Doctor Who Serpent Crest 1: Tsar Wars

By: Paul Magrs

Narrated by: Full Cast, Susan Jameson, Tom Baker

In a distant galaxy, the Tsar and Tsarina rule over the Robotov Empire from the safety of their palace, whilst human workers tend the power plants on satellite moons. When the Doctor arrives with Mrs Wibbsey, his identity is immediately mistaken, and the Tsarina believes that her old ally, Father Gregory, has returned. But when the Palace comes under attack, the Tsar suspects him of treachery. Meanwhile, Mrs Wibbsey discovers that dark secrets are lurking in the shadows of one satellite moon. Far more than mere human rebellion is being planned, and Father Gregory is not operating alone. His actions will set off a chain of events with long-lasting consequences for the Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey... With Tom Baker as the Doctor, Susan Jameson as Mrs Wibbsey, Michael Jayston as the Tsar, Suzy Aitchison as the Tsarina, Simon Shepherd as Boolin, Sam Hoare as Lucius, and Paul Chequer, Grant Gillespie and Gabriel Vick as the Servo Robots and the rebels, Tsar Wars is the first of five linked stories written by Paul Magrs.

Critic reviews

Baker and Jameson have... developed into a highly engaging TARDIS team. The guest cast is classy with Michael Jayston as the Tsar and Simon Shepherd as Alex's nice android doctor Boolin. This play is a lot of fun (Gypsy King)

Tom Baker returns.

The author of these stories must be a real Tom Baker fan. For starters he took the plot line of this mini series from one of Tom Baker films, he did before he took on the role of the Doctor. The movie was Nicolas and Alexander, where he played Rasputin the the mad monk. The character Father Gregory is very much like Rasputin. Tom Baker gets to play both the Doctor and Gregory. Also some of the plot is the same. Instead of peasants vs royals in the movie, it's humans vs robots. Theirs more to story line then that, so recommend you listen to the mini series to get the whole plot line. I hope the rest of the series is good.

Still not good enough for the price

I had no interest in this at all after going through the Nest series, but this set was a present.
Only for the completionists. While I think everyone loves Tom Baker's voice, Paul Magrs story telling and core ideas need a major overhaul. This is no prize--in fact, I have to wonder why these stories were ever chosen in the first place? Why was he contracted to write them?
As others have complained, having to go through 5 files for one story seems a bit expensive, and I have to agree.