This is the audio version of season 17’s second serial, as recorded for audiobooks publisher AudioGo in 2013. The record was released in 2018 for Record Store Day. The original aired in September/Oktober 1979, during Tom Bakers era as the 4th Doctor. It was watched by a record number of 16 million UK viewers, mainly because BBC’s main competitor ITV was out because of a strike.
It is also the first serial that was recorded outside of the UK, in Paris. Since Doctor Who was not broadcast in France, the crew and actors didn’t get the usual attention from crowds during the outside shoots.
The story is about the theft of the Mona Lisa painting from the Louvre, by a time traveller trying to sell it at a profit, to fund a time experiment to save his people. The story was originally written by David Fisher, but a rewrite was needed before production started. Douglas Adams and Graham Williams rewrote the story over a whisky filled weekend, and the three of them officially shared credits under the name David Agnew. Adams later used parts of this in his novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency from 1987.
The story is told by the Tom Baker himself, and Lalla Ward, the actor that played the companion in the story. At the end of the episode, there is a small cameo of John Cleese as an English art lover. They do a nice job, and make the story a worthy listen. I enjoyed myself listening to it.