The Winners of the 8th Tomstardis Awards

Here are the winners for the eighth Tomstardis Awards

Favourite Doctor – Colin Baker
Favourite Companion – Louise Jameson (Leela)

Favourite Main Range Story – Masters of Earth
Favourite Main Range Writer – Mark Wright & Cavan Scott (Master of Earth)
Favourite Main Range Director – Nicholas Briggs (Masters of Earth)
Favourite Main Range Cover Designer – Tom Webster (Signs and Wonders)
Favourite Main Range Music & Sound Designer – Jamie Robertson (Signs and Wonders)
Favourite Main Range Series – Six (2) (The Widows Assassin/Masters of Earth/The Rani Elite)

Favourite Companion (Companion Chronicles) – Lalla Ward (Romana 2)
Favourite Companion Chronicles Story – Luna Romana
Favourite Companion Chronicles Writer – Matt Fitton (Luna Romana)
Favourite Companion Chronicles Director - Lisa Bowerman (Luna Romana)
Favourite Companion Chronicles Music & Sound Designer – Richard Fox & Lauren Yason (Luna Romana)
Favourite Companion Chronicles Cover Designer – Damien May (Luna Romana)

Favourite Early Adventures Story – Domain of the Voord
Favourite Early Adventures Writer – Ian Potter (The Bounty of Ceres)
Favourite Early Adventures Director – Ken Bentley (Domain of the Voord)
Favourite Early Adventures Cover Designer – Tom Webster (The Doctor’s Tale)

Favourite Philip Hinchcliffe Story – The Ghosts of Gralstead

Favourite Fifth Doctor Boxset Story – Iterations of I
Favourite Fifth Doctor Boxset Writer – Jonathan Morris (Psychodrome)

Favourite Counter Measures Story – The Forgotten Village
Favourite Counter Measures Writer – Ken Bentley (The Forgotten Village)

Favourite New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield Story – The Revolution
Favourite New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield Writer – Nev Fountain (The Revolution)

Favourite Charlotte Pollard Story – The Viyran Solution

Favourite Dark Eyes Story – Masterplan
Favourite Dark Eyes Writer – Matt Fitton (Time’s Horizon)

Favourite Fourth Doctor Adventures Story – The Crooked Man
Favourite Fourth Doctor Adventures Writer – John Dorney (The Crooked Man)
Favourite Fourth Doctor Adventures Director – Nicholas Briggs
Favourite Fourth Doctor Adventures Music & Sound Designer – Jamie Robertson (The Crooked Man)
Favourite Fourth Doctor Adventures Cover Designer – Anthony Lamb (Last of the Colophon)

Favourite Jago and Litefoot Story – Encore of the Scorchies
Favourite Jago and Litefoot Writer – James Goss (Encore of the Scorchies)

Favourite The Avengers Story – Hot Snow

Favourite Survivors Story – Revelation
Favourite Survivors Writer – Matt Fitton (Revelation)

Thankyou all for voting and congratulations to the winners.

An Ordinary Life (2014)

The last story from the Early Adventures range for 2014 sees a story unlike anything that has come before it in this short range. This is the first story to feature Sara Kingdom for quite sometime and its also been a while that we have a story that takes place during The Daleks Master Plan story. I like the idea of this because its weird to think that during one of the biggest story in Doctor Who, they there is apparently time to have another adventure. This story takes place in the 1950’s and deals with a subject that is rarely dealt with in Doctor Who and that is people seeking a new life in Britain and dealing with racism.

The story does have a fairly pedestrian pace to it in the early stages. This is normally a problem for me but for some reason in this story I thought that this actually worked in the stories favour. The music and sound effects used by Toby Hrycek-Robinson do a fab job of creating a cold and bleak setting which works quite well. In fact the first episode went by so quickly I was surprised when the theme tune played and its rare that this happens. The Doctor is out of the action which harks back to the early days of the companion chronicles. He is not well but does manage to sneak past Steven and Sara back to the TARDIS and it disappears.

The second episode is where the title actually makes sense. An Ordinary Life is what Steven and Sara have to do. Steven is working and Sara is playing the housewife. There is a nice scene where Steven isn’t kind about Sara’s cooking and she basically says that if he doesn’t like it then he can cook it himself. There is a nice bit of the story given over to the friendship between these two. Knowing that Sara gets killed not to much further in the show so by the end it’s quite sad.

There is something weird about Michael from the moment he appears. This is sorted out in the second half of the story when there is an alien menace introduced into the story. The menace is a race that have been on Earth for hundreds of years and it used Michael to create a copy and this is why he was acting so strange.

I found the moment when Billy Flint reacted badly to the idea that Steven and Sara want to have a place without being married is quite funny by todays standards but by 1950’s standards its perfectly natural. I must admit that I did find some of the racism to be quite uncomfortable to listen to. It wasn’t the worst racism that could have been said but when something appears that isn’t usually seen or heard in Doctor Who then it does come as a bit of a shock to the system. References to banana boats and taking English peoples jobs and Flint telling Steven to stick with his own kind aren’t the normal things that I would expect in Doctor Who.

After the initial shock of this I found that things settled down but the bleakness that there seemed to be was still around. By the half way stage things started to become more like a traditional Doctor Who story and there is a plan to copy human beings and they become interested in the Doctor and his TARDIS. I would have liked there to be more of the first half because its perfectly normal for Doctor Who stories to not really have anything to do with alien invasions and deal with the idea of two people from earth that are from a different time adjusting to 1950’s Britain. That said I still think that what Matt Fitton has written is a very nice mixture of Doctor Who stuff and non-Doctor Who stuff.

Performance wise, I thought that Peter Purves and Jean Marsh were very good. It’s always good hearing Jean Marsh in a Doctor Who because some of my favourite Companion Chronicles have been ones that have features Sara Kingdom and seeing her deal with what going on in 1950’s Britain is fun to watch bearing in mind what she’s been through and about to go through. I don’t think that Peter Purves is able to give a dud performance and his William Hartnell impression is always fun to listen to. There is one voice that is very familiar and familiar to anyone who has ever seen the Channel 4 show Desmonds and its sequel Porkpie. Due to the fact that I recognised the voice I liked the character even more. His voice was one of the things that I liked about this story and I was really happy when he came back towards the end of the story. It would be amiss of me to not mention the performances of Damian Lynch as Michael, Sara Powell as Audrey and Stephen Critchlow as Billy Flint. I wasn’t able to appreciate Lynch until the end when we got to hear Michael as he normally is. Sara Powell also does a good job and makes the most of what isn’t one of the important roles in the story. Stephen Critchlow plays Billy Flint rather well and helps to make the first episode to be a really good one.

I really enjoyed this story. I thought that the whole thing worked really well and the running time was just right to allow some build up to the main part of the story. It’s not very often that Doctor Who does a story with the social topics that this story contains. So far the Early Adventures have done well in changing the format of the Companion Chronicles. The extended format and the increase in people involved means that there is time to tell the story and have a bit of variety in voices heard. I think that this is tied with Domain of the Voord in best story of the series.

Doctor Who at Christmas

Tomstardis Awards Update

Here is another update of how the voting is going at the moment. Thankyou if you have voted and a reminder for those that haven’t voted yet is that voting is open until January 11.

Favourite Doctor – Colin Baker
Favourite Companion – Louise Jameson (Leela)

Favourite Main Range Story – Breaking Bubbles & Other Stories
Favourite Main Range Writer – Mark Wright & Cavan Scott (Masters of Earth), Nev Fountain (The Widows Assassin) & William Gallagher (Scavenger)
Favourite Main Range Director – Nicholas Briggs (Masters of Earth)
Favourite Main Range Cover Designer – Tom Webster (Signs & Wonders) & Tom Webster (Revenge of the Swarm)
Favourite Main Range Music & Sound Designer – Howard Carter & Neil Gardner (Scavenger) & Wilfredo Acosta (Breaking Bubbles & Other Stories)
Favourite Series – Six (The Widows Assassin/Masters of Earth/The Rani Elite)

Favourite Companion (Companion Chronicles) – Lalla Ward (Romana 2) William Russell (Ian Chesterton)
Favourite Companion Chronicles Story – Luna Romana
Favourite Companion Chronicles Writer – Matt Fitton (Luna Romana)
Favourite Companion Chronicles Director – Lisa Bowerman (Luna Romana)
Favourite Companion Chronicles Music & Sound Designer – Richard Fox & Lauren Yason (Luna Romana)
Favourite Companion Chronicles Cover Designer – Damien May (Luna Romana)

Favourite Jago and Litefoot Story – Encore of the Scorchies
Favourite Jago and Litefoot Writer – James Goss (Encore of the Scorchies)

Favourite Early Adventures Story – Domain of the Voord/The Bounty of Ceres
Favourite Early Adventures Writer – Ian Potter (The Bount of Ceres)
Favourite Early Adventures Director – Ken Bentley (Domain of the Voord) & Lisa Bowerman (The Bounty of Ceres)
Favourite Early Adventures Cover Designer – Tom Webster (The Doctor’s Tale)

Favourite Philip Hinchcliffe Story – The Ghosts of Gralstead

Favourite Fifth Doctor Story – Psychodrome & Iterations of I
Favourite Fifth Doctor Writer – Jonathan Morris (Psychodrome)

Favourite Counter Measures Story – Changing of the Guard
Favourite Counter Measures Writer – Matt Fitton (Changing of the Guard)

Favourite New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield Story – The Revolution
Favourite New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield Writer – Nev Fountain (The Revolution)

Favourite Charlotte Pollard Story – The Viyran Solution

Favourite Dark Eyes Story – Masterplan
Favourite Dark Eyes Story – Matt Fitton (Masterplan)

Favourite Fourth Doctor Story – The Crooked Man
Favourite Fourth Doctor Writer – John Dorney (The Crooked Man)
Favourite Fourth Doctor Director – Nicholas Briggs (The Crooked Man)
Favourite Fourth Doctor Music & Sound Designer –Jamie Robertson (The Crooked Man)
Favourite Fourth Doctor Cover Designer – Anthony Lamb (Last of the Colophon)

Favourite The Avengers Story – Hot Snow

Favourite Survivors Story – Revelation
Favourite Survivors Writer – Matt Fitton (Revelation)

The Rani Elite

The final release of 2014 is the first to feature the Rani. Originally played by Kate O’Mara who passed away in March 2014. It is always going to be one of the biggest things that we wish could have happened to hear Kate O’Mara reprise the role and she was keen to do so but sadly she never got the chance. The Rani previously appeared opposite Colin Baker’s Doctor in the 1985 adventure ‘The Mark of the Rani’ and less successfully in Sylvester McCoy’s opening story ‘Time and the Rani’ in 1987.

The thing about the character of the Rani is that even though she is bad, she doesn’t have any plans to wipe out humanity or invade a planet but to do her work in science. The only problem with that being is that her techniques aren’t exactly above board. Quite why its taken Big Finish so long to get round to the character of the Rani is a bit of a mystery however its better late than never and at least the first story for the character is such a good one.

Since Kate O’Mara passed away it was always going to be interesting to see who was cast to replace her and before it became a big thing to have a female Master, we have a female Rani and this time its played by Siobhan Redmond who according to Wikipedia has starred in such things as Eastenders, Holby City and Midsomer Murders (who hasn’t been in that). The story sees the Doctor arrive at the College of Advanced Galactic Education where is he receiving an award/honour. But its not long before he gets involved in trouble. Even though it has Rani in the title, there is an agonisingly long wait before we get the first indication that it is the Rani and then an even longer wait before the Doctor and the Rani meet. When they do its q good scene and they pick up where they left off.

Data Cube is something that is bought up in the early part of this story and in the business end of the story its gets bought back in a way that is quite clever and as I had forgotten about it, I thought that it was quite a good thing to include in the story.

The Rani is helping rich people by planting their minds put into new people’s body. It’s an idea that is very much of the character. It’s very similar to what she was doing in her two TV adventures. It’s hard really to really dislike her because I always get a feeling that she is doing it with honourable intentions but just has questionable morals and could with a bit of work be persuaded to change. The thing I like about Redmond’s performance is that it isn’t over the top. There was a hint of that in Kate O’Mara’s version but with Redmond she’s stuck to what the character is really about and with a new version of the Sixth Doctor to work against this means that the Rani’s involvement in the story is worth it.

What I like about this story is that its written by Justin Richards who is a nuts and bolts writer. That might not sound like a compliment but it’s a huge compliment. Richards doesn’t do stories that have complicated things going on that I struggle to understand. What he does and has done in this story is written a story that is straight forward in narrative terms but it feels like a traditional Doctor Who story. This is the perfect end to a perfect series. I think this has been one of the strongest series that Big Finish have done because each story has been really good in different ways. It’s good to have few more Six and Peri stories because they seem to be a bit thin on the ground. Now what they to do is try and address the Flip situation to a satisfactory point.

The 2014 Toms Tardis Awards - Update

Ok so the awards have been open for just over a week and there have been just under 500 votes cast in that short time. I will be trying to do an update on how the awards are going so here is the first one. I don’t know if you agree with me but there are some interesting results so far.

Also, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Favourite Doctor – Peter Davison
Favourite Companion – Louise Jameson (Leela)

Favourite Main Range Story – Breaking Bubbles & Other Stories
Favourite Main Range Writer – Several writers
Favourite Main Range Director – Several directors
Favourite Main Range Cover Designer – Tom Webster (Signs & Wonders) & Tom Webster (Revenge of the Swarm)
Favourite Main Range Music & Sound Designer – Wilfredo Acosta (Breaking Bubbles & Other Stories)
Favourite Series – Six (The Widows Assassin/Masters of Earth/The Rani Elite)

Favourite Companion (Companion Chronicles) – William Russell (Ian Chesterton)
Favourite Companion Chronicles Story – Luna Romana & The Sleeping City
Favourite Companion Chronicles Writer – John Dorney (Second Chances) & Simon Guerrier (The War To End All Wars)
Favourite Companion Chronicles Director – Lisa Bowerman (Luna Romana)
Favourite Companion Chronicles Music & Sound Designer – Richard Fox & Lauren Yason (Luna Romana & Second Chances)
Favourite Companion Chronicles Cover Designer – Damien May (Luna Romana)

Favourite Jago and Litefoot Story – The Night of 1000 Stars
Favourite Jago and Litefoot Writer – James Goss (Encore of the Scorchies)

Favourite Early Adventures Story – Domain of the Voord
Favourite Early Adventures Writer – Andrew Smith (Domain of the Voord)
Favourite Early Adventures Director – Ken Bentley (Domain of the Voord)
Favourite Early Adventures Cover Designer – Tom Webster (The Doctor’s Tale)

Favourite Philip Hinchcliffe Story – The Ghosts of Gralstead

Favourite Fifth Doctor Story – Psychodrome & Iterations of I
Favourite Fifth Doctor Writer – Jonathan Morris (Psychodrome) & John Dorney (Iterations of I)

Favourite Counter Measures Story – Changing of the Guard
Favourite Counter Measures Writer – Matt Fitton (Changing of the Guard)

Favourite New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield Story – Lights of Skaro
Favourite New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield Writer – Nev Fountain (The Revolution)

Favourite Charlotte Pollard Story – The Viyran Solution

Favourite Dark Eyes Story – Masterplan
Favourite Dark Eyes Story – Matt Fitton (Masterplan)

Favourite Fourth Doctor Story – The Crooked Man
Favourite Fourth Doctor Writer – John Dorney (The Crooked Man)
Favourite Fourth Doctor Director – Nicholas Briggs (The Crooked Man)
Favourite Fourth Doctor Music & Sound Designer – Jamie Robertson (The Evil One) & Jamie Robertson (The Crooked Man)
Favourite Fourth Doctor Cover Designer – Anthony Lamb (The Evil One)

Favourite The Avengers Story – Hot Snow

Favourite Survivors Story – Revelation
Favourite Survivors Writer – Matt Fitton (Revelation)

Dark Water

This is the episode where we find out who Missy is and the revelation that she was the Master is a fantastic moment.

Michelle Gomez is the perfect choice for the role and she pitches it just right in terms of madness and genius.

The Cybermen were perhaps the only thing that didn’t quite fit because all the focus was elsewhere.

Thought it was brave with Danny and the warzone stuff. Was quite tough compared to previous Doctor Who moments.

The Skeletons were the best design since the weaping angels and they were very creepy. Even though I knew they were Cybermen I didn’t see the revelation coming. Moffat deserves a lot of praise for this episode.

Possibly one of the best episodes of the series and I am looking forward to the series finale which is an hour long.