The Final Phase (2013)

The final story of the series is the final story from Mary Tamm who died shortly after this story was recorded. It was the story I was putting off listening to because I knew of this fact. It had been a while since I heard 'The Dalek Contract' and I was wondering whether I should listen to that again. On this occasion I decided against it and just ploughed back into this story. It's a decision that I would soon regret. This is mainly because I sort of lost track of what was going on and it was only the performances that really kept me interested.

One thing I like about this story is David Warner. As Cuthbert he is a wonderful character and its a great performance from him and the great thing about Warner is that no matter what role you give him, he will always deliver. Toby Hadoke's performance is also quite good and there is a wonderful sense of vulnerability. Tom Baker is on his usual lively self with particularly strong moments. Also Mary Tamm is on great form and even when you take out the fact that this is her last story, you are still left with a Romana performance which is way better than what we got on TV. Her only encounter with the Daleks has gone well.

Despite the story being largely grim, there are some funny moments in a very serous story. The bit where Tom Baker doing a Dalek impression is great and seems very much in keeping with the Fourth Doctor. Another funny moment is when K9 has stealth mode and Romana asks why he hasn't used it before and K9 responds that no-one has ever asked him.

The cliffhanger was relatively ok. I say ok because it does that thing that seems to happen quite a lot in these stories and that's one of the regulars appears to be dead and we clearly know that this isn't the case. It was a while before Tom Baker made a return and I had forgotten about him because the action was moving along at such a pace that when he did return it was a moment where I couldn't believe that I had forgotten about him.

I thought the final scene was good even though obviously in an ideal world we would have had a nice tidy end scene but obviously heindsight is a wonderful thing. What we have got is a nice scene which seemed to solidify the Doctor's relationship with Romana as they both seemed to realise they don't mind each other without actually realising it. As much as I want to say that I enjoyed this I must say that there was small sense of disappointment. It's not a terrible story by any stretch of the imagination but I think that when you compare it to other Dalek stories then the best that you can say is that its perfectly fine.

Enemy Aliens (2013)

  This release is something of a historic release. It's the first time that a Big Finish companion has been used in wha is effectively a non-big finish adventure. it's the only time this will happen and its more to do with the fact that his number companions is low and the two characters that they could use are unavailable so out comes Charlotte Louise Pollard as played by India Fisher who's last adventure was a couple of years ago.

I'm going to come out with it straight away and say that I reall enjoyed this adventure. From start to finish the story was highly enjoyable and what sold this adventure to me wasn't necessarily India Fisher though I will get onto that shortly. It was the actual story which I found quite charming and I liked how it uses the title in quite a clever way. When you read the word aliens you imagine aliens in the traditional sense but actually it means aliens in the international sense. 

There a several good moments throughout this release. The first of them and the one that made me instantly like this story was the death on stage and how it leads Charley to be accused of murder. There something of the 39 steps about this story which isn't a bad thing just an observation. Then Charley fleeing to Scotland manages to make me feel that this could have worked as a full cast adventure for the main Big Finish range.

India Fisher is very good in this, actually let me correct that and say she is superb. Anyone who watches MasterChef will be familiar with her voice and whether its telling us what some wannabe chef has cooked up or whether Charley is talking about the latest peril, Fisher delivers the lines brilliantly and with the same amount of enthusiasm. If this is the first time that you are encountering Charley then you don't need to have heard any of her adventures with the sixth and eighth doctors.

The story does start to run a bit out of steam towards the very end but I enjoyed it so much that I didn't mind it so much. With a running time of around an hour it zips along at quite a good pace and its easily the best of the range which when you consider how good and consistently good the stories have been then it shows you how good this release is. As the range is coming towards the end its probably the best time to say that this series has been a pleasant surprise because even though Big Finish have produced it, there was a possibility that with AudioGo being involved that it was going to fall flat and just not work but I'm happy to say that the series has workedn and in the shows 50th Anniversay that is a massive relief.

Persuasion (2013)

Persuasion is the first story in the Seventh Doctor series. It’s also the first time that we have a Klein story in the main range since 2010 and its been just under a year since UNIT: Dominion. There was always going to be a question as to whether you needed to have listened to UNIT: Dominion before listening to this adventure and to be honest I’m not sure that you really do. At the end of ‘The Architects of History’, Klein was left at UNIT as a scientific advisor and she has no memory of her past.

The story starts off with an interesting pre-title scene where we are about to encounter the end of the world. I always think that pre-title scenes should always have something to do with that episode and the problem (and the only real problem I can see) is that it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the episode. Each time I was curious to know how it fitted in to the main story as it didn’t seem to have any relation to the main plot. It seems like it was being saved until the second half of the story and it was a great idea because I personally wanted to hear more of the Doctor and Klein before the rest of the story and Jonathan Barnes pitched it perfectly.

The story also introduces Christian Edwards as Will Arrowsmith. I instantly liked the character as the character seems to have stumbled out of a 1920’s BBC period drama. The fact that he wants to record everything on a Dictaphone is something that I thought was a nice character trait and his involvement in the story was one of the high points. It’s always good to have Tracey Childs in a Big Finish play. The character of Klein is a great one and Childs plays its superbly. She isn’t your typical Doctor Who companion in that she demands to know things and doesn’t like being left in the dark.

Sylvester McCoy puts in a superb performance in this adventure. I would say over the last couple of years McCoy’s Doctor has been getting better and better with the last series being a particular highlight.  Whether it is The Magic Mousetrap, Enemy of the Daleks, Protect and Survive, UNIT: Dominion or Robophobia, it’s clear that McCoy is enjoying the sort of good form that Colin Baker’s Doctor was going through a couple of years ago.

Miranda Raison returns to the Doctor Who world after appearing in Toms Tardis Award winning ‘The Wreck of the Titan’. I thought that she was better cast in this adventure than in Titan. One of the best things about those pre-title scenes is that Raison delivered the dialogue brilliantly.

I really enjoyed this adventure. I thought that the characters were spot on and they weren’t wasted or asked to do stupid thing. There was a nice plot between the Doctor and Klein and also the second plot was a nice  supporting plot which was resolved in a great final episode. I am looking forward to the two remaining stories of the series. Possibly early contender for story of the year.