The Tomfiles: #5 - Big Finish Review of 2008

Big Finish really shone in 2008 for me. The first thing I have to say is that the stories have ranged from ok to fantastic. The first release of 2008 was The Bride of Peladon which was written by Barnaby Edwards. Edwards has directed many BF audios since July 1999 and it was nice to see him finally pen a Doctor Who story. In my review in Blog 44 dated January 27th 2008, I said; "The Bride of Peladon is a well written story with good characters and a good pace to it" The use of a familiar monster from Doctor Who's past was always a dangerous thing because if you don’t rise up to peoples expectations then its just going to be a terrible four part adventure. Also it saw the departure of Erimem (Caroline Morris). She had been in Doctor Who since 2001 and her partnership with Peri had been one of the highlights of the Fifth Doctor stories. Following on from C'Rizz departure and Charley's (supposed) departure it seemed that the Doctor was leaking companions. That wasn’t the case when February came around because it was The Condemned which saw the Sixth Doctor without Evelyn and more importantly with Charley Pollard who has spent seven years travelling with the 8th Doctor. After listening to the story I rated it 8/10. I thought that the explanation of why the Eighth Doctor doesn’t remember his time with Charley during his sixth incarnation would have been explained but it wasn’t yet.

March's release was The Dark Husband which featured the Seventh Doctor, Ace & Hex. This story was the weakest story that has been produced in 2008. It moved too slowly and as I commented on in Blog 55 dated March 30 2008 "Knowing what kind of person David Quantick is, I was expecting a slightly different kind of story and that is what we got but the only thing that let this story down was there just wasn’t any pace to it" April saw the introduction of Thomas Brewster. This was a three-part story arc starting off with The Haunting of Thomas Brewster. The only thing that I didn’t like about this story was the music, it just went on for too long and after a while it just got annoying. The surprise at the end that Brewster had stolen the TARDIS was an unexpected one. May's release was Assassin in the Limelight which saw the return of Evelyn Smythe who hadn’t been heard from since September 2007 in 100. It was a bit of a disappointment really as it was just a bit lacklustre. It was the final story in a trilogy following Medicinal Purposes in 2004 and Pier Pressure in 2006. It was nice to hear Evelyn back and also even better to hear Leslie Philips come back.

Moving on to June's release which was The Death Collectors. This was a three part story followed by a single part story. The three part was really good it had all the characters and a good plot what let it down was the single part story. It is the only time that I haven’t listened to a story all the way through, that was because it was just bizarre and uninspiring. July's release was the second part of the Thomas Brewster story-arc. The Boy That Time Forgot didnt feature Brewster until the end of Part 4 but his actions at the end of the previous story. This story does have a twist to replace the absence of Brewster. Adric. He travelled with the Doctor between 1980 and 1982 and was killed off in the story Earthshock, or so we thought. This story deals with the idea that Adric did survive and became lord and master of some weird earth. The Adric in this story was Andrew Sachs who played Manuel in the BBC comedy Fawlty Towers. His inclusion instead of Matthew Waterhouse seemed to annoy a lot of fans but to me it was a masterstroke piece of casting. Was just behind The Condemned in my favourite story of the year. August saw the second story to feature the Sixth Doctor and Charley in The Doomwood Curse. Whilst it was an enjoyable piece it wasn’t as good as The Condemned. Both Colin Baker and India Fisher excelled in this story. The use of a character like Dick Turpin could have made this release a doomed one but actually it wasn’t and turned out to be quite a good follow up to The Condemned.

The first release of September saw the release of Kingdom of Silver which saw the return of the Cybermen to the main series. This story wasn’t the greatest one to feature the Cybermen but I thought that it was entertaining. Also with this release was Keepsake which was a single part story. Now I am not a fan of these single episodes, I just don’t think that they work because you cant tell a story in 25 minutes. I have to admit that I was wrong in this case, it was actually quite good. It had nothing really to do with Doctor Who even though it featured the 7th Doctor. October saw the conclusion to the Thomas Brewster story arc in Time Reef. It was sad to see the exit of Brewster as I think he was a good addition and his conflicts with the Doctor were entertaining. Time Reef (which was a three-part story) wasn’t as good as The Boy That Time Forgot but it would have been impossible to beat. A Perfect World was really good as it was just the right exit for the character who lost his mother and didn’t have anyone really. Two good single part stories in a row, things are looking good except....

November saw the 45th Anniversary of Doctor Who and Big Finish chose to celebrate this milestone with four single stories. Like 100 back in September 2007 the story Forty-Five had links to the number 45. I wasn’t really looking forward because in the past single part stories have tended to be poor. However I was wrong with this as all four stories were fantastic. The final release of the year was The Raincloud Man which featured the 6th Doctor and Charley in their third release of the year and whilst I enjoyed it I found that it wasn’t the best of the three. The main problem was that there was a bit too much humour in it for my likening. The return of DI Menzies was very good and I wish that she would become a companion but maybe she will return in the future. One of the best things that Big Finish have done is to use a story arc in their stories. Similar to what the TV series has done, you have had the Thomas Brewster story arc which worked brilliantly and was finished in similar style. There was also the Charley Pollard storyline which is still continuing. The thing that links both stories is that they have been told in a intriguing way.

THE STAGEPLAYS
This year saw the arrival of three audio adventures based on stage plays. The first was The Ultimate Adventure which starred Jon Pertwee and Colin Baker when it appeared on the stage but was just played by Baker for this audio. It was strange to have songs in between action scenes but it did actually work. I'm not sure about the alliance between the Daleks and Cybermen. I think with their confrontation in 2006 this attempt seemed a bit weak. The Second was Seven Keys to Doomsday which was quite good in the way that they used the same actor who played the role on stage. Trevor Martin was really good as the Doctor, it had a William Hartnell feel to it and by that I mean it had that feel that it took several days. The third and final release was Curse of the Daleks and was perhaps the most curious release of this season. The story was a Doctor-less release and despite the fact that it took me a few attempts to get somewhere with this story, once I did get into it I actually found it quite interesting. It was eerie and it was the best story of the series. I had heard about these stories in various Doctor Who forms but never knew much about it. These three releases were brilliant and well worth the money.

THE COMPANION CHRONICLES
The companion chronicles entered a new form this year. January saw the final story the second series. The Catalyst was a Leela story and was a bit dull. July saw the third series begin. What was different about it was that there were 12 releases with one coming out each month. So far the stories have been really good and hopefully this new format will work. 2008 has been the best year for Big Finish. The quality of stories have always been high and even with weaker stories like The Dark Husband the releases have been enjoyable and worth the money.

Home Truths (2008)

Home Truths is a unusual story that begs some questions. The first question that comes to mind about this story is why would someone who only appeared in nine episodes be classed as a companion? Then that question becomes irrelevant as the most interesting story of the series. The story has quite a different approach to previous companion stories. This sees a young scientist called Robert who goes into a house and talks to Sara Kingdom. What occurs is at times terrifying and at times mind-boggling.

The story sees The Doctor, Steven & Sara arrive in a house. The inhabitants are dead and things only work when you wish them. As the story moves on its shown that the two dead bodies actually killed themselves because they thought it. The noises were very spooky and when the woman’s body was discovered her eyes were open and when the body was revisited the eyes were closed. When that happened I really wanted to know what happened. It was nice that it was Sara who wished for that to happen. The main theme about this story seems to be forgiveness. Sara visits the fact that she shot her brother in the Daleks Masterplan. She revaluates her actions and you get the feeling that if she could revisit the moment where she shot her brother then she wouldn’t have pulled the trigger.

The character of Robert was well played by Niall Macgregor. At times he seemed cold and destined to finish his job. The job seemed to be whether to kill Sara Kingdom or let an old woman just live out her last few days in the house. This was a tough decision that Macgregor played But it is Jean Marsh who steals the show. I think that the character of Kingdom was a really good character for TV. I think that she would have worked well in stories past the Daleks Master Plan and it was a shame that she would killed when she was. Her voice works well on audio and it seemed like Marsh had played Kingdom last year not 43 years ago. She did old Sara and she did frightened Sara which was really enjoyable to listen to. But the best compliment that could be given to Marsh is that she helped create the atmosphere. Yes the music and sound effects did a bit of the job but Marsh was able to sell the whole thing and create an impression in my mind of this house that has some dark secrets.

Simon Guerrier has written for Big Finish before with the 2006 story The Settling which I personally enjoyed and I think that the new style that was on show here really work and Guerrier did a good job. It could have gone badly wrong but I was enthralled throughout. The chemistry between Sara and Robert was a sort of bitter enemies trying to be friends thing which I thought worked really well. Lisa Bowerman also did well in this story. Her previous story Here There Be Monsters was quite slow and I wasn’t keen on it however she certainly deserves praise for keeping this story entertaining and the pace constant. It may have took a while to get started but once it did it didn’t stop.

The open ended finish was totally out of left field because all other companion chronicles have a beginning middle and an end. Hopefully they will revisit the character of Sara Kingdom either in this series or future series. This is the best Companion Chronicles story of the series and possibly the best of the 13 that have been released. Superb.

The Juggernauts (2005)

The Juggernauts sees a three familiar classic Doctor Who elements return. This story is the first to feature the 6th Doctor and Mel since the One Doctor back in December 2001. Mel has not been the most well loved companion in Doctor Who history partly because she was just annoying. Since she made her debut for Big Finish the character of Mel has undergone something of a renaissance. Her good form continues in this story. This story has been written by Scott Alan Woodard who makes his first contribution to the range. Another return to the series is that of Davros. Genius creator of the Daleks, no character created in the Doctor Who has the magical madness that this one armed blind madman has. Davros has a habit of infiltrating his way into societies. The Juggernauts sees the 6th Doctor and Mel separated during to an incident on board a medical spaceship and after Mel gets into an escape pod she loses complete contact with the Doctor and tries to begin a new life on a colony on the planet Lethe. Soon she joins a team lead by Dr Vaso and when the Doctor lands and finds Mel he is shocked to discover that Dr Vaso is in fact Davros.

Another thing about this story that I liked was it was the first adventure since Remembrance of the Daleks back in 1988 that Davros and the Daleks featured in the same story. Also what Scott Alan Woodard had to do was as well as have the Doctor, Mel, Davros and the Daleks was to find a use for the Mechanoids who have only appeared once in Doctor Who history and that was back in 1965 in the William Hartnell story The Chase. They are massive things that don’t really have much of a purpose apart from getting in the way but in this story they served a purpose in terms of plot and emotionally. To be honest, apart from pleasing long time fans I don’t really see why they would be included. That said I did find them strangely useful.

What I like about this story is that the characters are so well written and there is such a good pace to it. The idea that Davros is using the inhabitants as Mechanoids was a stroke of genius and was a nice emotional plot twist that helped elevate Davros’ evil plans to a whole new level. Also the fact that Mel has basically started a new life on this planet and has adapted to the environment that she has found herself in shows a new side to the character that was never shown on TV.

Acting wise this story was very good. Colin Baker was also on top form and his relationship with Mel is not as childish or light hearted as it does in this story. It was interesting where the Doctor tried to convince Mel that the person she thought was Dr Vaso was in fact the evil genius who created the Daleks. He has a relationship with Mel that just never came out during their short time on TV. Bonnie Langford who despite all the critiscm that she has received for the role has come back to Doctor Who and played the Mel that should have appeared on TV. This is her best story to date because she actually spent most of the story doing what her character was originally meant to be good at, being a smart-aleck with computers.

Of the guest stars it is Terry Molloy who is the best. His version of Davros is absolutely fantastic and it worked on TV and also works on audio. When he was Dr Vaso it was also good because it shows that Molloy isn’t just good at playing evil genius’ but can play nice characters. His version of Davros wipes out David Gooderson who played it in Destiny of the Daleks back in 1979. Other roles in this story worked really well and helped create a good atmosphere that made it seem like it was a really nice place to live or at least be based at. Also there should be some credit to Nicholas Briggs who did the voices for the Daleks and for the Mechanoids. Other people of worth include Bindya Solanki who perhaps is most well known for appearing in the BBC soap Eastenders. Here she plays Sonali who is a nice likeable character. Klaus White plays Geoff who is another character who is well written, he forms a… feeling for Mel. Peter Forbes plays Kryson. Forbes has starred in Big Finish plays before. He played Dan Curver in the third series of Dalek Empire back in 2004. I quite liked the character Kryson. Other characters include Paul Grunert who played Brauer and Julia Houghton who played Loewen. Bother characters contributed well and were well written and well acted characters.

If there is a problem with this story is that Mel does very good in the first half of this story and carries it very well. What then happens is once the Doctor arrives and once Mel realises who Dr Vaso really is then her usefulness kind of falls away at the waist side. Aside from that it is a superb first story from Scott Alan Woodard. He has written a story that never gets boring at any point and that is not something that happens very often. Gary Russell also should be applauded for creating an atmosphere that varies from a spaceship to a colony without even dipping in quality.

Overall this was a really good story. The Mechanoids were a weird choice due to the fact of their solitary appearance 40 years ago but it surprised me that it worked and with the Daleks and Davros it served up to be one of the best stories of 2005. It shows that 1) Colin Baker is a superb Doctor, 2) Bonnie Langford’s renaissance as Mel continues and 3) There is a use for the Mechanoids after all.

Curse of the Daleks (2008)

The Curse of the Daleks is the third and final Stage play and boy is it a strange one. For one it doesn’t feature the Doctor which is totally out of the norm considering even in the Companion Chronicles the Doctor features in the story in one way or another. The story was written by David Whittaker and Terry Nation. Both had written a Dalek story during the 1960’s. David Whittaker was Script Editor on the series during the shows first series from 1963 to 1964. He also wrote The Edge of Destruction (1964), The Rescue (1965), The Crusade (1965), The Power of the Daleks (1966) and also The Evil of the Daleks (1967). Terry Nation obviously created them and contributed to the story to begin with. The original stageplay began its life back in December 1965. This was Nations’ first attempt to try and use them outside of Doctor Who with a hope of them cracking America and to see whether they could cope without the Doctor to try and lose their massive battles to. This story takes a long time to get warmed up. A bit too long for me as I think that a story has about 10 minutes to really get going before becoming a story that I am not going to enjoy as much. The beginning scene with Ladiver & Sline in the spaceship and the members of the crew seem to take a long time. Another reason why it took a long time to get going was because of the narration. It was strange at first because I am use to him talking in his normal voice and I find that when he does his serious voice it’s nice but it doesn’t really seem like its him. It was the narration and the use of the narration that helped move along the story.

Overall I did like this story because when it did get going it was very entertaining and all the characters were well written. Another thing I liked about it is that it seemed to follow shortly after the 1963 adventure The Daleks. The characters were believable and likeable. Top award has to go to Michael Pread who plays Ladiver, Pread has a nice voice for radio and it just made his character more likeable. The character itself was one that your not meant to like but there is just something about the way the Pread acts and the way that the character was written that just make the role a unforgettable one. His partner in crime had a bit of Kenneth Williams about him. I am talking Harry Sline played by Derek Carlyle. He also sounds like a kind of Dickensian character who can be seen robbing the main character of their livelihood. Having said that I did like him as a stand alone character but he worked best when he was with Ladiver. There was a sort of chalk and cheese relationship between them. Captain Redway was another really good character played really well by Patric Kearns with Beth Chalmers (a Big Finish regular) putting in a cold as ice style performance as Marion Clements. Other characters in this story include James George as Bob Slater, Glynn Sweet as Dexion and Denise Hoey who plays Ljayna. I thought that all the performances though varied in terms of relevance were all played superbly.

I do have a slight bug bear with this story and that is the narration by Nicholas Briggs. Now I am a big Briggs fan and applaud him for all his work for Doctor Who over the years however I do get put off when he does this serious and stern voice which isn’t really him. Its just hard to take a man serious when you know he does Daleks, Cybermen, Judoon etc. As a director he really nailed it in this story. Whilst it may have taken quite a long time for it to get going once it did it never stopped. Right up until the end there was drama and intrigue and if there were a sofa in my mind then I would be right behind there scared to peek over.

Overall this play was the best of series. Each story was really different yet really good. I thought that the fact that the Doctor isn’t in this would be a major flaw but I actually think that the way the story was written the use of the Doctor might have made the story weak. Along with the sound effects and the way that the story was told its hard to find a major fault with it and that is what I like about this story. This shows that being a Doctor Who story it doesn’t necersarily have to have the Doctor in it. It would be really good if the Daleks had their own series…oh wait!

Forty-Five (2008)

To celebrate the 45th Anniversary of Doctor Who, Big Finish decided that they were going to do four single part stories that have the same theme. When they did this for the 100th release the theme was 100. Well to celebrate the 45th Anniversary the theme was 45. In the past I have not liked single part stories. To me they just don’t work because I don't think that you could write a good strong story in 25 minutes. Whenever they have done stories like The Death Collectors or Exotron it isn’t the three part stories that let the release down but the single part. 100 was also a mild disappointment for me, some stories were good but then there were some that were poor. When they announced that they were going to do the same thing for Forty-Five my heart sank because I thought that they were going to make the same mistakes again. However this story is the exception and has started to change my mind about whether single part stories work. One other point to mote is that all the writers on this story are making their debut for Big Finish.

The first part was False Gods and written by Mark Morris. Set in 1902 it is an entertaining story that only really comes into its own in the last few minutes. Its quite strange that with the new series saying there are no Timelords yet in the Big Finish universe they are all over the cosmos. Morris wrote a story that created good characters that when the episode finished you felt you knew them well. The setting was quite a good one and I write this because normally historical settings are something that I am not a fan of but I put that to one side and just tried to figure out where the 45 theme would be placed. The moment that Ace got transported back in time was a shock and I then wondered how they were going to resolve this within the 25 minute format however they did and by the end of the first part I thought that the story was very good. Of the guest stars in this episode the best was Lucy Adams who played Jane Templeton who we thought was just a normal archaeologist but then turned out to be a Timelord. That was the second shock of the story and her death. Another shock that I felt came when the Doctor got really angry and vented that anger (rightly so) at Hex. Its something that I don’t recall witnessing in any Doctor Who form. The other guests of this story also did very well. Benedict Cumberbatch (really that’s his name, I’ve check on Wikipedia) was enjoyable as Howard Carter with Paul Lincoln putting in a good performance as Robert Charles. Another good performance came from Jon Glover as Creodont. As a story it was very good which packed such a lot in 25 minutes and managed to make it all seem sense. As an episode I would give it 3/5.

The second story was in fact my favourite, Order of Simplicity was written by Nick Scovell. This story was good because it used the Doctors necessity to be able to solve a problem or puzzle. Which is a character trait that follows all Doctors. I liked the idea that there is a virus that makes you stupid because most viruses that occur in Sci-Fi tend to work to kill you. Jon Glover put in another good performance as Dr Verryman who played the baddie role very well. Lucy Adams also gave another good performance as Mrs Crisp. There was something sinister about her performance which I really liked. Benedict Cumber batch and Paul Lincoln put in equally good and enjoyable performances as they are credited as Thing 1 & 2. Something that did strike me was the idea that there was a room of stupid people and then the moment came when they fought back. Nick Scovell has written a good story that is a lot darker but just as enjoyable as False Gods and what I liked about this story is the Doctor is put in a position where his intelligence is diminishing by the minute and that is a scary thought. The rating I would give for this episode would be 3/5.

The third story was Casualties of War written by Mark Michalowski which is the only story that I felt was the weakest of the four. It wasn't a bad story by any means but it was just OK. The idea that the story has loose links to the 1989 story The Curse of Fenric was a nice surprise as it added a more human side to the story. However I think that the looking back at Ace’s past has been done in the Fenric story and so to spend any more time on it is a waste really and even if they did put a new spin on Ace’s childhood then I think its something that can best be left untold. That said there were still some good characters and equally very good actors. Beth Chalmers was perhaps the best of the guest stars because of the fact that she played two good characters in the form of May & Audrey. Audrey was the best because that was the one that has the most emotional link to Ace being that she is Ace’s mother. Overall it was an ok story that doesn’t really leave a mark on me. The rating I would give for this story is 3/5.

The final story of the release was The Word Lord and was my second favourite story which with the quality of the stories is quite a strong statement. The story felt like it could have been a four parter easily but somehow managed to make it fit inside 25 minutes. One I things I like about this particular episode is that it has the greatest name for a baddie. Nobody No-one is the sort of nemesis that the Doctor should be facing more often and one that the TV Doctor could face. When I pictured what Nobody No-one would look like I imagine Skagra from Shada (the 1979 abandoned adventure). I don’t really know why but I suspect that might have something to do with Paul Reynolds who plays Nobody. The episode felt longer than 25 minutes which shows how much they managed to fit in such as short time. The frequent 45 references went un-noticed by me and when they were bought back in a list of when the number was mentioned was quite freaky. The setting also helps create the tension. Setting it in an Antarctic Base isn’t anything original but it helps add to the feeling of the story. Linda Marlowe performed well as Commander Claire Spencer as she was very authoritative throughout this story as was Andrew Dickens as Captain James Hurst. A very good story that keeps you enthralled throughout. In a way you feel that its wasted in just a single episode. The rating I would give this story is 4/5.

The release as a whole was a very good one and was a fitting tribute to Doctor Who. It seems that they have finally got the hang of telling short stories. Like the previous 7th Doctor story Kingdom of Silver's story Keepsake the short episode format was well written and entertaining. I really look forward to seeing whether Big Finish can keep up this good form. Sylvester McCoy was very good in this release and really shone for me in The Word Lord & Order of Simplicity. Sophie Aldred continues to play the loyal sidekick well but really stood out for me in Casualties of War with Philip Olivier sort of putting in a performance that we come to expect from him. Ken Bentley directed all episodes with a firm discipline and didn’t allow for the action to slow up and thus cause a rush at the end and ruining it. Ken Bentley is a real treasure for Doctor Who

Empathy Games (2008)

The last Companion Chronicles featuring Leela in The Catalyst was a bit of a mixed bag. It was nice to have a story with Leela but it was either the fact that Louise Jameson felt unfortable or the story wasnt very good. I couldnt quite figure it out but in this story that point is irelevant. Empathy Games was a vast improvement. The story itself was quite simple which in a spoken book like this is a plus point. David Warner was a very good piece of casting. I thought that the beginning was a wonderful scene because the imagery along with the sound effects and the narration of Louise Jameson that helped create the sense that the Doctor was truly frightened.

After a confusing Doll of Death it was back to normal for the Companion Chronicles.

The Doll of Death (2008)

The third story of the third Companion Chronicles series sees Jo Grant return to the show for the first time in 30 years. Katy Manning played Jo Grant from January 2 1971 to June 23 1973 and is one of the best female companions in Doctor Who history. She just has that sort of aura about her and it might also have something to do with the time that she appeared in the show. Her dress sense as well as her urge to get involved in matters despite being told not to interfere by the Doctor. Even though Jon Pertwee only had three companions, Jo Grant was the best, she seemed to form the best bond as with Liz Shaw (Caroline John) was more cleverer and on the Doctor’s intelligence level and Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith) just didn’t really seem to fit with Pertwee’s Doctor and really shined with Tom Baker’s Doctor. Elisabeth Sladen is still a very good companion but she only really suited Tom Baker's Doctor. The story was written by Marc Platt who makes his third contribution to the Companion Chronicles series and this also sees Lisa Bowerman direct her third CC story in a row.

I liked the idea that Jo had stuck with her principals and was still an environmentalist and still living with Cliff. You wish she had not gone off with the Welsh Hippie but had in fact either gone off with Benton or Yates. The story hinged on a toy shop and the actions of Mrs Killebrew who always had something to hide. The use of the idea of Retro causation is not something that I have ever heard of. Despite this lack of knowledge it didn’t stop me from enjoying certain elements of this story. The idea that things were running backwards was something that I struggled to try and understand but there was something that I found quite interesting. The cliffhanger was perhaps the best that has been done in this series because it had been building for sometime and the execution was bang on. Another point worth raising is the point of impersonations. Now normally they are not brilliant and actually in this story there not much better but then again Katy Manning isn’t an impressionist but what she does do is sound like Jo Grant did 30 years ago and also get the mannerisms of the Brigadier and the Doctor right.

Marc Platt is perhaps one of the best writers of Doctor Who. His stories are complex but unlike Alan Barnes who tends to writer complex stories, Platt manages to get enough elements to help the listener understand. The Doll of Death is not the best story to come from Marc Platt but its still a good effort. Lisa Bowerman does a really good job with this story. Despite the complex story, Bowerman keeps the story interesting with eerie sound effects and dramatic direction. Katy Manning is simply great as Jo Grant. I think that she has a really good voice and it is used to good effect in this story. She does the other roles really well and makes the story enjoyable. Jane Goddard is also very good as Mrs Killebrew, her character interacts with Jo very well and was a very strong and well written part of the story.

Overall this is a good story but not quite as good as other stories of this season. Theres enough for people like me who doesn’t like to complicated a story to happen to often. Its worth a listen even if your not a Marc Platt fan cause there are some really good things happening in this story.

Brotherhood of the Daleks (2008)

2008 TOMS TARDIS AWARD WINNER

• Best Cover Design (Alex Mallinson)

Brotherhood of the Daleks is the most complicated story that I have ever listened to. I have never felt so confused when listening to a story There have been complicated stories like The Chimes of Midnight but Brotherhood beats Chimes by miles. Going on Internet Forums I don’t think I can recall anyone who has understood it and even if they did whether it was on the first listen. This story was written by Script Editor Alan Barnes who has written such stories as Storm Warning, Zagreus & The Girl Who Never Was so when it was announced he was writing this story you knew you were getting something really good. This is the first release featuring the Daleks in the regular releases since last March’s Renaissance of the Daleks. Its quite good that they limit the Dalek stories to one a year because I think that otherwise it would be overkill.

This story is the third to feature the Sixth Doctor and Charley storyline in which the Doctor is trying to figure Charley out and what she knows that the Doctor doesn’t. There was certainly a hope from me that there would be something that might slip out from Charley. As the story progresses you think that you know that the Doctor & Charley are on Spirodon which is where the Third Doctor and Jo Grant went in the 1973 story Planet of the Daleks. Just when you think the adventure is going to take place on this planet you learn that all is not what it seems and as the story progresses you get further confused and you realise that the Daleks are trying to understand the word and throughout this story I was desperate to find out what the word was. When the word was revealed I must admit it was the last word I was expecting. Folkestone isn’t perhaps the most magical world but it ties in with Charley who was leaving Folkestone when she boarded on the R101 back in Storm Warning. The idea that Thals have been planted into Daleks is a good one and it would be nice to see that explored in future stories. They might sound differently to normal Daleks but that’s good. Another moment that I liked was when Charley revealed that she was a Dalek replicant. I thought that was a brilliant cliffhanger and it made some sense as to the riddle of why the Eighth Doctor doesn’t remember any adventures the Sixth Doctor had and I was disappointed when I discovered that this wasn’t the case. But then after listening to it I thought that it was quite a good choice not giving too much away now because there is potential to this storyline.

Colin Baker and India Fisher worked very well and they did the best they could with this complicated script but even in the Extras they admitted to not being 100% clear on the plot. Colin Baker is on good form in this story which is not exactly a surprise and it shows what a good actor he is because he helps make the story bearable and also you want to get to the end of the Charley mystery. India Fisher is also putting in some of her best performances since she first appeared as a regular companion in 2001. When I thought that she was in fact a Dalek replicant after all these years it was a genuine shock and Fisher played this well. You didn’t know just who side she was on is and that’s a testament to Fisher’s acting. Of all the guest stars it is Michael Cochrane was the best. Most Doctor Who fans will remember Cochrane when he appeared in the 1989 Seventh Doctor story Ghostlight and then he also appeared in the 2006 Seventh Doctor story No Man’s Land. His voice works very on audio and hopefully he will do more of these stories in future. He played Murgat which as I was listening to the story just thought that he was a plant man that was in a glass scuba diving suit type thing which is quite a strange thought. Ultimately the character was a very well written and a very well acted character that interacted very well with the main characters.

Alan Barnes has really written a very clever, very multi layered, very complex story which only the very smart of Doctor Who fans will really understand it. Barnes doesn’t compromise for fans that aren’t as smart and part of me thinks that this is a very poor attitude to have because it means that a certain part of fandom will be left out because they don’t understand but then part of me thinks that this is great because at least you know your not going to get a story that hasn’t got 100% of Barnes’s enthusiasm. Nicholas Briggs has directed this story and as usual you get a nice well paced story and even despite the confusing plot I found the pace of it was always consistent. I think at time it needed to be slowed down to help some of the more confusing plot points sink in but overall his directing is good. He did do a good job with the Dalek voices as usual and its hard to believe that there was a time when he wasn’t doing them but amazingly we were Brigg-less concerning the voices.

This story will need to be listened to several times to even understand half of it. Needless to say that curiosity gets you through these stories and that is what I liked about this story cause I was thinking what was going on. After listening to it once I have no idea about the exact plot points so that is why it is the least successful of the three stories that have the Sixth Doctor and Charley. I think that because expectation is growing as time goes on anything that doesn’t quite match the proceeding story is going to be viewed as a letdown which is a shame because with a few tweaks it quite possibly could have kept the trend going.

Live 34 (2005)

Live 34 is the most unique play that has been done in Doctor Who. This story is the first contribution from James Parsons and Andrew Stirling-Brown. It sees the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex try and infiltrate a Colony and investigate the dealings of their leader, Premier Jaeger. This story is quite unique because it is told in the form of a genuine radio broadcast. For the only time in the shows history there is no theme tune. All you get is static with a few snippets of sound including the Seventh Doctor theme.

What is stranger is that we don’t hear from Ace until Part 2 and we don’t hear from Hex until Part 3. The first we hear from the Doctor is that he is somehow a leader of the FDP (Freedom and Democracy Party). Its not exactly original but it suits the way that the Seventh Doctor has been played over the last few years. We learn very quickly that Premier Jaeger is someone with a dodgy attitude. The fact that he has delayed elections for five years shows that he is someone who is afraid of people telling him what they think of him. The Doctor increasingly becomes a target for Pro-Jaeger supporters. At one point we are led to believe that he is dead, though that is just a lie because it was just to make Jaeger think he is dead. The companions are given perhaps the best material that they have ever had. Hex’s story in this is that he is a paramedic which is near what he was like back in The Harvest in 2004. He teams up with Charlotte Singh and the two seem to have a nice chemistry. This is part of the Live With series and as this segment reaches it’s climax we discover that one of the people they visit Gina. Hex investigates the hole that is in her living room and when they go down that it contains bones and it turns out that it is a mass grave. Soon after the transmission is cut. Ace’s story is perhaps the most intriguing. In this story she gets the title The Rebel Queen which is quite apt. Her story is told in Wareing’s World. The build up to her first involvement in the story is a slow burner. The reporter is led through a series of mysterious requests but soon encounters The Rebel Queen. When the interview between Wareing and Ace gets started we learn what the planet was like to begin with and it sounds a really nice place. What we also learn is that Ace bombed some buildings which is a truly shocking thing for a companion of someone like the Doctor to do. Even though the buildings were thought to be empty and in a state of disrepair it still seems like a totally strange thing to do. The revelation at the end of part four is totally amazing. We learn that Premier Jaeger is not in fact the real Jaeger. The story was that the real Jaeger contracted a minor disease and that fearing he would be unelectable got someone who looked like him and after some changes to his appearance, this guy would become the face of Premier Jaeger but the real one would work away from the public eye. Soon the fake Jaeger slowly became corrupt and put his friends in positions of power and fearing that with limiting resources and power failures he would soon be out of office and so forced terrorist attacks to delay elections. It was a brilliant build up and the execution of the story was superb.

Sylvester McCoy puts in his best performance to date. His plays the role of Resident Doctor with the realism of a politician. You can sense that he is working hard trying to defend the actions of the FDP whilst condoning the actions of the bombing. There is a question as to whether the Doctor knows that Ace did the bombings but that is never made clear. The announcement that the Doctor is dead comes as a surprise because we all know that the star of the show never dies (well not until the TV Movie) but you know he is up to something and then comes the big reveal which he revels in. Sophie Aldred performs well as the Rebel Queen. Her story had more of a story and she played the role very well. Her acting in episode four had me feeling a little uncomfortable because you could imagine what she went through at the hands of the security forces. Philip Olivier is very good as Hex. This is perhaps his best story since he joined the series. The problem with the Hex character is that unless he has something relevant to his talents then he is just someone who hangs around the Doctor and Ace. His story was the best of the three and that was because of the revelation that the house he is visiting is a mass grave. Olivier shows what he can really do when he is given the right script.

William Hoyland was the star of the show as Premier Jaeger. He was you typical Politian. He pretended that he was for the people but you knew pretty early on that something was up. The truth was denied pretty well and you knew that this Politian exists in the real world and not just in Colony 34. Andrew Collins was also very good as Drew Shahan. Collins has regularly appeared on Doctor Who Confidential and so you knew he was a fan and he plays the DJ very well and gives the perfect employee role when he has to apologise for the comments made in the programs. Zehra Naqvi puts in a great performance as Charlotte Singh. She plays the sort of journalists who work on a local newspaper or on local tv. She is trying to come across as someone who is going places but is struggling with small stories. The character gets her dues though in part four when the truth is made public.

Duncan Wiseby is also very good as Ryan Wareing and his programme was very tense and was enjoyable throughout. Wiseby does the same style of wannabe bigshot journalist that Naqvi puts in but seems to do a better job at it. Joy Elias-Rilwan is good as Lula who we learn has an emotional edge. With the loss of her brother. Her character is the deputy to Ace and then it turns out that she betrayed Ace. She is a character seems to be a likeable one but then turns out to be one that the listener dislikes and Elias-Rilwan plays well. Ann Bryson is the last of the guest stars as Gina Grewal. She is a nice character that serves her purpose and Grewal does well to create the impression she is a lonely old lady who just listens to the radio for entertainment.

Andrew Stirling-Brown and James Parsons have written a truly superb story that has all the elements that are needed for a totally original story. All the characters are well copied from real life and you feel like you are listening to real politicians and real protestors. Gary Russell does a superb job as director and perhaps does his best work for quite sometime. He manages to keep the intrigue going and by using some good music he creates an impression that Colony 34 is a truly depressing place and after the Doctor and co have done their thing the Colony will be a better place.

Overall there is nothing more than fantastic that can be said about this story. I honestly can’t think of a single thing that is wrong with this story and that’s rare in Doctor Who. I would love for Big Finish to do something like this in the future. Good stuff from everyone involved.

Time Reef (2008)

Time Reef is the concluding part in the Thomas Brewster story arc. This story has the responsibility of tying up the story strands in a satisfactory way and that responsibility falls upon the mighty pen of Ghostlight writer Marc Platt. Marc Platt has really clocked up his Doctor Who stories recently. In the last 16 months he has released six audio plays (including this one). Valhalla was a seventh Doctor story which was a mixed play and wasn’t brilliant partly because it didn’t seem to have much of a fast enough pace to it which was a shame really. The Skull of Sobek was too complicated and was the weaker of the Eighth Doctor’s second series. I think the plot to it was quite clever it was just in the execution of the story. The next contribution was Mother Russia was a Companion Chronicles story which was a lot better and highly enjoyable. It wasn’t because it had Peter Purves as Steven Taylor but because the story was relatively simple and it was well directed. His third contribution to the Companion Chronicles series was The Doll of Death and that was another complex story that worked quite well but didn’t quite have the effect that Mother Russia had.

For the plot that Platt put into this story it was just the right length, I think four parts would have resulted in a lot more padding which would have given Platt an opportunity to include some scientific mumbo-jumbo that would have ruined it. The first half of Part One was absolutely fantastic, the dramatic scenes in the TARDIS and the relationship between the Doctor and Brewster were enjoyable. Any scene that is set inside the TARDIS is also a great one for me because not enough stories have long enough or enough scenes set there. I would love it for them to do just one story purely set inside the TARDIS. Peter Davison was great as a frustrated Doctor, it sort of mirrored his relationship with Adric which obviously ended in tragedy and that left the Doctor feeling sad. You do think that the reason that the reason the Doctor was like this to Brewster was because of his fear of Brewster turning into another Adric. I found the moment when the inhabitants thought that Brewster was the Doctor and the Davison was ‘the blonde one’ was very funny though slightly predictable.

John Picard was very good in this story, he has played Thomas Brewster well and it was good thinking of casting Picard in the role. Despite starring in the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks he showed that he can diversify into Science Fiction. There was always the fear that because he is in a popular show like Hollyoaks that he may not take the role of Brewster seriously but that isn’t the case. He has always put his best effort into the stories that he has appeared in. The idea of him stealing the TARDIS and having adventures whilst the Doctor and Nyssa were taking part in the events of The Boy That Time Forgot was something that helped create this whole scenario and make it something different. Other characters in this story were all very well written and none were what you could class as wasteful. Nicholas Farrell was very good as Gammades as was Beth Chalmers who played the very seductive sounding Vuyoki. The scenes that she had with Brewster were very enjoyable and you feel that the slightly primitive Brewster would be embarrassed by such as character. Sean Connolly was also a good actor in this story as Lucor.

The Cliffhanger in this story was the best so far this year in all Doctor Who stories. In the past few stories the cliffhangers have been disappointing and have been anti-climatic before the next episode began. I don’t know why but they just didn’t really grab me and I thought that it was a real shame. The second cliffhanger was the best because it had the music and it had the actors sounding really tense. After two mediocre Marc Platt stories it was back to business for him and shows what a great author he has been to the Big Finish series. He has the tendency like Alan Barnes to write complex stories which can at times be a bit of hit and miss. Barnaby Edwards did a really good job in directing this three part story and that was because he managed to maintain interest and the pace was always consistent. Edwards is perhaps one of the best directors that Big Finish have and you know that when his name appears in the credits then you know that at least if the story is poor then its not because of the direction (well not in this case anyway!).

Now when it comes to the single stories its safe to say that they have been poor in recent months and whenever I have heard that they are doing a ‘three plus one’ release I always prepare myself for the worst because the single part stories really let a release down. In fact out of all the single parters that they have done only Urban Myths which was in Exotron (release 95) was the best one but Perfect World is now the best. This story wasn’t written by Marc Platt, it was written by James Swallow who wrote The Haunting of Thomas Brewster was the right choice to write Brewster’s exit. The idea that a simple sentence changed the whole into a nice Bunny Rabbit happy hippy world was something that could have lasted two or three episodes but worked for this 25 minute story.

This story was a fitting end to the Brewster story arc. The Brewster character was sent off in a dignified way which leaves the listener thinking of Brewster in the future in a positive way. This single story shows that Big Finish seem to be getting to grips with what sort of stories can be told in 25 minutes. The November release Forty Five will compose of 25 minute single stories so I am more confident of this release than I was before I heard Time Reef. Though after a half dozen releases and only two of them being any good it not the best record to have but it can only improve.

The Ultimate Adventure (2008)

Now the stage plays were something of a known unknown to quote a certain US Defence Secretary. I had heard there were some but nothing beyond that. The only questions that were in my mind were 1) Would a stage play work on radio and 2) Why did it take so long for someone to come up with the idea? The first release is The Ultimate Adventure and is quite unique for several reasons. First of all is that it has Colin Baker as the Doctor, now Baker starred in the stage version back in 1989 after he took over from Jon Pertwee. Secondly we have David Banks who played the Cyber Leader in a few of the classic stories but most notably we have both Dalek and Cybermen in the same adventure. It was like Army of Ghosts & Doomsday only 17 years earlier.

This play was written by former Script Editor Terrance Dicks who worked on the classic series from 1968 until 1974 and contributed as a writer afterwards and also worked on the majority of the Target Novels. I really didn’t know what to expect, I knew that it wasn’t going to be quite like a regular release. I downloaded The Ultimate Adventure from the Big Finish website and listened to it and as I did notice quite early on is how unlike normal plays it sounded like and by that I mean how it just didn’t have the same feel as The Reaping or Catch 1782 for example. The scene where the Doctor and Jason meet Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing Street was quite possibly the strangest scene that I have ever heard from Big Finish.

Character wise it was all well constructed Colin Baker put in a solid performance as the Doctor. Despite it not being amongst his finest work, he doesn’t take things to seriously and treats it as a jolly adventure told in a different way. It’s a shame he doesn’t sing in this story as he can hold a tune which he showed in Doctor Who and the Pirates (release 43) back in 2003. Nadine Cox who did the voice of Margaret Thatcher did an OK job but I have heard better. I don’t know whether she is a proper impersonator but if not then I suppose she did an ok job considering. Noel Sullivan who I just discovered was in the pop band Hear’Say was good as Frenchman Jason. It was a slightly stereotypical accent from Sullivan but in the end it didn’t really matter as it wasn’t a story to be compared to a proper main range play. He played the character very well as fitted into the one-off companion role very well. Claire Huckle was also good as Crystal it was a good character which bordered on the annoying at times but managed to hold back. David Banks was very good as Karl, he played the Cyber-Leader in the 1980’s and so it was refreshing to see him play something else, quite like Terry Molloy not playing Davros in Kingdom of Silver. It was also nice that he played the same role he did on stage as it was a nice bit of continuity. The role of Karl was a nice strong one that wouldn’t be out of place in a Bond film. Other characters and actors that were very good in the role included Bryan Pilkington who played the Nightclub MC and Derek Carlyle who played the Envoy and also Zog. Also but by no means least there is of course Nicholas Briggs who did the voices of both the Cybermen and The Daleks (it’s a law which was passed in the House of Commons).

What I quite liked the most was the relationship between the Daleks and the Cybermen. What I was disappointed with in the 2006 two-parter TV series Army of Ghosts/Doomsday was how the Daleks and Cybermen didn’t try and forge an alliance but instead went against each other. It was a wasted opportunity that could have made those two episodes the benchmark for future series finale’s. In this story they were allies but there was still that underlying tension that you often feel when you hear of two rival political parties working together, you know that it’ll end in disaster which is really what you would want instead of them blowing the hell out of each other within seconds of meeting each other. The first act ends with a rather limp and weak ending but that’s not really a problem because its not a normal Doctor Who story and the normal rules of cliffhangers goes out of the TARDIS window in these sort of stories. Act 2 has a faster pace and that where the story really comes into its own. The moment where the Doctor reveals the conversation that he had with the Emperor Dalek to the Cybermen and the mercenaries was totally unexpected and yet turn the whole dynamic of the story. For those who saw the stage play it perhaps wasn’t such a surprise but for those like me who didn’t know anything about it then it was a nice twist.

The songs in this story were good, considering that with it being a musical stage play it was important for the songs to be enjoyable and they were on the whole. The first song was perhaps the best, it had a cheesy 80’s tune but it was still the best out of the three. The one with Crystal and Jason was also nice and it helped to create a positive view for a Crystal/Jason relationship. I think the tone that this play set was helped by with the songs. Overall, this was an enjoyable story and whilst it is not up to the same standard that the regular releases are it is still worth listening if you are ever feeling down and need pepping up.

Terrance Dicks wrote the original stage play and also wrote the audio version and that’s why it works so well. Even though Dicks has a limited contribution rate to the Big Finish series he manages to keep the story ticking over with enough going and seems to fit the action around the songs. Jason Haigh-Ellery did perhaps his best turn as Director for this story. He really kept the who thing interesting and it never became dull of lacklustre.

This is a gem of a story. Not to be taken seriously what it does do is give Doctor Who fans who want something a bit different from your run of the mill adventure that we all know and love and give us something that we could stick on the MP3 player on a Sunday afternoon and get lost in a battle with Daleks and Cybermen.

Top stuff.

Kingdom of Silver (2008)

There have been a large number of companionless stories as of late. There was Valhalla and then there was The Death Collectors and then there was Frozen Time and now there is this story. You may notice a pattern emerging and that is all the stories being mentioned are Seventh Doctor stories and this is largely because he works just as well with companions as he does without. Kingdom of Silver is a story is different because it features a familiar monster. In this story the Doctor travels to Tasak. The story is quite a good one as it tells of a civilisation that is progressing and using technology that is really evil. It turns out that the technology comes from Cybermen who have been in hibernation and have been woken up. It is a story that works well in a three part situation and I like three part stories because it means that you don’t have padding on the story which can at times be frustrating. Cybermen are the shows second most popular monster and perhaps they should be ahead of the Daleks because essentially the Cybermen are human but with just robotic parts instead of human parts like a heart and lungs etc. Whenever they appear in Big Finish plays they are always well used. The 2002 story Spare Parts in one of the best stories that they have ever done and whenever they appear they are always well used. The use of the Cybermen in this story was just right and they were used in a simple yet effective way. In many respects that is what makes this story work really well. Kingdom of Silver wasn’t complicated as I feared you knew what was happening and it was a simple solution to the conclusion of the story.

Slyvester McCoy was very good in this story. He seems to work better when he hasn’t got any companions. He does work well with Sophie Aldred and Philip Olivier but I think when the Doctor hasn’t got a companion to worry about then he hasn’t got any complications or any emotional drama to have to deal with on top of what is going on. What has worked really well in this story, Valhalla, Frozen Time and The Death Collectors is how he quickly creates chemistry with his temporary companion in those stories. The biggest name apart from McCoy was Terry Molloy who most fans of classic who will know as the third actor to play Davros from 1983-1988. He is credited with giving Davros the maniacal aspect to his character that is clearly been carried over with Julian Bleech in 2008. He has appeared in several stories for Big Finish over the years but this is the only time that I recall he gets to play a character that isn’t Davros. In this story Malloy plays Magus Riga who I imagine is some sort of old professor who is coming to the end of his life. Neil Roberts plays Temeter in this story and is one of the most vital parts of this story. In this story it was Temeter who was reluctant to believe the Doctor but soon came on side but it was his relationship with Sara that was somewhat predictable but added something to the story. Another important member of the story is Sara as played by Kate Terrance and she forms a great relationship with Temeter which will be important in a certain spin-off which is being planned for late 2009. Other characters work really well in the story including James George as Merel, Bunny Reed as Ardith, Holly King as Etin and of course Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Cybermen.

This story isn’t flawless. The cliffhangers in this story were really quite weak. The cliffhanger should really give you an incentive to carry on listening like you would get when watching the TV series. Of course we are going to carry on listening because we have it all in one package but imagine if we had to wait a week there would be no real incentive to tune in. Having said that it was the only real niggling thing about this story which is quite surprising. With single part stories in the past they have tended to be pointless. This is due to my opinion that 25 minute single part stories just don’t work cause you cant tell a story in such a short amount of time. The only exception to the rule is Urban Myths which was entertaining. Keepsake was actually quite good. The thing that I noticed straight away from that it didn’t really have anything to do with Kingdom of Silver except that it featured Temeter and Sara. Listening to the extras it was a prologue for the second series of the Cyberman spin-off. The story was well constructed and well acted. It looks like the second series is going to be very good if they are going to keep Temeter and Sara as they are because there is so much potential for they characters and it’ll be great to hear them again.

James Swallow has written several stories over the last few years including Singularity (2005) and the Companion Chronicles story Old Soldiers. Those stories were not what I would class as top stories but that is not to say that they are poor. With this story Swallow has produced his best script that had all the drama and enjoyment that you would expect from a Cybermen story. Ken Bentley & Nicholas Briggs took turns in directing these two plays and to be honest their just as good as the other. I suspect that Briggs directed Keepsake because of the ties with his spin-off series and so he knows what he wants from it. Overall this was a good release with a good plot and cast, it was nice to see a ‘three plus one’ release that worked together and does show to me that this works however this is only the second one since they did these that this has happened. What I think they should do is to make the single part story slightly longer, maybe 30 minutes or even 35 minutes.

The Doomwood Curse (2008)

Following on from the superb The Condemned, what we have in The Doomwood Curse is a story that is not as dark or serious as The Condemned but is bizarre. This story is written by Jacqueline Rayner who has written in the past one of the episodes in 100 (2007), Doctor Who and the Pirates (2003) and The Marian Conspiracy (2000). The big thing about this story is the inclusion of Dick Turpin. When I heard that they were going to use this character I thought ‘Oh Dear!’. You could tell that the tense atmosphere and drama that had been developed in the previous Sixth Doctor/Charley story was not going to be present in this story. Also included in this story were the Grel’s. Now I couldn’t quite place where I had heard of them but they had been use in the Bernice Summerfield story The Grel Escape (written by Jacqueline Rayner). I liked the idea that due to the Grel’s actions in the library that all the events in the Eighteenth Century were not what would be expected. I also quite liked the idea that the Grels are obsessed with changing bad facts to good facts. My issue with this story is that it just isn’t as good as The Condemned and whilst it would be difficult to replicate that enjoyment for two stories running the dip was quite surprising which isn’t really Jacqueline Rayner’s fault but in terms of the producers. The unusual story is intriguing to begin with but by part 3 it was just getting tiresome and perhaps should have been saved for a different combination or later in the Doctor/Charley storyline. This Charley issue is something that should take priority in the storytelling and they should find stories that are more suitable to this plot.

Colin Baker is good in this story. He is playing the not really figuring out Charley role quite well. Despite knowing that there is something not quite right with Charley he still strives to try and rescue her after she departs with Turpin. Baker is arguably the strongest Doctor out of the four and that is because despite what he is given, he is able to get something out of it. India Fisher puts in another good performance as Charley. She seems to revel in her new un-Charley like role with Turpin. It’s not very often that she gets to play anything other than a posh 1930’s adventuress.

Nicky Henson was very good as Turpin. Despite my reservations at the inclusion of the character, Henson put a lot of performance into the role and made it bearable. Nicky Henson can always be relied upon to put in a good performance and he managed to make me like Turpin which wasn’t easy. Hayley Atwell plays Eleanor very well. Atwell previously appeared in the BBC7 play Blood of the Daleks and she puts in another great performance. I now I am using the term great performance a lot but there’s nothing wrong with any of them. Trevor Cooper plays Sir Ralph which is an enjoyable and reliable performance. It certainly is below Nicky Henson in terms of hamming it up but still what Cooper gave wasn’t a poor performance and the character of Sir Ralph played its part in the course of the story. Geraldine Newman is a name that sounds familiar but doesn’t ring any bells. Anyway in this story she plays Lady Sybil in the sort of way that one would expect to hear a lady don’t you know! Daisy Douglas plays Susan and Suzie Chard plays Molly. Both I believe are making their first appearance in the Doctor Who world but hopefully it wont be their last because they contributed to the story and helped add some nice slant to the whole story.

Jacqueline Rayner has become one of the most interesting writers for the range. Whilst this story was certainly better than I thought it didn’t grab me in the way that I would have liked. There were some interesting elements in this story that made it a good story, not great but good. Barnaby Edwards did very well as the Director, he directs this with the sort of carefully crafted form of directing that I have come to enjoy and appreciate. I think that this quirky type of story would have probably being a massive failure if it had fallen into any other directors lap but with Edwards what we have is a well directed and well paced story.

Fact: Whilst this isn’t the best story of year neither is it the worst. There are some nice elements and I think that in this case its not the writers fault but the listeners fault for this one not quite hitting the back of the net. Hopefully with the next Sixth Doctor/Charley story we will go back to more serious stories. As a one off, this isn’t that bad.

The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008)

Never has a title in Doctor Who history been so unusual in my opinion. It was obvious that there was going to be a wasp in it because it featured in the trailer at the end of Voyage of the Damned but I wanted to know where the Unicorn was going to feature in it. With the recent release of Black Orchid which was a purely historical it was nice to see a Modern Doctor Who story that is as close to that story as has ever been attempted. I know there are people saying well what about Tooth and Claw, Shakespeare Code or even The Unquiet Dead? Well I wouldn’t consider them a proper historical because they always had a tendency to lean towards alien elements and sci-fi elements whereas TUATW didn’t. There were some memorable scenes, the first was when the Doctor had been poisoned and the Doctor was trying to tell Agatha and Donna what he wanted. Very well done.

The first thing that struck me about this episode was how beautiful it looked, one thing that the BBC can claim is that it makes historical programmes better than anyone on the planet. The costumes, the settings and also the cars all added to the magic of this episode. When I was watching this episode with my parents we were wondering who had dunit as that was really what the episode was about aside from what the giant wasp was doing and where it had come from. My money was on the vicar cause it seemed the most unlikely yet it was the most obvious. The actors in this all worked their socks off especially Fenella Woolgar who played Agatha Christie. She played the character well and it was nice to that she was played as someone who wasn’t a smartarse and knew it all but had to be prompted to come up with the answer. The star really of the episode was Felicity Kendall who everyone in the UK knows starred in the 1970’s BBC Comedy ‘The Good Life’. She was very good in this story and her story about becoming pregnant and not being able to keep the baby added a lot of plot to a story that up until that point was severely lacking. My favourite piece of casting however has to go to Christopher Benjamin who played Colonel Hugh. It took me a while (a long while) to figure out where I had seen him before, well he appeared in the 1970 story ‘Inferno’ as Sir Keith Gold and in the 1976 story ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ as Henry Gordon Jago. He also appears in the latest Paul McGann adventure ‘Grand Theft Cosmos’. His character was well played and I though his character bought great entertainment to the episode.

I do have a few problems with it. For one, why oh why oh why does Russell T Davies insist on having a gay person or couple in every couple of episodes. If there not snogging each others faces off it Torchwood then theres the slighting hint in Doctor Who. I am waiting for one of those kids in the Sarah Jane Adventures to come out of the closet. Its ok in Torchwood but not in Doctor Who, I’m sorry. Another problem I have with the story is the Unicorn bit. Now I may be stupid but I was kinda hoping for something a bit better that someone called themselves The Unicorn. What sort of thief calls them self after a made up animal?. I was hoping for a proper Unicorn and the fact I didn’t get one added to the disappointment. Another negative point is the revelation scene where Agatha and The Doctor go through every single bloody character in a stupid exaggerated manner and then Donna saying ‘So he killed him’.

This story was a very strange story with some good points, lovely scenery and some well acted and directed scenes. I think that Graeme Harper is one of the best directors in the new who series. Gareth Thomas wrote a really entertaining script with The Shakespeare Code but unfortunately falls ever so slightly short with this story. The main problem is that the Vespiform are a stupid creation. They serve no purpose and it might as well have been a giant slug for all the impact it had. They might as well have called it ‘The Cockey Thief and the Giant Slug’. That was harsh for which I apologise but the more I think about it the more I get annoyed with what a waste this episode was.

This story was the weakest so far.

The Doctor's Daughter (2008)

Well it wasn’t quite the episode I thought it would be but then again if every episode was how I imagined it would be then life would be boring. The second story to come from Stephen Greenhorn (he also wrote 2007’s The Lazarus Experiment) was another good episode.

The main question I had before this episode started was how were they going to explain the fact that the Doctor has a daughter but he says he is the last of the Timelord’s? The answer was quite simple really and everything in the story worked out quite well (except for one bit but more of that later), the idea that the two armies can be created by sticking your arm in a machine and that the two armies were created in seven days was well thought out and added to the sadness and scale of the situation. The General played the evil general very well and was a good for someone for the Doctor to vent his frusttation and anger at. The Hath were very well thought out but I would have liked for them to have some form of proper vocal cords.

Of all the cast, it was Georgia Moffat who stole the show. I was a bit unsure of her because I thought that they had only really cast her because her dad is Peter Davison. But pretty soon those fears went away and you could see that even at the beginning there was a bond forming between her and the Doctor. Catherine Tate was the best that I have seen her in this series, she actually helped solve the situation and came up with some funny jokes at the Doctors expense. Freema Agyeman was put in a really difficult position where she had to interact with an alien that couldn’t talk but she was able to work with it.

The story was very good and the moment when Jennie got shot was a truly sad moment and it was surprising to see the Doctor with a gun in his hand and not knowing whether he would shoot or not. The fact that Jennie came back to life and went off in her spaceship shows that there is a good chance she will be making a return to the show in future episodes. Well acted and well directed this is another fine episode from this series.

The Sontaran Stratagem (2008)

Well their back and for the first time in nearly 25 years. Doctor Who has had a tendancy in the past of putting all their eggs into one basket and by that I mean putting all the action into the first part and hoping that carries into the second part, they seemed to be learning their lesson in the last series. The Sonataran Stratagem features the return of Martha after her stint in Torchwood. The new and improved Martha seems a lot more confident and the scene where The Doctor sees Martha for the first time since 29.13 – Last of the Timelords was well written and well acted by the trio. I liked the comedy that Tennant added to the scene thinking that Donna and Martha were going to swabble over him like Rose and Sarah Jane did in 28.3 – School Reunion. It was well done though I didn’t quite like the ‘You hug him and you get a paper cut!’, it then lead well into the main action. The return of the most useless military organisation was also a welcome addition. It started so well showing them that they could be a force that was well organised and had soldiers that could actually take control of a situation but boy did that disappear quickly.

The Sontaran’s were really good in this story and it was quite interesting to see that Sontarans have goatees. The idea that Sonatrans are actually cloning people is something that has never been explored in Doctor Who before which is kind of weird when you think about it. The look of the Sontaran is quite nice as it is quite colourful compared to previous adventures the idea that they have some sort of lackey seemed quite unlike Sontaran behaviour but worked quite well in setting up the story. The cliffhanger was the most dramatic that has ever happened in Doctor Who (well probably the second after 29.11 - Utopia). Sontarans chanting made them seem more
menacing and made them fell more dominant.

David Tennant was on good form as the Doctor as usual, his scene with Donna when he thought she was leaving him and then he realised what was going on was amusing and added a bit of light relief. Catherine Tate was continuing to improve as Donna and her first meeting with Martha showed how far she has come since The Runaway Bride. Freema Agyeman’s return to the show was a welcome addition to the story and the Martha we see in this story is not only different from her time in Series 29 but even different from her Torchwood run. Its nice to see that the infatuations with the Doctor have all but gone. Bernard Cribbins who I think is one of the best casting decisions done by the BBC Wales team was brilliant as usual as Donna’s granddad, when he realised that the man that Donna had gone away with was the same man he saw at Christmas it seemed as if RTD had been planning this from the beginning (if we didn’t know what we learnt from the first DWC of the new series).

Whilst it isn’t the best episode of the series so far it is still a damn fine episode and makes me confident that The Poison Sky will make a fine second parter in what has been a strong start to the 30th season of Doctor Who.

Planet of the Ood (2008)

The third episode is another visually stunning story that mixes well with a very interesting plot. Keith Temple's debut script for the series battles between bringing back a familiar character and deals with a moral issue.

The Ood who first appeared in the 2006 two-parter The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit is the first creature from the new series to return (apart from The Daleks). The Ood were used in an emotional yet tense way. We had learned in The Impossible Planet that the Ood are servants and presumed that they are born this way. We learn in this episode that they are born free but are converted into being slaves. This is a real sad revelation but highlight (and this might be the writers intention) the horrors of slavery. When the Ood's eyes turn red you wondered what was causing this cause in The Satan Pit it was the Devil but he 'secondary' stage was truly shocking. The most shocking scene though in this episode if not in Doctor Who history was when Klineman Halpan ripped of his skin to reveal he had been turned into an Ood.

Catherine Tate is progressing well, she was only annoying in the TARDIS but after that she showed the same positive points that she displayed in The Fires of Pompeii. One of my favourite scenes was when she asked the Doctor to give her the chance to hear the Ood singing. It was truly a sad moment and throughout the episode she tried to convince the Ood to be free, it wasnt over bearing but was subtly done. David Tennant was very good in this story but seemed to me be in the background of things because The Ood and Tim McInnery stole the show.

Tim McInnery is perhaps best know for starring in the Blackadder series and was superb in this episode. He was like a slave master and whenever he was on the screen he just seemed to be enjoying himself and find it quite easy. The Ood were well received and well liked back in the 2006 two-parters but in this they were propelled to one of the best non-Dalek/Cybermen monsters in Who history.

Great plot, great special effects and great scenes. This story continued the good start to the season and with the Sontaran two-parter yet to come the series can only get better

The Fires of Pompeii (2008)

Episode 2 saw a nice improvement on the opener. Not in terms of enjoyment but more in terms of quality of script. Fires of Pompeii has to be one of the most ambitious stories that has ever been attempted for new-who and it pays off. With visually stunning settings and special effects Fires of Pompeii is the best historical story just ahead of Tooth and Claw and The Shakespeares Code. When they made the Shakespeare Code they managed to make it look realistic by filming in The Globe Theatre and in streets around Warwick. This helped create the atmosphere for the story which is why it went down well its this attention to detail that helped Fires of Pompeii. They filmed on the sets that were used for the HBO/BBC drama 'Rome'. Being a fan of that series they looked really familir but the sets and location only tell half the story.

The plot was a really good one because in a way there were two strands. The first being of the sisterhood and the rock creature taking over the world and the second was the conflict between the Doctor and Donna on whether to change history by telling people about the impending doom or not. Its the latter that stood but to me the most after the episode had finished.

Its always been a big dilemma in Doctor Who 'Should the Doctor change history to help people survive'. Well you start to enter a grey area on this ground because if the Doctor can then why doesn’t he go back to Gallifrey and save the Timelords? The scene between Donna and the Doctor in the TARDIS was a well written and well acted moment. It was at that point that Donna became a proper companion to me. She stood up to the Doctor and made him stand up to his decisions. The fact that Donna doesn’t fancy the Doctor or admire him though that may change.

There was one part of this episode that I thought let it down. The first was the Donna was slightly annoying in the first part of this episode. She did bear a horrible resemblance to her character Lauren the Teenager and I did start to feel sorry for David Tennant for being lumbered with Tate. About halfway through the episode she just stopped being annoying and became really good and lets hope she continues with this. A very good episode that was let down by an annoying Donna in the first 25 minutes but great special effects and a great plot.

Fragments (2008)

The penultimate episode of the series is quite an unusual one to do but is the most revealing episode out of the two series. The simple plot was that the team were investigating an abandoned building but there are explosive devices and they go off trapping the team in various precarious positions. This meant that we got to see how all five members of Torchwood ended up working there. Jack’s was quite interesting and so was Gwen’s whilst Ianto’s was entertaining and the scene where Jack and Ianto are trying to capture the terradactyl was humorous. Tosh’s was predictably average whilst Owen’s was perhaps the most emotional, the fact that he actually was in love with someone was shocking at first and then the revelation that his fiancé had an alien growing in her head was also a nice twist.

The moment that I thought was really tense was where the window glass was about to fall and decapitate Owen. With this series being unpredictable it was perfectly believable that Owen was going to be half the man he use to be. The biggest question that had to be answered and was brilliantly hidden behind all the action was who planted those bombs and why, the answer was revealed to be Captain John and he had Jack’s brother which was totally shocking.

A brilliant episode and a fantastic climax making me look forward to the season finale.

Partners in Crime (2008)

Well 467 days after she last appeared in Doctor Who, Catherine Tate returns to Doctor Who except she is going to be a proper companion and go down in Doctor Who history. The main concern I had was that the producers were not going to change the character of Donna but after watching Partners in Crime I think they have done the right thing and toned he annoyance down. The whole episode had a comedy feel to it which is fine as long as it doesnt take control of the whole episode which it seemed to in New Earth but didnt in this case. The main baddie was Miss Foster who seemed very Supernanny and she was quite convincing as a baddie. The thing that annoys me in some Doctor Who stories is what is their reason for being there and the situation that they are in not being explained clearly enough but it this case the explanation was satisfactory.

David Tennant was as usual on good form in this episode and his reaction at seeing Donna did remind me on the Fifth Doctor’s reaction to Tegan coming back to the team in Arc of Infinity. The scene where he sees Donna again for the first time was a really funny moment and well played by Tennant. Catherine Tate was also good in this story, there were glimpses of the old Donna from the Runaway Bride but on the whole it was a different Donna that appeared. Her relationship with her mother was well played but it was with her grandad that was most hearwarming. Wilfred Mott had appeared in Voyage of the Damned and according to Doctor Who confidential wasnt supposed to appear but due to the sudden death of Howard Attfield as Donna’s Dad. Bernard Cribbins is a familiar face to Doctor Who fans as he appeared in the 1966 movie Dalek Invasion of Earth 2150AD was very good in his scenes with Donna and the moment at the end of the episode was well acted, it showed that he wasnt angry or jealous of Donna but happy for her and that was a nice thing in this episode.

The Adipose were curious creatures as they seemed not really to have a purpose other that waiting to go home yet when they were walking in the streets seemed quite menacing and that must have been the plan for Russell T Davies. The most shocking thing was the appearance of Rose, last seen in the 2006 season finale she appeared for a few moments before vanashing. Was she a ghost or is she able to jump between worlds which we were told was impossible. I have to say that I was to bemused to think about that at the moment and it was until afterwards that I wondering how this would pan out in future episodes. Whilst it wasnt as good as Smith and Jones it was far better than New Earth and I am far more confident about the series with Donna in it that before I watched this episode.

The Dark Husband (2008)

The Dark Husband is an unusual release. This story has been written by David Quantick who I always think is a bit of a strange man with a strange sense of humour. I put all of this to one side and eagerly anticipated the arrival of the first Seventh Doctor adventure of 2008. The first story to feature the Seventh Doctor, Hex & Ace since February 2006’s Nocturne and I after I finished listening to it I couldn’t quite decide what to make of it. I thought it was an interesting idea but it just didn’t seem to have any pace or urgency about it. I found myself starting to lose interest at several times during this story, that makes it sound like I hated it but that’s not the case cause there were several entertaining elements. The idea that Ace and The Doctor were going to get married and then Ace and Hex was quite fun and also the characters were interesting also there were several little jokes dotted around the four parter which considering its author was to be expected and appreciated.

Slyvester McCoy was very good as the Doctor, his whole character was well suited to what was going as he always seemed to be the ball with what was going on and at times just a step behind it. McCoy has had some sort of a revival in form recently with a strong line of stories (except for Valhalla) where he can take control of stories. Sophie Aldred was equally as entreating as Ace and her relationship with Hex continued to shine and becoming the best combination now that Peri & Erimem have departed, saying that though if Erimem was still in it Ace & Hex would have been level. I think that as Aldred has matured over the years, so has the character of Ace and Aldred is able to reflect that. Philip Olivier was also good in this story and his enjoyment of marrying Ace was quite enjoyable. Olivier is a very good actor however he is never given a good enough run of episodes to show what the character of Hex can do. He has been in the show since 2004 and I don’t really think he has stood out perhaps like Erimem or Evelyn have.

The star of the story was Danny Webb who appeared in the 2006 two part story The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit. He according to Wikipedia plays three characters (Ori, Irit & Tulin). If that’s true then the voices were superb and helped get me through the story. Its really quite a neat trick to be able to do multiple voices and not sound the same. Hopefully we will get another performance from Webb that just has him playing one role. Katarina Olsson makes an appearance in a Doctor Who play that doesn’t feature Paul McGann in anyway. That somehow seems wrong but at the same time she is playing something that isn’t The Headhunter which can only be a good thing. She plays The Bards along with Sean Connolly and together they create a glorious impression of a monster that you just wouldn’t want to bump into in a dark alley.

Knowing what kind of person David Quantick is (by watching TV of course) I was expecting a slightly different kind of story and that is what we got but the only that let this story down was that there just wasn’t any pace to it. It felt that the story was just dragging and that’s a shame because we have had to wait a long time for a Seventh Doctor/Ace/Hex story and this was ultimately a bit of a let down. I think it’s a brave effort and one that should be applauded for that point alone however from an entertainment standpoint it just didn’t grip me like a normal Doctor Who story should. Nicholas Briggs directed this one amazingly. I say amazingly because in the past he has directed some truly superb stories and this one just seemed flat and uninspiring. I don’t know if Briggs was just having a bad day but this wasn’t Brigg’s finest hour (and a bit!)

It was unfortunate that this story came after the truly stunning The Condemned because its very obvious to the extent of quality here and at the end of the day it isn’t a story I will remember with fondness

Exit Wounds (2008)

Over the previous 12 episodes one thing that has impressed me above all was how consistantly good the episodes have been. None of them are what I would call poor which isnt what I could have said of Season 1. Following on from the previous episode which was brilliant I have to say that this finale is the icing on a huge cake. I like the character of Captain John and it was nice to see him in this episode. It was quite a surprise that he was being used by Jack brother and also it was shocking to see the death of Tosh and for the second time this series Owen.

There were several things that I liked about this episode, the first was that Jack was buried in AD 27 Cardiff but ended up in a box in Torchwood. This was explain in a really good way after being found by the staff of the 1901 Torchwood. I thought the deaths of Owen and Tosh were played really well and by the end of the episode I thought that it was one of the finest episodes of the entire series.
All the action was well done and none of it was soppy drivel. The episode was a fittng climax to a series that has delivered quality episodes time and time again.

Adrift (2008)

I wasn’t expecting very much from this episode when I saw the trailer last week. Especially with that PC bloke that Gwen worked with when she was in the police. But I have to admit that I was wrong, this episode had the same emotional impact and dramatic quality that Adam had earlier in the series.

This was a Gwen episode really as she got involved with what seemed like a missing persons case. Soon she discovered that the rift is picking these people up out and it turns out that some are return but mentally disturbed from what they have seen. The biggest revelation is that we see a new side to Jack because he has been hiding the base that the rift survivors return to obviously for some time, we learned more about him in the last few episode than we have since he made his debut in Doctor Who. The scene where Johan is reunited with his mum was a fantastically emotional moment as there had only been seven months but he must have aged 30 or 40 years.

There were some scenes that I thought was unnecessary, the scene where Gwen walks in on Ianto and Jack and its obvious what they are doing. I just thought that it detracted from what was a fine plot with good direction and nice shots. The other thing I liked what that there was more Rhys, he is a character that is growing on me as he doesn’t seem so stupid and childlike as he did in Series 1. He seemes to have some fantastic scenes with Gwen.

From Out of the Rain (2008)

This story is from Peter J Hammond who had penned Small Worlds from Series 1 and I have to say that I think that this story is better. The setting was absolutely spot on, the rain and the night both helped create an imaginative and visual episode.

The main baddie was very eerie and very good. It was nice to see another part of Jack’s past even though the storyline with Ianto and Jack is starting to get a bit dull and repetitive.

I like the idea that the Night Travellers are seeking revenge for Cinema killing the freak show. Another aspect that I liked was that the ghosts of the victims are some sort of trophy, I thought that it was a well used idea. The whole story had a touch of elegance which is something that you don’t get very often in drama, the the way the shots were done and some of the locations were lovely to look at.

Unusally the episode seem Tosh light which may be explained in future episodes but to be honest I didn’t notice until about 35 minutes in. John Barrowman was as usual on good form along with Eve Myles and Gareth David Lloyd but Burn Gorman seemed to be the happiest and most relaxed throughout the entire episode. Julian Bleach (a name we will get to know quite well I think) was the best of the guest cast as the Ghost??, he was scary but not OTT.

An Enjoyable episode.

Brave New Town (2008)

2008 TOMS TARDIS AWARD WINNER

• Best Eighth Doctor Adventure

This was a bizarre story from Jonathan Clements who had previous written the 2007 story Immortal Beloved. The story is set in what it made to look like a traditional English village with inhabitants who are living the same day over and over again. Its soon obvious that al is not what it seems. It turns out that The Doctor and Lucie have infact materialised in Uzbekistan. It Is then revealed that the inhabitants are infact Autons who aren’t the sort of Autons we all know but Autons who seem to want to be more like humans. By the end of the adventure the Autons are treated like Asylum Seekers.

This story isn’t as good as Dead London and Max Warp because it seems to lack any tension or actual drama. Whereas Clements previous attempt had a bit of drama in it this one seemed to not have any pace to it. There just wasn’t any tension which was a shame because a story which features the Autons for the first time ever should have had been a bigger and better story. The actors in this story were as good as they could be considering the quality of the script. Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith were Its was revealed in the Extras section at the end of the story that Jonathan Clements isn’t a Doctor Who fan which is why it feels a bit distant.

This story isn’t a good as the previous stories from the series and is a let down from the good Immortal Beloved.

Cuddlesome (2008)

This special release for Doctor Who Magazine sees The Fifth Doctor battling cuddly teddy bears. Now normally this would be a big cause for concern but as I was listening to it the concern quickly disappeared. The idea that there were teddy bears that could kill reminded me of the 1971 Jon Pertwee adventure ‘Terror of the Autons’.

The plot was quick and constant, the revelation of what the cuddlesome’s reason for all the evilness was different but plausible. It set the story up and concluded in a satisfactory way and by the end of it I felt that I enjoyed the story. Peter Davison was great as the Doctor and his Doctor was on top form. Roberta Taylor who is more famous for starring in the ITV drama The Bill and had appeared in the 2000 play The Holy Terror was the best guest star in this play as the temporary companion Angela Wisher. Timothy West who had appeared in the BBC7/Eighth Doctor play Phobos (2007) was not far behind as the creator of the Cuddlesomes. David Troughton, son of the Second Doctor Patrick, was also good as The Tinghus.

Enjoyable Stuff