The Night of 1000 Stars (2014)

After enjoying the previous story, I started to listen to The Night of 1000 Stars. The only thing that I knew about this adventure was that Louise Jameson was returning as Leela and the author was James Goss who is making his debut in this range. This is an unusual adventure because it just features Jago, Litefoot, Leela and Ellie. This story forces this foursome to look at themselves in a way that they would rather not and as the story progresses we learn about a different aspect of their lives which caused them to feel remorse. The use of Remorse as a threat to our favourite characters is a brilliant idea and it’s used very well and is one of the main reasons why I rate this story so highly. It’s a simple idea but it allows us to learn new things about characters that we have known for years and that’s a hard thing to pull off.

It’s a brave thing to do to just do this sort of story as it doesn’t feature any supporting characters, doesn’t feature other locations and doesn’t have any breaks in the story (like things happening the next day or in another part of the country).  The introduction of Leela in the story was a brilliant idea and Louise Jameson continues to show how the character has developed under Big Finish. The performances of Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter were superb as usual but we got something in this story that I wasn’t expecting and that is Jago and Litefoot at each other’s throat. I was thinking that this can’t be right and I wanted it to stop, that was the point that I realised that the story was working and Benjamin and Baxter should be praised for still pulling out superb performance after all these releases. I moaned about the lack of Ellie in the previous story and that was because I think that Lisa Bowerman is just as an important part of the series as Jago and Litefoot are. Here we get a lot of Ellie and it shows how good Lisa Bowerman is as Ellie because Ellie has been through a lot during the previous six series and her loses have been just as great as Jago and Litefoot have had.

There’s a lovely moment when there is a mystery and to which of the four is remorse and it reminded me of the movie ‘Devil’ where they have a lift and one of them is the devil. This is done a lot better because I didn’t see the revelation about Leela coming. I thought at the beginning that it was a surprise that she was back and that it wasn’t given the sort of time that I would have expected but James Goss has done a good thing of distracting us from this point and never allows us to think about it until he’s ready for us to. We are reminded about the current predicament of Jago and Litefoot which I liked because I was worried that they had forgotten about the fact they were suppose to be on the run but it isn’t just a blink and you’ll miss it mention but does get mentioned much more than I was expecting.

I was really impressed with this story and I would go so far to say that this is one of if not the best Jago and Litefoot story that there has ever been and credit should go to everyone involved for still been able to impress me to this degree. If the last two stories in the series are better than this one then I am in for a treat. I think that this story isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea and that’s because this isn’t your usual Jago and Litefoot adventure and when people don’t get what they usually want then they will be harsher to it. This wont happen here because I loved this story.

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.

Dark Eyes 2 (2014)

Dark Eyes 2 is the sequel to the award winning special that was released in 2012.It’s been a while since the first Dark Eyes release and I decided to not listen to that again before embarking on this release. I don’t think that it made any difference really because I knew who Liv Chenka was and also knew who Molly was an her relationship with the Doctor so any other bits of information would either be repeated in this series or not really be relevant. The last time that we heard from the eighth Doctor it was in the excellent ‘Night of the Doctor’ which did the great job of listing all of the Big Finish companions on TV (or the BBC website at least) for the first time. Nicholas Briggs wrote the entire first series of Dark Eyes but this time he has allowed others to write for him and this means that we get different types of stories.

When you look at the cast list of this release it seems like they have plucked all the good things from the special releases they did in 2012, its essentially a greatest hits for the Doctor but apart from Molly, the hits are from the McCoy era. Firstly is the return of Liv Chenka.Liv Chenka previously appeared in ‘Robophobia’ back in 2011.Nicola Walker is a big name actress and from the very beginning until the end was brilliant and its surprising that when I was listening to ‘Robophobia’, I couldn’t have imagined that she would be the character that she would turn out to be in this series.
At the start, Chenka is working for the Daleks. Working might be too strong a word but in the eyes of other people of Nixyce VII, she is and is seen as a traitor (hence the title). The thing that strikes me about Chenka’s role is that its very similar (every so slightly) to that of Susan Mendes in the ‘Dalek Empire’ series. It’s not a mirror opposite but I only came to that conclusion after she’s a tiny bit defiant to a Dalek. Despite a brief line at the very beginning its 10 minutes before the Doctor appears again. Pretty soon he has been turned into a roboman which even though its implied on the cover, I didn’t think would happen. It’s 30 minutes before the Doctor and Liv are reunited and its not a normal welcome as it was the seventh Doctor. It’s always good to see how a different Doctor interacts with a past character/companion and it works just as good as the sixth Doctor and Charley.
Despite only having of an hour and six minutes running time (the longest of the four), the first part of this story moves along at quite a quick pace. I never felt like the story was waiting for something big to happen and that was the result with the rest of the release as the whole thing moved at either a good casual pace or breakneck speed. A no time during the entire four hours and thirteen minutes did I find myself bored or disinterested. I might have been confused but it doesn’t take much to confuse these days.

It’s quite interesting that they don’t bring Molly back until the second episode. The White Room has an interesting opening two or three minutes. What starts off as interesting soon turns to puzzlement about ten minutes later when I am a little confused as to what is going on but that confusing state doesn’t last for long as there are more references to the white room. There’s something that doesn’t quite sit right with me about the character of Molly and I thought that Liv worked better with the Doctor than Molly. Though in the third part they do work quite well together.

The next familiar thing to pop up are the Viyrans who appeared between 2008-2009 largely in the Sixth Doctor and Charley stories. I have always liked the Viyrans and was delighted that they were bought back and genuinely didn’t know that they were going to be in this.

I felt like as the story progressed the tension and drama was really being cranked up to 11 and the end of the ‘episode’ is the best ending that we had until this point as Alex McQueen makes a brilliant return. He was easily one of the best things about UNIT: Dominion and it was one of the main reasons why I pre-ordered Dark Eyes 2. The final episode is where the Master and the Doctor finally get to meet and their first scene is one of the highlights of the entire story. I must admit that being a bit thick, I didn’t realise that it was McQueen at first until the very last moment of Time’s Horizons. Alex McQueen is chewing up the furniture and if I did have a critiscm of this series it would be that he didn’t feature more in it. When you’ve got a great piece of casting such as McQueen playing the Master in the way that he does, I would want more of him.

Paul McGann is simply superb from start to finish. He really has found a new lease of life since he left the main range and went off on his own. Since the Lucie Miller/To The Death epic end to series four of the Eighth Doctor adventures, McGann’s Doctor has taken on a new slant and very much like Eccleston’s Doctor. McGann hasn’t won the Best Doctor category at the Toms Tardis Awards since 2011 but I suspect that he could (and perhaps should win it this year).

The final scene between the Doctor, Liv and Molly is a nice lovely scene and felt like the best way that these three should depart. It would have ruined the whole thing if it had just been a quick goodbye but they gave some time to it and it then led into the Doctor’s final scene where he interacts briefly with a soldier before leaving almost immediately. The appearance of Frank Skinner is a total surprise (shows I didn’t pay too much attention to the cast list on the Big Finish website). At first I thought it was him and then doubted myself but its unmistakably him and its just a nice surprise to end the release.

I think that this is a stronger series than the first and that’s due to the fact that we have had different writers but also the fact that we know there will be a Dark Eyes 3 (out in November 2014) and a Dark Eyes 4 which means that we will be getting more Eighth Doctor adventures pretty soon. I have liked how varied the entire series has been and how they took a gamble structuring the series like they did but I have to say that it’s a gamble that paid off big time and easily my favourite release of 2014 so far.

Antidote to Oblivion (2014)

The first story from the main range of 2014 is one that I was looking forward to for several reasons. The first is that it is written by Phillip Martin who wrote the 1985 adventure ‘Vengeance on Varos’ and also has also written a couple of stories for Big Finish over the years. Another reason was that it sees the return of Nabil Shaban who plays Sil. The third reason is that it sees the return of the partnership of the Doctor and Flip Jackson. Flip last appeared in Wirrn Isle back in March 2012 and I was worried that we wouldn’t hear from Flip again. I think that the character of Flip is a strong one and Lisa Greenwood has been a sound piece of casting. Anyway, the story sees the Doctor and Flip leave their holiday (isn’t it terrible when that happens!!) and arrive on Earth where Britain is pretty much bankrupt. I can see that there are parallels to whats going on in the real world. It’s the sort of thing that Barry Letts would have done and whilst I was aware that this was what Philip Martin was doing, I didn’t mind it and thought that it was well done.

I like the idea that they have contaminated the water so that the residents don’t see how depressing things are. The moment when they do see whats going on, it’s comes at just the right time and helps speed things along. The wrap up of the story is rather good and done well. I was glad that Sil got away and thought that the sneeze at the very end was quite amusing and whilst it might indicate that he’s got the black death it also suggest that he will return. There was a moment when towards the end the Doctor seemed to have to go on a quest to destroy the Black Death and no sooner was this raised than it ceased to be a problem and I was glad because I would have felt that this was a plot extension too far but it ended at just the right time and in the right way.

I like how they have created some links to the part of ‘The Trial of a Timelord’ that featured Crozier. Here we get his daughter who for quite obvious reason has some resentment towards the Doctor although like most characters in dramas, has a change of heart when she hears the truth. I thought that it was a great performance from Dawn Murphy and she was more than a match at times for Nabil Shaban. I could literally hear Shaban all day and not get bored. One of the things that I enjoyed about this story was that we got a lot of Sil. I think that Sil is a great character and that little laugh that he does is just as good as Frazer Hines’ impression of Patrick Troughton. I hope we get more adventures from Shaban because it would be a great source of entertainment.

I really enjoyed every aspect of this story. It’s a great combination with a great plot and it’s a strong start to the year. I thought that the main performances were solid and also the supporting characters were just as strong. I would be surprised if it weren’t in my top 5 stories in the main range. A strong start to the year and also the series of the Sixth Doctor and Flip.