The Last Adventure: The Red House (2015)

The second part of the story is simply where the Doctor and Charley land on a planet of werewolves which is a wonderful idea and the twist of them turning into humans when sunlight hits them is a nice one.

This story sees Charley Pollard reunite with the Sixth Doctor although this takes place during the original 2008/2009 series where the Sixth Doctor is trying to figure Charley out and Charley is trying to keep what she knows secret but letting bits and bobs out every so often. After enjoying the new combination of the Doctor and Constance, it was nice to back to a relatively recent combination of the Doctor and Charley. The frustration with the 2008/2009 series was that it was inevitable that it would at some point come to an end and that the sixth Doctor wouldn’t remember travelling with Charley. So this story gives us another opportunity to team these two up and not really worry about how things are going to get tied up at the end. Whilst listening to this story it does feel like it could have been pulled out of that period in the main range because both Colin Baker and India Fisher (winner of Best Companion at the Tomstardis Awards) act like this was recorded in 2009 not 2015.

This story does have a different feel to it compared to End of the Line because this one isn’t anywhere near as atmospheric but that’s ok because the story itself is good enough that I could live without it. Alan Barnes created Charley Pollard back in 2001 so its nice that he was given the chance to write her story for this adventure. The thing about Alan Barnes stories is that sometimes they are easy to follow and sometimes they are very difficult to follow and in the case of Brotherhood of the Daleks, they are neigh-on-impossible to follow. Thankfully I can report that this story falls in the first category.

Charley is the subject of an experiment which seems in keeping with what happened to Peri in Vengeance on Varos and yet she is saved by the Porter who says that her death would have drastic effects on the timeline. It’s weird but wonderful that the Valeyard is taking this much interest in the Doctor’s wellbeing. It’s clear that he is up to something but that will become clear in one of the two final stories but here and now it just adds to the story and I think that was a nice aspect of the story.

The Porter is of course Michael Jayston as the Valeyard and thankfully the charade of this mystery isn’t kept going for very long and it’s great that the Jayston is in this story much more than he was in the previous story. He tells Charley quite a lot about what is going on and how the Doctor is about to make a huge mistake. Quite frankly Jayston could have been talking about the weather and he would make it sound exciting and so the explanation for what was going on was always going to be good because Jayston would make it sound good. #

I don’t think that this story is quite as good as End of the Line. There are things to enjoy and I was far from bored during the course of this release although my frustrations about how the audiobook download for this boxset has been releaed. That said the story itself was another wonderful addition to this boxset  and the next story sees the reunion of the Sixth Doctor with Professor Litefoot and Henry Gordon Jago. Corks!

Last of the Cybermen (2015)

There are certain words that immediately raise expectations when you include them in a title and Cybermen is one of them. This story sees the Sixth Doctor reunite with Jamie and Zoe and so perhaps the dynamic of this story isn’t quite a surprise as in the previous story. The Sixth Doctor, Jamie and Zoe all appeared in the 2010 Legend of the Cybermen which was one that I wasn’t a huge fan of but I did have expectations when pressing play on my generic MP3 player. Like The Defectors, the action in this story starts off pretty much straight away. Very little time is wasted in trying to shoehorn Colin Baker into the story and unlike Jo Grant, both Jamie and Zoe seem more willing to accept the situation they find themselves in.

The first two thirds of the story seem like your normal Doctor Who story but it’s the final third that is interesting and the one that makes it feel like it’s trying to be a story in its own right instead of just being part of a celebration or story arc. I thought that having Zoe as the Cyber Planner was a nice move and was similar in making Tegan the sacrifice in The Entropy Plague. I thought that both Frazer Hines (2010 Toms Tardis Award Winner for Best Companion) was on fine form and Wendy Padbury was also on fine form and in particular when she was the Cyber Planner. This was a good story for Colin Baker and its rare to have Colin Baker on anything less than fine form but he seemed to be having fun in his new surroundings. Lucy Liemann was the best of the supporting cast as Zennox although there was something good about the performances of the other cast members.

I wanted this story to be as good as other Cybermen stories and better than The Defectors and one of those desires was met. It isn’t the greatest Cyberman story but neither is it the worst. I was listening to Sword of Orion recently and it impressed me how despite being 14 years old is still a cracking good story and I don’t know whether the same will be said in 2029 about this story. The only thing that hasn’t been addressed in this story and it’s the question of what or who is causing the Doctor’s to find themselves in unusual situations. Nothing is even mentioned about this and its something that I think could have been sneaked in somewhere.

Rating

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.

White Ghosts (2014)

The second story in this third series is an Alan Barnes story which in the past has tended to mean that its going to be something that requires the listener to pay close (very close) attention and if you don’t do that then you might lose something. I always think about Brotherhood of the Daleks which is the most baffling story that Big Finish has ever produced.

At the end of the previous story there was a bit of a row between the Doctor and Leela due to her actions and there is still a bit of a frosty atmosphere but the Doctor seems to be less bothered than Lela. The Doctor has forgiven Leela for what she did and it’s nice that they have settled the fallout from that story and the Doctor is happy to place the blame for her behaviour at the Timelords which might be a bit of a cop-out but I think that it was a nice quick way of getting over it and in a satisfactory manner.
 
Virginia Hey is the big name in this. I say big name but I must admit that I don’t know who she is. A little look on Wikipedia sheds some light and shows that she was in Farscape, Mussolini: The Untold Story and also most impressively was in a Bond film (The Living Daylights). I thought that her performance was perfectly fine, its not the greatest performance ever but I thought it was played perfectly for what the story was and Virginia Hey has done well.

Tom Baker and Louise Jameson are really good in this and it feels like the relationship has developed far more in the short time that these two have been together than they ever did when they were on TV. That might have more to do with the fact that they didn’t get on so well when they were on TV and now they are much better with each other. Also Leela has been written for in a better way so that the Doctor treats Leela differently and this has meant that we got what we did in the previous story and this continues here.

Even though the second half is longer than the first I must admit that the whole thing flew by and that was surprising. The first episode moved along at quite a good pace and the story was perfectly fine. I think the fact that that the story has a shorter running time than a monthly range adventure meant that Alan Barnes doesn’t have the time to tell a more complex story which is probably a good thing but that might be slightly unfair as Barnes has written standard stories in the past.

I think that this series is different to the first Leela series and that’s a good thing. The big selling point in the trailer for the first series was to suggest that it was going to feel like Saturday tea-time in 1977 and there were aspects of this story which felt like I had an idea of what this was like some six years before I was even born.

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????

Daleks Among Us (2013)

The final part of the Seventh Doctor series picks up from the great cliffhanger in Starlight Robbery. The way that Starlight Robbery ended brilliantly and set this story up well and what Daleks Among Us had to do was to satisfy that ending and finish the series of satisfactorily. This story has been written by Alan Barnes who does have a track record of writing stories that do require you to pay attention. This isn’t a bad thing because its good to have people who try and make you think differently whilst enjoying a Doctor Who story. His 2008 adventure ‘Brotherhood of the Daleks’ is one of the most baffling stories that I have ever listened to and it’s still fun to try and listen to. There is no reprise from the previous story and instead we get a nice gentle scene which eventually sees the first appearance of the Daleks. Klein seems somewhat unimpressed when the Doctor and Will appear.

The continuity seems somewhat confused to me as I thought that the Klein stories take place after Ace and Hex but it appears that the Dalek doesn’t recognise the Doctor which implies this takes place before Remembrance of the Daleks. The was a nice Counter Measures reference  in this episode as they are about to make an appearance in the future 1963 Seventh Doctor adventure. There is also a nice Ace reference which I always approve of. The title is worked into the story after 27 minutes and it was at this moment that it was clear that the episodes are longer than normal.

Things were moving along quite well and then Terry Molloy turned up. I love it when I am blown away by something that I wasn’t expecting. It’s such a rare thing nowadays and even though it’s a Daleks story it doesn’t make Davros’ involvement in the story any less of a surprise. I like how Davros would rather Will didn’t tell the Doctor about him. From the moment Davros appears I was counting down until the Doctor and Davros meet. When they do meet it’s a great scene and both Sylvester McCoy and Terry Molloy work so well together but Molloy could work with anyone. Cliffhanger number two sees Klein reunited with her father. Another surprising ending. I love how they have progressed with Klein’s story in these stories and think that Tracey Childs has made it work.

I found myself wondering by the halfway mark that either the episodes are getting quicker and quicker or I am enjoying it. Even though the episodes are longer than normal it still feels like their running time is like a regular. After Davros was used brilliantly in ‘The Curse of Davros’, it was nice that they tried to do something different with him here and he is used differently but more importantly in a way I like.

As the third part was playing I must admit that I did start to get a bit confused as to what was happening but I was involved enough in the story to just go along with it. Compared with Night of the Whisper I enjoyed this story enough to stick with it. The fourth episode continues this slight confusion but again the story was moving along at such a fast pace that I still found myself enjoying it. There is a nice reference to the scene in Genesis of the Daleks when the Doctor tells Davros all of the Daleks victories.

I have been impressed with both Klein and Will in these stories and think that this duo is a nice one that we can go to because when they continuously use Ace and Hex it can feel like its getting a bit repetitive but now they have Klein and Will and they work just as well. I thought that the stuff I understood about this story was brilliant and there were some things in it that genuinely had me on the edge of my seat. Though due to me some of this story because confusing to understand, I still enjoyed thought that it was the end to another great Seventh Doctor series. I thought that the characters were solid and they were given some good dialogue. Ken Bentley rarely gets a mention in my reviews (to my shame) and I will put that right because he has directed three great stories and has managed to make this confusing plot work for everyone.

Enemy Aliens (2013)

  This release is something of a historic release. It's the first time that a Big Finish companion has been used in wha is effectively a non-big finish adventure. it's the only time this will happen and its more to do with the fact that his number companions is low and the two characters that they could use are unavailable so out comes Charlotte Louise Pollard as played by India Fisher who's last adventure was a couple of years ago.

I'm going to come out with it straight away and say that I reall enjoyed this adventure. From start to finish the story was highly enjoyable and what sold this adventure to me wasn't necessarily India Fisher though I will get onto that shortly. It was the actual story which I found quite charming and I liked how it uses the title in quite a clever way. When you read the word aliens you imagine aliens in the traditional sense but actually it means aliens in the international sense. 

There a several good moments throughout this release. The first of them and the one that made me instantly like this story was the death on stage and how it leads Charley to be accused of murder. There something of the 39 steps about this story which isn't a bad thing just an observation. Then Charley fleeing to Scotland manages to make me feel that this could have worked as a full cast adventure for the main Big Finish range.

India Fisher is very good in this, actually let me correct that and say she is superb. Anyone who watches MasterChef will be familiar with her voice and whether its telling us what some wannabe chef has cooked up or whether Charley is talking about the latest peril, Fisher delivers the lines brilliantly and with the same amount of enthusiasm. If this is the first time that you are encountering Charley then you don't need to have heard any of her adventures with the sixth and eighth doctors.

The story does start to run a bit out of steam towards the very end but I enjoyed it so much that I didn't mind it so much. With a running time of around an hour it zips along at quite a good pace and its easily the best of the range which when you consider how good and consistently good the stories have been then it shows you how good this release is. As the range is coming towards the end its probably the best time to say that this series has been a pleasant surprise because even though Big Finish have produced it, there was a possibility that with AudioGo being involved that it was going to fall flat and just not work but I'm happy to say that the series has workedn and in the shows 50th Anniversay that is a massive relief.

Gods and Monsters (2012)

So it comes down to this. The seventh Doctor series comes to a close with Gods and Monsters which sees the return of Fenric who the Doctor had encountered in 1989. Big Finish have a good track record when it comes to bringing back monsters who appeared in Doctor Who once. They did it with the Spiders from Planet of the Spiders, the Zygons in Terror of the Zygons just two that I could mention. This story has a lot to live up to and not just because it’s the final story of the series but because of the links to stories going back as far as 2009. This isn’t a story that you could just dive into because you would need to start really with Toms Tardis Award winner The Magic Mousetrap. With this story having so much to live up to it has taken two people to write this adventure.  As Alan Barnes and Mike Maddox work hard to tie up all the loose ends, the story is a fairly complex one (which I expected). The setting jumps from different location to different location and it all seems to be part of Fenric’s game with the Doctor but it is only quite late on that we discover that the game isn’t Fenric vs. the Doctor but Fenric vs. Weyland. I personally found this a slight disappointment as it kind of goes against what happened in ‘The Curse of Fenric’ but one thing about this story is that there isn’t any time to ponder on these thing as it moves so quickly. The ending of Gods and Monsters came totally out of the blue and what made it even more shocking was Ace’s reaction which used the underlying chemistry between Ace and Hex to excellent effect.

All the performances in this story were solid and they rose to the occasion. This is Sylvester McCoys best story purely because it’s the most that we have heard from him this year. Every scene he was in was fun to listen the dialogue he was given was great. McCoy is at this best when he has someone like Fenric to be against because the Doctor has to really test his nerve and intelligence. Sophie Aldred put in another great performance where I one scene we discover that Ray from Delta and the Bannermen could have been a companion instead of Ace. Aldred was quite involved in The Curse of Fenric so it was always going to be the case that Ace was going to be used in the way she was here. Philip Olivier seemed to be the one that got the short straw as he was treated like the small child that the big brother or sister has been asked to babysit. It was only in part four that he really got to get stuck into the meaty part of the story. Due to the plot, this allows Olivier to give his best performance in quite some time. As the other ‘companions’, Maggie O’Neill and Amy Pemberton give very strong performances. Despite being part of a very crowded TARDIS crew, both managed to show that they weren’t making up the numbers and made the characters seem just as important as Ace and Hex and despite the relatively limited time that they have been part of the Doctor Who world is quite an achievement. Hopefully it won’t be too long before they return.

Gods and Monsters is everything that it should have been and it was a relief because there was a big chance that it could have totally blown it. I still maintain that Protect and Survive is the best story of the series but that doesn’t mean that G&M doesn’t have its own merits. This was the sort of story that you would expect from Alan Barnes but I get the feeling that Mike Maddox might have helped make it more understandable. The final scene with Hex hints that he may return and if that’s the case then it will make the next Seventh Doctor adventure something to look forward to.

Rating - 7/10

The Oseidon Adventure (2012)

It’s fair to say that The Trail of the White Worm was a set up episode but as set-up episodes go it was pretty darn good. That episode was all about the Master but in this final story of the series we see the return of the Kraal who last appeared in the 1975 adventure ‘The Android Invasion’. The revelation was somewhat ruined by the fact that they appear on the cover. This story has a lot to live up to as it’s the end of a very strong series but sadly for me it doesn’t hit the mark and falls somewhat short.

Quite quickly the Master seems to be losing his influence whereas in Spindleton’s fortunes seem to change once the Kraals appear. Spindleton has some hopes of what he gets out of this venture and it isn’t global domination but just to have Britain all to himself before it stopped being the empire leader that it was.  I thought that there were several interesting scenes that were dotted throughout this story. The first was where Leela wants to put the Master inside the TARDIS might seem a bit stupid given the past (and future these two have) but it is done with honourable intentions.

We have a Doctor that has been copied which is similar to what happened in ‘The Android Invasion’ where Sarah Jane Smith was the one being copied. However he’s not the only one that gets copied as we also get a false Master. I had a  horrible fear that this was going to descend into try to figure out who was who and this would get in the way of the story but thankfully this confusion was kept to a minimum.

The worst thing about this story was the terrible cliff-hanger is the wrong word. It’s like it was put in there by mistake as there is no real build up and no real sense of drama and at the return of episode two really confirmed this for me. I can’t help think that the story would have been better served by either coming up with a stronger cliff-hanger or not having one at all because I think that this was very weak way to end the episode.

There was a nice amount of humour in this story and most of it was from Tom Baker. There was a nice running gag about the Brigadier. In my review of TOTWW, I commented that knowing we weren’t going to get Nicholas Courtney in this story was a sad thought and whilst that’s still the case I liked how in the brief moment where they mentioned him they said that the Brigadier was in Canada. Makes a change from Peru or on the moon I suppose. On the subject of Tom Baker, I thought that like every story in this series he puts in a solid performance. The story allows for some of his Doctor’s humour to shine but I like the partnership between him and Louise Jameson as it seemed very real in this story and Louise Jameson put in a solid performance and has had a very good year as Leela. I thought that supporting cast was very good. I enjoyed Geoffrey Beevers in both these episodes. I thought that in this one there were several lines that he delivered where he seemed to be having a whale of a time being the Master again. Whilst I don’t think that the Master was as effective in this story as he was in the last one, I still think the Beevers is a brilliant Master. I thought that Michael Cochrane was better in this story as Spindleton’s motives were laid out which showed why we should be bothered about his character.

Ultimately this is not as good as I thought it should be and as good as the series demands its should be. It’s not the worst story of the series but it’s a far cry from The Wrath of the Iceni. This entire series had a lot of expectations from me and my main worry was having listened to the Tom Baker stories that he had done for AudioGo and not being impressed with them at all, I was worried that this was going to be the case in this series however pretty quickly it wasn’t the case. Even the weakest stories haven’t been as bad as those stories and it’s a testimant to Big Finish that have found six scripts that have managed to recreate the Fourth Doctor that we all want and more importantly give Tom Baker the scripts that he ideally wants to help show a modern audience what the Fourth Doctor is like.

Trail of the White Worm (2012)

Trail of the White Worm is the most eagerly anticipated releases from this series because it sees the return of the Master who before TOTWW had only appeared twice in Doctor Who Big Finish stories. The first was in 2001’s ‘Dust Breeding’ and in the superb 2003 ‘Master’. The problem with things that are anticipated is that the anticipator can build their expectations up too much and thus be disappointed. It’s difficult to give a proper review of the story until the next part comes out. The story sees the Doctor and Leela arrive in 1979 where the town they arrive in are looking for a missing girl. The worm of the title was designed to create worm holes. The worm fell to earth during Roman times and eventually was discovered by the Master who was using it for his sinister purpose.

The story is littered with very brief moments of comedy which don’t ruin the flow of the story and does seem to suit the style of the story. The scene where the Doctor and Leela are talking to the worm inside the worm’s stomach is the sort of mad and seems to only have come from someone with the sort of mind that Alan Barnes has.  Another moment is when Leela keeps getting called Pan’s People which is the name of dancers that appeared on the BBC Music show ‘Top of the Pops’ during the 1960’s to 70’s. This is funny because of how she is dressed and that Pan’s People were often called ‘one for the dads’ which is how I have heard Leela referred to over the years so the reference does work.

One of the reasons why I was looking forward to this story was because Geoffrey Beevers was going to reprise his role of the Master. It’s a crime that the Master hasn’t been used more often than he has Beevers is truly fantastic and I emphasise the word fantastic. Beevers sounds like a really nice man and yet he can pull of being evil so well. The Master is held back long enough in this story so that when he does make his appearance its much appreciated. Beevers has some great scenes especially with Tom Baker and it reminds me of the scenes they had together in ‘The Keeper of Traken’. These are two great actors and whilst they didn’t have their big scene it seems that its only a matter of time. Another familiar name that has appeared in Doctor Who and Big Finish in the past is that of Michael Cochrane who last appeared in ‘Brotherhood of the Daleks’ in 2008 which was an Alan Barnes piece and one that I found baffling. He plays Colonel Spindleton who is a quite eccentric posh figure who I could quite easily see on his country estate riding a sheep but the great thing about Cochrane’s performance is that it blinds you to what the truth behind his character is and that is he is working for the Master. When this is revealed Cochrane twists the way he plays the character to be that of a lackey.

There is a bit where the Doctor mentions the Brigadier. Now if this story had been recorded two years ago then there would have been the very real possibility of Nicholas Courtney making an appearance. However as we know he is no longer with us it just reminds me how sad it is that Courtney is not around. The identity of the creatures that the Master has helped through the worm hole is not mentioned however the identity was somewhat spoiled when you have seen the cover for the next story. If you haven’t seen that then I wont mention however it’s a good revelation and hopefully the next adventure looks like we will get the pay off that this story has set up. It’s not easy to say whether I was disappointed with this release because it will be depend on the next adventure but what I will say is that I am encouraged by this release.

Panacea (2006)

The final story of the third series is was what I was hoping would be a fitting end to a superb series. It’s felt like a long series and that is due to the large amount of things that have been going on our the previous five releases. We’ve had civil war, elections, return of familiar voices and the best is yet to come. It falls to Alan Barnes to find a fitting end to the fourteenth chapter. I liked the opening scene because it starts with Romana returning to her ancestral home of Heartshaven. I don’t know whether this was common knowledge but this was the first time that I had heard this name so it was nice to have a bit of information about the former President. The Matthias era is clearly one that isnt going to be as strongly lead as at one point he expects people to collect a certain amount of pig-rats. It’s the sort of bad management that is common place in real life.

The Free Time virus which with all the political fighting over the last few stories I had forgotten all about sees the introduction of Arkadian (Hugo Myatt), who will sell a cure to the virus and the price is one that is massive and that is the temporal weaponry of Gallifrey which will no doubtibly go to some dubious third party. Matthias is on a hiding to nothing because if he does nothing then the Timelord race will be infected and zombified. However if he agrees then Timelords will survive but will never be able to regenerate.

There’s an interesting message that appears when Braxiatel tells everyone that there is a threat coming to Gallifrey and only the Imperiatrix would have helped Gallifrey get through. It’s a ‘You didn’t know when you were better off!’. Braxiatel has managed to steal the Biodata archive creating a sort of Ark to preserve the Timelords. It’s clever thing to do because the Free Time virus is consuming more Timelords. The ending is a tad bit unexpected because I was sort of expecting an ending that would satisfactorly tie up the loose ends but in fact it ends with this line

“Right. What we’re going to do is…..”

The performances are as usual perfect. The dialogue is good enough that everyone gets their moment to shine and it due to this that the story doesn’t feel like 79 minutes but more like 30 minutes. Hugo Myatt does a good job of joining the party late and gives a great performance as a snidy Arkadian. Stephen Perring is still very good as the bumbling President.

This was the last Gallifrey story for nearly five years and with the knowledge that there are more stories this ending has a far more satisfactory ending than I would have had twelve months ago. I think that had this been the last story then I would have been disappointed because it’s clear that they leaving it open for something different and this ending whilst good with series four on my iPod would have been lacking a satisfactory ending without it.

Heroes of Sontar (2011)

Over the last few years, Big Finish has treated us to old monsters who perhaps didn’t hit the mark as well as the Daleks or Cybermen. We’ve had the Ice Warriors, Zygons, the Spiders, Autons and now the Sontarans. It’s really surprising how long it’s taken Big Finish to get round bringing them back considering they appeared in several stories since their debut in 1973. This story was a substitute because Alan Barnes (author) wanted to do a Winston Churchill story but was told by Cardiff that he couldn’t because he would appear on TV.

Set on the planet of Samur, the Doctor and his band of merry men (and women) arrive to find the planet covered in a purple moss and it infects Nyssa and part of the story is about finding the cure to stop it killing her. The main plot is about the Sontarans and we meet seven of them and it’s clear they are not normal Sontarans but we learn that there is a curse which can only be lifted when seven souls have been sacrificed. It’s a different story that I wasn’t expecting when I heard that the Sontarans would be making their debut for Big Finish.

I thought all the regulars were very good. In particular I was impressed with Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson. I thought that they both had some of the funniest lines and in particular Strickson going on his holding flying with speech. Fielding was on fiery form with her Napoleon digs at the Sontarans. The mere fact that Tegan wasn’t scared of them was the right move by Alan Barnes.

There was one thing that I wasn’t so keen on and that was that Nyssa didn’t have much to do for large chunks of this story and this is something that became a problem on TV and did show itself in the previous series. Thankfully it wasn’t a massive problem because the story itself is very good an.

There are more things that I liked about this such as the mentions of the Rutans (previously appeared in Castle of Fear) and this makes another reference to their war. However I found the moment when Nyssa fears that she is about to die she makes a revelation about the Doctor’s future that she can’t let him find anything about. This refers to the 2007 story Circular Time and the winter part of that story. I wasn’t expecting that because I thought it was so long ago that it ceased to really have any importance to the Doctor’s timeline. That said it was well written into the story.

The Sontarans that we got to begin with are not the brightest bunch. Now normally I would get really irate about this but on this occasion I found it hilarious and that’s what I like about it. It’s clear that there is something not right because they make mistakes like leaving orders somewhere else and not sounding particularly bright. It would have been so easy to have a Sontaran versus Rutan battle but hopefully that wont come round just yet but what they did to add a bit more drama to was the introduction of the Witch Guard who are extremely miffed with the Sontarans and are powerful enough to be able to put a curse on them and at times occupy someone’s body.

Heroes of Sontar is a fun story that doesn’t take itself too seriously but doest go the full hog and does retain a certain amount of drama. Big Finish’s track record of bringing back characters from the classic era is getting stronger every time they try. Hopefully it won’t be long before we get another Sontaran story. It’s another cracking start to this Fifth Doctor/Nyssa/Tegan and Turlough series and shows no sign of waning.

A Blind Eye (2004)

I had high hopes for this final story of the first series of Gallifrey, the series so far. Written by Alan Barnes ‘A Blind Eye’ had a lot to live up to, tell a good story but compliment the other stories from the first series. When listening to the trailer at the end of ‘The Inquiry’ I thought that the story would feature Charley but instead we get Cecilia Pollard who is Charley’s sister who is a fascist sympathiser. The story is the first (and to date only) story to be set on Earth and it’s an interesting tale which for some reason doesn’t quite fit in with the other stories. It’s about (as the title suggests) turning a blind eye. At the beginning, Romana is asked to turn a Blind eye to what Arkadian is planning on doing. There is also a mention of the events of ‘Neverland’ (2003) where Romana turns a Blind Eye and this theme carries on.

The story is set largely on a train and is a different type of my favourite story setting. The isolated setting is always a fantastic way of telling a story because it gives that theatre play feel which means that the focus can be put on the acting and what’s going on instead of remembering where people are and wasting time in journeys toeing and froing.

This episode does a great job of dealing with the Andred disappearance story-arc. It wasn’t what I was expecting but oddly it was believable and I think that it enabled Louise Jameson to put in some of her finest acting in this series so far. I also thought that Lalla Ward put in a good performance but was in this case outshone by Louise Jameson. The supporting cast do a great job with India Fisher being the biggest name. At the time she was putting in strong performances as Charley and as Cecilia Pollard she is also very good but it is hard to like her as much due to her views on the Nazi’s. Hugo Myatt is for me a massive name because I am massive fan of the Children’s show Knightmare that aired on ITV1 from 1987 to 1994 (he played Treguard). I thought as Arkadian he was very good and the character was funny and entertaining. Susan Engel (Ms Joy) was another character that was livened up the story. The ‘regulars’ such as Narvin (Sean Carlsen) and Braxiatel (Miles Richardson) also work well in this story. In fact there isn’t a dud performance at all.

The final scene is very sad. Cecelia is writing a letter to a sister that we know is travelling in time and will never read it. The last sound that we hear is a gun which signals that Cecelia has killed herself like we are told earlier. This story isn’t the final story that I was hoping for but that’s not to say it’s a bad story. I think that all the performances are all very good and it’s a nice end to this first series. I think that so far the Gallifrey series has been everything that I would expect with strong performances in every single story. Now onwards with series two.

Weapon of Choice (2004)

With the imminent arrival of the Fourth series of Gallifrey, I have decided to listen to the first three series that I bought at a sale but for some reason I have never listened to (apart from this one years ago). Gallifrey has been an intriguing place ever since we learnt about it and over the years the Timelords have been portrayed as a rather snobbish yet powerful race. Nothing has really come close in my opinion to seeing what makes the Timelords tick and what happens to them on a daily basis. Now (or in 2004), Big Finish have addressed the balance with Lalla Ward as President Romana, Louise Jameson as Leela and John Leeson as K-9.The series is set sometime after The Invasion of Time where Leela chose to stay on Gallifrey for spurious reasons. Romana is now President after leaving in Warriors Gate where she was in E-Space. Leela’s love interest in Invasion of Time has gone missing presumed dead and there is an interesting moment where Romana says she can’t rely on the Doctor to help out.

The opening story sees Leela travel to investigate claims that a terrorist group called ‘Free Time’ have acquired a terrible and powerful weapon called a Timonic Fusion Device. The story sees President Romana send Leela to seek it. The thing I like about this opening story is that its how the Timelords are trying to form an alliance. It’s always nice to see how Gallifrey works when the Doctor doesn’t arrive. With the Doctor not around to swoop in and save the day there is a possibility of things going belly up.

Lalla Ward is very impressive as the President. Of the two Romana’s I always found Ward’s version to be the strongest. As the President she is believable as she has that air of authority about her. She isn’t afraid to get down and dirty but delegate the least enjoyable jobs to other people when it was needed. Louise Jameson also puts in a great performance as Leela. Having decided to stay on Gallifrey it was nice to see what the character would be up to and it turns out, not a lot. That said the events of this story changes that but I think that Louise has done a good job in making Leela sound more or less exactly the same as she did in 1978. A mention should also go to John Leeson as K9, I may not like K9 but I kept an open mind and found the character to be quite enjoyable. Of the other characters it was good to have Lynda Bellingham back as Inquisitor Darkel, despite her brief appearance it was enjoyable. Miles Richardson was on good form as Cardinal Braxiatel.

It’s not a perfect story. I still don’t know why or how Romana went from being in E-Space to being President of the Timelords. I don’t know whether I missed something but nothing was mentioned in this story. For anyone who is just getting into this and has seen Warriors Gate they will be baffled so it would have been nice to have an explanation. Also there is a few minutes during the middle of the story where it does slightly lose its way. I don’t really get whats going on however it is a brief moment before making sense again. Weapon of Choice as a story is a good story. Alan Barnes has written a story the sets the regular characters up and the ongoing story arc as well as telling a good single stand alone story in the process. A Good start.

Nevermore (2010)

Nevermore is the third story from this fourth series and its written by Alan Barnes which probably explains why even after two listens I understood very little of it. The Doctor and Tamsin arrive on Corinth Minor which is a planet where the rich and powerful lived and after a little war with another planet. The General on the other planet created a bacterial bomb which pretty much wiped out Corinth Minor. It was later renamed Nevermore.

The idea that Nevermore is essentially a prison for Morella Wendigo who created the bomb as somewhere we she can think about what she has done is a good one. It is perhaps what should be done for a lot of criminals. I also get the stuff with the robotic ravens and how the prosecutor created all this stuff based on Edgar Allan Poe but for me after about 20 minutes of Edgar quotes I got bored with it all and wondered just where on earth (or nevermore) this story was going. This was the second story to feature Tamsin as the companion. I don’t really think she shone in the story. There were moments where I thought she was given some snappy dialogue and I definitely see potential in the character that doesn’t make me fear for the series or the character.

There were three big names in this story. The first being Fenella Woolgar who appeared as Agatha Christie in the 2008 TV adventure ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’ and also appeared in the 2009 Eighth Doctor adventure ‘The Company of Friends’. She plays Morella Wendigo and I thought that her American accent was very good. I often get annoyed by American accents and think that they are cheesy and distracting. In this it was pitched just right and if I didn’t know better I would have said she was American. The character of Morella was very good as she was cold but believed what she did was right. There was no remorse about what she had done. Eric Loren was the second big name in this story. He appeared as Mr Diagoras and as Dalek Sec in the 2007 TV adventure Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks and also appeared in the 2008 audio play Assassin in the Limelight. He played the pilot and Edgar Alan Poe. I found his portrayal of Edgar Allan Poe to be very well done. There was sadness about him and that really stood out for me. The third big name was Emilia Fox who played Berenice. She currently stars in the BBC drama Silent Witness. The character of Berenice was very underplayed to begin with but her involvement was quite important and I thought she should have been given a more prominent role in this story or in another.

This is one of the weakest stories of 2010. I thought they over did the Edgar Allan Poe stuff by quite a bit and there was more than enough plot there for Alan Barnes to make a good story. This is what I thought of the story after I finished listening to it the first time, so when I gave it a second listen I was expecting to get it a bit more. However on the second listen I found it just as bad. I’m very reluctant to call anything Big Finish do bad but unfortunately there’s very little for me to actually say good about this.

The Bellova Devil (2010)

After an impressive opening story, the second story is a more complex offering. Not surprising considering its written by Alan Barnes, author of Brotherhood of the Daleks (2008) which is undoubtedly the most complicated story ever heard. Barnes’ stories always tend to be ones that have to be listened to more than once. I decided that if I couldn’t understand that story after the third listen then I should probably stop. I decided to approach this story with an open mind. The story starts off with the curiosity of two dead bodies that are connected, what’s more strange is that one person was declared dead six months previously. The death was reported by Doctor Sucker who clearly was wrong in the first place. In fact what has been going on is that he had been given/taken something which when working creates the impression that the body has died but the individual will wake up several hours later. The story moves to club which at first gives the impression that you can fake your death but you have to stump up a sort of pension. However when Jago and Litefoot arrive at the club and see everyone there it turns out that they are just actors.

There is a B-plot and it is that Jago is trying to hide from the Manchester Mangler who is a debt collector. If only they had done a bit more with this part and not so much with clubs and people giving the impression that their dead. The problem is that whilst The Bloodless Soldier was quite simple and easy to follow. This story is quite the opposite. It’s confusing at times and just when I think I figured out what is going on there is something else that confuses me. There are a lot of scenes where there are long plot explanation scenes and the thing is there are way too many of them. I also found the characters to be particularly plain. Even after a second listen I found this story to be all over the place and a poorer story compared to The Bloodless Soldier.

Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin are very good but are given a mixed up script to work with. Benjamin himself seems to having the time of his life pretending to be a German. Baxter himself also seems a bit more light hearted than previously which is surprising considered he has always been a bit ‘stuffy’. I thought that Lisa Bowerman was very good as Mrs Sofia whilst the character might have been stereotypical, Bowerman gave it slightly more credibility than someone else might have given the role. Duncan Wisbey also gave a good performance as the inebriated Doctor Sacker. His character was probably the best and was at times very funny. I also really enjoyed Stephen Thorne as the Club Screatary. His voice was born for radio and should be used more often.

The Bellova Devil is a disappointing story. After the enjoyment I felt after listening to the last story, my enjoyment for this one was far lower. Hopefully the third adventure will be better.

The Next Life (2004)

The Next Life is the fitting end to the Divergent Universe story arc. Its interesting to see that this storyline is being wrapped up so soon to the return of the TV series. This is a six-part story which is the first time I think that this has been done by Big Finish. Alan Barnes & Gary Russell did an ok job with Zagreus which was the last big story for the Eighth Doctor and I was hoping that they would do better with this offering. The story does boast some familiar names. The first being Daphne Ashbrook who played Grace Holloway from the 1996 TV Movie. It was good that they got her back and also it was nice to have Anneke Wills returning as Lady Louisa Pollard. Also Don Warrington returns as Rassilon and Paul Darrow makes his first journey into Doctor Who. If this doesn’t raise people’s hopes then I don’t know what will.

The story sees the travellers finally get the TARDIS back. Their still in the divergent universe but at least the Doctor has his comfort blanket back. However things aren’t going well. Charley meets her mother again and also the boy that was pretending to be in her debut story (Storm Warning in 2001). C’Rizz meets someone from his past, he meets L’da. Daphne Ashbrook’s character is called Perfection (how appropriate). She effectively becomes the Doctor’s companion. I did think that the role of Perfection was more of a comedy role. The moment when Charley and Perfection meet in episode five was quite entertaining and her moments when she teams up with the Doctor were also enjoyable. It was a well written character and superbly acted by Daphne Ashbrook.

Paul McGann, India Fisher & Conrad Westmaas all give superb performances. They all have different journeys in this story and are all given a fair crack of the whip. Unlike Zagreus (which Conrad Westmaas wasn’t in) the main characters are given some good dialogue and are given intelligent stuff to say. But another big improvement on Zagreus is that the story isn’t overloaded with a load of actors and characters. This meant that all the characters were allowed time to develop.

The thing that I liked about this story is how it’s a slow steady build up for the first five episodes and then the last episode goes at 100mph. I also liked the revelation about what Perfection’s identity is. It was a nice plot twist and that is what sums up this story for me. When the TV series did six episodes or longer then the writers would very often struggle to fill them up but Alan Barnes & Gary Russell have done well to develop the storyline and make characters that are interesting and well acted. It’s the big epic story that I was hoping Zagreus would be.

Neverland (2003)

The final story in the current series is quite possibly the most complex story that Big Finish have ever produced. Which is saying something. The story starts off with a list of events that have occurred on Earth and then it changes to events that have occurred on Gallifrey. They are events that we are aware of as they happened in Big Finish adventures over the last two years. In fact that is what this story is about, ever since Storm Warning we have been made aware that there are consequences of Charley Pollard’s survival in contradiction of the timeline. After a while of listing events the voice starts stuttering which is a very clear sign that things are not right. Over the course of two 75 minute episodes we will hopefully get a satisfactory conclusion.

I loved how this story saw the return of President Romana. Last heard in The Apocalypse Element, its up to Romana to point out that due to the Doctor’s actions the very future of Gallifrey and possibly the universe is at threat. We also get the impression that the infamous Zagreus that has been mentioned in several stories recently is actually more than a nursery rhyme. There is a revelation that Don Warrington’s mysterious character is actually Rassilon. Its at this point being where I found it to be complicated. There’s a lot of big speeches some of which I felt went on a bit too long but it did help to add the massive feel that this story has.

Paul McGann and India Fisher put in lovely performances. The relationship that these two have had as the Doctor and Charley has grown over the last two series and its in this story that its at it most obvious. Fisher does a great dual job as she also plays Sentris which is quite a grim character who has stolen the form of Charley. Fisher does well making the two characters sound different. Lalla Ward is equally brilliant as President Romana. I have always been a big fan of Romana and thought that her explanation of what’s going on was a big help. It made sense of the whole for me. Don Warrington was also another great piece of casting. His voice works very well on radio. I quite liked the idea of the Never-People, they did a great job of adding another reason why Timelords are horrid people.

Neverland was the story that I was hoping it would be. Alan Barnes has just got the right balance between making it fit into the story arc but also making sense as a stand alone story. It’s hard to believe that its been six months since the dreadful Invaders from Mars but thankfully we have had some very good stories in the meantime. Neverland is a great adventure that is a fine end to the series. The only downside is that the ending leaves the listener wanting more. Goodness know how long it will be before the story is resolved.

Zagreus (2003)

Zagreus is the 40th release for Big Finish. It was also released in the same month that Doctor Who celebrated its 40th Anniversary. The Zagreus storyline has been building up for over a year and this was where it would all end. It’s an epic story that sees all four Doctors that have been doing the Big Finish plays since 1999 in one play. This isn’t a multi-doctor story that most would be expecting. Apart from McGann’s Doctor, none of the other actors to play the Doctor play their part. The problem that this story has is that there are way too many people in it. Normally a lot of characters would be played by three or four actors. In this story there are 26 actors playing 28 characters. Even at just under 4 hours long its difficult to understand why they decided to fill it with about 15 actors more than there needed to be.

The first episode is called Wonderland, a curious title. The story starts off quite interestingly by doing a very long recap. In all the years of TV there was never a recap at seven minutes and forty-six second. All the highlights from the previous story Neverland. Seeing as it was over a year before this story was released I can see why it was best to put it in but if you listen to these in quick succession it might be a bit pointless. Anyway that said the idea of a recap is quite different. When the action starts up again, there is an explosion in the TARDIS and when Charley wakes up she finds herself in Harley street with her mother Lady Louisa Pollard. Charley is being taken to see Dr Zagreus but meets a person that she recognises as the Brigadier. She knows something is not right as her mother has turned into a rabbit. This clearly isn’t a normal Doctor Who story. The Doctor is having problems of his own as he is trying to fight Zagreus and hears the voice of his third incarnation. This is a brilliant thing and one reason why I would happily listen to this story. The voice is that of Jon Pertwee but the recordings were used from a fan made movie. To be able to do that and make it fit into this story is quite a feat that is pulled of brilliantly.

When the story returns to Charley we meet more people from her life. Obviously there is her mother but we meet her teacher Miss Lime who is brilliantly played by Elisabeth Sladen. The first of the other Doctors is Peter Davison as Reverend Townsend. Nicola Bryant also puts a nice gentle performance but as the first part came to a close I was starting to wonder whether I was going to go off this one.

The second story is called Heartland. Unfortunately this is where the story starts to fall apart. The story moves to the wilderness of Outer Gallifrey but I was starting to get frustrated with this story very quickly. It was great to hear Colin Baker as Tepesh. Sylvester McCoy (Walton Winkle) was an average character but Maggie Stables’ character was slightly better as The Great Mother. The story does pick up a bit when Romana, Leela and K9 come back into things. Once we get t the cliffhanger I found myself starting to like it. I was regaining some of my lost confidence.

The third and final part is Wasteland and this is the best of the three parts. This is where essentially two years worth of storyline gets concluded. It is pointed out that Tapesh (Baker), Townsend (Davison) and Winkie (McCoy) have traits of the Doctor. This was sort of what I would expect and thankfully I wasn’t disappointed. We also learn that the voice that was talking to the Doctor and Romana in Neverland was as I expected Rassilon. He wants Romana to relinquish the presidency. Don Warrington is absolutely brilliant as Rassilon. His voice is commanding and is one of those that could read the phonebook and it would be worth sitting through.

The ending of the story was just as dramatic. There is a brilliant scene where the Doctor/Zagreus asks Charley to kill him. Knowing that this is the only way that Zagreus could be defeated. Shocking thing was that Charley actually did it. Actually it made some weird kind of sense because she loves him and if it would save the universe then she will do it. Then as the Doctor is dyeing he comes into contact with his previous four incarnations to chant as one and start chanting “I am Zagreus!” Then the Doctor is given a potion by the TARDIS which helps him control the anti-time infection. The Doctor then leaves for the Divergent universe to try and keep the infection at bay.

After an emotional goodbye between the Doctor and Charley we have Charley being a bit sneaky and stowaway on board the TARDIS. Despite the scene where they said goodbye you knew there was no way that they were going to separate. It just helped build up the tension. The final scene sees the Doctor travelling into the heart of the TARDIS library and hears voices of his past selves congratulating him on his success. I thought this was a brilliant way of ending it. But then we are reminded that he is not alone and that the Doctor wont be in the Divergent universe alone.

There are many things to like and dislike about this. The quality of the story changes wildly throughout these three stories. The pacing never got a steady feel to it which was frustrating. The ending was acted out brilliantly and was a fitting ending to nearly 4 hours of drama. The relationship between the Doctor and Charley is going in a new direction which is going to make the next series of adventure interesting. Despite the fact that I thought there were about 15 too many actors in this their involvement was clever. They could have done a thing where they play their characters but then that would have stretched the credibility too far and totally ruined the story.

At the end of the day I think that the 50th release is a bit of a score-draw. There are bits that work and I found to be fine stuff but then there are things that just didn’t work and the duration is one of those. Knock two hours or even an hour and a half and it would have been better. I think that there could have been a better way to celebrate the 50th Release/40th Anniversary. That said, this is what we have and I think everyone should listen to it because its one of those that people will talk about for years to come and it may be the only time that 26 people who appeared over 26 years on the best TV show ever. Its also possibly the only time that Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann will be on the same release again.

Death in Blackpool (2009)

2009 TOMS TARDIS AWARD WINNER

• Best Eighth Doctor Adventure

Death in Blackpool sees the end of Lucie Miller’s time. This story is a Christmas special but there’s little festive cheer to be had anywhere. Like Alan Barnes commented on in the extras. All the soaps are full of misery especially on Christmas Day so that seemed to be his motivation for part of this story. This story is the 25th to feature Lucie Miller since she debuted in Blood of the Daleks on New Years Eve 2006 on the digital radio station BBC7. Since then they have travelled and encountered Morbius, the Eight Legs, Wirrn, Zygon and the Headhunter. This story required something big to be a fitting end to this character.

I have to admit that I was disappointed with this story. I think after everything that the character of Lucie Miller has been through to just get upset and not trust the Doctor was a bit of a kop out on the part of Barnes. I can understand how she was upset about her real Aunt Pat being dead and possibly being a bit annoyed with the Doctor but I think that Lucie’s exit deserved a more dramatic exit. The final scene between the Doctor and Lucie was very good indeed. I think that after everything they have been through together it was important to make sure that it wasn’t negative but heartfelt and as far as I am concerned it achieved both. Despite the betrayal that Lucie felt she was more disappointed with the Doctor than angry.

I thought that the relatively small cast were very good in different ways. The most memorable for me was the role of Father Christmas (played by Jon Glover). The brummie drunk Santa was a nice bit of joy to an otherwise grim story. His Slade ‘It’s Christmas’ was a particular favourite of mine. Helen Lederer who played Aunty Pat has become the Jackie Tyler for Lucie. She’s a nice strong character who like Glover’s character added a bit of humour that was much needed. Then she was able to play the emotional side of Pat brilliantly.

It’s really sad that they have decided to ditch Lucie. I felt that the character was a more tolerable version of Rose. Sheridan Smith always put in a nice strong performance in every story that she has been in and has really developed since she first set foot into the Doctor Who universe. I felt that she had really bonded with the Doctor and her departure is confusing. Hopefully she will pop up in future Eighth Doctor stories. Paul McGann was at his very best in this story. After listening to this story straight after An Earthly Child I felt that this was more suited to the Eighth Doctor’s style. The moment when the Doctor left the hospital wanting to go to the TARDIS but Aunt Pat trying to convince him not to was one of the best moments that the Eighth Doctor has recently been in.

At the end of the day this was a bit of a missed opportunity for Big Finish. Unlike the Charley exit, Lucie’s wasn’t all it could have been. There were certain things that were good but I was expecting a bit more drama than what we got. Lucie Miller, you will be missed.