1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 30 minutes. Written by: Steve Lyons. Performed by: Nicholas Courtney, Sophie Aldred.
THE PLOT:
The Master has finally been captured. He planned for this contingency, however. The Doctor, Jo, and UNIT soon learn that he spent his time on Earth hypnotizing people specifically to break him out if he was ever imprisoned. They're able to stop the escape fairly easily - a little too easily, in the Doctor's opinion, with him certain that his rival's plans are far from over.
The hypnotized people all worked for the same employer: The Freedom Corporation, which has just announced a breakthrough in time travel. The Doctor attends a demonstration, only to determine that the touted science is nonsense. But when he and Jo follow the lead scientist, they fall into a trap.
The Master has set up the perfect prison for the Doctor and Jo, one from which they cannot escape. He tells the Brigadier that he will return them under one condition:
His freedom!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: He feels some empathy for the Master. His exile on Earth already feels like a prison to him, so he can only imagine how the Master must feel at being confined to a single cell. The Doctor gets a chance at freedom late in the story, and he is explicitly tempted to take it, even though it means abandoning Earth to the Master's latest scheme. He doesn't waver long, but the temptation is real and makes for the story's single best character moment.
Jo Grant: She recognizes how badly the Doctor wants his freedom, and she feels guilt when she pleads with him to give up that freedom to stop the Master. She reflects that she wouldn't ask if she saw any other way. Sophie Aldred voices Jo's lines in the audio version, which doesn't quite work for me. It's not that she doesn't sound like Katy Manning (Nicholas Courtney doesn't particularly sound like Jon Pertwee, and yet his performance works well) - It's that her voice is just 100% wrong for Jo, and that sometimes pulled me out of the story. If they couldn't get Katy Manning in, then I think this story should have been read solely by Courtney.
The Master: Even as he sowed chaos across Season Eight, he also prepared a dual contingency plan. The first, simpler plan goes into effect the instant he's captured, as the prison is besieged by scores of people in whom he planted a hypnotic suggestion to break him out. He fully expects it to fail, but it acts as a cover for the plot involving the Freedom Corporation. When he traps the Doctor, he allows his bitterness at his imprisonment to show, telling his foe that he hopes he enjoys his prison as much as the Master enjoyed his.
THOUGHTS:
Steve Lyons' Freedom acts as a postscript to Season Eight. It makes sense that the Master would have tried to escape in between his capture at the end of the The Daemons and his final, successful breakout in The Sea Devils. There's some cleverness in the Master's plan, and the characters of the Doctor and the Master are well-realized.
The only significant weakness is a common one among Short Trips: It should have been slightly longer. The story is efficiently structured. The narrative moves back and forth in time, with scenes of the Doctor and Jo in the Master's prison interspersed with the events leading up to their capture. All the necessary beats are there, but some of them are given no time to really make an impact before the story hurtles on to the next one. The audio version of this story runs an even half hour; I think it would have felt less rushed had it been allowed just ten more minutes.
OVERALL:
Outside of wishing it had been a bit longer, I found Freedom to be very enjoyable. Nicholas Courtney does his usual fine job as narrator, and he brings both Doctor and Master to life effectively, which offsets my issues with Sophie Aldred's Jo. The story also feels entirely of a piece with the televised Pertwee era.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
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Next Television Story: Day of the Daleks
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