Scherzo (2003)

Scherzo is a strange story. Its strange because there are only two characters in the entire thing. Now this wouldn’t be such a strange thing in a play on the West End or on Broadway about some sensitive issue however for a Science Fiction radio play its different. Its been a weird couple of stories for the 8th Doctor and Charley. The dramatic events of Zagreus has left us with a strained relationship that could go anywhere and in this story it does.

This story is different from other stories in that there are no guest stars and also has next to no incidental music, what we get in this story are two actors some tinny music and some other weird music. Another thing that I liked about this story was how different the Doctor seems. At points he is cruel to Charley and that is unsettling but then he switches back to good old Doctor No. 8 which is a relief. As the TARDIS has been broken up it means that the Doctor and Charley are cut off from time and as a result the Doctor loses all his senses.

The sound monster was perhaps the most ingenious creation to come into Doctor Who for quite some time. It’s interesting how it grew as the story went on. Using words that have been spoken by someone else is creepy and did the job that was intended.

I loved the piece that Paul McGann did at the beginning of each episode. Its so different from what we normally get but as this is a bizarre story it sits quite well in proceedings. At the end of the day this is a story about love and how the Doctor and Charley feel for each other. It’s the ultimate test for any friendship and at the end of the story they are both in a strange environment cut off from the TARDIS.

Scherzo is a simply superb story that benefits from having two truly superb actors starring in it. Paul McGann and India Fisher did a great job of playing two roles that were taking from one extreme to the other but still stayed together. Robert Shearman has written a brilliant story and managed to make everything work.

Night Thoughts (2006)

Night Thoughts on my first listen to it wasn’t a great story. However on a second listen I found it to be a simply brilliant story. It is dark and quite frankly disturbing, especially if you listen to it in the dark before going to sleep (like me). This is the first story to be written by Edward Young and according to Wikipedia this story was originally to have formed part of the 27th season back in 1990 however obviously with the cancellation in 1989 this name came to light.

The setting of this story seems to be some bizarre forest with a house in the middle of it. There are several elements such as Sue who is very creepy and a stuffed toy called Happy that really did get me spooked. Lizzie Hopley was the woman behind Sue and did a great job and thankfully didn’t go OTT with it which is where it could have gone. Bernard Kay is a familiar name to Doctor Who as he appeared in several TV stories between 1964 and 1971. I liked him as Major Dickens and thought that the character was acted out just right.

This is Hex’s second brilliant story in a row. Live 34 was just a brilliant story for him as his part of the story suited his character whereas with this story it was just that he was given some great dialogue and some wonderful scenes. Philip Olivier has really grown with the character of Hex and whilst I don’t think he’s Big Finish’s best companion I have to say that with a few more stories like this then he will be up there. Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy are old pro’s at these Doctor Who stories and they took to this like a duck to water. I think that the relationship with Ace and Hex is starting to become more obvious and this will add a whole new dimension to the TARDIS relationship (see what I did there!).

Well worth a listen to anyone who likes to be spooked.

The Harvest (2004)

The Harvest was a superb vehicle for Hex and I had hopes that his first adventure as a member of the TARDIS would be a much better one than what we got here. Dreamtime is the second story to come from Simon Forward who wrote The Sandman (2002). Unfortunately I didn’t like Sandman so its sad that I have the same opinion of this story.

The problem that I have with this story is that it seems to be a bit to pyscadelic and just didn’t grip me at any point of this story. It just seemed like they were going through the motions of getting Hex’s first adventure out of the way. Hex is given enough to do the classic companion thing of being in awe of an alien world. Forward uses Hex in a good way. Ace is also good in this story which continues to show her growing up from the backpack carrying Nitro9 explosive youngster that we saw on TV. There are some interesting moments the does standout for me in this story such as the use of Galyari who is aggressive and is a thankful saviour to the supporting characters of this story.

Take the novelty of having Hex in the TARDIS out of the equation then what we are left with is an average story that isn’t as good as it should be. I found my attention slipping several times during this story which isn’t good. A shame for Hex’s first story as an official companion.

Master (2003)

The third part of this trilogy of special stories featuring enemies from the Doctor’s past sees perhaps the only character in Doctor Who’s history that was on the same level as him in terms of intelligence. Ever since he first appeared in Terror of the Autons the character of Master went from sinister evil renegade Timelord to slightly pantomime sort of character.

This story is the most atmospheric story that I have ever listened to. Don’t listen to this story with the lights out is my advice. The story is set on a world called Perfugium which at first I thought was some sort of English town in the early 20th Century. The first episode starts off very slowly and we met Victor Schaeffer and his wife Jacqueline. Both seem like very wealthy and very important people who seem to view their relationship with John Smith as some sort of care scheme. The character of John Smith is very interesting. We know from the title it is the Master and the very scary voices that we hear suggest it’s the Master and so we are in a unique position of seeing a ‘nice’ Master interact with other people. We learn that the Master has been in Perfugium for 10 years and the beginning of this story sees them celebrate his birthday. He was found deformed and without his memory. There is a b-plot with the investigation by Victor of some deaths with seem to be affecting Victor greatly.

For me it’s the second episode that really shows what a great story this is. It’s the revelation that how the Master got into this position that is what every listener (I imagine) wants to know. We learn that the Doctor made a deal with Death for the Master to live for 10 years as a nice man without any knowledge of his past and of the horrors he inflicted on others. In return the Doctor would travel to Perfugium 10 years after the Master arrived and kill him. There are some wonderful plot twists. The murders that Victor has been investigating turn out to have been committed by Victor himself. It turns out that Death has taken someone else to do an evil deed. Its quite obvious when the revelation comes because Victor shows his more evil side in certain moments of this play and also his resentment for John who has feelings for Jacqueline.

This story really shines when the Doctor and the Master have their scenes together which make this story for me. We learn the specific moment when the Master became evil and it occurred when he killed someone who had bullied him and he just snapped. It’s a simple case of standing up for yourself but in the extreme. The dialogue is perhaps some of the best written by Big Finish. You could hear hours of this stuff and never be bored. Out of the three stories I would say that this story is the best because it was so different from any other story that has come before. Omega and Davros were good stories that dealt very well with the characters finer details but they did feel like Doctor Who stories which isn’t what Master feels like.

Sylvester McCoy and Geoffrey Beevers are simply brilliant and make this story the top adventure that it is. Philip Madoc also deserves some praise as his character was written in a way that was nice and calm but slowly turned into a less likeable more sinister character and Anne Ridler also did a great job as Jacqueline. Joseph Lidster has written a stunning story with great characters and a slightly complicated explanation , there is nothing in this story that is wasted and that is very rare in a Doctor Who story.

Dreamtime (2005)

The Harvest was a superb vehicle for Hex and I had hopes that his first adventure as a member of the TARDIS would be a much better one than what we got here. Dreamtime is the second story to come from Simon Forward who wrote The Sandman (2002). Unfortunately I didn’t like Sandman so its sad that I have the same opinion of this story. The problem that I have with this story is that it seems to be a bit to pyscadelic and just didn’t grip me at any point of this story. It just seemed like they were going through the motions of getting Hex’s first adventure out of the way. Hex is given enough to do the classic companion thing of being in awe of an alien world. Forward uses Hex in a good way. Ace is also good in this story which continues to show her growing up from the backpack carrying Nitro9 explosive youngster that we saw on TV. There are some interesting moments the does standout for me in this story such as the use of Galyari who is aggressive and is a thankful saviour to the supporting characters of this story.

Take the novelty of having Hex in the TARDIS out of the equation then what we are left with is an average story that isn’t as good as it should be. I found my attention slipping several times during this story which isn’t good. A shame for Hex’s first story as an official companion.

Nocturne (2007)

You would have thought that after all his adventures on Earth that this would be the Doctor’s favourite place. With this story we learn that Nocturne is another place that the Doctor likes to visit. According to this story he has visited many times but its not clear as to in which incarnations. This story was written by Dan Abnett who previously wrote the 2004 story The Harvest.

The first thing that strikes me is how as a long term fan I feel that I am missing something by not knowing the events of the Doctor’s previous visit. Like in Timelash (1985) when we learnt that the Third Doctor had visited the planet that the Sixth Doctor finds himself. In this story the Doctor is faced with a home truth and that is something which was a common feature especially in the Seventh Doctor’s time. That is knowing about things on a planet without explaining the dangers that lay ahead. I like how the Doctor faces this truth after Ace is hurt in Episode 3.

The story is quite a simple one. Bio-Harmonies have been created on Nocturne but they have gone bad and all that has to be done is to destroy them. Dan Abnett has done a good job in creating enough interesting characters and interesting sub-plots to keep the main plot going at a gentle pace before taking centre stage towards the end of Part Four. The characters are very impressive and help create a very diverse range of character ranging from Cate Reeney who was a police officer who found everything that was strange then there was Will Aloran who I found to be a likeable character but obviously with emotional issues.

The story is a nice strong story with a curious setting and some wonderful characters. All these things work well together to make a story that I think is one of the finest stories to feature the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex.

The Glorious Revolution (2009)

The Glorious Revolution is the second Companion Chronicle to feature Jamie McCrimmon. The first was Helicon Prime (2007) which was a futuristic tale which was typically Doctor Who. This story isn’t anything like Helicon Prime but is a more personal story for McCrimmon. The story opens up with an agent of the Celesitial Intervention Agency travel to visit an older Jamie and open his mind to the adventures he had with the Doctor.

I think that Jamie didn’t want the memories he had with the Doctor to stay was quite strange. If someone had hidden some of my memories and then I got a chance to remember them again. The last thing I would allow anyone to do is to take them away. But this wasn’t about changing things back but just about being given the choice. Jamie chose to have his memories taken whereas back in The War Games there was no choice.

Frazer Hines was brilliant in this story. His impersonation of the Second Doctor was one of the highlights. It’s perhaps the best impersonation of the Doctor from a companion that I have heard in this series. We also got to see a more personal side to McCrimmon which I liked. The problem that I had with the character of Jamie he acted like a comedy duo with the Doctor half the time whereas in this story he was at odds for moments of this story.

The story itself is quite a simple one. It wasn’t an alien menace trying to takeover a civilsisation it was just trying to ensure that history went along like it was supposed to. Except that Jamie convinced the King to do different to what he was supposed to and the second half of the story sees the Doctor and co trying to change history back to how it was supposed to happen.

My only issue with it is that I don’t quite see the point of the CIA agent. The whole point of his visit was to uncover the change in history, yet the story saw Jamie change history then it being changed back so there was no purpose in the visitors journey. This is a minor issue though because the story itself is a strong and well structured one. The character of the King was one that was easily manipulated and one that wasn’t all powerful but weak and feeble.

The Glorious Revolution is another enjoyable story. Jonathan Morris (writer) and Nigel Fairs (director) have both done well to create a nice good old fashioned Doctor Who story that actually gave me a history lesson which I wasn’t expecting.

Spare Parts (2002)

Lets get this out of the way. Spare Parts is one of the best Doctor Who stories ever done by Big Finish. The Cybermen has always been held in high regard because they are considered the second best monsters in Doctor Who as well as been the second oldest. Marc Platt also wrote for this story. Having already written Loups-Garoux (2001) this is a much better effort from the writer of Ghostlight (1989).

Spare Parts is a story that looks at the back history of the Cybermen. It’s like hitting the reset button. Like Genesis of the Daleks (1975) set up the story of the Daleks, this story gives us an indication of how the Cybermen were created. The story sees The Doctor and Nyssa arrive on Mondas (though they don’t know that at the time) and the descriptions and the sound that are used in the opening part of this story was done just right. The Hatley family was a nice addition to the story as it gave us an emotional base for the listener. The inhabitants of Mondas are as would be expected like humans because as we learn in The Tenth Planet (1966). I personally liked the Dad (Paul Copley) because I felt that he was sort of a grandfather figure who was just trying to do the best for his kids. The kids themselves were typical brother and sister with Yvonne being the more likeable. Frank was ok but just seemed nothing special. On the other side there was Sisterman Contant (Pamela Binns) who wasn’t really a baddy but was closer to the nastier side than the nicer side.

I loved the idea of a Police in the Cybermen civilisation. I think that the Cybermen that we encounter on Mondas aren’t the evil metal machines that we have all known to grow and love. They are not looking to take over a civilisation but merely to survive. The voice of the Cybermen was the right choice. It’s the one that I have always preferred as I think that it’s the one that is closest between Human and Cyberman. The character of Zheng is a very nice and typical

Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton are on top form in this story. This partnership was my favourite on TV because they are so suited without giving the appearance of smugness. There are some nice nods from Earthshock (1982) where the death of Adric spurns the Doctor on to try and change what is recorded history. Marc Platt has done a very good job in establishing Cyberman history but managing to make it work on the same level as the Daleks back story. Platt does have a tendency of making stories a bit complex and forces you to scratch your head but with Spare Parts. Gary Russell should also be applauded for directing all the cast and moving the story along at a nice pace.

For anyone who is new to Doctor Who this story is the one of the first that should be tried. It’s a great Cyberman story and it is also a great 5th Doctor story.