Terror of the Sontarans (2015)

Terror of the Sontrarans is the final story of the series and this story has dual writing credits from John Dorney and Dan Starkey who is more use to playing a Sontaran opposite Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi’s Doctors. I remember reading the DWM magazine and reading that bother writers had a different perspective on the Sontaran character which does show because there are moments where they are the stern serious race that we know them to be and then at other times there are moments which make them seem a bit humorous.

As the title suggests, the Sontarans are the ones that are being terrorised and when the Sontarans are being terrorised then you know that the threat must be great. In reality I don’t think that was explored as well as it could have been. The idea of a Sontaran being other than stoic and brave is an interesting one but its never explored in any great detail and that is a little bit disappointing.

The thing about this story is that I just didn’t think it quite worked. I listened to it and thought that I had missed something and so I took the decision to listen to it again and I liked it but I can’t say that it was the best story of the year. I think that if it had just been the Sontarans then this story would have had a different effect on me but at the end of the day it was what it was and it’s a rather disappointing end to the Mel series. Its been good having Mel back and it confirms how good the character could have been had she been given the chance to be less screamy on TV.

The central performances were quite good. Throughout the three stories both Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford have performed well and its refreshing to see Sylvester McCoy in a series of adventures with someone other Sophie Aldred. Bonnie Langford hasn’t been a hindrance and her characters abilities have been utilised and hopefully we will hear more from her in the coming years. Some of the supporting characters were interesting enough. Dan Starkey was good as Field Major Kayste, Skegg and Stodd he delivers a solid performance as a Sontaran. I quite liked Andree Bernard’s performance as Tethenka (amongst other things). She was a passive character at first and it seemed obvious that she was going to change at some point during the story. That’s not to say that it wasn’t well done but if I can spot this sort of thing out then it shows how obvious it was.

The Crooked Man (2014)

As this third series progresses, The Crooked Man is one of those stories that quickly seemed to gain a very good reputation. The reaction on twitter was very positive and normally I find myself not quite disagreeing with that feeling but not agreeing 100% with it. I have recently subscribed to the fact that your surroundings help your enjoyment and I started listening to this whilst I was in Aberystwyth waiting for my train.  The first few minutes were very atmospheric and the one thing that I will say straight away is that I really enjoyed this release and part of that is down to the music and sound design. The idea of setting a story on the coast is a good one and that’s just one of many things that I like about this story.

This story has a grim feel to it and it’s not just down to the deaths that occur including one where someone is killed by having pages from a book rammed down his throat. The performance of Neil Stuke who plays the titled Crooked Man helps make this one of the most memorable baddies in recent audio plays.

Tom Baker adds some much needed light relief to what is a dark story. Tom Baker can always be relied upon to insert some funny stuff when its needed and seems to be on exceptionally fine form in this story. I also think that Louise Jameson puts in another solid performance and the two of them work so well together I wish that this is what we   would have got during their TV time. I thought that the supporting cast were also really good. I liked Sarah Smart (Laura Corbett) & Robin Pearce (Simon Corbett). The rest of the cast all work really well to create an

This is my favourite Fourth Doctor story of this series so far and the other stories will have to try really hard to beat this. The Crooked Man is a spooky and atmospheric tale with great performances and also a story that isn’t too complicated and ends at just the right time and doesn’t out stay its welcome or feel like it’s padded to oblivion. This story is classic John Dorney, he wrote the brilliant ‘The Wrath of the Iceni’ and this is just as good and this current series of Fourth Doctor continues its good run of form and long may it continue.

The King of Sontar (2014)

It’s hard to believe that we are on our third series of Fourth Doctor Adventures. When there was a time when we thought that Tom Baker would never appear in a Big Finish adventure, we have got more adventures coming and to kick off the third series of adventures we welcome back the Sontarans. The last time we had a Sontaran story it was in ‘Starlight Robbery’ which is to be fair not the most serious story that they have ever been in so one thing that I like about this story is that it uses the Sontarans really well.

The idea of Leela encountering a Sontaran is always a good one and its not the first time that this has happened but as I started to listen to this I knew that this was going to be better than that first encounter. It’s easy to imagine a Sontaran version of Leela due to the way that Leela is

Strang is a unique Sontaran and doesn’t need armour and doesn’t get affected when he is struck on the back of the probic vent. Due to a glitch during cloning, instead of several Sontarans being born its good to think that he has several Sontarans in him. The main plot point about this story is Strang’s plan to spread his clones across the galaxy. It’s a relatively straight forward plot but its done in a very creative way and what the story has is a nice dose of morals which play a significant part in the adventure.

When the Fourth Doctor started travelling with Leela, it was with the intention of educating Leela. It seems sometimes that Leela needs to go back to the classroom and it leads to one of the best scenes that I have heard from Big Finish for quite sometime. I like how the Doctor goes with the very real possibility of sending Leela back home. Even though I know that this wouldn’t happen its still an emotional scene and both Tom Baker and Louise Jameson are brilliant in this scene. The Doctor does his ‘not angry but disappointed’ thing. This scene makes a very good story even better. John Dorney has written a solid story and it’s a solid start to the third series. I think that out of the three series openers, this is by far the best story and it shows that the rest of this season is going to be very good.

As far as the performances go, they are all strong. Dan Starkey has become synonymous as a Sontaran in the six years since he first played one on TV. David Collings played Poul in ‘The Robots of Death’ and I thought that as Rosato was a nice character played really well. The character of Rosato was a conflicted character that had some good moments. John Banks, David Seddon and Jenny Funnell all put in good performances as well but unfortunately for them they are somewhat overshadowed by Starkey, Collings and the regulars.

I listened to this after ‘Antidote to Oblivion’ and I thought that that story was going to be tough to beat but ‘The King of Sontar’ has managed to achieve that and I think that there is much more mileage in the Sontarans and with if we get more stories like this then the Sontarans could be more popular than the Daleks in the Big Finish universe. Maybe.

I have to try and find a fault with this story and……erm…..I’ll get back to you on that.

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.  

The Justice of Jalxar (2013)

When Tom Baker joined Big Finish, one of the things that I was hoping for was a reunion between the Fourth Doctor and Jago and Litefoot. It would have been nice if it had been with Leela in either the first series or the next but actually listening to this it was good they did it with Romana as it gave the story a different dynamic. The story sees the Doctor, Romana, Jago and Litefoot on the case of a creature called the Pugilist and the Doctor is trying to get it off the Earth.

I was wondering where the story would rest in the Jago and Litefoot chronology. Baring in mind that we have had five series and two specials, a lot has happened since the events of ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ and it I was looking forward to seeing whether any of those stories would be recognised. I thought that the story was a good one, I was hoping for something slightly more dramatic than what we got. But to be honest I wouldn’t have been happy unless we got a 90 minute special with Victorian London under. When you stop to think about it, your not going to get that in the middle of the series. The story does have the same vibe as The Talons of Weng Chiang and its plausible to believe that this story takes place 10 years after that story. I liked the idea of the Justician as someone who upholds the law on whatever planet is he on. His menace comes from needing someone on that planet inform him of the laws. I was thinking of the Red Dwarf episode ‘The Inquisitor’ which has the same sort of idea but funnier.

Mary Tamm does suffer in this story. Whereas in the previous stories she’s been quite involved in the plot (especially in the last two), here she is almost pedestrian. Jago and Litefoot are given all the good scenes and Romana. Tom Baker seems to be having fun going back to familiar ground with Jago and Litefoot. His good form continues in this series. Christopher Benjamin & Trevor Baxter are in the unusual situation where they aren’t the lead stars but they take this temporary demotion well and act like they usually do. I thought that Jago was at his funniest when he was travelling with Romana. It seemed right that Jago would travel with Romana and the Doctor would travel with Litefoot and George would be far more suited to what was going on that Henry. As a foursome they do work well together and the double acts were different but enjoyable.

As a Fourth Doctor adventure it’s perfectly fine. John Dorney and Big Finish assume that everyone knows ‘The Talons of Weng Chiang’ and so it doesn’t try and become a sequel and instead just refers to that story and gets on with this adventure. The Fourth Doctor’s reunion with Jago and Litefoot went just as well as it could have done. I cant say that it’s the best story of the series but there are things that I liked about this story and it’s one that I think will be better if I listened to it again in the future.

The Burning Prince (2012)

Since Big Finish have been doing series the one thing that has always been the same is that it features one Doctor, the stories might not necessarily be linked but it always has the same Doctor so this series of adventures marks a change. After the rather dark tone of stories that we had with the Seventh Doctor it was nice that we have what in spite of the cover is a rather lighter story. This is also the first time since I think Omega in 2003 that the Fifth Doctor features in a companionless story. The story sees the Doctor land on a ship which is looking for a lost princess and on this ship is a prince who has a bit of a fiery temper. There is the added threat the if the prince doesn’t find the princess then peace will not be possible and war will ensue. The story doesn’t waste anytime in telling the story as it is action packed from start to finish.

The story has a fairly linear plot and there aren’t really any surprises in this but to be honest I don’t mind that because the story is so action packed and the characters are so well written that its almost a relief that the story isn’t complicated. After Gods and Monsters it was nice to be able to follow a story from episode one to four. There wasn’t an episode that really stood out as they were all very strong and also I liked the cliffhangers which weren’t over the top and weren’t lacklustre, they all served a purpose and I liked them.

Peter Davison gives one of his strongest performances in quite sometime. I think it was the fact that he didn’t have Nyssa or Tegan or Turlough with him. Don’t get me wrong I like the chemistry that the Doctor has with those characters but its nice that the Doctor is on his own as it gives Davison the chance to play the Doctor different and it feels like he is revelling in it. The supporting performances are very strong. I liked George Rainsford as Prince Kylo. It didn’t take long for the fiery side of his character to come out and Rainsford did a good job in coming across as a nice guy that has this dark side. However the standout performance for me was from Kirsty Besterman as Princess Aliona. It’s one of the standout performances of the year in my opinion.  

The Burning Prince is a highly enjoyable adventure that would be my favourite story from the main range had Protect and Survive not been released. The story is solid with some perfect performances and a story that never gets boring and never feels like its getting bogged down in things and it was a shame when it ended.

Rating - 9/10

Beautiful Things (2012)

The second part of this fourth series of Jago and Litefoot sees a literary classic individual enter the story. Thankfully we got a bit more of Colin Baker but it was more of a cameo than anything else. We learn that he and Leela were responsible for Jago and Litefoot being in Brighton in the previous story. The story does involve Mr Oscar Wilde which is someone that I never would have expected to be used in one of these stories. The story has a nice set up because we arrive at Litefoot’s house and it’s not long before Wilde is introduced into the story. Baker’s character instigates what happens in this story by giving Jago tickets to see Wilde who is someone that he likes/admires a lot. I liked how there was an instant dislike of Wilde by Litefoot and it seemed like it was going to be another story where Jago drives the story as Litefoot is resorted to spending time with corpses.

What writer John Dorney has cleverly done is to make several lines very wordy. By that I mean using words that wouldn’t look out of place in Stephen Fry’s head. I can’t remember what they were but there was a moment when Oscar Wilde was talking and was rattling off a list of very big words and it seemed after a while that Dorney was having fun with this and it became a funny thing because of it. As Oscar Wilde, Alan Cox is very good and is arguably the best thing in this story. He delivers the long words like he says it all the time and comes across as a credible and believable Oscar Wilde. The regulars are on fine form again with Christopher Benjamin coming across as being given the most to do for the second story running. I still enjoyed his performance and liked how he was pretty much having a hissy fit because of Wilde.

I thought that Beautiful Things was a nice story but not quite on par with Jago in Love. I found the story to be quite interesting and moves along at the right pace. There were interesting characters and the directing was also enjoyable because the final scenes were highly atmospheric. I did quite like the ending as this series seems to have some quite nice cliff hangers. The different feel that this fourth series seems to have is still taking a bit to get use to but I can’t say that I dislike them. It does feel like they are building up to something big which will hopefully come.

The Wrath of the Iceni (2012)

The latest story featuring the Fourth Doctor and Leela sees the TARDIS land in Britain at the height of the Roman occupancy. This a purely historical story which hasnt been done very often. The best one that Big Finish have done was the 2007 adventure 'Son of the Dragon' and a close second would be the 2005 adventure 'The Council of Nicaea'. It shows that just because there arent any aliens or anything that could be perceived as modern, doesnt mean that it cant be entertaining. It seems obvious that Leela should meet Boudica because they are so similar in that their attitudes to battle are pretty much the same. With a purely historical story you know that there is going to be the inevitable rules of not changing history which the Doctor has with Leela. There has to be a conflict and a reason why the story is set here and that is Boudica finds out that the Doctor knows how she will die and is trying to force the Doctor into confessing. Leela sides with Boudica and its only as the play progresses she realises that she might not be the person she was hoping she would be.

Ella Kenion is the best of the small guest cast as Boudica and she plays the character as a very strong character who tries to come across as the leader of the free but actually comes across as someone who isnt as nice as they think they are. Kenion had previously appeared in the 2011 episode 'Let's Kill Hitler' and she has also appeared in shows such as 'The Green Green Grass' and she is very good in this story. It's not very often that women get to be the lead like this and its commented on in the interviews at the end but its refreshing that this is the case and Kenion does it well. Tom Baker and Louise Jameson are both very strong in this and its an interesting direction that the show has taken because we never got to see Leela educated and this series has shown there are many good adventure to be had going down this particular road.

The Doctor's reluctance to get involved and Leela's determination to help out Bodicea causes the most significant split that there has been for quite sometime. Despite Leela siding with Boudica, she doesnt want the Doctor harmed which shows that there is still some feeling from her despite how she disagrees with the Doctor so much. This soon leads Leela to realise that Boudica isnt quite the woman that she thought she was. It's the old adage that you should never meet your hero because you'll only be disappointed. Leela might never have heard of Boudica before this adventure but she soon became someone she could relate to and in some ways admire her.

I really loved this story and found it to be thoroughly compelling from start to finish. I was worried that it was going to get bogged down in something dull but to be fair there is a sound reason for the story being in its setting and a strong plot which makes me wish that this were a slightly bit longer because I thought that there was enough to pad this out to be a four parter. John Dorney has written another solid story and its a return to form after a mixed previous story.

The Fourth Wall (2012)

The second story to feature Flip Jackson sees the return of an majorly underused Doctor Who prop and that is the Time-Space Visualser which appeared in the 1965 adventure ‘The Chase’ and it’s quite fitting that it appears in this story because as the title suggest, this story is about television and the lack of morals that occupy the people involved. The story is centred around a TV show that has a hint of reality TV which is being run by a media boss called Augustus Scullop who is down on his luck and this show called Laser is what he hopes will reverse those fortunes however it uses technology which as is the norm in Doctor Who, goes slightly wrong. Large chunks of this story feel deliberately comedic. The idea that is dramatic music and specific moments and the characters refer to this is not something that is done and there were many more moments which seemed to be clearly intended to be not treated as serious stuff and normally I wouldn’t like this but what the writer has done is find the right balance and manages to make it work.

Colin Baker is back on fine form like he was in the previous story. I must admit he wasn’t well served in 2011 but is doing better here because he is fantastic in pretty much every scene he’s in. I wasn’t totally convinced with his first scene where we are expected to believe that the Doctor is still quite interested in cricket. It’s a small issue but it was the only thing that I could think off about Baker’s performance. Lisa Greenwood continues to impress me as she manages to escape the ‘Chav’ label that this character was obviously destined for and the character of Flip which I didn’t really notice in ‘The Crimes of Thomas Brewster’ has really shone in these two stories. I cant quite make my mind up about whether the moment when Flip is shot was a good idea or a silly one. On the one hand its clear that a Doctor Who companion isnt going to be killed so quickly after joining but as was noted in the interviews at the end as it’s a character created by Big Finish, it’s perfectly plausible that this could happen. The supporting cast is also quite strong with particular worthy mention going to Yasmin Bannermen who previously appeared in the 2008 story ‘The Bride of Peladon). Her character was one of those that is finely balanced between being a bad person and someone who is likeable and by the end of it comes out relatively well.

It’s difficult for me to compare ‘The Curse of Davros’ with ‘The Fourth Wall’ because its slightly one sided as one story has a very well established character and the other doesn’t but what I can say is that this story is highly enjoyable. The combination of the Sixth Doctor and Flip is working well and I look forward to the final story in this series. 2012 continues it’s good start.

The Elite (2011)

2011 TOMS TARDIS AWARD WINNER

• Best Lost Story

The third series of the Lost stories returns with the Fifth Doctor. This story takes place straight after Arc of Infinity where Tegan returns after briefly leaving the show which happened during the end of one season and the beginning of another. The idea came from Barbara Clegg who had written the 1983 story ‘Enlightenment’ and the plot was taken further by John Dorney who wrote the truly brilliant ‘Solitaire’ and ‘The Rocket Men’. The story takes place on an unnamed planet where there is a battle going between the Elite and the rejects. The Elite are led by the High Priest.

Now if you cant get who the High Priest is by the end of the first scene then your just not trying very hard. At the end of the second episode, its revealed that the High Preist is actually a Dalek that had crash landed on the planet and had forced the people of this planet to build him a new unit and had deliberately started a war in order to speed up the technology because of a quite clever theory that war speeds up the urge of creating new technology. Now the idea that there is a sole Dalek in a story is nothing new and as proved in the 2005 story ‘Dalek’ its possible to make a story out of just one but in a truly brave and impressive moment. The Dalek gets killed and this starts off a civil war which is where the last third of the story draws its action from.

If I had a quibble with this story then its that Nyssa doesn’t really get a great deal to do apart from getting brainwashed and wanting to kill. This is a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things but since I am a Nyssa fan it always bugs me slightly when she isn’t in the centre of things. Sarah Sutton is always good in any story that she appears in. Peter Davison gives his best performance for sometime in this and the Doctor’s reaction to seeing the Dalek is one of the best moments in this story. Janet Fielding also gives a good performance and it feels like is comfortable with playing the mouthy Australian again. This combination without Turlough is surpringly good and is used far better than the TV version. The big name in this story is that of Ryan Sampson who appeared in the 2008 two part story ‘The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky’. In this he plays Thane who becomes one of the most important and arguably one of the best of the supporting characters. I found his character in the Sontaran story to be rather weak and in this I couldn’t tell that it was him and this meant that it wasn’t until after finishing the story that I knew who he played.

Now despite guessing the cliffhanger of episode two, I was still glad when it happened. It’s very rare for a Doctor Who story to surprise me. Partly down to the insistence of Big Finish/BBC in having the Daleks in the title. When I started listening to this story I didn’t think we would get a Dalek story in the Lost Stories series. In the September 2011 issue of Doctor Who Magazine, they preview this story and Dorney is quoted as saying people might guess what happens at the end of episode two (which I did) but if they guessed what would happen in episode three then he would be “amazed”. I have to say that I didn’t guess what happened but neither was I as impressed with it as episode two’s ending. That’s not to say that it isnt a good one but I just prefer number two.

This is one of the strongest Lost Stories for quite sometime. It’s a story that seems to be heading in one direction which looks like it is going to be great and then changes into something else that is just as great. This has to be in my top 2 of best ever Lost Stories. John Dorney has done a very good job in writing an simple yet creative adventure and is putting together a very strong run of stories. This is a good start to the Lost Stories series and I am looking forward to the next story with baited breathe.

The Rocket Men (2011)

A story featuring William Russell is always something special. Anyone who has listened to other audio adventures narrated by him (original soundtrack narration, target novelisations etc) will be aware that he has a wonderful voice and could read the phone book and he would make it sound interesting. This is amazing only his second Companion Chronicle for Russell following on from the highly impressive Transit of Venus in 2009. Another reason for me to be looking forward to this release is that its written by John Dorney, who’s track record recently has been high impressive with Solitaire and Farewell Great Macedon so the omens were good. The story is set during the time when Vicki was travelling with the Doctor, Ian and Barabra with the story set on a platform base above a gassy sky.

In the interview at the end of the release, John Dorney freely admits that he came up with the title first and then developed the story. That shows quite a lot in this story as by the halfway point I was wondering what the actual story was about. There were things going on but nothing going on. I found the whole setting to be wonderful as it put it in a setting that it not done in Doctor Who and it owes a lot in style to the 1991 film ‘The Rocketeer’ which features a guy with a rocket-pack on his back. This is achieved by the cover that accompanies and also the dialogue from John Dorney. It’s a place that sounds beautiful and then the story starts which takes your attention away from that.

The thing that I liked was how there was some emphasis given on the blatantly obvious romance between Ian and Barbara. It was never really acknowledged on TV but it was clear to everyone and I thought that it was a nice touch and helped draw the listeners attention to just how much the events in this story had effected Barbara. Yes she might be a strong minded person but even she can be affected. I thought it was typically Ian thing to do to give Barbara some space but it was nice to have the Doctor force Ian to go over to her. As Ian reminds us that its hard to believe that at one point they were enemies and now they are friends. What a difference two seasons make. There is a wonderful scene where Barbara is thrown out of a window and is plummeting through the air and Ian in a moment on what can be described as madness jumps out to try and rescue her. This is something that defines the character and the relationship between the two.

William Russell as usual gives his usual top notch performance. In his 87th year on this earth its amazing how he is still enthusiastic about a role that he did for two years 46 years ago. He makes the story seem fun and the reason why I kept going with the story was mainly due to Russell. As the supporting side of the cast, Gus Brown is quite good as Ashman as he does come across as a particularly nasty person.

I must admit that I was slightly disappointed with this story. There are a lot of good things in this story however for some reason it doesn’t quite gel together and that’s the part that lets the story down. I think that with William Russell and John Dorney involved, anything less that would be seen as a disappointment. There is plenty to like and it certainly not anywhere near as bad as The Criminal Code or The Forbidden Time but I cant help but say that I was expecting slightly more than this.

Swan Song (2011)

After being slightly disappointed with The Man at the End of the Garden, I was hoping that this story would be a return to form. Written by John Dorney, there is a sense that the writer might have been inspired by Black Swan (the Oscar nominated film). None the less, this story is a return to form for the series. The story starts off with the story of Alice who tells us of a tragic event which resulted in her paralysis, robbing her a chance of appearing in a production of Swan Lake. It’s a really sad way of starting of a story but it helps establish the Alice character.

The story takes place between two time periods. The first being in the 1890’s where Jago, Litefoot and Leela are wondering around the Theatre and the other being some time in the future where on the site of the theatre they are doing experiments. It’s due to these experiments that are creating these situations where the two time zones meet up. It’s good when we learn that the future stuff is taking place in the exact same area where the theatre once stood and what happened to the theatre. The story spends just about the right amount of time trying to figure out what was going on before they got to the main action which was trying to stop all hell breaking loose. I like it how they placed in the story in the just the one area. Ok its in two different time zones but they didn’t set it in the Tavern then the theatre then Litefoot’s residence, just in the theatre which meant that I could focus on the story as opposed to where the characters were which is always a bonus for me.

I really like the music for Swan Lake and one of the things that I really like about this story is that they play the music. I know its not the same one as they use in the opera (probably for rights reasons) but the thing about the music is that its so good that it can be played in any way and it would still sound good. Kudos to whoever put it in the story because for me it would have not been as good if they had left it out.

All the regulars are on good form with Louise Jameson getting a lot more to do than she did in the previous story. However it’s the supporting cast that really impressed me with Abigal Hollick leading the way as Alice. Her story was made all the more heartbreaking with Hollick’s performance. Hywel Morgan & Andrew Westfield (Dan and Steven respectively) also did well in supporting Hollick.

Swan Song is a very good story as it was intriguing without being baffling. There is a line about how they didn’t get to do Swan Lake until after Jago had died. It seems that Jago fell in love with the story. John Dorney has written a story with great characters and a story that doesn’t feel rushed and feels like everything was meant to be there as opposed to being thrown in to make the story last the time it needed to run. I still think that the first story is the best so far but this is a fitting second.

Lepidotery for Beginners

Lepidotery for Beginners is a freebie that was given to subscribers but was originally part of a Short Trips Book released in 2008. Written and Read by John Dorney, this story is a Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe and sees the Doctor arrive on a ship where their presence has been predicted. They encounter Iolas Blue who has a computer that can predict every event in the universe with phenomenal accuracy and that includes predicting the actions that will lead up to their deaths. The Doctor and his friends try and escape but they are thwarted as predicted by the computer when the moment arrives the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe haven’t died and it turns out the computer has lied to its creator and it is infact Blue that will die. Quite expectedly the Doctor tries to save Blue’s life but when he realises that he cant stop it he leaves Blue to his fate.

It’s an interesting story that is well read by Dorney. I think that its good having listened to the volumes of the Short Trips releases that it’s a fine line between what is right for a short story and I think that this wobbles on that line. The story has a lot more time to develop the story than it would normally have, a normal release would have about 10 minutes but this release was nearly 45 minutes and the story benefits from this as despite the odd start it did get going quite quickly. The idea that someone can predict the future is quite a nifty thing but of course there is the sci-fi potential that it could be used to alter the future and make one quite wealthy and powerful. It’s a idea that Dorney has done well with and the resolvement of the story is also quite clever and it could so easily have been a cop-out and a disappointment but thankfully it was a good ending.

It’s hard to give a story a kicking when its free but on this occasion I don’t have to worry about that because even if I had to pay for it I wouldn’t be able to critise it because I enjoyed it and thought that Dorney did a good job.

The Destroyers (2010)

The Destroyers is a Dalek pilot made when Terry Nation was trying to launch the Daleks in America. The story forms part of the Second Doctor Boxset which seems odd because we got two first Doctor stories in the First Doctor Boxset and yet we only get one second Doctor story and one Dalek story in this release. This pilot never got made because Terry Nation, this was due to the fact that the BBC (who was going to pay half of the costs for the pilot) pulled out and this left Nation without anyone willing to finance the show. So this is how this becomes a Lost Story. It stars Sara Kingdom who is on a meteor that is being overrun by Daleks. The problem with this story is that it’s not exciting. It lacks any of the drama and tension that you get with a normal Dalek story or with the Dalek Empire series. In both of those instances the Daleks had a character or group that could provide the drama and be threatened by the Daleks. In this there is Sara who seems a less aggressive character than what we knew in the Daleks Masterplan. Also in this story there are two characters who join her called Mark 7 and Jason who quite frankly might as well have not being there. It’s nothing to do with Alan Cox (Mark 7) or Chris Porter (Jason) but more with the actual story. I just felt that the characters weren’t heroic enough. I did like the character of David Kingdom as played by Alex Mallinson. I didn’t know (or cant remember) that Sara had another brother, I thought that by introducing this element that it added some drama and a purpose to the story even though it wasn’t really enough to last the whole play. I’m normally a big fan of Jean Marsh and her performances are always top rate (especially in Home Truths) but to be honest I found her performance in this to be slightly below par. I know its suppose to be a younger Sara and there’s none of the aggression and cyniscm that we get to witness in The Daleks Master Plan but it seems almost too toned down.

The end of the release was the only time that I really got excited. It’s a shame that this was the only thing written because it sees David being taken by the Daleks and it made me wonder what the series would have been like. The Destroyers is a weird story because it’s clearly meant to the first in a series of stories however we only get it as a single story and so it’s a little bit disjointed. Worth a listen though if not for the theme tune which is the finest that I have heard for quite sometime, credit to either David Darlington and/or Jamie Robertson for coming up with that.

The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories (2010)

For the last few years, there has been a single release that has consisted of four single stories. This year it was the turn of the Fifth Doctor to get this treatment. What is quite special is that one of the writers won a competition set up by Big Finish and was won by the curiously named Rick Briggs. I suppose anyone who submitted a story for the competition and didn’t win might be slightly envious of Rick for this opportunity and are eager to see what he produced that won him this spot.

The Demons of Red Lodge is the first story written by Jason Arnopp and sees the Doctor and Nyssa wake up to find out that they don’t remember where they are and after investigating the surroundings they find that the speara (not sure about spelling) are planning an invasion and are trying to convert the inhabitants and the first stage is to basically knock them out and then the second stage is to take full control of their personalities. The Speara are trying to convert the Doctor and Nyssa but think that their human and when they try to copy the Doctor’s two hearts affect the plans of the Speara.

I really liked this story. It’s a I thought that there was enough threat from Speara and it was great how the Doctor and Nyssa seemed genually scared at the beginning of this story. With a few tweeks this could easily make a hour long or even four part drama. Jason Arnopp has written a good opening story and it’s a good starter for this release.

The second story is the one written by Rick Briggs called The Entropy Composition. It sees the Doctor and Nyssa arrive in 1968 in a prog rock musician called Geoff Cooper who wrote a song called White Waves, Soft Haze that was never released. He is accompanied by Erisi and there are clues early on when the animals disappear. Erisi is a Entropy Siren and the music is basically eroding all the music on the archivist planet and is creating chaos. There is a lovely scene where the Doctor and Nyssa are trying to convince Mrs Malloy who they are and Nyssa trying to pretend she’s a swinging 1960’s girl but not understanding what the term groupie means.

I found this a harder story to understand than the previous one. It took a few listens to fully understand it and that shouldn’t really be the case in a 25 minute story. Don’t get me wrong I do think that it’s an interesting story but when you have such a short amount of time to tell a story then it should be far simpler than it was. I did like the characters that Briggs has written. I thought that Mrs Malloy was a lovely character and her exit was quite a shock and Naloom was also very entertaining as the archivist.

The third story was called Doing Time written by William Gallagher and sees the Doctor in a prison on the planet Folly. The opening dialogue was a mirror of the opening scene of the BBC Sitcom ‘Porridge’. The Doctor collects a future echo that tells him a planet is going to explode but arrives a year too early. He is put in prison by a very nasty Governor who has desires of becoming President. The whole story is very entertaining story that sees the Doctor create an interplanetary version of the Cricket Ashes.

It’s a good story with some good characters and in particular Susan Kyd as Governor Chaplin. She was very entertaining throughout and was probably the best guest character of the entire release. Gallagher has written a fun and often amusing story.

The final story of this release is called Special Features written by John Dorney and is a 25th Anniversary DVD commentary to a 1970’s horror film called Doctor Demonic’s Tales of Terror. This is an original way of telling a Doctor Who story. It’s quite a brave attempt because commentaries are improvised and require the viewer to be actually seeing the images as opposed to just listening to the action. There is a lot of talk between the contributors about a curse and the bad luck that befell some of the cast. I thought it was a really good story because this takes place over the course of 20 or so minutes and in one long scene. The story manages to pack a lot in despite the short running time but this is thanks to the writer.

All the cast do a great job and along with Dorney’s writing this is my favourite story of the entire release. John Dorney has been one of the shining stars in 2010 with Solitaire springing to mind and he does another good outing with this story. He’s managed to make this episode seem like it was done like a normal commentary.

So the final regular release of 2010 is a good one. They were all good in their own way and despite the Rick Briggs story, they were all very straightforward and enjoyable. On the subject of Rick Briggs I think that he should be allowed to write a full four part story like Steven Hall did this year with A Death in the Family because I think that he could do a good job. The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories should be listened to by anyone who likes short stories and who likes creepy stories.

Echoes of Grey (2010)

Zoe Herriot returns to the Companion Chronicle series after her appearance in Legend of the Cybermen. Wendy Padbury appeared in the second ever Companion Chronicle back in 2007 in which was a weak offering. Now on the 34th release, its time for another Zoe story. This one starts off with a woman call Ali walking up to Zoe. Apparently it’s an older Zoe from the one Ali knew. She tries to get Zoe to remember an adventure that they had together. Ali produces a box that pulls the bits of memory that the Timelords have hidden from her. This story is written by John Dorney who wrote Solitaire which I thought was one of the top 3 Companion Chronicles of 2010.

This main part of the story is set at the Whitaker Institute in Central Australia. The Doctor, Jamie & Zoe discover that the scientists have created a creature called the Achromatics which basically suck all the disease and old age out of people. However it goes wrong and it starts to take more than the unwanted stuff and the people are dead. The story does have an isolated base kind of feel to the story as it seems that the Institute is in the middle of nowhere and there are just a handful of characters. Except this time there is no alien invasion but just some sinister creations.

The main problem with this story is that takes too long for the payoff to come. The first episode is unbearably slow. I was listening to this episode and I was wondering what exactly was going on. Then it picked up in the second half. All of it got explained. The Achromatics were explained and the terrible secret of the Institute was revealed. To be honest despite the fact that it was portrayed as a terrible thing I just ended up thinking to myself ‘Why don’t I care about them killing humans?’ To me the Achromatics aren’t the menace that they should be. The cliffhanger wasn’t scary enough, there was no threat from them. We got to hear someone be consumed by them but it didn’t work for me. The thing I was more interested in why Ali was going through all the trouble of getting Zoe to remember. Then the revelation that she worked for the institute and she was trying to get the story out of Zoe was clever.

Echoes of Grey isn’t quite the story it should be. Wendy Padbury is good as Zoe and its always interesting to hear her play the role and Emily Pithon was also good as Ali. She played the mysterious side to the story well and the both of them should be pleased with what they did. However it doesn’t change the fact that it takes way too long to get the story going and by that point I had all but lost interest in what was going on. My advice for people who are going to listen to this is to skip to the second part.

Solitaire (2010)

The final story of the fourth series in the Companion Chronicles sees the first story to feature the Eighth Doctor. Solitaire sees the return of The Celestial Toymaker who’s involvement was a rushed idea due to his success in The Lost Stories: The Nightmare Fair. John Dorney has been handed the responsibility of this story. David Ballie returns as the Toymaker after The Nightmare Fair and India Fisher plays Charley for the first time since last years Blue Forgotten Planet. The story sees the Doctor turned into a puppet and Charley having to play the Toymaker’s games. Charley cant remember the Doctor at all and only knows herself as Charlotte.

Quite like Stealers from Saiph, this is a different type of release. With this story there is just Charley and the Toymaker. It’s quite an unusual story because it’s essentially Charley trying to get away from the clutches of the Toymaker. There is a time factor to trying to solve this game (if it is a game which isn’t made clear) every so often there is a big bellowing voice which always comes as a shock saying PPPPPLLLLLLAAAAAAAYYYYYY. There is a lot of things that don’t make sense however its due to Ballie and Fisher that I managed to maintain any interest in it. I found this Charley to be more like the Charley from 2001/2002 and it was a nice trip down memory lane. The frustration at times that she showed was quite funny and reminded me of listening to Storm Warning and Sword of Orion. David Ballie was perhaps even better in this than he was in The Nightmare Fair. I think that may have more to do with John Dorney. Dorney is perhaps writing a Toymaker that is more suited to Ballie’s acting style as opposed to Ballie having to fit in with the Toymaker that Graham Williams and John Ainsworth wrote in the 2009 story. I found the moments when the Toymaker got more and more frustrated quite entertaining. Both Ballie and Fisher are the masters of frustrating acting.

If I did have to find a fault with this story it that it’s quite difficult to actually class this as a proper bonafide Companion Chronicle because its not Charley recalling an adventure she had with the Doctor but its more like a proper adventure. In the Extras its even referred to as a full cast audio with just two people in it. Quite like Scherzo where it was just Paul McGann and India Fisher. It was also mentioned that Charley will soon be having her own adventures quite like Jago and Litefoot. Solitaire is a good story that only suffers from not being a traditional CC story. Good effort from John Dorney. It was also a solid piece of directing from Nicholas Briggs who surprisingly makes his first contribution to the Companion Chronicles range. If I have to call this as a Companion Chronicle then I would say it is a fine end to this fourth series.