The Butcher of Brisbane (2012)

The final story of this series sees the return of a familiar foe. Magnus Greel returns to Doctor Who after he appeared in the 1977 adventure ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’. However this is a prequel for the character and what this story does is to fill in the blanks and tell us how he came to be how we see him in Weng-Chiang. The return of Magnus Greel is given to Marc Platt who is a Toms Tardis Award winning author (Silver Turk – 2011). At the beginning of this story, the TARDIS is on its way to Australia so that Tegan can indulge herself in a bit of sheep shearing but ends up in Brisbane in the 51^st Century. It’s not long before the inevitable happens and that is the regulars get split up and this time its Nyssa’s turn to team up with Turlough and the Doctor is left with Tegan. This was a good idea because it meant that Turlough could be Nyssa’s assistant as she cozied up to Magnus Greel. The first part is the best episode for me as it sets the story up brilliantly, we find that Nyssa and Turlough come across someone who not only knows them but has come from three years in the future. When we are introduced to Magnus Greel he is the Justice Minister for the Supreme Alliance, it’s quite a good way of introducing the character because he is someone who doesn’t arrive in an invasion fleet but as someone who is well established in the time and place he is in.

Two of the three cliffhangers are very good. In particular the first when Tegan (along with the rest of us) discover what has happened to Nyssa who is to become the wife of Magnus Greel. This wonderfully complicates the situation and helps add another plot strand to the story. As this story is set in Magnus’ future it was a nice reminder of the Doctor’s timeline with River Song. When he first meets River it’s her final story and in the Talons of Weng-Chiang its Magnus’ final story. I’m making it more complicated but essentially the point I’m making is that is nice to think that after this story we know what will happen to Magnus when the character himself doesn’t know. The Doctor does well in not letting Magnus know who he is as this would totally screw up the continuity of this particular storyline. Platt does a good job of keeping an eye on what the Doctor says and does (and also makes sure that no one else calls him the Doctor in front of Magnus. As Nyssa has been in a relationship with Magnus it’s interesting when she tries to defend him to Tegan. However instead of saying that he is 100% nice and just misunderstood which would have been silly, she says that despite being a monster he did show her kindness which is about as close as Nyssa could seriously get to saying something nice about him.

The central performances were all very good. Janet Fielding admits in the extras that two of the stories she didn’t fully understand (I suspect the other story was The Jupiter Conjunction), I thought that Sarah Sutton was yet again given a nice story and worked well with Angus Wright (Magnus). I thought that Wright did a good job of playing Magnus Greel. The Magnus we encounter in this story isn’t the same as in Weng-Chiang so Wright isn’t compelled to try and mimic Michael Spice (Greel in Weng-Chiang) and so gives a solid performance which gives glimpses of what Greel is to become. Peter Davison’s performance was what we usually get from him and it was a solid performance.

I must admit that I felt this was a slight (ever so) disappointment for me. Compared to his previous story, I think that he starts off well but fails to deliver the killer punch which is what I like about The Silver Turk. It’s not a terrible story because there is a great deal to like about this story but I think that it’s not a Platt classic. Out of the three stories of this series I would say that The Emerald Tiger is the standout story but for the third year running, there wasn’t a terrible story in the series. I do wonder for how long they can keep this trend up. It might be worth giving the trio a rest for the next series thus meaning the next time they come back will be something to look forward to.

The Revenants (2012)

Free releases from Doctor Who Magazine have been quite frequent in recent years. This year is another companion chronicle story and its another William Russell story. What’s not to like. The story was written by Ian Potter who as far as I am aware is making his first foray into the Big Finish/Doctor Who world. Now its very hard to knock something that is free so I have to base my review on whether I would be happy to pay for it had it been in the proper range. Ian and this women have a common interest and that is a woman called Janet. This then leads us into the story where the TARDIS has landed in 1956 just seven years before their adventures in the TARDIS.

The spends a few moments explaining the early days of Ian’s journey. This seems to be Big Finish’s attempt to introduce the character to a modern audience who haven’t seen the First Doctor stories from that period.  The Doctor is trying to get Ian and Barbara back to 1963 which is what he had been trying to do since the very first story. The story then moves on with the TARDIS apparently abandoning Ian and Barbara and it focuses then across their journey across some mud which has creatures in it. The Doctor is used as the cliffhanger and when the story resumes it turns out that somehow Ian and Barbara had left the TARDIS as it was landing. The Doctor has been waiting for them at a house for a number of years. He chose to wait for Ian and Barbara as opposed to just going on and leaving them in 1956, this little detail isn’t remembered until the very end but I think it’s a nice way to remind us older fans of just how a short time before this story was set, the Doctor tried to poison his companions.

Marsh-way beings were an alien race that had crashed, even though we only hear them talk briefly I thought that they were another interesting creation. Big Finish have done well with creating alien races recently and this is another good race. They start off quite creepy and seemingly intent on sucking people through the ground but then their truth is revealed. I felt that whilst this wasn’t on par with the Jovians from ‘The Jupiter Conjunction’, they were given a good voice and as such were a credible creation.

William Russell is brilliant as usual. Like he was in ‘The Wanderer’ he puts so much enthusiasm into his performance that its very hard to stay focused on what is actually going on because his voice is so mesmorising. His co-star in this Sharon Small who does double duty as Jeannie and Janet. I thought that she did better as Janet because I thought that this character was the stronger of the two but I still thought that Jeannie served a purpose.

This story is set between ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’ and ‘The Rescue’ and so Susan has only just left the TARDIS. I liked how Ian played with the idea of he and Barbara staying on Earth and effectively going into hiding for seven years but Barbara rejects the idea and puts the Doctor’s interests first as she thinks losing her and Ian so soon after Susan would have a devastating effect on him. I mentioned at the beginning that I would judge this free Companion Chronicle, on the basis of whether I would pay to hear it had it been released in the main series. Overall I would say yes. It’s not the greatest Companion Chronicle by any means however there was quite a lot to like and I especially liked the idea of Ian and Barbara not leaving the Doctor and their reason for it. It was a well written story and an enjoyable hour spent, hopefully Potter will be allowed to write for the main range because he has potential to be a very good write for that range.

Trail of the White Worm (2012)

Trail of the White Worm is the most eagerly anticipated releases from this series because it sees the return of the Master who before TOTWW had only appeared twice in Doctor Who Big Finish stories. The first was in 2001’s ‘Dust Breeding’ and in the superb 2003 ‘Master’. The problem with things that are anticipated is that the anticipator can build their expectations up too much and thus be disappointed. It’s difficult to give a proper review of the story until the next part comes out. The story sees the Doctor and Leela arrive in 1979 where the town they arrive in are looking for a missing girl. The worm of the title was designed to create worm holes. The worm fell to earth during Roman times and eventually was discovered by the Master who was using it for his sinister purpose.

The story is littered with very brief moments of comedy which don’t ruin the flow of the story and does seem to suit the style of the story. The scene where the Doctor and Leela are talking to the worm inside the worm’s stomach is the sort of mad and seems to only have come from someone with the sort of mind that Alan Barnes has.  Another moment is when Leela keeps getting called Pan’s People which is the name of dancers that appeared on the BBC Music show ‘Top of the Pops’ during the 1960’s to 70’s. This is funny because of how she is dressed and that Pan’s People were often called ‘one for the dads’ which is how I have heard Leela referred to over the years so the reference does work.

One of the reasons why I was looking forward to this story was because Geoffrey Beevers was going to reprise his role of the Master. It’s a crime that the Master hasn’t been used more often than he has Beevers is truly fantastic and I emphasise the word fantastic. Beevers sounds like a really nice man and yet he can pull of being evil so well. The Master is held back long enough in this story so that when he does make his appearance its much appreciated. Beevers has some great scenes especially with Tom Baker and it reminds me of the scenes they had together in ‘The Keeper of Traken’. These are two great actors and whilst they didn’t have their big scene it seems that its only a matter of time. Another familiar name that has appeared in Doctor Who and Big Finish in the past is that of Michael Cochrane who last appeared in ‘Brotherhood of the Daleks’ in 2008 which was an Alan Barnes piece and one that I found baffling. He plays Colonel Spindleton who is a quite eccentric posh figure who I could quite easily see on his country estate riding a sheep but the great thing about Cochrane’s performance is that it blinds you to what the truth behind his character is and that is he is working for the Master. When this is revealed Cochrane twists the way he plays the character to be that of a lackey.

There is a bit where the Doctor mentions the Brigadier. Now if this story had been recorded two years ago then there would have been the very real possibility of Nicholas Courtney making an appearance. However as we know he is no longer with us it just reminds me how sad it is that Courtney is not around. The identity of the creatures that the Master has helped through the worm hole is not mentioned however the identity was somewhat spoiled when you have seen the cover for the next story. If you haven’t seen that then I wont mention however it’s a good revelation and hopefully the next adventure looks like we will get the pay off that this story has set up. It’s not easy to say whether I was disappointed with this release because it will be depend on the next adventure but what I will say is that I am encouraged by this release.

The Jigsaw War (2012)

This is the second Jamie story that we have had in just three months but this time he is on his own. This is also the second story to be released that has been written by Eddie Robson. This one seems to be the more interesting on because it has a simple premise. I say simple in that the idea is simple but not necessarily the story itself. Jamie is a prisoner and has to put a sequence of events in order so that he can escape. This CC story isn’t a regular one because it isn’t told as if it were happening in the past. This is as if it were a normal story. The story could quite easily have gone off and become a totally bonkers story and lose my patience. We know (or think we know) that Jamie ends up shooting his captor Si.

Getting someone to put events in order is quite a bold idea but giving that it’s the responsibility of Jamie who isn’t as smart as other companions makes the story a whole lot more interesting. The fact that he manages to pull it off and uses logic to work things out is something that wouldn’t have happened on TV. It’s not until part two until we get to the plot device that writers use from time to time and that is putting the companion in a situation where their faith in the Doctor is rocked. In Jamie it’s done quite effectively as the Doctor/Jamie friendship is one of the strongest in Doctor Who. The idea that Si was trying to change Jamie.

As there should be there is an explanation as to why Jamie is where he is and thus the purpose of the story. Unhelt’s have powers which Si is trying to control but they are scared that they will rise against them, Si and his race are using humans to slow down the Unhelt’s development. The humans would be convinced that the Unhelt’s are dangerous when they clearly aren’t. I’m guessing that I have spelt the name of the race correctly. It seems to be right and even though we never get to encounter them I must say that I found them to be an intriguing race and quite like Robson’s previous story (Jupiter), they are portrayed as one thing but in reality are the exact opposite. At first I thought it would have been nice to hear them but then thought that it would probably have slowed the pace of it and got in the way of the storytelling.

Frazer Hines is as usual brilliant in this story. He has to play Jamie like he did on TV and in the Sixth Doctor series in 2010 and he seems to be enjoying himself. It’s nice that the Jamie we get in these adventures is slightly more rounded than on TV and shows that despite not having the Doctor and/or Zoe beside him, he can still work things out and doesn’t always need a smarter person to fill in the blanks. Dominic Mafham makes his debut to the Doctor Who world (though he will be turning up in a future fourth Doctor adventure). As Si, I found him to be very good because he wasn’t coming across as the evil genius intent on world domination and neither was he someone who I didn’t believe in. He was just someone that seemed to be doing his job on a planet that he didn’t want to be on Mafham does a good job in pitching it just right. Yes you could argue that Robson had a hand in this but the writing only takes it so far and as a result its left to Dominic to flesh it out and in his first performance he does very well indeed.

This is Eddie Robson’s strongest (and smartest) story for quite sometime. Out of this story and ‘The Jupiter Conjunction’, this is the better of the two by a clear mile. I suppose if I had to find fault with this story then it would be that I wish there was more of Frazer doing his Troughton impression cause I still maintain that it’s one of the best impressions in Doctor Who. Apart from that ‘The Jigsaw War’ is a highly enjoyable companion chronicle and the ending whilst abrupt seems to slot in well with the disjointed format of the release.

The Guardians of Prophecy (2012)

The Lost Stories return after a brief break and it’s the return of the Sixth Doctor Lost Stories. The story sees the return of the Melkur who previously appeared in the 1981 adventure ‘The Keeper of Traken’ where the Master was using the Melkur as a TARDIS. In this story the Doctor and Peri arrive on Serenity which is one of the few places not wiped out in Logopolis. The story sees the rise of Malador who has been in stasus for a very long time. The plot is relatively straight forward which I was relieved at because at the moment all I want is for there to be simple or near straight-forward adventures and Johnny Byrne and Jonathan Morris have managed to accomplish this. It did seem to get a bit confusing towards the end but it kept hold of itself enough for me to still follow what was going on.

Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are a good double act and it’s a shame they don’t do more stories together. You can pretty much guarantee that both will manage to get the best out of the Yellow Pages and so as this story has a good plot they have trouble getting a handle on this story. I found Baker’s performance to be on the usual level that we expect from him. Nicola Bryant did a good job and was good in her part of the plot strand. It’s good how out of all the companions from the classic era, Bryant is the one who’s voice hasn’t really changed over the years (Sarah Sutton being the exception). Graham Cole is for me an interesting piece of casting as he had previously appeared in Doctor Who as a Cyberman and also quite ironically as Melkur in Keeper. I think that he had a good voice for radio and the character of Ebbko was quite a fun one and was possibly a nice bit of lightness in what at times was very serious. Another piece of good casting was that of Simon Williams as Guardian. Williams (soon to be in Counter Measures) was the best of the guest stars, I liked how the character just sounded so good. Stephen Thorne as Malador is always enjoyable and in this Thorne gave the character of Malador something that made the character one of the best baddies that we have had in these lost stories since perhaps the Celestial Toymaker.

The casting was good and large chunks of this story was very good. How good would it have been on TV? I think it would have worked well on TV even in by 1980’s standards. My enthusiasm for the Lost Stories has wained over the last few releases as the major Lost Stories have now been made and anything else is something that existed probably on a single A4 piece of paper. It’s not the best Lost Story that there has been but it is certainly better than other Sixth Doctor Lost Stories such as Hollows of Time and Point of Entry.