Dead of Night (2011)

Episode 3 is where it this new Torchwood starts to find its feet. This is the first episode written by someone else apart from Russell T Davies that I’ve heard of. Jane Espenson has written and produced for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and also written for Game of Thrones. This episode is where we start to learn a lot more about the events that prevent people from dying. The episode starts off with Wayne Knight being threatened by Rex and before we know it he’s out of it and the story quickly gets going. We learn that there is a company that has been stockpiling pills as if in preparation of this ‘miracle’. This is the first time that I have certainly noticed there to be something or someone behind what’s going on. I wondered how long it would be before we got something portrayed as a big evil corporation and whilst it might not be original it is introduced in a clever way. I quite liked the little “its bigger on the inside” line that Captain Jack gave when he saw the big warehouse which was probably intended to cover up the vast size of the warehouse compared to how big the building was on the outside. In a few trailers we have seen a parade of people walking with some odd masks and finally we they are introduced. The Soulless are named and they have an identity which is the very chilling scream-inspired white mask with black eyes and mouth. The mask is made even more creepy when its put on someone who adopts a position that makes them look unhuman.

The worse thing about this story is the totally unnecessary sex scene between Captain Jack and some bloke he met in a bar. It’s nice that he finds time to unwind whilst the worlds going to hell in a handcart. The UK version is far less explicit that the US but that’s still not enough to get past what we saw which was far too much. I thought with Ianto dead that Jack wouldn’t want anyone else, well I say thought, it was more hoped that thought. I don’t know what the American viewers thought of what they got but I would hope that they thought it was unnecessary and totally ruined the flow of the story.

Bill Pullman continues to impress but he gets a lot more to do and say in this episode. I thought the scene between Oswald and Jack towards the end was fantastic and Pullman was totally creepy and it was a bit uncomfortable at times and that is why he is the best thing in this series. Mekhi Pfiher is starting to grow on me, I think that he has become more likeable and as a result the whole foursome feels a bit like the Scooby gang and that’s not necersarily a bad thing. Eve Myles is also doing well as Gwen and she had to resort to mommy for half a minute to remind everyone that she has a child even though she keeps banging on about it at every possibility. Apart from that she is good and has fun when she slams the security guards head into the car and in response to having done that before she says “So many times”. I saw it in the trailer but its still fun.

This episode is the best episode so far and that’s due to the writing and directing. It’s the most action packed episode and think that the new characters are developing well and working well with the established characters. I do think that it has not got any of the Welshness and the main problem that I have with this new series is that it has lost its identity and its not a Welsh drama with Welsh actors but an American drama with Welsh actors in it and that’s a shame really. There is rumour that this could be the final series of Torchwood and it would be a shame if it were because despite the things that I like about this series it doesn’t hide the fact that the show spends too much time on the wrong side of the Atlantic.

Earth Aid (2011)

After listening to Robophobia which if I’m honest I found disappointing. I was hoping that Earth Aid would restore my faith in the Seventh Doctor adventure. This story comes from the minds of Ben Aaronovitch (Remembrance of the Daleks) and Andrew Cartmel. The opening scene was mentioned on the Survival DVD where they discuss that there is a ship and Ace is the captain. This is about as much that seems to have been developed before this story got made for Big Finish. The story sees the return of the Metratraxi who actually are in their best story. The story is about some aid that needs to be delivered. There is the small matter of the Metratraxi who aren’t in it just in for the sake of it but we learn more about them. Their story is that they have been created by this planet and there is another alien race that are always hungry and are eating most of the 9 million tonnes that is on the ship. It’s a fairly interesting story that managed to make the time go very quickly.

The Doctor isn’t as good in this as he was in Robophobia. But that’s not to say that Sylvester McCoy is rubbish, far from it. There are several moments when he is very good but I don’t think there is an air of mystery about his motives as there was in the previous story. This is definitely an Ace story as she is the one who is captain and she is the one who has to do a lot of the stuff. It’s always good when Ace is placed in the role of the action hero and Sophie Aldred does well when she’s required to do this. I think that it was believable how she started off not knowing what the heck she was doing before progressing to having plans. It was also good how the crew found her terminology strange. There were several Star Trek references which seemed quite fitting considering the space opera theme.

I thought that the moment when they stage a coup de tat was a nice moment because it felt like the logical conclusion to this thread of the plot and that is ultimately what I like most about Earth Aid. There were a few plots running through this story and they were built up at a steady pace and never felt rushed or mishandled. I was quite surprised when Raine appeared as I hadn’t paid much attention to the cover and didn’t reach the cast list of the Big Finish page so it was one of those rare moments where I was genuinely shocked. I’m glad that she’s back in as I think the Beth Chalmers is a good actress and the character of Raine is a nice alternative to Ace. There was one bit of plot that didn’t seem to get resolved and that is the impression that there is more to the death of Raine’s father than meets the eye. I don’t know what the plans are for the character but hopefully this will be explained because it has potential to be a big thing.

Earth Aid is a nice story to end this series of Lost Stories. It wasn’t the best but it was certainly a lot of fun to listen to and it hopefully Ben Aaronvitch will right another story for Big Finish in the not too distant future. For a story that seemed to have been born from a simple opening scene it was impressive that they got what they

The Krotons (1969)

The Krotons has the rather unenviable responsibility of following the highly impressive The Invasion which was eight episodes and for half of it included the Cybermen and had the wonderful Tobias Vaughn in it and was dramatic and had characters that were interesting and this story has none of that. I think that people are down on it for the right reasons. The only thing of interest is that it’s written by the fantastic Robert Holmes. One of the finest writers ever to pen a story for Doctor Who. This however wasn’t his finest offering. The story sees the Doctor arrive on a world that has a stifled colony where they are ruled by powerful Krotons. It’s the Doctor who leads a rebellion against them after they get the smartest people and then they get killed.

The problem with this story is that like The Dominators, the inhabitants are very dull. I really couldn’t care about any of them. Only Philip Madoc is of any interest and that’s because he’s Philip Madoc. All the humans are fairly wet and there is nothing about them that makes you want them to over throw the Krotons. In the Dominators I wanted the baddies to win but in this I didn’t want either to win. The Krotons are visually very good creatures though they have that idea of what a robot from the future would look like in the 1960’s. However what lets them down is the voice. Now I take no pleasure in saying this because its voice by Roy ‘Voice of the Daleks, Zippy and George’ Skelton and even though I never met him I imagine he’s a thoroughly nice man and just does the best he can with what he is given.

The stories not all bad. It’s only four episodes long which is surprisingly short for a Troughton adventure so it moves along at a fairly steady pace and I wasn’t as bored as I was when watching The Dominators. The threat between good and bad was better handled that in the Dominators. Also the costumes that the humans had to wear was more appropriate and didn’t look like the cast had come from some stupid nightwear commercial. Also Philip Madoc is very good in this as Eelek, it’s not his best performance (that will come in The Brain of Morbius) but there are glimmers of what is to come and why he is such a good actor. As this story is written by Robert Holmes, it is easy to be overly critical of this story when you compare it against other stories that he would go on to write but after spending around a decade writing for other more straight forward drama it was always going to be a difficult job changing his writing style. The story is helped as well by the director, David Maloney. He is one of the best directors that Doctor Who ever had and worked on some of the greatest Doctor Who stories ever and that isn’t down to luck, its down to bloody good skills as a director. There are some scenes in this story which are very unusual because they show the regulars being harassed by the Krotons and it’s done in a way which seems quite strange for Doctor Who in the 1960’s.

The Krotons isn’t as great story but its something that doesn’t quite work and shows that the production team were suffering from a severe lack of enthusiasm as this story doesn’t really have anything new or original to say and as change was only around the corner perhaps it was the beginning of the end and shows that the production team were putting all their eggs in the War Games basket. This story should be watched by new fans but it’s not a Troughton great.

Robophobia (2011)

Robophobia is the sequel to the 1977 Tom Baker adventure The Robots of Death where the Doctor and Leela arrive on a ship that is under attack from a bunch of Robots that are rising up against their masters. This story supposedly takes place several months afterwards and there is a nice little mention to that story. Written by the Executive Producer of the Doctor Who range for Big Finish, Nicholas Briggs, this story is clearly something that Briggs has wanted to do for quite some time and in recent years it’s been Big Finish’s intention to bring back monsters from the classic era that only got a single story. The story starts off in a bizarre manner in that we hear the Doctor being strangled by a robot and then the music plays and moments later we hear the Doctor acting like nothing happened. Now I thought at first that I had missed something or picked the option to play random track on my iPod but no everything was normal in that respect.

The thing about Nicholas Briggs is that he is someone who knows how to write good characters. All his stories have very interesting and never dull individuals. Usually very intelligent and very well cast. This story is no different. Nicola Walker is the best thing in this story and that’s partly down to Walker’s performance but its also partly down to the character which serves the function of being the Doctor’s companion as there is no Ace or Hex in this story. The character of Liv Chenka is someone that I found to be entertaining from the very beginning. In the interviews at the end, Nicholas Briggs seemed to be suggesting that there was an implication the Chenka was a baddie. I never got that sense and found her to be a trustworthy character. I am a big fan of Nicola Walker because I like the BBC drama Spooks which she is superb in so I think that twinned with her performance she could easily win the Toms Tardis Award for Best Guest Star. Another good performance comes from Toby Hadoke as Farel, being a fan of his stage show ‘Moths ate my Doctor Who Scarf’ (if you haven’t heard this on audio or seen it on stage then you need to listen to it NOW. The character is again a good character that is 50% good writing from Briggs and the other 50% from Hadoke. He is a actor who I think should be in more adventures. Another actor under the banner ‘also appeared in TV Doctor Who’ is Dan Starkey who played a Sontaran in the Sontaran Stratagem in 2008 opposite David Tennant’s Doctor. In this he plays Cravnet which is another good character and then there is Nicholas Pegg who isnt playing a Dalek but instead plays Selerat and is another good performer. Sylvester McCoy gives his best performance since Enemy of the Daleks back in 2009. McCoy always puts in a great performance in every story he’s in but unfortunately the stories (especially in 2010) didn’t really allow him to show us why he’s so brilliant. In this he gets to be his manipulative best and watch from afar as people struggle against finding out whats going on.

Ultimately the stories main fault is that the robots are doing the same thing that they did in the first Robots and they deal with the same issue and that is humans who are scared of Robots. Once you’ve done the whole robots rising up against their human slaves idea then there isn’t much that can be done so its credit to Nicholas Briggs that he manages to add enough to make it seem different. Robophobia isn’t the best story to come from the mind of Nicholas Briggs but its not a terrible story. I think that there is enough to make me want to listen to it again but the thing that I was never really keen on the Robots and think that the only reason that this story exists is to bring back another classic monster that only got one outing.

One thing that is still a mystery. Why is the TARDIS black? Only time will tell.

The Wheel in Space (1969)

It’s quite fitting that the Cybermen opened this fifth season and now they are closing it. After the quite emotional departure of Victoria in the previous story there is very little time before we are introduced to the latest companion and one that is one a smart cookie. It’s worth noting that this was the Cybermen’s golden era as this was their third story in two seasons. This story is one of those that is a trait in all the Cybermen stories up till and including this point. A cut off base with people under threat from the Cybermen. The story sees the Cybermen invade the wheel so that they can use the radio link with Earth as a beacon to dispatch their invasion fleet. It’s quite an odd plan because surely they could find Earth themselves and would be able to find somewhere closer to launch their invasion fleet (hold on a second! That sounds like a future story). The story does well with the claustrophobic feel to it and what also helps is that the music has been done very well which helps add to the atmopshere. The story doesn’t really get going until part two when the Doctor and Jamie have gotton onto the wheel and that’s when the action gets going .

One problem I have with stories set in the future is there to be an insistence of having every known nationality in the story. One or two maybe but to have several seems slightly silly. Another one is that yet again we get a different Cyberman voice which is a major issue with them. Daleks have sounded more or less the same and the same design wise. The Cybermen havent had a consistant look since they debuted in The Tenth Planet and that’s something that has always bothered me.

Wendy Padbury is very good as Zoe. It’s not fair to compare Zoe to Victoria but unfortunatley its got to happen and its fair to say that Zoe is smartest female companion the show had had until this point. I think that Padbury does a good job of making Zoe seem smart but not to arrogant as to become uninteresting. The fact that she is proved wrong a few times it just makes her seem just as smart as people like Jamie. There is just the amusement of seeing her fall flat on her face when she’s wrong. Frazer Hines is on good form as usual but there is a character trait that I’ve never really noticed before and that Jamie only really cares about two things. Food and Sleep. Even the Doctor comments on this and it’s something that does slightly put a downer on the character. Patrick Troughton is fantastic on this as he does all the Doctor things and that includes being on holiday for episode two. This is another fine performance from him.

Of the supporting cast, the two that I found to be the strongest were Anne Ridler as Dr Gemma Corwyn and Michael Turner as Jarvis Bennet. I thought that Ridler did a good job in being the first person to be willing to trust the Doctor and Jamie. Her death in episode five was a shame really because I really liked the character. Bennet was also good in his role and unlike Corwyn, got to see out episode six. Both of these characters were the strongest out of all the different nationalities that we had.

It’s not the best Cybermen story so far but its still an enjoyable adventure. It’s a good end to the season and it’s one of the best stories of this season. This combination that we have of Doctor and companions is the last time that there will be a change during Troughton’s run but in my mind it’s the strongest by some mile.

Fury From The Deep (1968)

Fury from the Deep is quite an important story in the history of Doctor Who. There are two things that make it stand out. The first being that it marks the end of Victoria Waterfield who had been with the show since The Evil of the Daleks. It also marks the first appearance of the Sonic Screwdriver. An item of the Doctor’s repertoire that has divided fans since it was introduced. The main villain of this story is seaweed. The thing about introducing everyday items and turning them into evil things doesn’t always work and it wouldn’t be the first thing that I would think of but credit to Victor Pemberton (writer) for making it work. The departure of Victoria is well set up. It seems obvious to do a companions exit but actually it’s often not handled well. After around a year, Victoria has decided that the life she currently has might not be the one for her. There is the realisation that Victoria is starting to get tired of being in fear and it’s odd that its seaweed that made her think of it. I have to admit that Victoria hasn’t been quite the companion that I would hope for. The story moves in the latter stages of the Doctor and Jamie trying to rescue a fed up Victoria who has made several blatant desires to leave perhaps not the Doctor but definitely the situation they are in.

With seaweed not being the best monster and the thought of a bloke in a seaweed costume clearly being a bad one it was down to humans being controlled by the green stuff. It seems like a bit of an unoriginal idea considering in the previous story (The Web of Fear), Travers was for a while under the control of the conscious. That said I forgive Victor Pemberton because of the result that we got. Mr. Oak and Mr. Quill are intended to be a serious and scary menace but unfortunately I did find them to be the exact opposite. I remember the first time that I saw these two opening their mouth to vent this gas out and the look on their faces was one of comedy and to be honest it loses a bit of drama.

Victoria’s departure has an almost new era feel to it and by that I mean how it’s handled. The seaweed is defeated quite early on in the final episode and the last part is held over for her leaving. This is classic Russell T Davies stuff but he should have watched this final episode to see how it’s done. Victoria can’t make up her mind whether she wants to stay or not and the Doctor decides to give her the time to make her mind up. It’s very sad and well played by all Troughton, Hines and in particular Watling. There’s no gushing music or over the top performances but three very emotional performances.

The thing however about the story is that its one that suffers from just being on CD. I imagine that seaweed which can terrorise people is quite a good idea but when you just have your imagination to work with then it doesn’t quite have the same effect. That said, Fury from the Deep is a fairly average adventure which deals with being six episodes better but unfortunately does feel at times that it’s padded quite a lot.

The Web of Fear (1968)

The Web of Fear is that rare thing in Doctor Who in that it’s a sequel that is better than the original. The first story which aired just three months before and it’s impressive that they managed to achieve what they did. The story has been moved from the monastery of Tibet to the Underground tunnels of London. This story is set some forty years or so after the events of the first story. The story also sees Nicholas Courtney return to Doctor Who but debut as Lethbridge-Stewart. A role that he would play for on and off for twenty-two years. The story is written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln which means that there is a consistency to the feel of the story which works in its favour.

We are introduced to Travers who was one of the impressive things about The Abominable Snowmen but this time he is crankier and old because so much time has elapsed since that story. As a result we meet Ann Travers who is quite
The thing that makes this story impressive is that it’s the setting. When you set the story somewhere like Tibet. Ok it’s on Earth and you could get to it on a plane but it’s not ‘local’. Moving the action to an area of the country that is used by millions (including myself once) adds to the drama. The main aim from the Yeti is pretty much the same as it was in the Abominable Snowmen but to be honest its not necersarily a bad point. Their plan is done slightly better than it was in the first point and that is due to the setting and the characters.

Evans is a character that shines quite late in the story. With the serious tone of the story he does add a slight touch of comedy relief. It does seem like his Welsh accent is a bit over the top. I don’t know if that is how he talks or not but if it is then it’s a bit unfortunate. I was impressed with Tina Packer as Ann Travers. She does a good job and is constantly impressive throughout. She doesn’t resort to the dumb female character and is sort of a pre-cursor to Liz Shaw who would be in the show within two years. It’s only going through this story in my marathon that I appreciate that Nicholas Courtney got the role of Lethbridge Stewart nailed down straight away. Only thing that is missing are Benton and Yates.

In the latter half of the story there is a sense that there is a mole in the army group. It’s a nice plot device that is effectively used and helps move the story along just when it could get a bit tired. On that subject, I haven’t been over the top with praise on six parters in this season as I think the stories start to sag in the middle and lose something by the end. On this occasion though this story doesn’t feel like its running out of steam and it’s the inclusion of the Army that helps make this story feel different and makes its stand out against the previous Yeti story. The Web of Fear is the best story of the series (just pippin The Tomb of the Cybermen) and that isn’t something I say lightly. It has everything that even a non Sci-Fi fan would want and the story tells a good adventure and the only other thing that would have made it better were if it existed in full on VHS or DVD.

Rendition (2011)

The second instalment is where the novelty of the show returning goes and the series has to stand on its own merits. This episode is written by Doris Egan. Apart from having a wonderful name, she has an impressive CV. She been a writer and producer for several top US shows including House, Smallville and Numb3rs. The story does a fault prett much immediately when Rhys is written out of the episode. I quite like Rhys and think that for the brief time that he was on screen he was funny. With Jack poisoned they manage to create bit of drama getting a group of scientists to come up with a cure. I swear it’s the sort of thing I saw in Apollo 13 when they were putting junk together to make something that could be made on Apollo 13. There seemed to be a substantial amount handed over to this.

They try and make a bit of comedy by saying that Danny is gay and he denies this yet everyone has a bit of a dig and it’s another RTD trait. Thankfully they have cut down on the gore. There was a brief moement when there is an arm that is moving but that’s about as gory as it got. Which I have to say I was thankful for because I was still recovering from the boat load we had last week.

Bill Pullman continues to impress. Again his involvement seemed to be very limited but whenever he was on screen he was yet again brilliant. The best bit was when he was on that talk show and he was reduced to tears when the pictured of the girl that he raped and killed was put on the screen. He is in danger of stealing the entire season. We are introduced to yet more characters. The first is Lyn Peterfield. Yet again we get another American who is portrayed as a bit of a jackass. Dichen Lachman is instantly unlikeable as the character, within a short amount of time she is poisoning Captain Jack and this makes Rex Matheson look reasonable. Just when I thought that her involvement in it was going to be short lived then there is a massive twist when she turns up with her head the way it wasn’t intended to be. It was when I thought she was gone for good that I finally started to like the Matheson character. He seemed to have undergone a personality transformation in the space of an hour. Then we have Wayne Knight who is most memorable in the first Jurassic Park film. He is the boss of CIA and he is like Pullman, superb. He isn’t an arsehole like Peterfield or Matheson. Jilly Kitzinger is an interesting character who is clearly up to something as she was to represent Oswald.

It’s clear in this episode that someone is working against Torchwood and this is confirmed by the fact that Lyn has poisoned Jack and when she is handcuffed coming of the plan the bloke that has cuffed her gives her the keys. Also the fact that $150,000 has been put in the bank account of Rex and that blonde woman from CIA.

It’s not as action packed as episode one but it does continue to build things up and if the trailer at the end of the episode is anything to go by then things do look like they are going to get big and Bill Pullman will get even better. So things are continuing to look up.

Day One (2006)

Day One is everything that I don’t like about Torchwood. Ok its trying to be different but as this was aired immediately after the first episode it was clear that this was nothing like Doctor Who. That's not a bad thing to be fair but I think that with swearing and quite over the top sex scenes this story is one of the worst episodes from this season. Written by Chris Chibnall this story sees Gwen start her first day with Torchwood (hence the title name) and it also sees an alien entity crash to earth, possess a young woman who starts getting intimate in a youthful way with several people. Now its not because I'm a Doctor Who fan (long time I should add) who is watching a show that has a Doctor Who link that I find the sight of a man pleasuring himself whilst watching two people get at it in a nightclub toilet before the bloke meets a different type of ending. This is another episode to show why Gwen’s involvement is important. You know that in the old Torchwood they would have found Cerys and just locked up her up but thanks to Gwen she is treated differently and there is a rather dull moment where the two of them embrace whilst Owen is watching on. This is like This Life but in Wales and not done as well.

Once we get over the unncersary sex scene at the beginning then the story settles down and becomes a slighty more manageable adventure and settles down to being a story about catching an alien threat an a battle of two different styles of working. Eve Myles is very good in this as she is the voice of reason in an organisation that is so blinkered in its view of what to with alien threats is that it forces Gwen to turn into a one woman police force. She does it well and it’s a nice bit of casting. John Barrowman also does well as in two episodes he has become detached from Doctor Who in my mind. He is the face of the old regime that Gwen is trying to change but Barrowman does a great job. Burn Gorman is still yet to impress me as all he has to do in this is enjoy a bit of girl on girl kissing and ending up nude. Also Tosh and Ianto aren’t really allowed to do much.

I think that this is the story is definitely the weakest story but I think that it’s a fine example of how far the shows come when your watching Children of Earth or Miracle Day. Even when its below par its got to go a long way to match the poorly thought through story of Day One. Thankfully the show would never reach this level of stupidty.

Countrycide (2006)

I think it can be agreed that the first series of Torchwood can be considered a mixed bag. For me there are some that are quite dull, some that are ok but then there are a few that I think are superb and Countrycide is one of them. I know that some people thought that it was one of the worst that was in the series because ‘it didn’t have any aliens in it’. Well that’s a slightly flawed argument because in The X-Files they went several episodes (in the early years anyway) without any aliens in it so in that respect it’s a slightly absurd comment. The story is quite brave in that it deals with some grizzly topics and also takes the characters out of their comfort zone (Cardiff) and force them to deal with things without any wizardry.

The story sees the crew investigate the possibility that the rift has spread after a series of grizzly deaths. Their stupid little car was taken by an unseen thief and they then stumble across a set of apparently abandoned houses. This is set up in the middle of no where and it was like something out of The Whicker Man (not the crap 2006 version) when they encounter a bloke pretending to be a policeman and other weird people. I have a certain fear of being stuck on my own in the middle of nowhere in this exact situation. Knowing my luck it would happen. All the members are separated and it’s like they are been picked off by the weird villagers. Gwen has the hardest time when she gets shot and Owen has to finally put some of his medical training to use.

There are things that don’t quite work. I think that the swearing is something I could have done without and thought the moment where Captain Jack storms into a room with a tractor before shooting everyone with a shotgun seemed to be slightly naff. That is the only thing that is wrong in an otherwise strong story. Chris Chibnall has written a solid story that looks very cheap in money terms but its far better in terms of writing a dozen or so characters that aren’t over the top but are very creepy. Andy Goddard also does a great job with no Torchwood hub or naff car but most impressively he does well in slowly cranking up the tension and its about as close to horror as I would want to get (being a wuss and having a low tolerance of horror).

The best line in the entire episode came when Gwen was asking Evan why he did what he did and he simply replied by saying “It makes me happy!” It’s the end of a simply superb performance from Owen Teale who was someone that I didn’t remember seeing before but after this episode I saw him in pretty much every TV that I have ever seen. His performance in this is episode is solid from start to finish and is very unsettling. Another grim moment came when Tosh and Ianto were searching for something and they find meat in the fridges and it’s implied that they are human. This is another grizzly moment and something that happened to just add to the grimness that the story had running through it like a stick of rock.

In case you haven’t figured it out, this is one of my top three Torchwood stories ever. It shows that in this modern age where special effects are used to death that this episode shows that you can make a cheap yet impactful piece of drama.

Tales from the Vault (2011)

The Sixth Series kicks off in an unusual way. This sees the return of Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso return to the Doctor Who world but they aren’t playing their 1996 TV Movie characters. The fact that a companion chronicle is being driven forward by two characters that we have never heard of until today is quite a different way of presenting a Companion Chronicle. That said it’s written by Jonathan Morris who’s track record is rather good. The story is set in a UNIT base under the Angel in the North in Gateshead and it is where all the alien artifacts are kept that UNIT have been storing for safe keeping. Captain Ruth Matheson (Ashbrook) is showing Warrant Officer Charlie Sato (Tso) around and telling him some stories involving Steven Taylor, Zoe Heriot, Jo Grant and Romana I.

The story takes quite a while to settle down but once it did I was able to enjoy it. I thought at first that the stories the companions were telling were all unrelated but then a coat gets mentined again and its importance was made clearer. There are also other things that are made important. A painting mentioned in the Fourth Doctor story that shows you how you are going to die and a crystal that contains the memories of Zoe. The coat has a soul in it and that occupied Sato and there is quite a good moment where Matheson has to dilemma as to whether to shoot the possessed Sato but then a clever twist comes in and the conclusion is something that to be honest I didn’t see coming but was one of those instances of it being obvious once it was revealed. I must admit that I was slightly disappointed when the recording appeared from the time released booth. I instantly thought that Sara Kingdom was going to make a shock appearance but sadly it wasn’t the case and to further compound this disappointment, Dodo was mentioned in the story.

As the main characters in this, both Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso both do well in this story and at no point did I think that they were the characters they were in 1996 but completely new ones. Ashbrook’s character probably was the stronger one of the two but that’s purely because Tso’s character did the stupid thing of putting the coat on. All the proper companions do well in their brief stints. I thought that everyone of them had a reason for being there but it was Wendy Padbury who’s involvement was the most important. She was just a memory in the crystal but it was when she was smashed to pieces that it became quite sad and I thought that she had done the best out of the four.

Tales from the Vault is an interesting story but it does feel a bit too much like the Short Trips than I would have liked. I know that you could argue that the Companion Chronicles are Short Trips but stretched over an hour but Big Finish have done a good job in keeping the two separate. On this occasion, they have blurred it a bit too much and that would be my only issue with the release.

The Abominable Snowmen (1967)

The Abominable Snowmen is a story that introduces the Yeti to the Doctor Who world. The story is set in Tibet in 1935 where the Doctor is revisiting despite us not having seen the Doctor in either incarnation. The locals are fearful of the of the Abominable Snowmen who in reality are robots. I must say that this is a nice thing to do in mixing myth with science and having a creature that has alien bits. The first half of the story is very atmospheric and is wonderful engaging.

It’s a shame that this story doesn’t exist on video in its entirety because there was a lot of location filming in Snowdonia and in the exisiting episode it looks wonderful and its not very often that this can be said but the location filming is something that goes in the stories favour. The Abominable Snowmen starts off as an atmospheric tale that was good enough to warrant a sequel which in TV terms would come very quickly, in three months they would come to terrorising the sewers of London. The story starts off building up things and one could argue that it takes too long to build things up but I have to admit that it spent just about the right amount of time setting things up before the main action begins.

The performances from everyone is something that is a positive thing in this story. In the supporting cast the one performance that stood out was of Jack Watling as Travers. Not just because he is Debroah Watling’s father but because the character is perhaps the closest that the viewer can relate to in this story. On the regular front I think that Frazer Hines and Debroah Watling are on good form and work well together and its remarkable how far Jamie has come since his debut story and he does well being at the centre of the action.

The story changes direction in the latter half of the story changes and it then becomes a base under siege and that’s when it falls into a base under siege story like The Moonbase and The Tenth Planet but doesn’t do it

The actual look of the Yeti isn’t perhaps the most convincing design ever created. The main issue is that it looks like a bloke in fur outfit. Something that was clearly created with the intention of it being the next Dalek, the next thing that would make the creators money. Sadly this wouldn’t be the case. This is slightly disappointing but it gets away with it due to the size of them. Their not your normal sized monsters.

The Abominable Snowmen is a good story that starts off in one direction and goes off into another. It’s obvious why they were popular and its quite right but I think that on audio this story isn’t perhaps the best story ever. But you know if only we could design a time machine and stop this story from being wiped.

The Ice Warriors (1967)

The Ice Warriors is a curious story because for one it the debut story for the creatures that are mentioned in the title. This story is missing episodes two and three and as a result it has a slightly disjointed feel to it. The Ice Warriors is a story that shares something in common with things like The Moonbase or The Tenth Planet and that is an isolated place that is under threat from an alien threat. The slight difference is that the Ice Warriors have been there for a long time.

The design of the creatures is very good and surprisingly so for a 1960’s TV story. They lose something when they appear in colour in a few years time but in monochrome they have a certain look to them. The Ice Warriors plan is simple. They want to melt the ice so that they can release more Ice Warriors and take over the planet. As plans go, it’s pretty strong but the problem with this story is that it isn’t six episodes worthy. I think that there is an awful lot of padding needed and the story could have been four episodes long and still been better.

The main characters are very good and despite Victoria being in the group, there is a strong vibe to them. Troughton is on good form here and has quite a distinctive look with the thick coat on. Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling are also on good form though Watling does have to fall into screaming companion a few times and that is slightly disappointing. There is a sense that someone has been reminded about the time when Ian Chesterton was paralysed and couldn’t walk for a while, in this story Frazer Hines has to play Jamie who can’t walk and in one scene has to be dragged by Peter Sallis. It’s a slightly disappointing thing for the character and for Frazer to have to put up with.

Some of the supporting cast also put on a good show with Peter Barkworth as Clent being the highlight. He is the typical leader who won’t listen to anyone and expects people to follow and listen to him intently. He is a spineless character and I instantly disliked him which is what I suppose they were trying to achieve. Peter Sallis is also another actor who gives a strong performance. As Penley he is a former scientist who has ditched life in the glossy ice base and decided to rough it a bit. Not the place I would have done it but it’s a nice performance and whilst at first its easy to think of him in Last of the Summer Wine or the voice of Wallace in Wallace and Gromit but soon those thoughts are replaced with the story and his character.

The outfits that the crew at the base wear are slightly amusing because they look like a psychiatrist’s ink blot thing and it something that only could have come from the 1960’s. The idea also that the base is designed like a country mansion is like some from the 1960’s version of Changing Rooms has come in and told them how to design the place. The sets outside the base are something that deserves comment because it’s admirable of what they can achieve on a little budget and on this story they do a reasonably good job. The scenes set outside were a little boring but the rest of them were quite good and it felt like this story was taking place over a large space.

The Ice Warriors is a good story and its one of those that has changed in my opinion since the last time I watched/listen to this story. The Ice Warriors are a really good design and this is there second best story and it’s just a shame that its two episodes too long but Brian Hayles (writer) has done a good job and has created an impressive story and this fifth season is continuing to impress.

The Macra Terror (1967)

The Macra Terror is a story written by Ian Stuart Black who had previously written the slightly dull ‘The Savages’. At this point in the show’s history it’s still under a period of instability. At times I am still thinking about William Hartnell and pining for him to return and fluff the odd line. That said it must have been worst for people watching in 1967. It’s still a period of adjustment for Frazer Hines who is still finding his feet and has to play second fiddle to Ben and Polly. The Macra would of course make a cameo appearance in Gridlock some 41 years so for a lot of people this would be the most that we would ever see after the 1967 episodes were wiped. The setting is a curious one because it seems that it’s a restricted environment with a sort of Butlins. We have a slightly dodgy happy chirpy tune that plays a lot especially at the beginning.

The problem with this story apart from the uneasy feeling of the production and the personnel is that the story is fairly lacking in anything of dramatic interest. Ok there is a Macra that seems to be lurking in the background as you would expect but apart from that there is very little to speak of. I think had I a visual copy of the story then it would be a much better story. Though I think that the Macra isn’t particularly impressive. I think that it’s a major fault considering the story has Macra in the title. What I will say the audio has in its favour is that the cliffhangers are quite good. I did quite like them though that might have something to do with the narration which was constantly impressive.

The regulars are all not on fine form. Troughton is still not being given a script that benefits his acting talents but still manages to get something out of the story. Michael Craze and Anneke Wills are on quite good form and in their penultimate adventure it’s a shame that Anneke Wills reverts back to screaming way too much. Some of the supporting cast are interesting but with them being on audio they do all tend to blend into one. Peter Jeffrey is the best of the rest as the Pilot.

The Macra Terror isnt the worst story ever however neither is it the best and I think that there are things that do work in this story but ultimatley in the annals of Doctor Who history it doesn’t quite rate as highly as other Troughton stories.

The New World (2011)

Torchwood is back. After the impressive Children of Earth, Torchwood has returned to BBC1 primetime except this series is a little different because it has major American funding from the network Starz (nope, me neither). Apparently FOX were going to co-produce it but that fell through (someone must have reminded them of the 1996 movie). The basic premise was made clear by the trailers. There is a day when no one dies, nobody around the world. The scheduling has been commented on because Americans get to see it a whole week before everyone else. I don’t have a problem with this personally because if they are stumping up most of the money then they should at least have the right to show it first. Secondly there are scenes in the American version that won’t appear on the UK version. Again I don’t have a problem with this, as long as we don’t lose anything from the story then I can live with differences. Written by Russell T Davies (creator) and directed by Bharat Nalluri (conceived the BBC One show Hustle).

This means that the series will be split between the US and Wales. Before the episode started the continuity announcer said that there may be some scenes that we would find distressing. Normally this is nonsense but within the first two minutes there is an execution and its one of the most graphic and uncomfortable scenes that I have witnessed.

They spend the first part of this story emphasising that no one is dying and whilst in Wales, Gwen and Rhys are living the quite life. They are holed up in some idyllic country house by the coast. They are presumed dead after the 456 business in COE. However like most things the this show, that doesn’t last for long. Gwen’s father is unwell and she has to make the decision to come out of hiding. This was possibly the only way that this was going to happen and despite how weak it might be it is good enough for me. What I was quite amazed by is how it was 20 minutes before we saw John Barrowman. It’s the Pirates of the Caribbean 3 thing where it’s about half an hour before we see Johnny Depp. In this I was starting to wonder how he was going to appear. It wasn’t in a flash of blinding white light but the exact opposite.

In a clever but blatantly obviously (after it’s revealed) plot twist, when everyone can live forever we now find that Captain Jack can die. This is revealed in quite a low key manner. However it’s a significant moment because it’s ringing the bell that Jack isn’t immortal and the next time shoots him in the head of buries him in concrete he won’t be coming back for air. I wonder how long it will be before this happens, clocks ticking.

Oswald Danes is a paedophile who at the beginning of the episode is suppose to be executed. Bill Pullman is extremely good in this episode. He is instantly unlikeable and in his first scene where is he talking, he is clearly a smart (if mentally sick) individual. He doesn’t actually have much to do in this episode but to be honest, he will get to be centre stage in future episodes. Mekhi Phifer is a character that I know I’m going to take a while to get use to. Having being irritated by him in ER when it was on, he plays Rex Matheson who is when we are introduced to him is driving erratically in the torrential rain behind a truck which is carrying poles which after emergency breaking causes one of the poles to slam into Rex.

John Barrowman is a curious person. Whenever I see him on other shows he is over the top and quite annoying and I want to hate him and partly do because when is playing Captain Jack he is really good. He can act, he can make us care about the character and make us laugh when he’s been camp but I can’t find it in myself to fully hate the man. He does seem to be in his element in this series because he doesn’t stand out as an American in Wales. Eve Myles is really good and it’s hard to believe how far she has come since the very first episode in 2006. The double act between her and Tom Price is a nice little moment

The story does that thing that Russell T Davies loves to do and that is to bring up news reels like it’s trying to convince us that it’s meant to be real life. Normally this wouldn’t bother me but if it’s meant to be a worldwide issue, shouldn’t there be more foreign news channels. Or at the very least there should be a BBC news channel. The story doesn’t shy away from the goriness which is quite refreshing. Admittedly I was shocked by the execution at the beginning but that’s due how close to the beginning the story it started. There is another grim moment where a guy who has explosives strapped to him and as he cant die he ends up in a morgue on a slab looking like a slab of meat with a head. Then Jack comes up with an idea to decapitate the head. The way this was done was a bit stomach churning and mercifully this was over relatively quickly. This was the clearest sign that this series was going to be different and possibly in a good way. There are some scenes in this episode which we wouldn’t have seen in previous series of Torchwood but that what happens when the series is American-fied.

This episode is a groundwork episode. To many it’s been called a pilot in effect but that’s wrong because it’s not a pilot by any means if they just move country. The story does a good job in introducing to the many characters and to give us a feel of how the series will be structured. The teaser trailer at the end of the episode shows that this series could be really good. I was a bit mixed when I initially watched it on Thursday but on Saturday evening after watching it for a second time. I found it more impressive and I was able to enjoy it a lot more. The only question is ‘What is causing all of this?’ A good start.

Forever (2011)

Forever is the final story in what has been a truly impressive season. This story was written by David Wise who is a name that I never heard of before but according to Wikipedia, Wise has written for Buck Rogers, Transformers (animated) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This story sees the regulars arrive in a version of Gallifrey where they have been trying to work on time travel. This version suffers greatly from assassinations as their Romana is assisnated within minutes arriving. I was quite worried at first that ‘our’ Romana was just going to be pretending that she is the real Romana but thankfully this wasn’t the case. What this story deals with is Romana trying to change things for the better and there is a sense that she is trying to do what the Doctor would normally do.

The story picked up a great deal when Carole Ann Ford got involved. I didn’t realise for a few moments that it was her but as Unit 190. I do think it was a bit of an odd role to give her. I think that the other big names were given more substantial roles and she really was given the short hand in this one. That said when she is involved in the story she is good. The conclusion of the story sees the departure of K9. For someone who doesn’t really like that Tin Dog, I found the scene to be quite sad. I think that over the last couple of stories I have grown to like him. Lalla Ward was really superb in this and I think its her best story this is purely because she comes to the realisation that in every version she has been in she has pretty much destroyed the inhabitants. This is mirror to what happens to the Doctor when he tries to help but lifes end up being lost. Louise Jameson is also very (as she has been all series). Now that her sight has returned she is back to her very best and I liked it when after K9 had gone that she was angry and shouted at Romana. This was Leela at her best and was a brave way to end the series. With the characters unwillingly settling down on this version of Gallifrey it’s the most suitable way to end the series and brings to a close a good story.

Forever isn’t quite the finale that I think that it should have been but to be honest its still a good story and it was satisfying conclusion to the series. Hopefully now that I have caught up with the series it wont be five years before the next series. Overall this series has been the best. I get the impression that some might not be so keen on it as it doenst have the complexity of the previous series but to be honest they can go back and listen to the previous series because I thoroughly enjoyed this and was just disappointed that its taken me four months to get through this.

The Evil of the Daleks (1967)

The Evil of the Daleks bring the first season of Patrick Troughton’s tenure as the Doctor to a close. It’s quite fitting that the Daleks were chosen to introduce Troughton and they have been chosen to bring the curtain down on the fourth season. The story follows on immediately from The Faceless Ones so there is no room to pause for a moment about the departure of Ben and Polly but instead discover who has nicked the TARDIS. Written by David Whittaker who’s previous contribution was Power of the Daleks and the first issue that I have with the story is that at seven episodes long, it is about 3 or 4 episodes too long. It’s not until Episode Three that the story really gets going and sadly its only episode two that exists on video. It’s a nice teaser for what the story could have been like.

The story goes from 1966 to 1866 where Edward Waterfield has been instructed to bring the Doctor and Jamie to the 19th Century where his daughter has been held captive by the Daleks. I didn’t really like the character of Edward Waterfield because I never believed in the character. He was just a bit too spineless for my liking and had it not being that I think Debroah Watling is such a nice person then I wouldn’t have cared what happened to Edward or Victoria Waterfield. On the subject of Victoria Waterfield, I have always a liking for the character. Ok she wasn’t in the show for very long and she did say ‘Jamie’ in a slightly irritating tone but I think that Debroah Watling was very good in this story despite starting off in the Dalek’s custody.

Patrick Troughton is well and truly the Doctor. After a slightly dodgy start where the producers were still trying to get a story that would suit Troughton’s Doctor, we are getting a good run of stories and Troughton has settled into the role. Frazer Hines has also settled into the role and now that Anneke Wills and Michael Craze have departed from the show it means that Hines can shine and take his place alongside Troughton. I also like how he was defiant against the Doctor and showed us how tough the character can be. Well done to both.

This story sees the introduction of the Emperor Dalek, this is the most high profile Dalek that we had seen up until this point and to be honest it’s a slight disappointment. It’s got nothing to do with the version we see in Bad Wolf and Parting of the Ways but you think that it sounds better than it looks and it’s the first time in listening to the cds that its better than it would have been on video. The idea that Daleks at one point have resorted to wanting to play child games is something that must have seemed barmy in 1967 but nowadays its quite a nice twist on their character and works in the context of this story.

The most notable thing about this story is that it was intended to be the final story to feature the Daleks. After four years and several stories, Terry Nation was going to take his creations to America and give them their own series but that obviously never turned up. This is quite a definet ending for them but as we know that they would return in five years time, this ending can be appreciated in a different way and its one of the best endings to a Dalek story that we have ever had. The Evil of the Daleks is an ok story and despite some people on the web claiming that it was one of the best Dalek stories ever, I have to say that its in the middle as far as I am concerned. But in the context of the fourth series its one of the best because it’s a Dalek story and it’s a nice way to end the series.

Annihilation (2011)

The third part of this impressive series takes a slightly different tone. Written by Scott Handcock (writer of The Magician Oath) and Gary Russell, this story deals with Vampires and I will state now that I cant stand Vampires. Not that I have a phobia of them or something but they just bore me. I wasn’t overly over the moon with The Time Vampire from the Companion Chronicle series. There are two big names in the guest cast list. Katy Manning returns to Big Finish playing Magistrix Borusa whereas Geoffrey Beevers (formerly the Master in The Keeper of Traken) plays Lord Prydon.

This version of Gallifrey sees a civil war (what else) and its between two groups led by Prydon and Borusa. They have been fighting for quite sometime and there is a feeling in the performances that this is the case. In this version of Gallifrey they are not called Timelords but True Lords which is quite a strange title and doesn’t quite sit right in the story. I think it’s a good thing it will probably never be used again. I think that the writers have done a clever thing but referring to Leela’s blindness. I had forgotten about Leela’s age progression being held back whilst being on Gallifrey and despite it being Gallifrey, its not the original and she starts to age but in a clever scene, she is cured and most importantly her eye sight has returned which is a relief because it was restricting what the companion could do and now it wont be referred to ever five minutes. Louise Jameson is on good form again and this is the seventh story within a couple of weeks that I listened to and that she has been in and she is simply wonderful.

Katy Manning is brilliant as Borusa. Having not heard as Iris Wildthyme since Excelis Rising, I am more use to hearing Manning play Jo Grant. She plays the role brilliantly and like Colin Baker in the previous story is one of the best things in this story. That said this story isnt a patch on the previous one but I was still impressed with her performance and it was made even stronger when its compared to Geoffrey Beevers. He has a superb voice and I think that whilst he doesn’t sound that different from when he appeared in Dust Breeding (2001) and also the Target audios but to be honest I don’t really care. The two of them could read the phone book and it would still be interesting. I also have to say that Lalla Ward was very good in this and its her best performance of the series so far.

Annihalation is the inevitable weak link in the chain. It’s not a terrible story by any stretch of the imagination and I would quite happily listen to this story again but I think whereas the previous stories in the series have been so high in terms of quality that anything that was remotely off-target would result in the story being not as highly regarded as other stories. I still think that this series is the best so far and this story has a lot of strong points but one minor point (the vampires).

Disassembled (2011)

2011 TOMS TARDIS AWARD WINNER

• Best Gallifrey Story

The second instalment of this series is my favourite so far. I have to take issue with the new theme tune. Whilst it’s quite a nice one I much prefer the one that had been used in the previous three series. Written by Justin Richards who is quickly becoming one of my favourite writers, this story sees the regulars arrive in another portal except it’s far more brutal than normal Gallifrey. The Timelords in this version are far more involved than we had previous known them to be and there is a Temporal Intervention Agency. Timelords are basically eradicating people out of time to make things better for themselves. The process that this is done is quite a dark and grim one. We encounter a General Leela who is even more aggressive than normal Leela ever was. I had a slight concern that when the two Leela’s inevitably meet that I would have difficultly in telling the two apart but Louise Jameson does a great job in creating two different tones but keeping them appropriate to the character.

The story moves along and is interesting and then comes in Mr Colin Baker. Now I am a big fan of Colin’s and think that his Doctor is one of the best in the Big Finish range but in this story he plays a different version of his incarnation who is called The Lord Burner who as it turns out is the Presidential Assassin. It’s at this stage that the story really becomes a strong contender for Best Gallifrey story ever. The story is trying to rid of a paradox which as anyone who watched Last of the Timelords in 2007 knows that this is a bad thing. The portal plot point plays an important part in dramatic terms and I was worrying that this portal stuff was just a convenient plot tool that was going to become silly however due to the fact that its weakening then it seems like they (the writers/producers etc) knew what they were doing with it. Yet again Braxiatel is used to save the day and I think that he is one of my underrated characters because he is superbly played by Miles Richardson.

There is a nice little cameo from Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield. This is perhaps done to explain Braxiatel’s arrival in her reality. It was a nice little scene that came at the end of a story that I really had enjoyed and so I had nothing but good will towards it and whether they appear in future stories or not I think that it’s a nice scene that works very well.

The regulars are all on good form with Lalla Ward continuing to show why she’s the better Romana. I think that Louise Jameson wins out of these two because of her portrayal of the ‘bad’ Leela. I also thought that Sean Carlsen put in another great performance as Narvin. You can never quite trust him and his unstable friendship with Leela is a highlight. Colin Baker as I have mentioned is just fantastic in this and whereas it could have been a normal performance like he would in the main range, to appear in a series where he isn’t the star of the story and not try to steal the show is credit to him.

Before I finish, I thought the biggest and best thing about this story is something that literally had shocked me and I was driving on the M6 at the time which isn’t perhaps the best time to be listening to this story. It was the revelation that the Doctor was to be killed and this is why he fled Gallifrey with Susan. Though this isn’t specifically named it’s pretty hard to argue otherwise. When all is said and done this is a brilliant story and this series is shaping up to be the best out of the four so far. It’s clear that the complex stories that were regular in the previous series would be replaced with far more understandable adventures but of course with two more adventures in this series it could all change but at this moment in time (and space) all I have to say is – Marvellous.

Reborn (2011)

Never has a title been more appropriate to a Big Finish release. Reborn is essentially the reboot to the Gallifrey series after a near five years gap. For me it’s not been as long as it has been for other because I came to the party quite late so the wait hasn’t been as long for me. This series came out in March but due to an excessive back log of other Big Finish stories I have only just got to this story now. Anyway this story is a curious one because it doesn’t immediately jump out as a traditional Gallifrey story but the plot is that Romana and the rest have stumbled across an different reality where Mary Tamm is Romana and she married Andred and has a son. Leela’s parallel is also different as she is the one that searched for the Key to Time not Romana and also Lalla Ward’s Romana calls herself Astra in a nod to The Armgeddon Factor. There is a great feeling of nostalga which I wonder whether it would get lost on newer fans.The story is about trying to get out of this version of reality and preventing Antonian from joining them. This is quite a nice simple plot strand and some might be slightly frustrated by this but to be honest I really liked it and found it to be a refreshing change.

It’s brilliant that Mary Tamm is back as she was thoroughly impressive during original stint. Here she gets to play a nice Romana who seems relatively close to the Romana and it still seems odd for her to have been married (to anyone) and have a child. It’s also good to have Conrad Westmaas back in a Big Finish play as to my knowledge this is his first story since the departure of C’Rizz in Absolution towards the end of 2007. The character he plays does come across as a bit of a spoilt brat but due to Westmaas’ performance it isnt an irritaiting character. Well played by him. I also quite liked Sarah Douglas’ performance as Chancellor Dondquest. Not only is it one of the finest names that I can remember being in a Doctor Who played but it’s a nice strong performance from Douglas. Louise Jameson has been the most listened to individual for me in Big Finish. I’ve just finished listening to the third series of Jago and Litefoot and spending the last few months listening to the other Gallifrey stories I think that the character has become stronger than during her TV days. Like Colin Baker’s Doctor, Big Finish have rejuvenated the savage character. It does seem to be a bit of a comedy thing to use by putting Leela in a privileged position in Gallifrey.

Reborn is a story that does two things. It gentily reintroduces everyone to the structure of the Gallifrey and it also tells a very good story. I was thoroughly impressed with the writing in this story and despite it being a bit strange at the beginning it was still a promising start to this fourth series and whilst I don’t think for a second that the stories will be as simple as this one I still have high hopes it was as entertaining.

Rat Trap (2011)

Rat Trap is the final adventure for the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough of 2011 and is written by Tony Lee who is a name that means nothing to me but according to Wikipedia is a New York Times Best-selling writer who has made his name in graphic novels. Anyway, this story has to do a job of providing a satisfying conclusion to this series and in some ways it works and in some ways it doesn’t. The story is set in 1983 in the underground base of a castle. The story takes a little while to get going. It seems like we get a story set under a castle and its not clear really at first what is going on. Ok so rats are going to play an important part in the story but it’s not really until part two that it becomes clear.

Terry Molloy makes his first appearance in a Big Finish play since Kingdom of Silver back in 2008 and to be honest I didn’t twig at first that it was him but it was quite a while before I started thinking that it sounded familiar and it was only listening to the extras that I realised it was him. As Dr Wallace, he is the one responsible for creating smart rats and pays the ultimate price. Then there is his daughter – Sally Lucas – as played by Alison Thea-Skot. She is a character that goes on quite an impressive journey over the course of the four episodes.

Rat Trap is a nuts and bolts Doctor Who story. It’s also fairly unoriginal in that there are a group of scientists that have genetically enginerred something that then turns on their creator. As I say its not original but that’s not to say its not fun. I quite like the idea of rats that could be used as spies and have overpowered humans. It’s quite a scary idea. I do think that it could only have been done on radio because the last time that there were rats in Doctor Who, it didn’t work well. Thankfully with audio we get the impression of lots or rats and its effective and creepy.

The regulars put in good performances. It’s funny how the sympathy that Tegan had for Turlough has disappeared as she continues to refer to him as ‘that boy’. I also liked how they bought back the thing about what Nyssa was doing in Cobwebs. It’s kind of been forgotten over the previous stories but it was nice that they bought it back to the forefront. It means two things, one that we get more of Sarah Sutton and secondly it continues the Rhicter storyline which is something that I find interesting. Mark Strickson is perhaps the weak link in the chain and doesn’t really have much to do and its only in the latter half that he comes into his own. Janet Fielding continues to show why she is a good companion and has some decent lines that litter this story. Peter Davison gives his usual standard performance which is one that I find more enjoyable than his TV version. It’s not often that I make this statement (this is the 2nd time I believe) but this is an occasion where the crowded TARDIS theme shows up. I think that there were too many main characters to focus on and it would have been better to just have two companions. Which two I will leave to you.

At the end of the story I came to the conclusion that Rat Trap is a perfectly good story. As I said earlier it’s a nuts and bolts story but it works perfectly well and the characters are fine and the whole thing has an air of something that has been designed to be suitable for everyone and not one of Big Finish’s more complicated adventures. It’s a nice end to this series of Fifth Doctor adventures and leaves me with the feeling that there wasn’t a weak story and this story compliments that. Hopefully this wont be the last time that Tony Lee writers for Big Finish because if his stories are like this then he has a good future with the company.

Chronoclasm (2011)

The final story from this brilliant series sees the infamous Mr. Payne see out the end of the series. The story has a different feel to previous stories, as it is the final story its only right that the stakes involved are higher than what we have had before. This story is written by Andy Lane who’s previous contributions to Jago and Litefoot includes The Similarity Engine and The Ruthven Inheritance and also the Companion Chronicle that led to this spin-off ‘The Mahogany Murderers’.

The past and present melt into each other and the time leakages are getting more intense. The story sees the introduction of the Sphere who are massive creation that can wreck houses and this leads Professor Litefoot to have to stay at Ellie’s. The 2011 is a stable moment in time. It seems to be a tad bit convenient and had this story been released in 2013, they would have said the same thing. The Sphere things that appear are after Mr. Payne and we learn that they are after something from Payne. The Sphere taught Payne a trick which enables him to bring back his wife, Shania. They were orbiting an event horizon and she was pulled through it. He is trying to get her back by basically ripping the world apart. Payne promised to help them leave the black star to roam the universe to ‘eat time’. We learn that she has been killed and his mission to bring her back was futile and the sphere has been playing with him.

The whole plot isnt as complicated as the previous series finale. I’m not saying that as a bad thing because I think that making things complicated at an important stage of a series is a disappointing way to conclude the series and so this story is refreshing and at no point throughout did I get bored or confused and frustrated.

I never get bored of writing this but Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter are absolutely, positively and unashamably brilliant. They give a contanst enthusiastic performance and with every scene the decision to give Jago and Litefoot their own series proves to be the right one. Louise Jameson is also brilliant and has been throughout this series. She could have been involved in the second story more but that’s not something that can be blamed on Louise Jameson.

It was set up that Leela was going to leave once the drama had ended and she goes off and it was at this point that I felt quite sad and then before I knew what was what she turns up and we are told that she is unable to leave. Then the biggest bombshell that I can recall in quite sometime. Mr Colin Baker appears at the very end and he introduces as Professor Claudius Dark. It’s a name that escapes me at the moment but I assume that in Series 4 it will come to be important. The thing about Leela is that I think that she has injected that bit of fizz to the series and I think that the series has certainly benefited from her involvement.

Overall this series has been the best. Apart from The Man at the End of the Garden which I thought was a bit weak, the whole series has been solid and has felt far better than the previous series. It feels like Big Finish have got the hang of the format of the series and found the right balance. When Series Four (cant believe were there already!) arrives in 2012, I feel that they will be able to raise the standard even higher. Well Done to everyone involve.

The Underwater Menace (1967)

The Underwater Menace is the first adventure to feature Jamie as a proper companion and its at a point where Patrick Troughton is starting to find his feet. I had always thought of the story as a six parter for some reason but its shorter than that at four episodes. The story sees the Doctor and crew arrive on Atlantis (yes that one) which has a mixture of scientific and primitive ways of life. The main villain is Professor Zaroff who is a mad bloke. The first episode is by far the weakest as it doesn’t really feel like it belongs to the other three episodes.

The story sees Zaroff wants to blow up the world for reasons that escape me and unless I keep blacking out whilst listening to this story. It’s never made clear to me. This is changed from the original plan where he wants to raise Atlantis from the bottom of the ocean which is a noble idea but then over the course of the four episodes he starts to go mad and this leads me to one of the best things about Zaroff.
The cliffhanger for Episode 3 is one of the funniest things that I have seen in Doctor Who. Zaroff runs into the main room after three people have been killed shouts in a OTT manner “Nothing in the world can stop me now!”. Yet when we come back to him in Episode 4, clearly someone has told him to tone it down and it becomes a slightly more subdued performance. Overall, Joseph Furst does a relatively good job in being the antagonist of the piece but its just that bit that ruins it for me. Patrick Troughton is finally starting to become the Doctor that we know he will become. The story sees him continuing to perfect his balance between serious and comedy.

Frazer Hines does surprisingly well considering he’s just been taken out of 18th Century Scotland. Also when you consider that it felt like his decision to join the TARDIS crew was bolted onto The Highlanders at the very last minute, it’s like this story was six months after that story not one week. Anneke Wills and Michael Craze seem to be slipping down the chain of importance as Jamie has that fresh vibe the Ben and Polly had when they joined the show in July 1966.

The Underwater Menace is better than The Highlanders and whilst its not perfect its still a good story and it feels like the show is starting to settle down after the biggest change in the shows history at that point.

The Highlanders (1967)

The Highlanders is the first story to feature Frazer Hines as Jamie. It is also the first story since I started my Marathon where I haven’t reviewed a story. This is only Patrick Troughton’s second story as the Doctor and it’s the first proper historical since the poor The Massacre. There is a reason why pure historical stories don’t work and its because its hard to find the right balance between being truthful to historical events and being a good piece of drama. What also works against it is that it doesn’t exist on video and the story has to work harder to make it more enjoyable. This story has been written by two people including the co-creator of the Cybermen which is just hard to believe but then again. The creator of the Daleks wrote The Keys of Marinus so it just proves that because someone has created something wonderful doesn’t mean its going to be a guranteed success. The historical events are not what I got from this story, its some of the characters. I found Donald Bisset (The Laird) to be a good character whilst Hannah Gordon was the stand out supporting character as Kirsty. She gets to spend some time with Anneke Wills and the two seem to get on really well. This means that Ben and Jamie get to also share some scenes.

Its odd that the Doctor doesn’t really drive this story and its down to Polly and Ben to drive the narrative. The story does allow Troughton to fine tune his comedy skills as he gets to pretend to be a Doctor and also dress up in women’s clothing. Its hard to believe William Hartnell would do this. I do think that Troughton is better that he was in Power of the Daleks but its still not quite what it would be like in future. I think also that Frazer Hines doesn’t quite has the best introduction into Doctor Who. It seemed that the decision to keep him beyond this story was made at the very last minute but as we all know it would work out in the end.

The Highlanders is a story that doesn’t really do anyone any favours. It seems like it was designed to protect Troughton who was in only his second story and was probably still trying to get a feel for the character. This transitional time for Doctor Who still feels unstable and as a result the story will remain exactly as I have always thought of it. Not very good.

Swan Song (2011)

After being slightly disappointed with The Man at the End of the Garden, I was hoping that this story would be a return to form. Written by John Dorney, there is a sense that the writer might have been inspired by Black Swan (the Oscar nominated film). None the less, this story is a return to form for the series. The story starts off with the story of Alice who tells us of a tragic event which resulted in her paralysis, robbing her a chance of appearing in a production of Swan Lake. It’s a really sad way of starting of a story but it helps establish the Alice character.

The story takes place between two time periods. The first being in the 1890’s where Jago, Litefoot and Leela are wondering around the Theatre and the other being some time in the future where on the site of the theatre they are doing experiments. It’s due to these experiments that are creating these situations where the two time zones meet up. It’s good when we learn that the future stuff is taking place in the exact same area where the theatre once stood and what happened to the theatre. The story spends just about the right amount of time trying to figure out what was going on before they got to the main action which was trying to stop all hell breaking loose. I like it how they placed in the story in the just the one area. Ok its in two different time zones but they didn’t set it in the Tavern then the theatre then Litefoot’s residence, just in the theatre which meant that I could focus on the story as opposed to where the characters were which is always a bonus for me.

I really like the music for Swan Lake and one of the things that I really like about this story is that they play the music. I know its not the same one as they use in the opera (probably for rights reasons) but the thing about the music is that its so good that it can be played in any way and it would still sound good. Kudos to whoever put it in the story because for me it would have not been as good if they had left it out.

All the regulars are on good form with Louise Jameson getting a lot more to do than she did in the previous story. However it’s the supporting cast that really impressed me with Abigal Hollick leading the way as Alice. Her story was made all the more heartbreaking with Hollick’s performance. Hywel Morgan & Andrew Westfield (Dan and Steven respectively) also did well in supporting Hollick.

Swan Song is a very good story as it was intriguing without being baffling. There is a line about how they didn’t get to do Swan Lake until after Jago had died. It seems that Jago fell in love with the story. John Dorney has written a story with great characters and a story that doesn’t feel rushed and feels like everything was meant to be there as opposed to being thrown in to make the story last the time it needed to run. I still think that the first story is the best so far but this is a fitting second.

The Man at the End of the Garden (2011)

The next story in the Jago and Litefoot is a slightly odd story. Written by the man who came up with the Toms Tardis Award winning story ‘The Magic Mousetrap’ – Matthew Sweet. This story is a bit of a break from the norm and at times it doesn’t feel like a Jago and Litefoot story. I think that we have become use to relatively straightforward stories with straightforward monsters/villains and this is perhaps the most complex or multi-layered story that we have had since this spin-off started.

There is a sense of The Birds in this story where the cast seem to be under attack from crows. I think that it gives the story a nice dark atmosphere and the whole idea that what is happening has something to do with a book is a nice idea but sadly the story is too confusing for me to be able to connect the dots so to speak. The story allows little for Louise Jameson and it seems an odd story to go for and they should make hay while the sun shines as the old saying goes. I don’t know how long Louise Jameson will be in Jago and Litefoot but if it is only for this series then this will be the one where she should have been allowed to do more. As for Benjamin and Baxter, they put on fine performances and as usual have the enthusiasm that made this series such a must. I was also quite impressed with the little girl, Eden Monteath (who appeared in The Eleventh Hour) did a good job and was totally believeable being in a very intelligent script. The other supporting character was Joanna Bacon who played Mrs. Hitch. I found her character to be very good and well played. The interaction between Mrs Hitch and Clara was one of the best things in this story.

It’s a story that I struggled with. I think that the struggle came with trying to figure out what was working out what was going on between the mom and daughter (?) and going on with Jago and Litefoot. I liked it enough to stick with it but I feel slightly disappointed with it and it wasn’t a patch on the previous adventures. I think that there is nothing wrong with having stories that push the boundries of my intelligence and whilst I may not understand everything that’s going on. I think that its far better than stories like Flip-Flop and most recently The Hollows of Time.