The Light at the End (2013)

This has to be the most anticipated stories that Big Finish have ever produced and this is their tribute to the show’s 50^th anniversary. It’s so anticipated that Big Finish released it a month early and it’s the first time ever that the five surviving classic Doctors are in the same story. It’s not the first multi-Doctor story of course as we had the less than successful ‘Zagreus’ back in 2003 and we had recently the Four Doctors a couple of years ago which was much better. This has a lot of expectations and they were raised further for me when all the reaction on twitter was positive. Would the following near two hour spectacular live up to those expectations? Nicholas Briggs has taken on the responsibility and is a very brave man indeed. The very beginning was quite intriguing as it seemed to be the sort of thing that would have come from the TV series. The theme tune was fantastic and I hope that they use it for more stories cause its brilliant. It seems like a scene that doesn’t have much in the way of drama but it’s obvious that it’s got some relevance to the story. The decision to bring the Master back for this special was a superb choice and the get Geoffrey Beevers to play the Master again was even better. Having being a fan of ‘Mastermind’, I was really happy with the choice.

The first Doctor we get is Paul McGann’s Doctor and what was brilliant about it was that India Fisher returns as Charley and this is their first scene since the 2007 story ‘The Girl Who Never Was’ and it seemed like we had gone back in time. Despite the long time since they were together, I was surprised at how it was just a couple of weeks. Just the way that McGann says “Run for it Charley” had me feeling like I was listening to Storm Warning again. The scene where all the familiar voices was one of those rare moments where I was giggling like a 5 year old. This opening 15 minutes alone was worth the money. The next great moment comes when Charley meets the Fourth Doctor and Leela and eight minutes later the fourth and eighth meet. It was a great moment. We don’t get an introductory scene with the Fourth Doctor and Leela which was noticeable at the time and I suppose it would have been nice to have a scene between them before Charley gate-crashes the TARDIS. Sixey and Peri haven’t had many adventures together recently out of the Lost Stories series and so this felt more like the main range and that was what helped feel like we were going back in time. Forty minutes into the story and the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa enter the story. It’s not been long since I listened to and enjoyed ‘Fanfare for the Common Men’. Not quite sure whether the events in this story take place before or after Fanfare but in a way that’s irrelevant.  A few minutes later and Sylvester McCoy becomes the last Doctor to arrive in the story with Ace. Even after 80 minutes we still get surprises when Straxus returns. Straxus has previous appeared in several Eighth Doctor adventures and most recently in the Dark Eyes series as played by Toby Jones. I think that the character is quite an interesting one.

In ‘Zagreus’, they stuck Jon Pertwee into the story with inaudible dialogue and they have learnt from their mistakes by getting the companions who have done the voices in the Companion Chronicles to do their impressions once again and it works much better. If only the companion chronicles were around in 2003. A massive round of applause should go to Jamie Robertson who has given this story the sort of music that would make Murray Gold look over his shoulder. Robertson has a fantastic track record with all his stories and he has stepped up his game for this story.

Tom Baker was on fine form. When he found out the name of The Vess he simply replied “Nobody’s perfect”. Tom Baker’s humour is often knocked as being over the top but was perfectly pitched here.  When the eighth Doctor says that the TARDIS console room design was one that he inherited, Baker quips “Who from? Jules Verne?”. I like how Paul McGann and Tom Baker become a nice double act. The Doctor’s best companion is himself. What a weird thought! The Sixth and Seventh Doctors become a double act briefly and I thought the interaction with Peri and Ace was fun to listen to. I thought Ace’s Joseph gag aimed at the sixth Doctor was funny even if it might not be original. Sylvester McCoy has had a good run of stories over the last two or three years and he continues that good run here. Colin Baker’s Doctor has undergone a renaissance since his first Big Finish story back in 1999 and this is the perfect way to show this. Peter Davison has been consistently good over the years even if his stories haven’t quite been as good. Davison shows what a great actor he is here by keeping at the same level as the other four Doctors and none of the leading actors let the side down.

Louise Jameson can’t put a foot wrong in my opinion. After just listening to her in the final Gallifrey series, even Stephen Fry would struggle to find words to describe how great she is. Sarah Sutton, Nicola Bryant and Sophie Aldred were all really good and were given enough to do which makes a change from the 1983 anniversary special. Even though they didn’t have massive parts to play I thought that it was nice how Frazer Hines, Anneke Wills, Jean Marsh, Wendy Padbury, Peter Purves (and others that I probably missed) got to be involved in an imaginative way. Geoffrey Beevers has the perfect voice for the Master and is my favourite actor to play the role after Roger Delgado. Every scene that Beevers was in was superbly played and very creepy. Beevers can make his voice sound quite terrifying at times.

The scene where all the Doctors are talking to each other (with companion chronicle impressions) is a superb moment and the final 20 minutes were just as good as the previous 97. The final big scene was a great way to end the story and the Master was defeated in a creative way. When the Doctor’s forget what they have just been through I was really sad because it would have been great if they could remember what they have all been through but it was inevitable that they would have to forget. They all go off into the sunset and off on their own adventures that we will hopefully get to listen to in the future.

After 15 minutes I decided that this was story of the year and it never gave me any reason after that to dispute this. Everyone involved in this story should be thoroughly proud of themselves. It’s not very often that I say this but the TV series will have to do a lot to beat this. At just under two hours it was possible that it would either become to complicated or just go off the rails somehow but I’m pleased and relieved to say that this didn’t happen. Nicholas Briggs can be relied upon to deliver a solid story and he has managed to write a strong story that utilises everyone. Everyone was on fine form and this is how multi-Doctor stories should be done in the future. This is the perfect 50^th anniversary present.

Death's Deal (2013)

We are now at the penultimate part of this series. Whereas in the previous Doctor story we got someone who wasn’t a companion or even anything close but the voice of the Daleks, here we get Catherine Tate who played Donna Noble during the 2008 series. I’m glad they went with Donna because I think that she was the most fun despite her less than successful encounter in the 2006 Christmas Special. Over 13 episodes in 2008 she blossomed into a wonderful character and played brilliantly by Tate. I love the Tennant theme so was glad to hear it. This story has been written by Darren Jones who apart from writing a couple of 11^th Doctor original novels, he has hasn’t written for Big Finish. This is always a good thing as it allows a bit of freshness to come through as I didn’t know what to expect.

I love how Darren Jones has managed to get the character of Donna perfectly right. “Put a sock in it Pocahantas” was an early favourite. Describing the Doctor as “a lanky streak of madness” is typical Noble and it immediately gave me the impression that we were in the Tenth Doctor era. As for the story itself, the Doctor and Donna arrive on the deadliest planet and it isn’t just a gimmick. It is actually a deadly planet and there is nothing good about it. When Tate talks about shipwrecked I cant help but think of ‘The Doctors Wife’ where there is shot of all the crashed ships and its an image that helps create a nice world here.  Another thing that helped create the atmosphere is the music and credit should go to Jamie Robertson who has worked wonders (like he always does) in creating a truly horrible planet.

The question as to how the 11^th Doctor was going to feature in the story was something that I was interested in finding out as it’s always been different in the previous encounters. It was done well but I was also impressed with Tate’s impression of Matt Smith. Duncan Wiseby is a regular visitor to the Big Finish world and can always be relied upon to give us a good performance and he does that here as Krux and Erskine.

I thought that the story was a lot better than the previous story (though that’s not much of a compliment). It wasn’t just Catherine Tate which made it a great release but the actually story itself was very good and got my attention from the very beginning and kept it for the duration.  If I had to make spot a flaw with it and that would be that it could have done with being 10 minute shorter but I hope that Darren Jones is given the opportunity to write for the main range as I think that with a full cast audio he could write a really strong release. Fingers Crossed.

Ascension (2013)

So this is the end. A spin-off that started in 2004 ends nine years later with Ascension. Would we be given a satisfying end during the next 67 minutes. I knew one thing that some people weren’t going to like this story and some were going to thing that it’s the perfect ending. The story continues with Romana not in fact regenerating but finding herself back on another Gallifrey. It was obvious that it wasn’t going to be like when the Tenth Doctor ‘regenerated’ back in series four but there was going to be some sort of explanation and it was done well. Despite having a relatively short amount of time (they gave three hours to a First Doctor Lost Story), they managed to fit an awful lot into it.

I liked how they tried to tie things up with ‘Genesis of the Daleks’. It was an unexpected link and it felt like they were going to do something like tie it up with known Doctor Who events. There were things that worked that I did manage to understand. I like how it was the Daleks that created the Dogma virus all that time ago.

It seems that the final story was going to be going back to the early days of the spin-off when I struggled to understand what was going on. It sounded like what was happening was all very important and dramatic but I couldn’t tell you what was happening. I think that this is probably a good sign because it means that the show is ending in the same manner than it all those years ago. I thought that the central performances were very good and the one that has been consistent and that is how wonderful Lalla Ward and Louise Jameson have been over the last twenty-three episodes. Despite being a fan of War and Jameson, I cant deny that I felt somewhat underwhelmed by things. I thought that they would try and throw everything at the wall and some things stick and some don’t but because it was so difficult to understand I was only able to enjoy some of it and as a result I think that for some this finale would be what they wanted but for me I just felt that it wasn’t the epic finale that it should have been.

Renaissance (2013)

The penultimate adventure in this series starts off with quite the serious monologue. Then we move to Romana having a wonderful discussion/argument with herself where at least twice she does a quite spot on K9 impression. There is an initial mystery as to who the strange woman is and I must admit that I didn’t see the answer coming. A second Romana is the sort of thing that would be normal for this series. There is a nice speech that Romana III gives Romana II after she has a go about intercepting a transmit is very similar to a speech that was given to Tom Baker’s Doctor in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’. The new Romana offers the current Romana the chance of rebuilding Gallifrey centuries earlier than it should have been. It does mean that Romana 2 has to enter into an alliance with a future incarnation which is breaking the laws of time which is what the Doctor Who world likes to do.

Whereas in the previous story the threat came from the Daleks, in this story the threat seems to come from a future version of her. Initially I thought that whilst there was a sense of mistrust of her motives and even by the end I wanst 100% trusting of her.  I thought that she was really good as Romana 3 and the evil streak that comes with her character is fun to watch and made the final part of the story more fun than it would have been.

There is another instance where a familiar speech is used here and it’s the Master speech that he gives in ‘Logopolis’. In fact there are at least two that are either word for word or similar which I thought it was a nice touch. I like the mistrust between Leela and Romana 3. When Romana 3 suggests that they go for a walk then I am thinking ‘Don’t’. Leela notices things that others don’t and you would have thought that by now people would have trusted from the very beginning but still they wait until the very end before Romana 2 starts to listen to what she’s saying. It’s a little bit annoying that even now they do this but that’s the way things are.

The fact that Romana 2 wants to get rid of Romana 3 discretely is something that seems quite like the sort of thing that would go on in Gallifrey. I think the reason she would want to do this is because she suspects the Romana 3 would do the same to her. There is an awful lot of talking and for a large part of this there isn’t much in the way of action. In fact at times it doesn’t seem like much in the way of action. The best scene is where the Ambassador is leaving and both Romana’s are allowing him to fly to his death much to the dismay of Leela. I know that Romana 2 is against it but she doesn’t try to hard to stop them. It’s at this point that I feel that the story really gets going which comes with just 25 minutes to go. She was put on trial and the punishment was executed quite quickly and it seems Narvin is working for Romana 3. Considering how Romana 2 was going to do this to 3, its hard to drum up any sympathy towards 2.

Then there is the question as to who the mystery figure was. There were many possible theories that were running through my head such as the watcher or a female version of the Valeyard. It was annoying that it never really got answered in this story because it would have been a nice way to end the story. I thought that once this story got going then it really became a very good story. It’s got a great cliffhanger which sets up the final story perfectly. I thought that despite the slow start, the characters were all really good an in particular  who I get the sense that we will see the best of her in the next story. Even Sean Carlsen as Narvin was on good form which I don’t normally comment on. The main thing about this release is that it does feel like its just a holding pattern until the final part. There is a lot to like about this but I think that it will be overshadowed by the came before it and what will come next.

On a side note I think that the idea of Leela and Romana 2 going on their own travels leaves the possibility of a female Jago and Litefoot.

Extermination (2013)

Extermination is the beginning of the end. After five series, Gallifrey is about to come to an end and some may that it has an awful lot to live up to. I came to the Gallifrey story late and found that the early stories were somewhat hard to get into whilst having their own good points. Over the next couple of series the stories got somewhat lighter in tone and complexity and for some that was an issue but I approved. Whatever your opinion is of this, the one thing that could be agreed is that the inclusion of the Daleks shows a desire to end the spin-off on a high note.

The first part of the final series starts off with how to deal with the Dalek invasion. Obviously for logical as well as narrative reasons, it’s not going to be a job that’s over in five minutes and that proves to be the case as it turns into a battle of survival. However that’s not the whole story as Romana is wanted by the Daleks….an wanted alive. As the story progresses, so does the interest and I found myself totally enthralled from start to finish.  

The friendship between Leela and Romana is one of the things that I have enjoyed about this spin-off series and it’s on fine form here where Leela is willing to help her friend even in the face of the deadly Daleks. When they are reunited the relief between them is evident and it’s a nice moment in the midst of all the terror. With Daleks there are going to be deaths and Irving Braxiatel is one of the earliest big names (I say early – 25 minutes) and the deaths continue.

Whenever Big Finish use the Daleks, they always try and do something different with them. Instead of just invading or trying to kill the Doctor, they always try and use them as creatively as possible. They have managed to do the same here as the Daleks want to take over the multi-verse.

The central performances of Lalla Ward and Louise Jameson are both very good. I always think that Louise Jameson gives a good performance whenever she is Leela. The Leela we get in these stories is different to the one that travels with Tom Baker’s Doctor and so its great to see a different side of the character. Lalla Ward can also always be relied upon to give a good performance as the President. I have always thought that Romana was on a hiding to nothing with her position because she’s always going to be at the centre of everyone’s anger and rage. The scene where she orders the Dalek to exterminate itself is a fantastic scene and is the highlight of the entire story. Anyone who is down on Lalla Ward should listen to that scene which occurs about 20 minutes before the end and they should understand why the character is so good. At the end of the release Romana announces that she has been wounded and she wont be able to regenerate. Ward gives another great speech and it shows just how good she has been in this story.

Extermination might not be the epic opening that most would expect (and I include myself in that) but I think that it’s a damn fine opening with some good scenes and the Daleks are really good. The writers know that they have three releases to finish this story and it allows them to lay the groundwork here and I have high expectations with the next two.

Ghost in the Machine (2013)

It’s always good to hear a Jo Grant story because it means that we get the wonderful Katy Manning to read a story and I could listen to her read the phonebook. There is something about Jo Grant stories in this range that they always seem to be special releases.  The third Doctor Companion Chronicle starts off with the Doctor nowhere to be seen or heard. When Jo does find the Doctor he appears to be in a frozen state similar to the one that he was in back in ‘Planet of the Daleks’. One of the things that I had read about this story before listening to it was how atmospheric this release is. I have to say that I completely agree with this. Part of this is down to Damian Lynch who plays Benjamin Chikoto. The other part is down to the story which as time progresses becomes more and more creepy. Things that you think you’ve heard but in fact you haven’t is something that creates the unsettled feeling to the story.

I think that doing cliffhangers in these stories are quite difficult because it depends on the performer and the writer to create the right tone to make the ending seem effective. The cliffhanger in this is rather good as Jo finds herself in the machine. The second half of this release does all the explaining part and it’s when Jo finds herself in the machine and we learn that she can only say/remember words that she has recorded into the machine. Mary had a little lamb seems to be an important part of this story and whilst its relevant to the story it becomes a little bit annoying as the story goes through its relatively short (1 hour and 17 minutes) running time. The final scene with Ben was quite sad really. He wants to be killed by the Doctor because he is tired of just existing on the recording. I actually wanted the Doctor to be able to save Ben because I thought that he was a good character and I enjoyed listening to Damian.

It’s a great performance from Katy Manning who can always be relied upon to give a great performance. Such stories as ‘The Many Deaths of Jo Grant’ and ‘Find and Replace’ show how much she is part of the character and manages to seem strong and vulnerable at various moments during the story. Damian Lynch is a good bit of casting and delivers his lines in the right tone of voice which is calm and somehow creepy. When he has to do the Doctor I think he does a good job. It’s a lot closer than I would have expected but it’s still a good attempt. His impression of Katy Manning is less successful but its still a good attempt.

Another thing about this story that is quite interesting is that it is directed by Louise Jameson who has done countless releases in the booth and now gets to direct a companion chronicle quite like Nicola Bryant did with ‘The Prisoner of Peladon’. Jameson should be credited for directing a story that has a great feel to it and manages to capture the fantastic feeling of the story and also gets great performances out of Katy Manning and Damian Lynch. The Ghost in the Machine is a chilling adventure that uses its two cast members well and help continue to strong run of third Doctor Companion Chronicle adventures. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is in the winner or at the very least top three companion chronicles at the Toms Tardis Awards at the end of the year. With the number of Companion Chronicles yet to be released starting to dwindle down it seems that this story reminds us of how effective and how good the range has been since it started back in 2007. It will be a shame when its gone.

The Trial of George Litefoot (2013)

The final story of this series is also the shortest. The first story was just over an hour long and this one is seven minutes shorter. At the end of the previous story, Professor Litefoot was charged with murder of his friend Henry Gordon Jago. It seems that the Colonel has survived the explosion yet somehow Jago hasn’t. It soon becomes clear that the Colonel has friends in very high places and what I like from this moment is that it’s going to be two people (Ellie and Quick) trying to prove the Professor’s innocence. Whilst they are doing that it seems that Litefoot has his own drama where he is trying to get use to eating the sort of food that people like him wouldn’t eat. It’s a fun thing to see Litefoot endure. What’s not so much to see is how thanks to the Colonel, the Professor has little to no chance of being found not guilty.

It is 15 minutes before Christopher Benjamin enters in and we get a nice explanation as to how he managed to survive the explosion. The fun continues when it’s decided that Jago isn’t going to try and help Litefoot escape but allow the trial to continue. The scene ends of a fine not when it’s revealed the HGJ will be the one to defend Litefoot. The court scene is a fine moment in the story as it seems that everyone and their dog is lining up to condemn Litefoot as the guilty man. It just seems to be a question as to how much of a farce does this become before the inevitable happens and that is when Jago shows that he is in fact alive. In fact the question that should have been raised (unless I missed it and I must have missed it) and that would be why Jago didn’t do this sooner? It soon becomes obvious. It’s because if they would have done it sooner then they would have run out of things to do towards the end.

I thought that the idea of the Colonel doing everything he does is to ultimately kill Queen Victoria was a good one. It seemed like the whole point of the arc made sense and it’s at times like this that you can appreciate how much thought went into setting up this series. The final scene started off with everything seeming to be all ok with the Colonel being killed. However like the last story, Quick has to be deliver some bad news. This time the news is somewhat more serious. A bounty has been put on Jago and Litefoot’s head because of the death of Agatha. Our favourite duo are on the run and this series has ended in a way that I could possibly have imagined. By the end they are known as Lithgoe AND Jackfoot and series seven cant come quickly enough. I wish I had it on my iPod NOW.

As the concluding part it managed to tie up the loose ends nicely, tell a great story and also end the series in grand style. I always think that Justin Richards is a very good writer and his stories are always enjoyable to listen to. This is another story which continues to show what a very good writer he is (not the first time I’ve written this during the course of listening to these stories). I have enjoyed each story of this sixth series (yes even the Matthew Sweet story). It’s quite impressive how each series of Jago and Litefoot has been just as good if not better than the previous one. Normally a spin-off would start to run out of steam by this stage of their run but credit to both Benjamin and Baxter as well as Big Finish that they have managed to make each series seem fresh and fun to enjoy.

Return of the Repressed (2013)

Now Matthew Sweet is one of those authors that I have mixed feelings about because sometimes he can write really good stories which are easy to follow and then he can write stories that I struggle to follow from start to finish so I always approach Sweet stories knowing that the story could go anyway. The second story of the series sees a big historical name involved in the story. Here we get Sigmund Freud plays by Adrian Lukis who has appeared in several Big Finish stories. However in the first scene with Freud we realise that it’s a dream and that seems like the theme of this story. I think the idea of spending time about Jago’s dream of chasing a monkey in a dress is something that seems quite barmy but for some reason it fits this series well. Soon it becomes the life and times of Henry Gordon Jago and we get to see a bit of his early life. We also get to see a bit of Litefoot’s early life and also get to see Litefoot quite angry which in all the stories that we have had in these series isn’t something that I thought I would ever hear and it was a fun thing to witness. Both Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter put in good performances and just seem to embrace the madness that we hear in this story.

The story seems to be linked to the previous story and Litefoot is trying to help his friend. However as the story progresses I must admit that it seemed to take a bit of a leap and I think that this was going to be a Matthew Sweet story that I wasn’t going to get. It’s not a terrible story by any stretch of the imagination as Sweet is too good a writer to come up with terrible characters and a terrible story. It’s just that it didn’t grip me in the way that The Skeleton Quay did. The middle half of the story seems to go a bit barmy which whilst fun to listen to didn’t seem to be easy to follow in my opinion. The last quarter sees the explanation and I thought that it seemed to finish the story well. Lukis did a good job as Sigmund Freud and whilst I don’t really care for that sort of stuff I think that its always good to have a real name in a story. It lends it’s a bit of realism.

I recently listened to The Dark Planet story and felt that it was too long and didn’t maintain my interest whereas this lasted just long enough. I think that at just under an hour this story lasted just the right amount of time. Whilst it didn’t grab me like the previous story I can’t say that there weren’t things in this release that I didn’t enjoy. Compared to his previous Jago and Litefoot stories that he has done I think this is actually one of his best but I don’t think that it will be my favourite story of the series.

The Skeleton Quay (2013)

Jago and Litefoot are now in their six series which is an amazing achievement and one of the reasons why the series have managed to continue is that they haven’t sat on their laurels and just thought about doing the same thing over and over again but have instead tried to do something different. Series 5 saw them travel to the 1960’s and I really enjoyed that and at the end of the series they found them back in Victorian England but not in their usual surroundings. The first story of this series is written by Jonathan Morris who is a regular to the series. Sadly the story doesn’t start of great because we don’t get the sixties version of the tune but I suppose that is probably for the best considering they aren’t in the 60’s anymore. After reminding us of how the fifth series ended we are thrust immediately into the story and we find our favourite dynamic duo on a train going towards the Suffolk Coast.

I like how Jago has a moment where he reminds us of their previous adventures with the Sixth Doctor and in the last series. It’s a nice moment but it’s done for a reason as Jago seems to be a bit worse for wears on the train. When they eventually arrive in Suffolk the feel of the place seems to ring close to ‘The Horror of Fang Rock’ where there is some fear associated with the fog.

The supporting cast were all quite good. Geoffrey Whitehead sounded a lot like David Warner when he first appeared as the Colonel. Francesca Hunt was a good piece of casting from the moment she first appeared as Camilla Tevelyan. With no Lisa Bowerman here to play Ellie, she becomes Ellie version two and does it quite well (though she’ll never be as good as Bowerman). As the story progresses it becomes clear that there is something rather funny about her and not in a funny ha-ha kind of way. Another good performance was Keith Bartlett as Isaac Pawley. I cant figure out why but I thought that he was perfect for the story.

As for the central performances both Benjamin and Baxter are on their usual fine form. After enjoying ‘Benjamin and Baxter’ last month, my opinion of these two has improved and I think that these two are enjoying themselves and enjoy being in each others company which helps to create one of the nicest feelings that you could have during a Big Finish release. Christopher Benjamin can always be counted upon to be funny when the situation calls for it and Trevor Baxter leads the duo in his usual charismatic style. Both are fine performers and show us why they have lasted so long.

The story centres around a night which saw lots of people die and it was Camilla is the one who has to protect its secret. Even going to the extreme of killing anyone who tries to find it out. It makes the character even better as far as I am concerned because she wasn’t over the top and she wasn’t totally unlikeable but she was a good villainess. Her exit was perfect because she was killed by the ghosts that her father killed all those years ago and it was Litefoot who said it best about the sins of the father visiting the daughter.

It’s curious that we don’t get to meet Queen Victoria (and judging by the credits on the Big Finish website we won’t). We get a nice final scene where we get the impression that Queen Victoria is up to something but I suppose as the stories progress in the series that it will all be revealed. As an opening story it was a nice gentle one and it seems like there is a sense that we don’t need to have a killer opening story to get us hooked as anyone who has made it to series six will know what’s going on and they the writers can get on with just telling their story. Jonathan Morris is one of the strongest writers in Big Finish and he continues that fine form here. He’s written an entertaining story that has more ‘corks’ from Jago than I can remember in any story and it’s a good plot that doesn’t overstay its welcome with a nice limited number of characters to get to know. A solid opening.

The Dark Planet (2013)

When the Lost Stories started back in 2009, it was for the purpose of showing us what the lost season of 1986 would have been like if we hadn’t been forced to endure ‘The Trial of a Timelord’. Since then of course we have had other stories that weren’t made for various reasons. This story was originally written by Brian Hayles and adapted by Matt Fitton and for some reason, all the First Doctor stories in this series have been six part adventures. They never seem to find stories of four or less episodes but anyway if anyone was going to make a six part story work then it would be Fitton. Unusually this story is performed by William Russell and Maureen O’Brien who as far as I can recall have never done a story for Big Finish together. The story seems to start off in quite an amusing fashion and it dealing with the troublesome issue of taking a picture. The TARDIS has lots of things that we wouldn’t expect it to but to have a photo lab is so dull in comparison to other things. The thought of the regulars standing around having fun in this manner seems slightly odd when you think of how well behaved they were on TV.

After an interesting opening scene. The story started somewhat confusing. After about 20 minutes I started to feel my interest starting to go. The scene where the smoke seeps into the TARDIS and that instantly grabbed my attention and it coincided with the cliffhanger for episode one. The cliffhangers are well done in this story. When the second episode starts it doesn’t return to the TARDIS but we get to see what’s happened to Vicki. I like this opening scene as Vicki becomes quite petrified which isn’t normally how here character comes across. It’s during the second episode that I thought the story picked up as we got a bit more of an explanation of what was going on. Vicki was dealing with the good guys (light) and the Doctor, Ian and Barbara were dealing with the bad guys (dark). Doing a light versus dark battle might not immediately come across as an interesting story but to be fair its done quite well. I doubt that this would have been worse if it had been reduced to four episodes because during the midway point of the story I think that it did seem like they were padding. The shadows are a good idea and the voice used were well realised thought the light voices did sound a bit like the Menoptra from ‘The Web Planet’. 

The second cliffhanger is also another good ending to the story because it’s just a statement but its quite an important statement when the Doctor announces that due to the strong light, they will go blind quite soon. The third cliffhanger was strong because of the smoke creature. The idea of a smoke creature gave the dark side of this planet some credibility and I thought it worked well.

After a slightly ropey start, the story picked up and for the next hour or so I was rather involved in the story. The problem was that I soon started to drift from it and I don’t think that this story is the sort that can be listened to in one go. In fact that was what I was aiming to do but gave up on this idea just about half way through episode four. I stopped it and started up again a few hours later by this point I got back into the story again. This was a mistake on my part because when my attention moved to something else when I came back to listen to it I had sort of lost track of where everyone was.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record I think that the length is the thing that hurts this story a lot. The last two episodes were a particular effort to listen to because I had lost my attention and so everything that was happening sort of went over my head. I don’t think that it’s better than Farewell Great Macedon (a six parter I know) but I thought that Matt Fitton’s adaption was done well with some good moments but he was hampered by having to fill the time when we all know that he would probably have wanted to do something with a shorter run time. Maureen O’Brien and William Russell do well as a combination and even though I am always a fan of Russell’s I thought that this was one of his strongest performances that he has ever given.

1963: Fanfare for the Common Men (2013)

Big Finish’s build up to the 50^th Anniversary of Doctor Who starts off with a series of stories that have 1963 as a theme. The first story is written by Eddie Robson who is a writer that I think has had a mixed run. When he’s good he’s on ‘Memory Lane’ form but when he’s bad he’s on ‘Industrial Evolution’ form. It’s not the first time that music and Doctor Who have collided. The most memorable was ‘Doctor Who and the Pirates’ back in 2003 which I enjoyed and then there was ‘Horror of Glam Rock’ in 2007 and then there was ‘The Ultimate Adventure’. It’s not necessarily a guarantee that this was going to work but two words. Open mind.

The story sees the Doctor and Nyssa arrive in a 1963 where the Beatles aren’t the massive band that they should be and it a group called the Common Men are just as popular. It’s a nice mystery as to who has changed things. The story is complicated somewhat when the Doctor and Nyssa become separated by time this allows them to do the one is ahead of the other in the same timeline. I like how a great deal of effort is made to make the Common Men appear just as big as the Beatles and even the  ‘bigger than jesus’ line that John Lennon used in 1966. There is also the theory about Paul McCartney being replaced used here.

The thing about this story is that it starts off in quite light hearted  manner but then after the second episode starts it seems to shift in tone and becomes the sort of story that Eddie Robson is good at writing. The truth about what’s going on is quite a fun explanation. The aliens/baddies are a bunch of hypnotised alien from Bional. The aliens feed of power and fame and the Beatles were the biggest band ever and so that would be an all you can eat buffet. The moment when its revealed that the Common Men are actually alien is something that was revealed earlier than I thought it would be. I’m not saying that I saw it coming because I didn’t but it wasn’t a big surprise really.

One of the big names in this is Mitch Benn who many will know from the BBC Radio 4 comedy ‘The Now Show’ amongst many things. He was having to do a Liverpudlian accent and half the time I was expecting him to say “Thomas had been a very naughty engine”. His role in the story is very good and he’s a strong presence in the story. The other members of the common men were also good additions to the story. Andrew Knott & David Dobson do a good job in complimenting Benn’s performance and I believed that they were three guys from Liverpool that have becoming the biggest group on Earth.

I like how they have decided to go with the 5^th Doctor and Nyssa as I think that this is a strong combination and Nyssa is a companion that can always deliver. In fact both Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton deliver sound performances despite being separated for so long. As much as I have enjoyed the Nyssa/Tegan/Turlough adventures over the last few years, I am relieved to have the Doctor work with just one companion as opposed to three. It’s always good to see Nyssa out of her depth as she has to submerse herself with a group of liverpudlians.

The final scene is brilliant as it ties up to the very first story in Doctor Who. The Common Men were the name of a band mentioned in the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’ and this feels like a lovely bit of continuity which would have seemed obvious to someone else but to me it was a nice surprise and it’s the sort of thing that works quite well. Fanfare for the Common Men is definitely Eddie Robson back on fine form. It was a nice balance of fun and drama and it’s a good start to the 50^th Anniversary celebrations.

Upstairs (2013)

The latest Companion Chronicle is the first to feature Vicki and Steven since ‘The Suffering’ which in 2010 won the Toms Tardis Award for the Best Companion Chronicle. It’s a double act that works well because there is always a bit of feistiness about them both and so when I heard that they were going to do another Companion Chronicle together I had high hopes. Upstairs is a story written by Mat Coward who as far as I am aware is making his Big Finish debut and it’s a story that sets its stall out quite quickly. It’s not your normal Earth story but has something to do with aliens affecting history. The alien is effecting the building which is going to effect the current Prime Minister which might explain David Cameron’s behaviour and that Photoshop look he has on his face all the time.

I found the first half to be very interesting. It started off with a seemingly normal arrival but as the story progressed it appeared that not everything was what it seemed. There seemed to be stuff about Downing Street which as I was hearing it I thought that whilst it was very interesting, it didn’t seem relevant to the story but that was the genius of the story because the cliffhanger was one that I didn’t see coming. The time fungus as its called in the second half seems to take on a new level of danger when its realised it might cause more damage if it reached the TARDIS.

As this features two companions, there is no need for a supporting cast member and this means that Maureen O’Brien and Peter Purves are given the full script to do their voices and I must admit that I found O’Brien’s impression of William Hartnell to be quite funny. I remember listening to the very first Companion Chronicle way back in 2007 (Frostfire) and she read that story with enthusiasm and you could believe that it was Vicki but slightly older. Both Purves and O’Brien play their roles brilliantly and I could easily see one of them being the Best Companion in the Companion Chronicle Awards at the end of the year.

What I like about this story is the claustrophobic feel that there is from the very beginning. The constant rooms that look the same help create the feel that there is no easy way of getting back to the TARDIS when they need to. The whole thing was a great deal of fun to listen to and the pacing that Coward has gone for is done just right. It’s slow when it needs to be and its speeded up when it needs to be. The ending felt like it was the right one and was done right. I still maintain that ‘The Libraray of Alexandria’ is the best First Doctor Companion Chronicle that we have had in 2013 but this is definetly a close second. It’s a good first story from Mat Coward and I would like to see him work on the main range or a full cast adventure because I think that he could do very well.

Daleks Among Us (2013)

The final part of the Seventh Doctor series picks up from the great cliffhanger in Starlight Robbery. The way that Starlight Robbery ended brilliantly and set this story up well and what Daleks Among Us had to do was to satisfy that ending and finish the series of satisfactorily. This story has been written by Alan Barnes who does have a track record of writing stories that do require you to pay attention. This isn’t a bad thing because its good to have people who try and make you think differently whilst enjoying a Doctor Who story. His 2008 adventure ‘Brotherhood of the Daleks’ is one of the most baffling stories that I have ever listened to and it’s still fun to try and listen to. There is no reprise from the previous story and instead we get a nice gentle scene which eventually sees the first appearance of the Daleks. Klein seems somewhat unimpressed when the Doctor and Will appear.

The continuity seems somewhat confused to me as I thought that the Klein stories take place after Ace and Hex but it appears that the Dalek doesn’t recognise the Doctor which implies this takes place before Remembrance of the Daleks. The was a nice Counter Measures reference  in this episode as they are about to make an appearance in the future 1963 Seventh Doctor adventure. There is also a nice Ace reference which I always approve of. The title is worked into the story after 27 minutes and it was at this moment that it was clear that the episodes are longer than normal.

Things were moving along quite well and then Terry Molloy turned up. I love it when I am blown away by something that I wasn’t expecting. It’s such a rare thing nowadays and even though it’s a Daleks story it doesn’t make Davros’ involvement in the story any less of a surprise. I like how Davros would rather Will didn’t tell the Doctor about him. From the moment Davros appears I was counting down until the Doctor and Davros meet. When they do meet it’s a great scene and both Sylvester McCoy and Terry Molloy work so well together but Molloy could work with anyone. Cliffhanger number two sees Klein reunited with her father. Another surprising ending. I love how they have progressed with Klein’s story in these stories and think that Tracey Childs has made it work.

I found myself wondering by the halfway mark that either the episodes are getting quicker and quicker or I am enjoying it. Even though the episodes are longer than normal it still feels like their running time is like a regular. After Davros was used brilliantly in ‘The Curse of Davros’, it was nice that they tried to do something different with him here and he is used differently but more importantly in a way I like.

As the third part was playing I must admit that I did start to get a bit confused as to what was happening but I was involved enough in the story to just go along with it. Compared with Night of the Whisper I enjoyed this story enough to stick with it. The fourth episode continues this slight confusion but again the story was moving along at such a fast pace that I still found myself enjoying it. There is a nice reference to the scene in Genesis of the Daleks when the Doctor tells Davros all of the Daleks victories.

I have been impressed with both Klein and Will in these stories and think that this duo is a nice one that we can go to because when they continuously use Ace and Hex it can feel like its getting a bit repetitive but now they have Klein and Will and they work just as well. I thought that the stuff I understood about this story was brilliant and there were some things in it that genuinely had me on the edge of my seat. Though due to me some of this story because confusing to understand, I still enjoyed thought that it was the end to another great Seventh Doctor series. I thought that the characters were solid and they were given some good dialogue. Ken Bentley rarely gets a mention in my reviews (to my shame) and I will put that right because he has directed three great stories and has managed to make this confusing plot work for everyone.

Night of the Whisper (2013)

The 9^th part of this anniversary series is where we enter new territory. Up until now the stories have featured companions that have appeared in the TV series and in the case of the eighth Doctor they didn’t use a TV companion but at least it was a character that I was aware of.

In the case of this story, they have decided to go down a different route.

They have decided to use Nicholas Briggs to be the voice of this story which is an odd choice if I am being honest. It makes sense because he was the voice of the Daleks and several other monsters in the new era but then on hand it’s a shame that they couldn’t convince one of the regulars to be in this. Are we expected to believe John Barrowman turned down the chance to be in the limelight? Anyway if anyone were chosen to do this then I am glad that they chose Briggs because he has shown time and time again that when he’s on form then he’s a great performer. However the thing that is a slight struggle to get over is the voice that Briggs uses when he is doing Christopher Eccleston. I don’t think it works that well. I think that Briggs would have been better just using his normal voice. When he’s not doing the Doctor then the voice he uses is great and it reminds me of the Stageplay that he did back in 2008 (Curse of the Daleks).

I had a certain level of expectation as I was about to listen to this and that was because it was written by Cavan Scott & Mark Wright who I am a big fan of. Project Lazarus and Twilight are two of my favourite Big Finish stories ever. Destiny is also an enjoyable story and they have one of the best track records in Big Finish.

The story takes place in New Vegas in the 23^rd Century and it focuses on the Whisper who is a vigilante who has been targeting the criminal underworld.  When the story starts off Rose is in a situation which mirrors being a dinner lady in ‘School Reunion’.

As much as I wanted to like this, I must say that I found it disappointing. I have a rule that if I have to listen to a story from the beginning three times then I take it that I am not connecting with the story and I wont start again a fourth time. I just try and get through it and hope that it picks up. It certainly did because in the final 20-25 minutes I did get more involved in the story because I understood what the Whisper was and the reason behind it and it made sense which is always a good thing. Another positive that I can give this story is that it feels like it comes from 2005. It’s vital that each of the Destiny stories has the vibe of its period and this is the case with Night of the Whisper.

It’s not a terrible story by any stretch of the imagination but its not a typical Scott/Wright adventure and when they have written the sort of stories that they have superb Project stories then anything that falls below that is going to be a little disappointing.