"Living Legend"
by Scott Gray

Accompanying issue #337 of Doctor Who Magazine is another exclusive Big Finish audio play, a one-part story featuring the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard. Set during their second series of adventures together, between The Chimes of Midnight and Seasons of Fear, Living Legend is written by Scott Gray, best known to Whovians for his contributions to DWM's ongoing comic strips.

The story sees the time travellers arrive in Italy, shortly after the country's 1982 World Cup victory. Along the way, they encounter two bumbling Threllips, a remarkably dull race who are in the process of establishing a portal to allow their race to invade Earth. In order to halt their plans, Charley poses as a pompous Time Lady, and the Doctor as her assistant, and they both attempt to change the aliens' minds.

Scott Gray seems to have applied his work on the comic strip to this story, creating a vivid and colourful adventure which is genuinely very funny. The alien threat is simple and cliched, and very much done with comic effect in mind, giving us some buffoon-like creatures with small minds and ridiculous accents. The plot is enjoyable for its simplicity and humour, a nice fluffy adventure which contrasts with the heavily arc-based stories that this TARDIS team are best known for.

In accordance with the humorous tone, the Doctor and Charley are treated like a comedy double-act here, which works surprisingly well in this small dose, but would probably become tiresome if this was a full-length adventure. As it stands, the characterisation of the two leads is brilliantly original and refreshing, highlighting the strength of the characters' relationship nicely, and 'playing it for laughs' gives both Paul McGann and India Fisher something different to do.

The rest of the disc is given over to an exclusive thirty-minute documentary which goes behind the scenes of the special release Zagreus, featuring contributions from four Doctors and numerous companions, and narrated by an uncomfortable-sounding India Fisher. Described as an "in-depth" look at that story, most of the discussion and information revealed is superficial and uninteresting, but the brief interview with Paul McGann and the clips of the raw studio recording make it worth the listen.

Living Legend and The Making of Zagreus are both inconsequential and cheerful little productions, which make for a diverting but unchallenging listen. Nice stuff.