William Burke – Blue Towel Productions

As is well-known, Doctor Who started off with a desire to be at least somewhat educational–bringing up both scientific and historical concepts in a way that allowed children to learn about them. This was most obvious in the “pure historical” adventures of the 1960’s, where the Doctor and company would interact with the likes of Marco Polo and Richard the Lionhearted. Though this focus fell by the wayside in most of the show’s history, recently you can see Chris Chibnall doing his level best to teach his audience about less celebrated points in history. And every once in a while, a Big Finish audio comes along that has the side benefit of informing its listeners about real-world people and events. Medicinal Purposes is one such audio–at least it was for me.