The Warehouse

The Warehouse is the middle story of this series and after being impressed with We Are The Daleks, I had high hopes for this story. This story has been penned by Mike Tucker who is writing his first story for Big Finish since 2003’s The Draconian Rage for the Benny range and its been 14 years since he wrote a story for the main range when he wrote the superb Dust Breeding back in 2001. The set up is that the Doctor and Mel arrive in the for mentioned Warehouse which at first seems to be a parody of the sort of Warehouses used by Amazon or other big companies with stocktakes being done repeatedly. There is a line in this story which hit home with me when the Doctor says “What about the shops on the high street?, they’ll become something of a novelty” For someone like me who works in retail this is a slice of reality in Doctor Who.

For the second story running, Mel’s computer abilities are used in a story. I recently re-listened to The Juggernauts which is 10 years old and that is another example of Mel being used much better than she was ever used during her time on TV. Bonnie Langford seems to be happy playing Mel which isn’t something that could have been said in the late 1980’s but with the quality of writing that Big Finish has come up with in recent years it means that she can show what the character can do. Sylvester McCoy is also having fun with the story and now that he hasn’t got to deal with dark matters like he did when he was co-starrting with Philip Olivier and Sophie Aldred.

At the end of the day the thing about this story is that it is neither terrible nor great. I don’t think that this story is Tucker’s best because I think Dust Breeding gets that honour. The main cast were fun to listen to and I think that the supporting cast all did their best. However despite the great performances and the good central idea I cant say that I understood this story. It started off well enough and I thought the idea of the warehouse being some sort of source of food/help to people on the planet below was quite good but I just couldn’t get into despite the very good performances. It’s still the case that the middle story in a trilogy series is the weakest but compared to the middle story of the previous trilogy (Equilibrium), this is a slightly better story. I am still impressed with how good Mel has been used in this series and look forward to the Sontarans returning.

The Secret History (2015)

The Secret History is the 200^th release in the main range and is the final story in the Locum Trilogy. I remember when the range reached 100 back in September 2007, I wasn’t totally impressed with it partly because I wasn’t convinced that you could tell a story in 25 minutes and to do it four times would be impossible. Years later I re-listened to it and thought that it was a better story than I gave it credit for. This story sees the Fifth Doctor team up with Vicki and Steven and as they are companions of the first Doctor it seems inevitable that the story is a historical adventure and whilst listening to this story I found myself thinking about the 2001 release The Council of Nicaea which I really like and so the idea of this set up seemed to be the one with the most potential.

The first scene between the Doctor, Vicki and Steven is dealt with quite quickly. This might be because the third time round the novelty is becoming repetitive so there is no need for a long scene about the who’s and why’s. The first part of this story does feel like its going at a casual pace.

The big reveal of this story is that the person that he has behind all of the locum trilogy is the Meddling Monk and I didn’t see this coming although it sort of makes sense when you think about it. The previous two stories have been dummy runs for the Meddling Monk. The Monk is going to try and make the Doctor interfere with events forcing the Timelords to notice and take action against the Doctor. As plans go it’s convoluted to the stage that the Master would be suing for copyright infringement.

The supporting cast are all entertaining enough. Lysette Anthony is quite good as Sophia. Anthony has previously appeared as Clara Harris in Assassin in the Limelight (2008) and as Hazel Bright in Hothouse (2009) and so she shows us on more than one occasion how good she is. Another BF regular is Tony Millan who last appeared in Situation Vacant (2010). His contribution to the story was enough to make his characters memorable. Having Graham Garden back in Doctor Who is always a good thing and he seems to thrive playing the Monk so hopefully it wont be another four years before returning.

As a story it worked out quite well. It was a nice setting that got even better when the Meddling Monk. Peter Davison was on fine form and it was nice to have Peter Purves and Maureen O’Brien involved in a full cast audio even though it could be argued that they get pretty close to this type of story in the early adventures. As the final story in the Locum Trilogy it was the best largely because it actually attempted to answer the questions as to why Doctors were popping up where they should. I can’t say that it was a largely successful trilogy but that is because it had quite a lot to live up to with the set up and the anniversary.

Big Finish has accomplished a lot in 200 releases and sixteen years. The stories have been largely good and some classics like Live 34 and The Chimes of Midnight. Its quite impressive that Big Finish have managed to find 200 stories that could easily work on TV and I look forward to the next 200 releases.

1001 Nights (2012)

Toms Tardis Award Winner - Best Main Range Cover Design

1001 Nights is the last story from the main range release of 2012. The four single episodes is something that Big Finish have done for the last couple of year with Company of Friends (2009), The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories (2010) and Recorded Time and Other Stories (2011). From the cover (designed by Alex Mallinson), the story has an Arabian nights feel to it and it aso have a different feel to previous stories whereas the stories had all been self-contained with not real link, this has a story and short stories in the middle. Also unlike previous stories there is no specific story title with an author attributed to it. No such thing happens here. The story sees the Doctor and Nyssa trying to find a beacon to stop a threat from arriving. Instead of letting the Doctor and Nyssa find it, the Sultan wants Nyssa to tell him stories. The title comes up quite quickly as we are told that someone had to tell 1001 stories to keep someone alive, so Nyssa has to do the same to get the Doctor out.

The first story sees the Doctor and Nyssa arrive where someone is being kept prisoner. He appears to be the only prisoner and there is only one guard. There is a force field protecting the prisoner and at first he seems to be someone quite dangerous but that is short lived when the prisoner says that the jailer is the dangerous one. The prisoner is a Myaxa and is being tortured to confess for something he doesn’t know what he’s done. In a clever twist, the prisoner and the jailer are the same person. The story has a fairly snappy end to it with both the prisoner and jailer being zapped but it doesn’t end glumly. There was a nice ending where the Myaxa (now as one) is left in the force field until its turned off. I quite enjoyed this story, it was short but had a steady and rapid build up to a nice and satisfying conclusion.

The second story is set in Norwood in the 19^th Century where Nyssa is being possessed. It’s basically The Excorist but in the Doctor Who world without any of the gore and horror. It turns out that the thing that is possessing Nyssa is a Crypto Conscious Virus called The interplanterian (not sure of spelling). We didn’t get the power of Christ compels you but we did get the power of Gallifrey compels you’. The word that the Doctor used to get the virus out of Nyssa was Tremas which was a nice link for Nyssa. I thought that when Nyssa and the Doctor left then that would be it but there was a nice twist where it continued  as the interplaneterian has moved to someone else and he is defeated by some special tea. The story itself was rather good and I enjoyed.

The third story sees the Doctor and Nyssa arrive at a coastal town where they go to a pub where they seemed to be obsessed with telling stories. It seems that the locals of the pub are quiet what they seem. We learn there is a planet of tales and a planet of jokes. The mere idea is wonderful. The locals are all after the Doctor’s tales and we think that he had been drugged and they seem to be wanting to download his tales. The story ends with the locals memories got wiped. I liked this one because it was not what I was expecting. I thought that out of the three so far this was the one that I enjoyed the most. There was a nice wide range of characters that were nice to listen to.

The main story has seen the Doctor trapped with the old man and as the story progressed we learn that the Doctor is being used so that they can take the Doctor’s TARDIS. The Sultan (Siddig) turns out to be a Shanakey. He traps the real Sultan in his ship and makes him think he is in a cell. The fourth episode is where the main story takes centre stage where we learn whats really going on and the reason why Nyssa has been telling the stories. I liked the scene where the Sultan smells the air for the first time and he delivers a lovely speech, then there is the moment where he discovers that he has been held captive for a century. I thought it was a shame when he departed from the story and thought it would have been nice if at the end we find out that he was back in his rightful place.

I like it when the story seems to go up a gear in the final part where the Sultan pretends to be the Doctor, makes Nyssa forgets the Doctor and go travelling in the Doctor. I like how Nyssa manages to twig what is going on and then takes the TARDIS back. When Nyssa finds the Doctor we discover that the Doctor has been left for just over 3 years of 1001 nights. The ending of the story is rather good because the Doctor takes the Shanakey somewhere that will look after him and probably use him as a lab rat.

I always like the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa stories as Nyssa is one of my favourite companions and I always think that this partnership works well. Peter Davison doesn’t really get much to do until the final episode but when he does eventually get something to do he does it well. Sarah Sutton puts in a fantastic performance from start to finish. It’s always good when Sarah Sutton is the only companion because it means that she gets to show why the character is so good. The big name of the supporting cast was Alexander Siddig who won the Toms Tardis Award for Best Supporting Guest in 2010 for his role as The Captain in The Wreck of the Titan. Here he plays Sultan who is a very unlikeable character and Siddig plays the role wonderfully. I personally think that this was a better character than the captain but it shows what a good actor the Siddig is. The rest of the characters were all very good and there wasn’t a dud performance in any of them.

I thought that this was a lovely story. After the very tense and dramatic stories that we have had in the latter part of 2012 it was nice that we had a story that was very light in terms of dramatic weight but still felt like it was a proper Doctor Who story and it was the perfect way for the main range to end 2012 with. Out of all the stories with single episodes, this has to be the best because it seemed to work better, the main story along with the short stories all worked well together to make the whole release enjoyable.

 

The Emerald Tiger (2012)

2012 Toms Tardis Award Winner
Best Main Range Story
Best Main Range Writer - Barnaby Edwards
Best Main Range Director - Barnaby Edwards
Best Main Range Music & Sound Design - Howard Carter

It’s hard to believe that this is the third series to feature the trio of Nyssa Tegan and Turlough. This trio has been the best for the last couple of years and in fact won the Best Series award in 2010. After a long time of waiting for Tegan to return in a full series of adventures, it’s nice to say that that wait has been worth it. The third series kicks off with The Emerald Tiger written by award winning writer and director Barnaby Edwards. It’s true to say when you know a story is written by a certain person you sort of know what to expect. This rule applies to Nicholas Briggs, Marc Platt, Alan Barnes and also Barnaby Edwards. Set in India in 1926, the story seems to have a start which owes something to ‘Black Orchid’ (1982) where in that story the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric arrive at a train station and stumble across a cricket match. In this instance, they are there for a cricket match and before we know our LBW from our elbow the story moves onto a train where there is the for mentioned Emerald Tiger.

On the train we meet two people who have completely different stories. Firstly there is Lady Adela Forster (Cherie Lunghi) who has hired the train to go to a cave to blow up an entrance. Then there is Major Cyril Haggard (Neil Stacy) who is running away from the police after commiting a crime. It isn’t long before their seemingly random paths cross and it helps the early stages of this story move along until the second part of the story. It’s quite good set-up for the main part of the story which is done very well.

The final episode was different from what I was expecting. It seemed that we were going to get a reprise from part three but it starts off with Tegan who we haven’t heard from for a while and after a minute or so I thought that this was a great idea that this was going to be Tegan’s episode but after a couple of minutes it went back to being a normal episode which I was slightly disappointed with but the rest of the episode made up for it. Normally, I get annoyed when writers ‘kill’ off one or more of the companions because I think that it’s the stupidest thing to do because we know they make it and the idea that we are supposed to suspend our disbelief is pointless. However when it’s done right then it’s done well and what Barnaby Edwards does is use it help create some tension between the Doctor and Turlough and it also acted as an incentive to try and rescue Nyssa. So in this instant I found the idea of ‘killing off’ a companion a good one but it isn’t one that should be returned to in the near future.

The performances in this are very good indeed. I thought that Cherie Lunghi was very good because she started off as this quite stuck up and unlikeable character but as the plot moves on she becomes someone who has suffered tragedy and we understand why she is as she comes across. I liked how her character exited. It must have been tempting to kill off the character in some sort of self-sacrifice to save her newly discovered son but thankfully they decide to live in the jungle. I also liked Neil Stacey who played Haggard because he was sort of the person we love to hate and he pulled that off very well.

The Emerald Tiger is another good story from Barnaby Edwards. I thought that the story was plotted very well and it knew what it wanted to be and kept its eye on the prize and as a result its possibly one of my favourite stories of 2012 so far. The third series of Nyssa/Tegan/Turlough has kicked off in fine style and I’m looking forward to what the next two stories have in store. Good stuff.

RATING: 8/10

The Book of Kells (2010)

2010 TOMS TARDIS AWARD WINNER

• Best Eighth Doctor Adventure

The previous two Tamsin stories have been a bit mixed. I was starting to worry that the final Eighth Doctor series was going to be a huge disappointment. The Book of Kells is a story that is partly based on historical fact. Apparently the book went missing for 80 days and when it returned it had been changed. Anyway the story sees the return of the Middling Monk who appeared during the Hartnell years. The story is set in 1006 at the Abbey of Kells in Ireland. The Doctor and Tamsin are lured there by the trap the meddling monk.

The story spends a lot of time looking for the book of Kells that has been taken. Personally as nice as it was to have a history lesson it was finding out who the Monk was. It seemed like it was Brother Bernard (played by Jim Carter) but that rule of it’s never the most obvious thing never occurred to me. When it was obvious that Bernard wasn’t the monk the story moved on. There was a bit of a contrived speech when the Doctor gives the newer listeners a history lesson of the Doctor’s encounters with the monk before saying “I am the Doctor” before Bernard says “Who”. I did groan when I heard that. The story spends a bit more time with the ‘Who’s the monk?’ line.

The story itself is quit an interesting if not overly exciting one. It’s not dull by any means but compared to other stories it doesn’t quite have the action packed stuff that I would expect. However there was enough stuff to keep me hooked in. The very final bit was the best part of the entire thing. The meddling monk is working with/for Brother Lucianus. Not going to reveal the plot twist and I do mean twist. It shocked me and totally came out of left field. It does have a knock on effect on the rest of the series.

The characters are very strong in this episode. Brother Bernard as played by Jim Carter (currently in ITV drama Downton Abbey), is perhaps the best of all the guest stars. I think that Carter has a wonderful voice for radio and having heard him on Radio 5 plays such as Dirk Gentley, I think that his casting was perfect. Graeme Garden returns to the Doctor Who range as Abbott Thelomous. Garden previously appeared in the 2008 play Max Warp and to be honest he gives an enjoyable performance. Ryan Sampson is the first of two names to have appeared in TV Who and Big Finish Who. Sampson appeared in the 2008 adventure The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky. In this he plays Brother Patrick which was a good role. The second name is Terrance Hardiman who appeared alongside Matt Smith’s Doctor in The Beast Below. As King Sitric he seemed like a perfectly normal character and was good casting. As far as I am concerned he will always be the Demon Headmaster.

Something that has been pointed out is how this story was the first to be recorded but the third to go out. A bit like Peter Davison when Four to Doomsday was the first to be recorded but Castrovalva was the first to go out. This is the first time that I have really enjoyed the character. I thought that her humour was spot on and her relationship with the Doctor was just right as it wasn’t like the Doctor’s relationship with Lucie but it’s in the same ballpark. I hope that Nicky Wardley doesn’t leave at the end of the series because I think now she is starting to get into her stride.

The Book of Kells is a good story. It’s the best o the series so far but that’s not as much of a compliment as you would think. I also think it won’t be the best story of the series. Barnaby Edwards is an interesting writer. Such stories as Bride of Peladon and the Beast of Orlok are two stories which don’t go crash bang wallop but something equally satisfying. The characters are very strong and believable and they have a back story to them that you want to know more about. You know what sort of story you are going to get with certain writers and with Edwards you know your going to get a strong steady story with a nice plot to it that doesn’t get to smart for its own good but doesn’t treat the listener like a simpleton. The Book of Kells is a story worthy of multiple listens if not just for the cliffhanger at the end.

The Wreck of the Titan (2010)

2010 TOMS TARDIS AWARD WINNER

• Best Main Range Story
• Best Writer (Barnaby Edwards)
• Best Director (Barnaby Edwards)
• Best Cover Design (Simon Holub)
• Best Music/Sound Design (Howard Carter)
• Best Guest Star (Alexander Siddig as The Captain)

After the ‘interesting’ opening story for the Sixth Doctor and Jamie, we are treated to a truly great adventure. This story is written and directed by Barnaby Edwards who gave us ‘Dr Who and the Pirates’ (2003) and also ‘The Bride of Peladon’ (2008). This story is set on the Titanic the infamous ship that sank nearly 100 years ago. Or is it? The one thing that this story makes quite clear from pretty much the beginning is don’t take everything at face value.

The story starts off on the Titanic where the Doctor and Jamie think their on the Mary Rose in 1936. They soon meet the posh (but probably dim) Tess and Teddy. The ship then turns out to be the Titan. Now here’s where my literature knowledge shows itself. I wasn’t aware there was a novella called The Wreck of the Titan. For those that did probably clicked what was going on from that point. The Wreck of the Titan is a book that pretty much predicts the sink of the Titanic. Which is quite a chilling thing to say considering the Titan was written about 14 years before the Titanic sank and in the Titan book it sank in April and in the North Atlantic (both points are true of the Titanic). When the Titanic turns into the Titan, Tess and Teddy are replaced with Myra and John who are both American socialites. But when the Titan sinks the story moves onto the Nautilus which is featured in the novel 20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne. The story then tries to survive the attack from squids who the Captain and his crew are trying to milk for the black water that was mentioned in City of Spires.

The original theory that the Doctor came up with as to why the Titanic turned into the Titan and then the appearance of the Nautilus was that they were in some sort of computer game and their involvement in the game led to the game trying to jump to another level in order to fix the problem. This was a nice and very clever idea but it was bettered by the real explanation. They weren’t in a computer game but in the Land of Fiction where they had been in the 1968 TV adventure ‘The Mind Robber’. The cliffhanger saw the robots that appeared in that story approach the Doctor and Jamie. What a wonderful way of ending it.

Despite a lot of going on there are quite a small number of characters. Obviously Colin Baker is on usual fine form. I honestly cant remember when he gave a dud effort in a Big Finish play. Frazer Hines was also good but the character of Jamie was much better in this story. He seemed more like the Jamie that we all know and love and Barnaby got a good handle of him and his relationship with the Doctor bang on. Miranda Raison is perhaps one of the biggest names that Big Finish have cast in one of their dramas. She previously appeared in the BBC show Spooks and also appeared alongside David Tennant’s Doctor in Evolution of the Daleks & Daleks in Manhattan. As Tess she was very good, she was sweet and made the character a gentle and caring one. However whilst she was just as good as Myra I did find the accent annoying. It was the same one that she did in the Dalek episodes and it continues the ongoing tradition of doing annoying American accents. Matt Addis was very good as both Teddy and John. It was whilst he was John that he really came into his own and in the scenes where John was with the Doctor on the iceberg that I found the character to be a strong and dependable one. Alexander Siddig was another big name like Raison, having appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I wasn’t totally keen on his character because I just didn’t really warm to the character of the Captain.

When the story finished I found myself liking this story but not totally sure as tow why. I think that whilst it was mysterious for large parts of the story it wasn’t too confusing as for me to stop caring. The reason behind what was going on was clever and not to ‘out there’ and all the characters were well written and Barnaby Edwards has done another fine script which has led to a potentially outstanding Cyberman story.

The Beast of Orlok (2009)

The Beast of Orlok is the third story of the third series for the Eighth Doctor and Lucie. It is a story that has a nice setting and also a mystery that needs solving. In my opinion it is a classic Doctor Who story which has a nice setting and a monster/myth that seems to be terrorising the locals. By this point in the series the relationship between the Doctor and Lucie seems to have mended. Following on from Orbis and Hothouse it was very important that their relationship gets back to where it was back in Season 2 because whilst you want something new from the duo you don’t want it to change too much so that loses its appeal.

The opening scene was very impressive as it was setting the foundations of the Beast. When the Doctor and Lucie arrive in 1827 Germany there is the usual and often funny speech of thinking that they have arrived at Alton Towers but of course they haven’t. There was some good dialogue between the Doctor and Lucie. The speech that the Doctor gives Lucie to show when and where they are was very impressive and was a great example of just how smart this incarnation of the Doctor is. I also liked the opening scene when the Doctor and Lucie land and discuss the LTD button which either stands for Lucie to Drive or Locate the Doctor. These discussions show that their relationship is developing well and is going back to how it use to be.

Paul McGann was playing the Doctor with the cheeky intelligence that we come to expect from him now. His incarnation of the Doctor has benefited greatly from Lucie Miller as he seems to be trying to become the cool Doctor but constantly getting scorned by Miller. Sheridan Smith was continuing to develop well as Miller. Her character has one foot in the classic companion attitude of mocking the Doctor for having a craft that doesn’t go where it intends to (they were supposed to be going to Alton Towers Theme Park) and she also has one foot in the new era of being a companion of being feisty and intelligent. She had managed to cut out a lot of the gobby stuff that first appeared back in Blood of the Daleks (2007) but there is still enough to make her stand out on her own. Miriam Margolyes is the best of the guest stars as Frau Tod. She is always an actress that can be relied upon to give a entertaining performance no matter what is required of her. She is a mother that shows several times in this story just what sort of a woman she is. This was shown when she was telling the story of how she found Hans and Greta and that most people stayed indoors but she ventured out to see what was happening. Samuel Barnett (Hans) and Alison Thea-Skot (Greta) are very good in this story playing children who have grown up believing one thing and then thanks to the events of this story find out something else. They were characters that I found annoying to begin with by when the revelation was revealed they suddenly became nice well rounded characters. Nick Wilton was also very good as Otto Pausbacken (what a great name). Also Trevor Cooper as Judah contributed some good stuff to the story. Also last but by no means least Peter Guinness who played Baron Teufel. Guinness has amased quite a CV starring in such things as The Bill, Casualty and the 2005 BBC Costume drama Bleak House. Also he is married to Roberta Taylor who has appeared in Eastenders and The Bill but also starred in the 2000 play The Holy Terror and more recently the Doctor Who Magazine special release Cuddlesome.

Something I liked and only noticed this in the Extras interview was that not of the actors attempted to do a German accent which is a good thing because often when you get actors to try and do an American accent it is usually a horrible and stereotypical voice which ruins the story and I would listen to Assassin in the Limelight (2008) to see what I mean. Unless you get an actor from that country who can do the accent then you are doomed to fail and so just doing their voices in their normal English doesn’t diminish the characters or the action so it’s a lesson to future directors of Big Finish plays or radio plays in general that you don’t have to do the accent to get people to believe that is where the characters are from.

Barnaby Edwards writes his second story for Big Finish. His previous story was the 2008 story The Bride of Peladon which has similar feelings to The Beast of Orlok. What I like about this story is that it isn’t an alien invasion trying to use Earth as a place to stay until they can launch a war on Mars or Venus or something like that. He has also directed this story which is where Edwards is normally in production terms. He directed a story that kept this ticking along nicely at the beginning but then shifts the action to the cliffhanger and then beyond to the end of the story. I think that is a good thing when writer actually director their stories. Its not always a good thing because the writer has to have a good idea how they want the story to progress and I think in this category at the moment there is only Edwards and Nicholas Briggs who could do this.

Overall I think that this is a superb story that has characters that are well written and whilst some of it may be tongue in cheek (Hans and Greta) there more than enough to enjoy and go back time and time again. Barnaby Edwards has written another good story which even if your not a fan of the eighth Doctor or Lucie you would be hard pressed to find a fault with this story. I think that the story works well in the format of two 25 minutes and I think that it might even have worked in a four story format because there is enough going on that even with a little bit of padding you would still find it enjoyable.

The Bride of Peladon (2008)

The first story of 2008 sees the Doctor encounter a familiar planet and species. January stories always tend to be a bit of a weak story or that might just be how I interpret them. The Bride of Peladon is first story to be written by Barnaby Edwards. Edwards has directed countless stories over the last few years and seems to have taken the Gary Russell quota since he left in early 2007. It is also the first story to be set on Peladon since the 1974 story The Monster of Peladon. As you start to listen to it you get a feeling that it very much in line with the previous Peladon stories but with a modern twist. The first episode set up the story quite well as it shows that Pandora is coming to Peladon for a arranged marriage which doesn't go down well as Beldonia doesn't want Earth involved as she fears it will end badly. I like it when the Doctor sung that rhyme which the Third Doctor used in The Curse of Peladon, I felt it was a nice nod to the TV series. It’s good when they nod to the past but you can over do it but thankfully Big Finish seems to know where to draw the line. There was also a reference to the previous but one story Son of the Dragon. Also in the second episode of this story there was the classic idea that the Ice Warrior was up to no good was very much belonging to Curse. It soon becomes apparent that Zixlyr is there to kill those responsible for the death of a fellow Ice Warrior called Alyxlir.

It would have been nice if the name of Zekmed had been revealed earlier than when it was (episode 4). It also only in Episode 4 that it really starts to pick up. Its classic who, episode 1 sets up the story with locations and characters with episodes 2 and 3 setting up the actual plot of the story with the final part just meant for action. I wondered whether the Sutekh that the voice refereed to was the same Sutekh from Pyramids of Mars. If it is then it was suggest that the voice has huge powers. It was made blatantly obvious who we were expected to believe was responsible for the death and that been Beladonia. It was clearly an attempt to make you believe that but everyone who has watched any murder mystery drama will know that it is not necessarily the person who is made out to be the murderer.

Peter Davison was very good in this story as he seemed to be to be in his prime Nicola Bryant (Peri) was very good in this story as she was set with Zixlyr and they worked very well in try to find out what really happened to Alyxlir which made Peri to be a brave and intelligent companion which she never seemed to be in the TV adventures. Phyllida Law was very good as Beldonia because her voice was very deep at times and it gave an impression of what spirits she was powered by. Yasmin Bannerman who is one of the few people to have appeared in both Doctor Who and Torchwood is very good in this story as Pandora (she appeared in End of the World in 2005 and also the They Keep Killing Suzie episode of Torchwood in 2006). She is very vocal in the fact that she doesn't like being involved in an arranged marriage but is also sensitive in what Pelleas's feelings. Her death was very unexpected and also very sad.

The thought that the moment that Zixlyr gave his life to destroy Zekmed was a very sad one and also surprising because when you think of Ice Warriors, noble and sacrificing are not words you would describe them. Also when it seemed like Erimem was going to give her life I thought that she was going to leave the Doctor but thankfully that didn't happen. But just when I thought that the Doctor, Peri & Erimem were going to leave in the TARDIS the rug was pulled from beneath me and Erimem did decide to leave. This was a really sad moment and the feelings that Peri was going through was just like what I felt because I thought that the character of Erimem was well written and enjoyable. The Doctor's silence was subtle but it didn't mean that the Doctor wasn't sad that Erimem was leaving because we all know that he was. The way that Erimem went was quite a logical and a nice exit for a character that had developed quite well in the seven years since she made her debut. The departure of Erimem had been suggested in Son of the Dragon but it seemed that it was just being delayed and not used as a simple plot diversion.

As has already been mentioned this is the first story to be written by Barnaby Edwards and what he has done is write a script that has intrigue and a fast enough pace that builds up to a thrilling end. The Bride of Peladon is a well written story with good characters and a good pace to it. The departure had been teased since Son of the Dragon and in The Mind’s Eye you thought it might happen but the fact that it did come still came as quite a shock but hopefully that doesn't mean that it will be the last time we hear from her. Barnaby Edwards has contributed quite a lot over the years for Big Finish as a Director and other administrative roles but in his first writing project it was a nice story and here’s hoping that he pens more stories. Also I would like the have more stories set on Peladon, it’s a planet that hasn’t really been explored a great deal except maybe in books but I think that they could return to it and do a series of adventures there. Fingers Crossed.