarify, the Merfolk are a university society that discuss all manner of art and literature and the few of them remaining in the summer break are discussing the classic crime book The Casebook of Orion Hood by Sarah Joan Watson.

When one of the group, Athena, reveals that they once witnessed a murder, each member of the group receives a message from her to meet her at the nearby castle. Athena is seen to enter the gatehouse but never makes it into the courtyard. But after the courtyard is searched and determined to be empty, her body appears, strangled. Where did she disappear to, and how did the murderer appear and disappear at will?

Luckily the inspiration for Dr Orion Hood is on the scene – a certain time traveller known as the Doctor…

Something a little different today, an audio drama from Big Finish Productions that just also happens to be a classic-style murder mystery. I’ve composed several posts in praise of Big Finish over the past couple of years but never got the tone right and never posted them. Their full-cast audio plays, mostly centred around the good Doctor and friends, have been my accompaniment for my many at-times difficult journeys to the ancestral seat in my father’s final months and thereafter, and they did wonders, keeping me distracted and entertained constantly in those tricky days. I cannot begin to thank everyone involved, the writers, the actors, the sound designers…

One writer in particular who always delivers top quality is Tim Foley, someone who always tries to do something a little different with the format, and this is a prime example. What better than taking the fifth Doctor and his companions and stripping away all of the sci-fi trappings and dropping them into the middle of a traditional murder mystery? The TV series did an OK job with the story Black Orchid, but this is something else entirely.

Let’s take a look at the mystery. It displays its inspiration clearly from the off, shown when Tegan spots the mystery section in a bookshop due to the green and white paperbacks. “Carr, Chesterton, Christie… all the classics” she announces. Well, she missed Brian Flynn, but I’ll let her off. There follows a lovingly constructed puzzle with a smallish set of characters that still contained, for me at least, a surprising denouement and a clever locked room. One clue was a tad visual, but I’ll let the author off as there is a beautiful double meaning to it that will have the listener looking the wrong way.

And the performances? Big Finish uses the original cast where possible, so Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Matthew Waterhouse give it their all as the Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa and Adric. The script gives everyone something to do, and more praise to Tim Foley for keeping Adric as he was on the television – i.e. a bit annoying – but still giving him a great storyline that I found really moving. In addition, I must say that every exchange between the Doctor and Tegan is just wonderful – persuading Janet Fielding to return to the role is probably the best thing Big Finish have ever done.

This could have been written for me – a traditional mystery starring my TARDIS team, from the year that I really got into Doctor Who. I listened to this on my drive home today – apparently it took two hours, likely it normally does. But the time just flew by…

The Merfolk Murders is part of the CD/download box-set The Dream Team available from Big Finish, out now.