The Brood of Erys (2014)

The middle story of the series is one that struggles to compare to the opening story for whatever reasons. The opening story was a very good adventure which saw the return of Sil so I wasn’t surprised when that had the effect that it did on me. It would be interesting whether this story would have the same effect. There was a interesting opening couple of minutes. There was a moment which I thought wasn’t particularly good for Flip and that’s when she wants to let the Drachee inside the TARDIS. It didn’t seem like a bright thing to do and it just seemed to be an irritating moment and would have been the sort of thing that Peri would have done. Thankfully this was a brief moment and Flip went back to her own self. The opening scene where the Drachee are approaching the TARDIS is a great way of introducing the character. I thought that the Drachee were a wonderfully realised creation and think that they were the minions from Dispicable Me of this story but probably wouldn’t have looked as funny as they do.

Colin Baker puts in a great performance and is able to do this due to the story. Baker can always be relied up to throw himself in the story and he definetly does this. The double act of the Doctor and Flip is a refreshing one and one that Andrew Smith uses brilliantly. Lisa Greenwood also puts in a good performance and apart from the minor blip at the beginning of episode one, Flip continues to be a breathe of fresh air and there are several moments in this story that show why Flip is one of the best companions that Big Finish have. All the supporting cast members did well and the characters that they played were fun.

I love the idea of a living moon. It just seems like a totally wonderful idea and used to utter perfection in this story. The moment that the word avatar was mentioned I’m afraid my mind started to think about the James Cameron movie. Even if it wasn’t intended I’m afraid that that’s what happened.
The final scene where the Doctor tries to justify his decision to leave Susan on Earth in ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’ was a surprising scene but I thought that it was a lovely little scene. It ends with the Doctor thinking about Peri and I liked this bit because it seemed like the Doctor was thinking about an ex whilst his current partner was standing right in front of him. I thought that Flip reacted quite well as I would probably have reacted differently had it been me there.

I wont pretend to say that I understood everything that went on in this story but what I can say is that I enjoyed this story. I think that the final episode is where things started to get bit out of hand and harder to understand. It might not have had Sil but what it did have was a great story and several great moments. The best thing that I could say about this story is that I would love to see how they would make this work on TV. A middle series story that works on it own merits.