Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Doctor Who - The Companion Chronicles - Mother Russia

  • By: Marc Platt
  • Narrated by: Peter Purves, Tony Millan
  • Length: 1 hr and 19 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

$0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Doctor Who - The Companion Chronicles - Mother Russia cover art

Doctor Who - The Companion Chronicles - Mother Russia

By: Marc Platt
Narrated by: Peter Purves, Tony Millan
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Doctor Who - UNIT Dominion cover art
Doctor Who - The Bounty of Ceres cover art
Thin Ice cover art
Doctor Who - Nekromanteia cover art
Doctor Who - The Chimes of Midnight cover art
Doctor Who - Neverland cover art
Doctor Who - Zagreus cover art
Doctor Who - Max Warp cover art
Doctor Who: The Thing from the Sea cover art
Doctor Who - Human Resources Part 1 cover art
Doctor Who - The Land of the Dead cover art
Doctor Who - The Vengeance of Morbius cover art
Doctor Who - The Lost Stories - Earth Aid cover art
Doctor Who - Embrace the Darkness cover art
Doctor Who - Human Resources Part 2 cover art

Summary

It's 1812, and the Doctor, Steven and Dodo get ready to spend their winter in a Russian village. The French are on their way, but that's not the only invasion the travellers will have to deal with.

Written by: Marc Platt. Directed by: Nigel Fairs.

©2007 Big Finish Productions (P)2007 Big Finish Productions

Critic reviews

"Old school Doctor Who at its best. So good, you'd swear you saw this one on TV." (Total Sci-Fi)

Love Books? You'll Love Audible.

Transform your day

Transform your day

Replace endless scrolling with endless listening. Chores can be fun.

Listen everywhere

Listen everywhere

You can’t turn pages while you drive—but you can press play.

Carry your entire Library

Carry your entire Library

Your stories go where you go. Audiobooks don’t weigh a thing.

Listen and learn

Listen and learn

Discover stories that can change your mind, your well-being, and your life.

Reach your reading goals

Reach your reading goals

Download titles to listen offline, wherever you are in the world.

Find your niche

Find your niche

WIth thousands of titles to explore, there’s something for everyone.

Try for £0.00 £7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

What listeners say about Doctor Who - The Companion Chronicles - Mother Russia

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Middling

Would you try another book written by Marc Platt or narrated by Peter Purves and Tony Millan ?

Yes. I've found some of Platt's Doctor Who work very enjoyable, notably his Unbound plays. Not so much his novels, or his grossly overrated Cyberman origin story.
Peter Purves is always worth a listen. He's not the best William Hartnell impersonator (William Russell probably is) but he's good enough.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Remove the (other) alien element.
This vexes me with the Doctor Who pseudohistoricals. The first time they did one - with the Meddling Monk - it was a novelty, and a significant story element in its own right.
But it's long since been overworked into a tiresome lily-gilding exercise. Here, for instance, it's as if 1812 Russia isn't an interesting enough setting in its own right for our time travellers, so a generic alien needs adding to the mix. It really should be possible for the TARDIS to land somewhere in Earth's history without somebody else landing there too.
I can't pretend I didn't know it was going to happen - it's hinted at strongly enough in the blurb - but I hoped this would at least offer a fresh approach to the idea. But it really doesn't. The alien's special ability also means the twist is bleeding obvious.
That's not to say it fails to entertain. The TARDIS crew's arrival in Russia (not far from Moscow) is enjoyable, and it was pleasing to have them stay for several months rather than simply pop in, look around, fight off the evil alien, and pop out. Use of honest to goodness narration (as opposed to contrived "Look, that ski pole is rising off the ground of its own accord" dialogue) is always a good thing.
So, not a total waste of time, but rather less than it could have been.

What does Peter Purves and Tony Millan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

It's a play written for the audio medium, not a book.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Given the nature of this product, it's exceedingly unlikely that this would be made into a film, but yeah, why not?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!