#a thousand tiny wings

[drwhowatch]

A Thousand Tiny Wings

Doctor Who is best when it focuses on lesser known historical period and is crazy this post WWII colony treated Kenyan people in this way. Interesting alien compared to usual and a metaphor for humanity's cruelty. Klein is back somehow after a long time and find it mad/intriguing that the Doctor decides to take on a Nazi as a companion. The Doctor abhores violence as usual.

[gallifreywhere]

Lmao, the 7th Doctor mentioning insulin as a murder weapon & making me feel guilty about having several cartridges in my fridge 😂

[oneofusnet]

Big Finishing Move: 'Doctor Who: Colditz' Greetings all and welcome to Big Finishing Move. For the uninitiated, this is the place where I get to look at the various releases from the champs of audio drama, Big Finish, and give you, the reader, the skinny (never get tired of using that phrase) on if it worth spending that hard-earned... read more on One of Us

[thatonestoreguy]

A Thousand Tiny Wings

The Seventh Doctor arrives in Kenya during the Mau Mau Uprising to find a group of women holed up in a farmhouse under siege from the native population and a much more mysterious force. Among the women is none other than Elizabeth Klein, the alternate universe Nazi from way back in Colditz. Trapped in the regular timeline, the Doctor is shocked to find her here, but she knows something is about to happen. Despite their differences, she and the Doctor find themselves on the same side.

Klein makes her return to Big Finish over 100 releases after her first appearance. The last time she appeared she was firmly a villain, but here she is a very different type of figure. While she is still very much in support of fascism, this adventure shows a few deeper aspects to her character. She is compassionate to those close to her, even if she still believes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. She also is in Kenya for the express purpose of preventing a disaster from her original timeline which she considered her greatest failure. Because of this, she and the Doctor actually work together and do so quite well. Klein is smart, resourceful, and adventurous and makes for a very skilled foil to the Doctor. This would make her a perfect companion if it wasn’t for her hated of the Doctor and everything he stands for. Klein still thinks her timeline is the proper one and will do everything in her power to get things back to “normal”. The Doctor knows this so the adventure ends with him taking her along with him as a companion-in-adversity.

Klein aside, the main mystery of the story is very good as it focuses on two terrifying situations with equal measure. The uprising sees a group of British imperialist scared for their lives as the Kenyan tribes attempt to establish independence. The Doctor might support the eventually decline in colonialism, but he has to admit the very real threat as armed men roam the countryside killing settlers. At the same time, a strange alien ape-creature is found injured in the jungle while a mysterious sickness is killing people and leaving them with a thousand tiny cuts. The two threats build on each other, and while linking one to the other would be easy, the story instead chooses to show each threat as its own unique danger. The sci-fi threat is an interesting mystery, while the real world events of the Mau Mau Uprising provides both a backdrop for Klein and the Doctor’s philosophical debates and a way to flesh out the other characters.

Overall this is an amazing start to what promises to be a very interesting trilogy of stories. It would be easy to make Klein a strawman, but the audio makes her firm in her beliefs even as it also softens her personality. The Doctor is in for quite the journey with her by his side and so are we.

[ionfury]

Nazi!Klein is such a awkward choice for a companion Seven what are you thinking

[ionfury]

this audio has a supporting cast formed of 4 racist women, one of them is also an ex nazi what am i listening too

[timetot]

Klein: I got the impression the last time we met that you didn't like guns.

Seventh Doctor: I don't like weapons. People can use almost anything as a weapon: a car battery, a fountain pen, an umbrella. Fortunately, it's sometimes possible to use a weapon as something entirely different.

[xectc-e]

Did Seven just describe Klein as "strikingly attractive". Oh my.