Big Finish Productions The Year of the Pig

Written by	Matthew Sweet
Format	Compact Disc
Released	2006

Starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryan

Synopsis: Ostend, 1913. War is coming. A war in which millions will die. And the guest in suite 139 of the Hotel Palace Thermae knows it. Which is odd, considering he has trotters, a snout and a lovely curly tail.

• A Review by Stephen Maslin

A Review by Stephen Maslin 29/3/10

The institution of Doctor Who as a Christmas treat first saw the light of day at Christmas in 1965 with The Feast of Steven, shoehorned incongruously into the 12-parter The Daleks' Master Plan. Twenty odd minutes of knockabout comedy only three episodes after the rather distressing death of one companion and a mere five weeks before the gruesome death of another. For Big Finish listeners, this perhaps dubious festive tradition was revived at the end of 2001 with The One Doctor. In spite of its pairing the least popular Doctor with least popular companion and completely dispensing with reverence, it didn't totally suck. (Indeed, it heralded somewhat of a halcyon period, Big Finish really hitting their stride with the Eighth Doctor's Season 2002, followed by Marc Platt's incomparable Spare Parts.) For a few years, the Christmas story was a regular feature of the BF schedule: as out and out comedy, Bang-Bang-a-Boom!, or momentous conclusion, The Next Life, or, best of all, something that actually felt christmassy, 2005's Other Lives, tragically drowned out by David Tennant's TV debut. Perhaps the Doctor as a Christmas fixture on television urged a rethink at Big Finish, as (with the possible exception of The Raincloud Man) The Year of The Pig has been the last offering that could have been termed in any way a Christmas special.

Which is a shame, because YotP is really very good and almost unlike any Doctor Who story before or since: a literary treasure trove of historically erudite period detail, some genuinely left field ideas and a lot of very quotable wit. This is not just the outpourings of some fanboy who got lucky, this is truly professional stuff. (It should come as no surprise that YotP's author actually works in radio.) With no endless descriptions of alien physiognymy or spacecraft, no pseudo-scientific gobbledy-gook and no interminable battle scenes, dramatic consistency is achieved by quite different means.

While the wonderful opening dialogue sets the tone, the time and the place, the second roots everything firmly in Doctor Who territory with that perennial old chestnut, "me and my previous selves" but with the unique gallic flavour of Proust as the point of comparison. There is an emphasis on food which, given the title, is entirely appropriate. Yet what seem at first to be mere gratuitous, harbours some beautiful observations (sandwiches with the crusts 'guillotined') and references that tie into the drama. (The Doctor's trousers are 'like a humbug', battenburg cake matches the colour of his waistcoat and so on.)

As the story progresses, the tedious pomposities of mainstream sci-fi are repeatedly deflated. Here, of course 'The Doctor' is a stage name ("Never trust a man with a title... Doctor"). When asked if he has travelled, the Doctor attempts closure by testily asking, "Do you know a place called Varos?" Only to be trumped... "Of course! It's one of the Anderman islands."

Watched from an upstairs window, the Doctor saves a man from drowning, only to find that he makes a rather too swift recovery. The Doctor and Peri are nevertheless invited to dinne by him, along with the incomparable Miss Bultitude, all three of them realising that their host is a fraud. As the party breaks up, at Miss Bultitude's urging, they go to meet someone else, someone rather special, staying at the hotel but upon entering, are floored by an anachronisitic stun gun...

The cast enjoy themselves immensely with the sparkling dialogue (so good that there is mercifully no need to drown the whole in constant sub-standard music, an all-too common complaint with Who in the 21st Century). No one puts a foot wrong. The biggest joy surely comes from Maureen o'Brien's long overdue return to the fold. And she is brilliant, every line delivered with supreme gusto and, more often than not, extremely funny. With the music so understated, the dialogue witty and elusive, detail piled upon detail (for instance, such as answering "Ahoy" when answering the phone), the effect is almost hypnotic. Though the feeling of period is extremely strong, the writer gets Peri and the Doctor just right and there are enough back catalogue references ("the giant rat of the river fleet" and the like) to keep the obsessives happy. Who the villain will really turn out to be is skilfully avoided, red herrings aplenty.

YotP is such an uncharacteristic delight that it's a wonder it got made at all. In the midst of some quite ordinary sci-fi from Big Finish (and some real drivel, particularly Red and Nocturne), it is perhaps a companion piece to say, The Kingmaker or Memory Lane. It's just such a shame that the title couldn't have been changed, as the script makes a virtue of not revealing Toby's true identity until some way into the first disc.

Nevertheless, great story-telling, great dialogue, great cast. A real oddball, yes, but a real treat too.

Unmissable.

(And look out for the cows!)