Afterlife (2013)

Afterlife returns us to the Seventh Doctor moments after 'Gods and Monsters'. It's been 15 months since that story and they have done this before. Back in the June 2009 story 'The Angel of Scutari', Hex's life was in the balance again and it wasn’t until September 2010 (another 15 months) before we got to see what happened to Hex. The dynamic between the Doctor and Ace has changed significantly. It seems odd that the month after they were getting on in The Assassination Games they are now not speaking to each other. At the end of their last story Hex died and this was always going to be an interesting story. 

 

It's similar to how Charley felt after C'Rizz had died at the end of Absolution. Ace blames the Doctor for Hex's death. I don’t know if I like the fact that the Doctor and Ace aren’t getting on but its rather well done as Sophie Aldred goes for it. The first episode sees us go back to some of the adventures that occurred between stories featuring these three. They are designed to show us how much Hex has helped in the adventures that he has been in. The nice thing about this letter that Ace found is that its read by Olivier and there is a rather sad feel to it and its hit me just how much a part of the team that Hex has become since he debuted in 2004. The end of the first episode really sums up the sadness of the story when the Doctor sounds genuinely broken over the death of Hex.  

 

The second episode sees the story change direction when the Doctor visits Hex’s Gran at the request of Ace. This is where the Doctor has to actually face the consequences of the actions that he takes or feels that he has to take. Whilst the Doctor is visiting Hex’s Gran, Ace finds her own adventure to have when she witnesses Lily Finnegan who is in the middle of a turf war in Liverpool. It’s like the PG version of Shameless. At first it seems like it’s a completely random storyline which has not relation to either Hex or the Doctor. As the story progresses it becomes clear that this plot strand has more to do with the main plot that at first glance. 

The moment when Lily sets fire to the thugs was a quite surprising moment. But that’s not the only time something surprising happens in this story. Another surprising moment when Mr. Thomas is revealed to be the other person that Lily is having the turf war with. Mr. Thomas is voiced by Philip Olivier and is completely different to Hex. I like how Ace’s grief makes her wish that it was the real Hex  and at first it seems that this is a case of someone having a twin but one of the things that I like about this story is how just when you think that you know which direction the story is going in, it changes and I like the idea that Hex has earned the opportunity to spend a year on earth but doesn’t have any of his memories.  

 

The true identity of Lily Finnegan was something that I didn’t see coming and totally transformed my opinion of the character although it does make the whole human combustion thing obvious (after it was pointed out you'll understand). The moment that we learn how and why Hex has come back to earth is the moment where I feel that some new energy was put into the story and it felt like the story had got a new lease of life.  

The Doctor is a huge punching bag from the very beginning and its rather off-putting to see the Doctor in this position. He gets to be back to his best at the end when Lily is begging for mercy and he gets to show us a bit of the Doctor that we got in McCoy's final series on TV. 

 

It’s good to have Amy Pemberton back as Sally Morgan. I loved the little jingle that sounded when she first appeared. It’s a this point that things seem to be changing for the Doctor and the kicking has been stopped. Its good how by the time she appears in the story she’s been on Earth for sometime and is working for the police trying to figure out about Mr. Thomas. The fact that she leaves the story to spend more time with Hilda. It might not be the most exciting way for a character to have departed from a show but its nice when someone leaves in a nice lovely way. 

 

I didn’t expect the story to end the way that it did. I expected the story to end with either Hex being killed off for good or back to his old self and the trio going off into the universe. The fact that there seemed to be left in the air is somewhat unnerving but at least we know that we are going to get more stories with Hex and that cant be a bad thing. Afterlife is the perfect way to end what has been a superb year from Big Finish. The story took my expectations and juggled with them and still managed to give me something else and not disappoint me. The performances were all really good and the writing and direction were just as good. Enjoyable. 

 

The Time of the Doctor (2013)

Well as the continuity announcer said during the credits for Call the Midwife, it’s the Regeneration Game. That’s about as funny as this episode would get I suspect. It’s the final episode for Matt Smith as the Doctor and introduces Peter Capaldi as the Doctor (not getting stuck in number cycle issue). This is the 800^th episode of Doctor Who and so that’s another reason to celebrate.

The opening scene where the Doctor lands on the Dalek ship and it goes from darkness around him to all their eyestalk lights appearing is a great opening scene and it immediately goes to the Cybermen and what is most curious of all is that the Doctor has a Cyberman’s head with him and I would have liked an explanation as to why and how he got it. Moffat uses a rather unusual (but festively obvious) way of getting Clara back into the TARDIS. This being a Christmas episode, Clara is trying to cook Christmas dinner and boards the TARDIS with the cold turkey.

It’s like this episode is a greatest hits for the Eleventh Doctor. The first to appear are the Silence. From the moment that the Silence appear its clear they have been to the tailor and it’s a better look for them than the white shirt and black tie they had before. Next up are the Weeping Angels who are now able to fight their way through the snow, they are always good. Next up we have the crack in the wall from his first series and this perhaps has the most significant part of the story. Then of course we have the old school references. I did love the reference to ‘The Five Doctors’. We have the Monoid puppet. These are done in a way that they will make sense to fans like myself yet wont confuse the newer viewer. Finally I have to say that wooden Cybermen are a brilliant idea and they look really creepy.

We get the speech about how many regenerations the Doctor has had though I’m still not convinced.

The eye stalks coming out of peoples head that first appeared in ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ return here in another greatest hits nod. Silence with eye stalks are a weird but good look. For the second time in a row there is a very impressive battle sequence and its well shot and looks like a fair amount of money and effort went into it.

As the Doctor was getting older I got a feeling like this was trying to get the newer fan use to the idea of the Doctor being older. As Capaldi is a fair bit older its probably wise thing. I think that at times Smith looked like William Hartnell which I found amusing. I don’t quite get why the crack appeared in the sky and it started the Doctor regeneration. That said I thought that it was a great scene and I liked how the Doctor used the regeneration power to destroy the Dalek spaceship.

The final scene between the Doctor and Clara is really nice and I thought for a moment that when the Doctor appears that it would be Capaldi’s Doctor with a hologram face but thankfully that didn’t happen and Smith got a fine goodbye speech which wasn’t as soppy as Tennant’s final scene. I didn’t expect Amy to return but that was a nice touch.

Capaldi’s opening scene was just as barmy as Smith’s opening scene. I just like the idea that the Doctor doesn’t like the colour of his kidneys. I don’t think anyone and I mean anyone can judge what sort of Doctor Capaldi will be based on this short scene but what I can say is that it will be different to Matt Smith’s performance.

Matt Smith’s performance is very good from start to finish. I’ve always rated Smith as a good Doctor and he shows it again here. For those who disliked him should hopefully have eat their words during this episode. Jenna Coleman’s performance was spot on. She was involved in the story but didn’t try and steal the limelight from Matt Smith. Again she’s been strong in every episode she has been in.

I like the fact that despite their being a giant plot, what we got was a fitting end to the Smith era. I think that it was the perfect way to end. It didn’t feel like it was building itself up to something that it couldn’t live up but knew what it had to do and did it well. Roll on episode 801 but we will probably have to wait until August or September.

The Trial of the Valeyard (2013)

This year’s subscriber special got me hooked just on the title. It’s the return of the Valeyard who appeared in the 23^rd series ‘The Trial of a Timelord’. The subscribers release is a chance for Big Finish to do something different. In recent years we have had the return of the Zarbi and Krotons but perhaps the most interesting ones have been the Four Doctor and Five Doctors. This story reunites Colin Baker with Michael Jayston and Lynda Bellingham. It’s been 27 years since that first story and many will agree that it wasn’t the strongest story that it could have been so it was nice that these three got a second chance because if anyone was going to make it work then it would be Big Finish. It starts off with the Doctor landing and slowly realising where he was and gets a bit ahead of himself when he first meets the Inquisitor again, he thinks that he is on trial before realising that he isn’t on trial but furthermore that the Valeyard was the one on trial and he was being asked to defend him.

We get to learn a bit more about the Valeyard. It’s something that I suppose everyone has thought about at one time or another. We learn that he was born but his mother and father’s identity aren’t clear. There is a bit here about the number of regenerations and how they are supposed to be limited to 13. Basically the reason it was 12 regenerations was because after the symbiotic nuclei becomes unstable and it’s good that there is a scientific reason as to why. Morally the Valeyard deduces that it was limited to 13 lives so that no timelord would become immortal. It feels fitting that there is discussion about the extension of regeneration just a few weeks after ‘Day of the Doctor’ where the number of lives that the Doctor was discussed (and still is). What also good about this is that the Inquisitor casts doubt and by the end of the piece its clear as to why she’s doing this. I love how the Doctor is accused at one point of creating the Valeyard and it’s at this moment that it seems like the Doctor is back on trial. Its quite a good reason if I’m honest but only because it shows how corrupt and desperate the Timelords are. However there is a sting because if someone had opened the box that the Timelords wanted then it would have killed them all.

There was a question as to why the Valeyard was put on trial in the first place and it was simply because he wouldn’t give the Timelords a box which lets them regenerate more than they should. There did seem to be quite a lot of dodging the main purpose of the trial in the early stages of this story but after a while that went and we got to the meat of the story.

When the Doctor keeps mentioning Ravolox there is that high pitch sound and it’s a nice reminder of the last time that they met. Everytime the Doctor mentions it the comments get wiped and its fun that the Doctor is clearly doing it on purpose and is having fun seeing the Inquisitor get more ratty. I don’t know if any Whovians would get this joke if they hadn’t seen Trial of a Timelord but to be honest if they haven’t done their homework then its their own fault.

I’ll listen to anything with Michael Jayston in. Everytime he appears on TV I think that everyone in that show should worry cause the Valeyard is evil. I first saw him in ‘Only Fools and Horses’ where he plays Del Boy’s Father-in-law and would appear in the ITV soap ‘Emmerdale’. Jayston is brilliant in this and quite frankly he could read a receipt and make it sound fantastic. Lynda Bellingham is most famous recently for appearing on the ITV show ‘Loose Women’ and its good that she gets to do something constructive by reprising the role of the Inquisitor. There seems to be a slight difference between the 2013 Inquisitor and the 1986 Inquisitor and that difference is that the 2013 version seems somewhat less pompous that in 1986. Don’t get me wrong there is still a bit of pomposity to the character but it seems more suited to the story now.

I really enjoyed it and thought that they did something different and more importantly something interesting with the Valeyard and the Valeyard. I often wonder when Big Finish do these freebie whether I would pay for it if I had to and the simple answer is yes. This is a wonderful adventure which utilises the few good things about Trial of a Timelord and quite frankly Big Finish should use Michael Jayston more in future audios, perhaps even his own spin off????

The Beginning (2013)

The Beginning is another Companion Chronicle story that goes back to the early days of the First Doctor’s timeline. The last time we went this early into the Doctor history was in the 2010 adventure ‘Quinnis’ which was also written by Marc Platt and I quite liked it. The Beginning is the first in a trilogy of adventures to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary and if any series does trilogies well then it’s the Companion Chronicle series. When they initially released the cover, the TARDIS was different and once the Name of the Doctor aired and showed the TARDIS that the First Doctor would walk into the cover changed to the one that we have now. I liked how there was a line about taking a different one which matches what we saw at the beginning of Name of the Doctor where Clara tells the Doctor to take a different one.

The early moments of the story are really quite fun as Carole Ann Ford does a great job in creating the panic and excitement of the moment. There is a tremendous sense of fear for Susan of what’s going on and it’ll be matched by Ian and Barbara in a few stories time. There is a lovely bit about what caused them to ‘steal’ the TARDIS in the first place. I like how the Doctor objects to the term stolen. There is a sadness when the Doctor doesn’t feel like he’s welcome on Gallifrey.

In Quinnis, Marc Platt put some meat on a line that was used in ‘Inside the Spaceship’ and it felt like he’d ticked all the relevant boxes to make it work and he’s done the same here. That might sound like a critiscm but it’s a compliment as that is what made Quinnis work and that’s what makes this story work. Even to go to the trouble of not calling the TARDIS the TARDIS but merely the time machine. Small details like that didn’t go unnoticed by me and I suspect by a great number of people listening to this.

After the initial opening quarter we get to the main part of the story with Terry Molloy entering the story who seems to have been on board the TARDIS when the Doctor takes off.  It’s always weird to hear Terry Molloy in a non-Davros role. It’s the same every time I watch ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ but it shows that he can do more than a mad scientist who shouts a lot. As Quadrigger Stoyn (name of the year), Molloy plays someone who is worried about pretty much everything and it matches the sort of person that doesn’t venture outside of the capital that we encounter whenever the show goes to Gallifrey. If I’m being honest sometimes I’m not a wild fan of Carole Ann Ford’s readings. I don’t think sometimes that she’s one of the better readers of the range and her last Companion Chronicle (The Alchemists) was a rather tiresome release though I think that I remember saying that some people may have gotten more from it than me.

The main part of the story does feel like normal companion chronicle territory but after the wonderful opening fifteen minutes I must say that I didn’t have a problem with this as it was done so well that it could easily have worked on its own without the special vibe that goes with it. The plot does a great deal to explain why the Doctor would have an obsession with Earth.

I was surprised with how the Doctor leaves Stoyn behind. It seems a bit un-Doctor like and even when you take into account the grumpiness that William Hartnell’s Doctor in the early days it’s does seem a bit harsh of him. Knowing that we are going to hear from Molloy’s Stoyn in the next release does rob us of the ability to let his abandonment to fester in our imaginations.

Carole Ann Ford’s last line in this is “We had no idea how long it would last!” and that seems to be a nice way to end the release and it’s probably a comment that Carole Ann Ford and William Russell themselves would say repeatedly. I really like this release. I think that it does a good job of telling a good story that kicks off a trilogy rather well and it has all the fun stuff at the beginning which would have long term fans giggling with excitement. The trilogy has a lot to live up to and whilst I wasn’t really that fussed about the trilogy to begin with, after listening to this I am really looking forward to the next two releases.

Lords of the Red Planet (2013)

The third story in this final series of Lost Story adventures sees us encounter the Ice Warriors. This story was originally written by Brian Hayles who created the Ice Warriors and it has been adapted by John Dorney. It’s the first time since the Sontarans that a classic monster has returned in the lost series.  This story seems to suggest that the story takes place before the Ice Warriors become the force that the Doctor would know them for. This was suppose to take the place that ‘The Seeds of Death’ would eventually take. There was a bit of me that was worried that the length would have me just wishing that the end would come and I would be disappointed with it just like I was witch the Dark Planet. At 180 minutes, the running time did seem excessively long but I thought that with the Ice Warriors, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury, the running time wouldn’t be an issue.  

The cast list is very interesting as it features Charlie Hayes (Wendy Padbury’s daughter) and also Michael Troughton (Patrick Troughtons’ son). Michael Troughton is most familiar to me as the child-like Piers Fletcher-Dervish from the early 1990’s sitcom ‘The New Statesman’.  Charlie Hayes has appeared in several Big Finish plays over the years with a few appearances against her mother.  For a second Doctor lost story, there is a surprisingly high number of cast.

The first episode is about how experiments are going on and how there is something not quite right going on. It’s quite interesting how it isn’t until episode two that the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie actually meet anyone and that’s only because they fell through a hole. As the story moves along it soon turns into a potential invasion story and the path of the Ice Warriors starts to marry up with what we know about the Ice Warriors but still tries to tell a story in its own right which it does rather well. There are some moments which sound quite tough on audio and had it made it to TV then it would have been interesting to see how it would have worked out. Mary Whitehouse would have had a field day. There is a moment when Jamie is seemingly tortured quite is quite a harsh moment but its quite brief and I think that in the context of the scene and the Princess it works quite well.

Quendrill is revealed to be the Davros of the Ice Warriors. Davros but without the chair or the OTT rhetoric. The scene where the word Lord gets used is quite a good moment and its well acted by Michael Troughton and Nicholas Briggs. I think that Charlie Hayes does well as Veltreena as a thoroughly unlikeable yet utterly engaging character. Zaadur is another good villain and she is one of those rare characters in Doctor Who in being a female villain that is strong minded. She is quite similar to Veltreena and I suppose that this was intentional but I think that Abigail Thaw is the better of the two. Michael Troughton is also very good with a rather interesting role.

I thought that it was a good story but unfortunately the running time is the thing that lets it down. I just don’t think that it was a six part story. Possibly they could have stretched it to five but four episodes is the perfect length of a story for a reason and that is perhaps my main complaint. Apart from that I thought that the performances were all really good and its always good to hear Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines because they always give good value for money.

 

1963: The Assissination Games (2013)

The Assassination Games is the final part of the 1963 series and perhaps the most anticipated by some people because it sees the Seventh Doctor and Ace reunited with Group Captain Gilmore, Rachel Jensen and Allison Williams who they previously encountered in the 1988 story ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’. Since that story of course, Counter Measures has arrived and we’ve had two series of their adventures and I’ve listened to the first of those stories but I’m not really fully versed in the Counter Measures world. To be honest though I don’t think you really need to know to much before pressing play for episode one. The events of this story seems to have happened because of a book that the Doctor and Ace read a book in 2013.One of the early scenes seems to try and mirror the scandal that surrounded the War Secretary John Profumo back in 1963.

There is a murder during a press conference within the first five minutes which seems to have come out of nowhere and no sooner after he is caught than he jumps in front of a train and its quite the early start to the adventure. The character is only given a name of David Ritchie (played by Alisdair Simpson). It’s a short but effective character that shows that the characters are all good. The first time that Gilmore meets the Doctor again is done just before David Ritchie jumps in front of the train is done is a rather odd but slightly intriguing manner. Though its not until the end of episode one before his identity is revealed and the build up was quite good even though everyone would have known who Sir Toby Kinsella was referring to.

The Doctor is pretending to be John Rutherford MP who has been in this position for six months and has tried to remain undercover. It seems like this is a good position for him and the inevitable line comes during the second episode which is a famous quote from the BBC series ‘House of Cards’ when he says “You might very well think that, I couldn’t possibly comment”. If I wasn’t as involved in the story as I was then I would really have taken against it but I just thought that it was a nice bit of humour in this story.

Like early seventh Doctor stories for Big Finish, it seems that the Doctor and Ace have integrated themselves into the surrounding. Ace is a maid which is quite interesting because its how we first met her in ‘Dragonfire’ and It’s about forty minutes before Sophie Aldred gets to be Ace as opposed to Dorothy the maid. It was a welcome relief when she gets to be herself as it sees odd to see Ace in the maid role. The Doctor gets to share scenes with Gilmore and Ace gets to share scenes with Rachel so its Allison that seems to draw the short straw. The scenes between Gilmore and the Doctor are very amusing and that’s due to Sylvester McCoy and Simon Williams. Whilst the first cliffhanger might have been ok the second one was much better as it was effectively a start of the build up to a war and the final cliffhanger was really good as it was the Doctor about to come to the rescue and it was at this point where it really got into its stride.

There is an assassination in the first episode and in the second the Deputy Prime Minister’s office is blown up and is killed. This is when it becomes clear that the wrong sort of people are getting into positions of power and it feels like the political situation in ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’. That was just a brief moment in this story that I thought that but I thought it was an interesting comparison. There are some great lines in this story which is where John Dorney should get some great credit. He’s done a sound job in bringing the Counter Measures group and the Doctor back together whilst making this story feel like part of the 1963 series of adventures.

The Light are the secret rulers of the universe according to the Doctor. When it becomes clear that their plan is to restore the empire to its former glory, I realised that I really liked this story. I don’t know what it was that made me feel like this but I think that I’ve enjoyed it up until this point that it was the perfect explanation to the reasoning about what was going on. It seems at the end of the story that this wont be the last time that we will have heard from the light and I am quite glad because I get the feeling that there are some more good stories to be had and this could be the beginning of a new story arc for the Seventh Doctor.

In terms of performances, Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred are on fine form and though its weird to not have Hex it’s a partnership that always produces a good story and they have both been working together for so long that its become second nature to them and due to the script they are given some good things to do. In terms of the Counter Measures group, both Simon Williams and Pamela Salem are really good and work well with Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy but I cant help but feel that Karen Gledhill didn’t have quite the involvement in the story and it feels like the character of Allison was just one too many. That is perhaps my only critiscm with the story.

There was a concern before listening to this that this would let the side down. That after two enjoyable stories, that this one would disappoint by not being as good and also the return of the Counter Measures group with the Doctor and Ace could have gone badly but I’m relieved to say that this wasn’t the case. I thought that it had a slow (ish) build up and then after it had introduced all the different characters and the setting of the story, it went up several gears and the final episode was fun from start to finish.