Doctor Who review: Tartarus is a brilliant crossover with Cicero

The Fifth Doctor meets one of his heroes in Tartarus – a story that acts as a crossover between Doctor Who and historical audio drama Cicero!

In the same month that we got a celebrity historical with Harry Houdini’s War – on the same day, in fact – we got another one with the new Fifth Doctor audio Tartarus. This one is a little bit different from your usual celebrity historical story in Doctor Who, however. Because it actually crosses over into another series entirely – Cicero, a purely historical series based on the life of the titular and extraordinary individual.

Crossing Doctor Who with a series that features no sci-fi elements whatsoever is a bold move, and honestly, I can’t see the BBC ever doing the same with the TV series. But risky moves like this are what Big Finish do, and I have to say that it’s worked brilliantly.

What really helps is how people who’ve worked on both series have also worked on Tartarus. For example, Samuel Barnett returns to his previous leading role of Cicero, while Scott Handcock produces and directs on this story, just as he does on Cicero and countless other series for Big Finish.

But perhaps the most significant contribution to this release is from David Llewellyn, who’s not only written many Doctor Who stories but the entire series of Cicero so far. So he knows how to create a strong balance between honoring the character and the world depicted in that historical series, while still telling a great Doctor Who story.

Samuel Barnett resumes his leading role of Cicero to meet Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor in Tartarus.

(Photo: The team of Big Finish’s Doctor Who: Tartarus. Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions.)

An excellent balance

It’s a balance that’s brilliantly and subtly handled, in many ways. For example, the story begins as a typical historical adventure, before the Doctor, Cicero and a few others find themselves whisked away to a strange land. A land of terrifying monsters and ancient myths. A land that feels extremely appropriate to the story and all of its characters.

However, even better is how Llewellyn handles two brilliant characters like the Doctor and Cicero in one story. The fact that Tartarus begins with the Doctor wanting to meet Cicero helps to kick things off to a great start, as it lets anyone previously unfamiliar with the character know exactly how brilliant this man was.

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Even better is that over the course of the story, we see a lot of different sides to Cicero. We see his intelligence and brilliance, particularly when he’s in his home setting. But when he finds himself far away from home, we see many more of his flaws. Of his arrogance, pride and stubbornness. These traits also emerge from the Doctor, too. So we get to see Cicero as both a hero and as a flawed human being, and it’s handled really nicely.

The ending also has a surprising emotional punch, and perhaps not in quite the way that you’d expect. It’s a moment that makes you wonder exactly what’s going to happen in this new trilogy of adventures for the Fifth Doctor, and is a great way of ending this fantastic story. One of the strongest regular adventures we’ve had this year.

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Have you listened to Cicero? Do you like the idea of Doctor Who crossing over with a historical series? Should the series try to do so on TV? Let us know in the comments below.

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