Doctor Who review: Jago & Litefoot begins with The Bloodless Soldier
By James Aggas
Doctor Who spin-off series Jago & Litefoot begins with The Bloodless Soldier – a basic monster story that establishes the series extremely well.
After the success of The Mahogany Murderers – a rare example of a Doctor Who audio that didn’t feature the Doctor at all – Big Finish decided that it was worth giving the much-loved duo of Henry Gordon Jago and Professor George Litefoot their very own series. Released just a little over a year after The Mahogany Murderers, Jago & Litefoot began with The Bloodless Soldier. How well did it establish the series?
The plot of the story is rather simple. To sum it up, it’s a werewolf story, but without a werewolf. We have a man gradually becoming something more monstrous and beastly over the course of the story, although the creature featured in this opening episode has several key differences to the classic werewolf of legend. However, the story itself is easily recognizable.
There’s a slight risk when giving the audience something this basic, as you might end up making everything too predictable for them to enjoy. But in this case, writer Justin Richards made a smart move. By keeping the story itself rather simple, he’s able to introduce plenty of other elements to this establishing episode. Not only does this include a strong sense of Victorian atmosphere and some interesting guest characters. But, more importantly, he’s able to flesh out the regulars. And, in this case, it’s not just Jago and Litefoot who are central to the story.
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Ellie
Most of The Mahogany Murderers was heavily focused on Jago and Litefoot themselves. This was mainly down to the format, as stories told in The Companion Chronicles range usually featured just two cast members. But there was one other voice heard in that story, albeit relatively briefly: Ellie Higson the barmaid, played by director Lisa Bowerman.
For The Bloodless Soldier, Justin Richards takes this very small, only briefly heard character, and in some ways almost makes her central to the story. She never overshadows our titular duo, but there’s a rather personal stake that she has in this episode, one that brings quite a gut-punch at the end. By the end of The Bloodless Soldier, one thing is clear: Jago and Litefoot may be the stars, but they won’t be the only major characters in this series.
Expanding on a previously very small character into something much bigger was risky, but it pays off. It’s not hard to see why the production team wanted to do more with Ellie. Not only is creating an ensemble team a good idea for an ongoing series. But, more importantly, Lisa Bowerman had already proved herself to be a fantastic actress at Big Finish, thanks to her own audio series Bernice Summerfield. So the writers knew that they could throw pretty much anything at her and she’d handle it brilliantly. (Even while she’s directing this series.)
The Bloodless Soldier is a decent start to Jago & Litefoot. It does exactly what it needs to do: establishes a particular tone and a sense of atmosphere, gives plenty of focus on its leading characters, while also expanding the world a little to focus on others. An effective opening – one that would have some long-term repercussions for the series…
Next. Review: The Mahogany Murderers is a brilliant prelude to Jago & Litefoot. dark
Have you listened to The Bloodless Soldier? If you haven’t, you can listen to it right now for free from Big Finish’s website. You can also get the remaining episodes from Series 1 on CD or download here.