We Are The Daleks (2015)

We Are The Daleks sees the Seventh Doctor reunite with Mel. This is the first time that the two have encountered each other since Red back in 2006 or release number 85 so it’s odd that its release number 201 before we get another story and to celebrate this story the Daleks have been bought back. It’s often argued that Daleks are overused by Big Finish but the last Dalek story was Daleks Among Us back in 2013. It was also the first time that Mel had faced the Daleks since The Juggernauts back in February 2005. There is one good thing about the difference between Mel stories and Ace/Hex stories and that there isn’t the impending sense of doom in the Mel stories and there is a sense of freedom with the Mel stories which after the sort of stories that the seventh Doctor has had in the last few years in the main range I felt as I was listening that this story wasn’t bogged down and could just carry on being a Dalek story.

As the cover shows, a skyscraper in the design of a Dalek has been built in the centre of London which is something I think everyone would want to see. The Mel that we get in the main range is a million times better than the Mel that we get in the TV series. Mel acts like someone who is computer literate and the story allows her to show these skills. She has shown them more in this story than she ever did on TV. Like the Sixth Doctor, Mel has undergone a revival thanks to Big Finish and from start to finish she is on fine form. I would dare to say that she is actually better in this story than the Doctor.

Being a story set in the late 1980’s, this story has a thinly veiled swipe at the attitudes of the time and namely capitalism and Thatcherism. The attitude of both of these seem to manifest in the character of Celia Dunthorpe played very well by Mary Conlon. The way that she takes over from Alex Zenos is very cold. If there was a problem with characters in this story then it would be with Alex Zenos because it was very obvious that the character wasn’t going to last very long in the story and he was dispensed with in a rather lacklustre manner. That is the only thing that I could say was wrong with the story because whilst there is a political theme running through the story, at its heart is a very good and at times very traditional Dalek story. The return of the Dalek Emperor is welcomed and I imagine him more like the Emperor seen in 2005’s The Parting of the Ways and not the 1967 story Evil of the Daleks. I don’t know if you are like me and would love to hear Dalek say weird or naughty words and phrases and this story allows us one moment of this. Hearing a Dalek say “Do You Want a Volovant?” is one of the funniest lines in the entire story.

As much as I enjoyed this story, I don’t think its better than the last Dalek story in the main range (Masters of Earth) but it’s one of the best Dalek stories in the last few years. The story itself is enjoyable and the resurgence of Mel is another reason why I will be happy to re-listen to this story in the future. Hopefully the rest of the stories in the series will be as fun to listen to as this one.

The Entropy Plague (2015)

The Entropy Plague is the final story of this series which has been very hit and miss. I thought that Mistfall was highly enjoyable and yet Equlalibrium totally missed the mark so I was hoping that this story would end the series on a high note and whilst not as good as Mistfall it was far better than Equilibrium. This is a story that has been several years in the making and so this story had more riding on it than most series finale’s.

One of the things that I like about this story is that it is high on action and high on drama. The thing that Jonathan Morris can do really well write a story that utilises characters really well and engages them in a story which feels like it could be used on the TV. I like that Nyssa’s child Adric has been bought back and Morris utilises the flashback plot device that has become famous due to shows like Lost but unlike Lost, this story has an ending that makes sense. Morris always has one (narrative) eye on the regulars and the other on the story and each episode sees one regular telling Adric the story and its hard to think of many writers that would take this creative approach.  

The story sees the TARDIS land on Apollyon which is in a weird state at the beginning of the story because entropy is going to cause the end of the world but people are either trying to escape or party. The only way to escape is via a portal and it can only be opened via a human sacrifice which is a rather grim idea. What makes the idea even grimmer is that Tegan is going to be used as the sacrifice.

With the story being light of positive vibes, the performances are appropriately downbeat. I thought that all the performances were very good and in particular Peter Davison.  

The Entropy Plague is one of the best Fifth Doctor stories for quite sometime. Jonathan Morris is on fine form and he has written a story that has a lot going on and not only does the story get wrapped up in a proper way but the series is wrapped up in the same way and my confidence in the range is back at its usual high after the wobble of the previous story. There is just one question that still remains which Morris has in a way created and that is just where does this Doctor/Companion combination go because it would be nice if future stories with this combination aren’t tied to this story arc that we have had. It would be nice to have a more familiar Nyssa as opposed to the older Nyssa that we have had all this time.

The Cloisters of Terror (2015)

I will make a confession and that is I have listened to this before the previous story Suburban Hell. Due to the fact I have these stories listed on my phone in alphabetical order and not numerical means that occasionally this sort of thing happens. Anytime that Jonathan Morris’ name appears on a Big Finish release then its cause for excitement because he has such a strong track record. This story features the return of Rowena Cooper who plays Emily Shaw or Dame Emily Shaw. Shaw is the daughter of Liz Shaw and was last heard in The Last Post. If you haven’t heard that release then I strongly recommend that you should because it’s one of the strongest companion chronicle stories in the range.

The story takes the Doctor and Leela to Oxford where they encounter three ghostly nuns. This bit alone is enough to lure me in and the ideas in general are really good. The idea that the nuns are trying to stop things from going a bit boom boom by kidnapping people every so often is one that works in the confines of this story but its not one that would work in a four parter. The music helps create a nice impression and credit should go to Jamie Robertson.

The performances are all really good. Tom Baker and Louise Jameson now come across like they have been doing this for a long time not just three or four years. It’s even more impressive when you take into consideration that they weren’t the best of friends on TV. Rowena Cooper’s previous performance in The Last Post was lovely and whilst this performance was good it wasn’t on the same level as that one. Hopefully this wont be the last time that we hear from Dame Shaw because I think that it’s the sort of character that could appear in a story every so often. Richenda Carey makes her third Big Finish/Doctor Who appearance and this time she plays Sister Frances Beckett. I thought that Beckett was a strong and enjoyable character. Jane Slavin makes her seventh appearance opposite Tom Baker and her fourth of 2015 following the Novel Adaptions. She was quite good as an Ancient Nun. The character was quite good but all the performances were good so Slavin’s performance sort of gets lost in the shuffle.

I thought that the first half was stronger than the second. There were aspects of the second part that I liked so its an enjoyable release from Jonathan Morris and Nicholas Briggs. The thing is that I keep in my mind that the Cybermen are coming in this series and just want it to get closer as quickly as possible. The Cloisters of Terror is a good story and one that I recommend to people if they want to have chills and suspense.

Last of the Colophon (2014)

I knew that this was going to be a story that wasn’t going to be as good as ‘The Evil One’. That’s purely because I thought that it would be the best story of the series and if this did manage to beat that then it would have to be a cracker. This story was written by Jonathan Morris who won several Tomstardis Awards in 2013.The story sees the Doctor and Leela arrive on the planet Colophos which on first inspection seems to be. The story is playing with the idea of the Invisible Man and seems like the sort of story that would have featured during the Philip Hinchcliffe era. The involvement of Morax is one that develops over the story when Morax is covered in bandages and at the right point the truth is revealed.

Gareth Thomas returns to the Doctor Who world as Morax and Thomas is brilliant in every single story he appears in and this is no different. Jane Goddard also returns as Nurse Torvik and she is also one fine form. The other supporting characters were all standard but I didn’t find them as interesting as Morax or Torvik. As far as the central performances are concerned, I thought that Louise Jameson was on her usual fine form but after the peak of the previous story, here she seems to return to her usual self which isn’t a bad thing. Tom Baker seems to just stroll through this and there did seem a moment when one of Tom Baker’s famous suggestions seems to have made it in when he’s talking about a signal to show someone its him and how its repeated seems to be his idea. I may be wrong but that is what it seems like to me.

The main problem with this story is that as much as I wanted to love this story, it just didn’t quite connect with me. It’s not a terrible story by any means but compared to other Morris scripts, its not one of his best. I think that this is a story that other people will like because the setting and what it deals with isn’t something that I am wild about and those tend to be the ones that people rave about. I suppose only time will tell but I think that ‘The Evil One’ remains the best story of the series.

The Monstrous Menagerie (2014)

Escape or Die was the original name given for this episode and you have to give Terry Nation some credit for trying to create some excitement with just a title. When the episode restarts, the Doctor, Rebec, Taron and Codal are flying up and the Daleks take an awful long time to realise that there is only one way that they could have escaped. One of the things that I like about this episode is the slowest chase in TV history with a Dalek rising up to chase the Doctor and his new friends. It’s a great shot of seeing the Dalek coming towards them as I think that it adds to the drama and tries to instil some exciting in the slowest chase on TV. The purpose of the Daleks being on Spiridon is made clear here and its creating a rather nasty virus.

Jo starts the episode trying to find the bombs but only manages to get herself knocked out. It’s the typical course of action for a companion. What’s quite interesting that given the size of the rock, it’s lucky that she survived. Not only did she survive but she woke up relatively quickly. The moment when Jo and the Doctor are reunited is a lovely moment and shows how this dynamic is perhaps as strong as the Second Doctor and Jamie’s relationship. Jo gets a romantic interest in this episode with Latep and it seems (with the benefit of hindsight) that this is the beginning of setting up Jo’s departure from the show. In the scene between the Doctor and Jo there is a minor reference to the previous story, considering that this is one (unofficial) long story, it would have been nice to have a mention of the Master as well as the Ogrons.

When the action moves to the stones that they use to try and stay save and perhaps warm is a nice moment in the story. It’s well set up and the performances and directing help make this scene atmospheric. There’s more of this in the next episode but what we got here was quite good and one of those rare moments in Doctor Who that isn’t over lit by being in a studio. The action is directed well by the legendary David Maloney who is doing his best in this story. If anyone can make action seem interesting in largely jungle sets then it would be Maloney. Terry Nation has been accused in this story of just reheating his ideas from previous stories but to be honest that dosent really bother me because if it was just a colourised version of such stories as ‘The Keys of Marinus’ and ‘The Daleks’ then that would be a problem but the fact that its mixed in with new stuff means that it can be enjoyed.

I found the cliffhanger to be a little better this time but nothing special. Unlike the previous episode I got the feeling that it was actually moving and things were happening. Despite their being more than a few comparisons to previous Terry Nation stories (a greatest hits if you like), I still like this story and think that it’s an enjoyable and interesting adventure.

1963: The Space Race (2013)

After enjoying the opening story to the 50^th Anniversary celebrations, I had high hopes for this middle story as it was a) a sixth doctor adventure b) it was written by Jonathan Morris and c) it was a Sixth Doctor and Peri story and they are a rarity in the main range. The last one was back in 2011 and in fact this is only sixth main range story since 1999. It starts off quite well as we get the initial set up and then when the Doctor and Peri first appear it feels like we are back on familiar territory. I like how there is a nice reference to ‘Marco Polo’ within the first five minutes.

The opening episode focuses on the landing of a capsule where Marinka has had somewhat of a memory fade. When they try and get into the capsule it does feel like the moment in ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ where they get into the capsule and find that there’s nothing inside, well the nice twist is that the Dog that the Russians sent into space (Laika) is in there instead. The plot get more bizarre when it turns out that Laika has Marinka’s voice. When I say bizarre, I mean that in a good way.

One of the things that I like about this release is how it never seems to stop for a breather. From the moment that the release starts it progresses at a nice pace. No sooner has the drama stopped to get Marinka down than the Doctor ends up going to the Moon. If you try and pin down where this is going to be heading then chances are you would be wrong and I was wrong and that its going to go somewhere different. Once I realised that the story seemed to be a dog with a human mind recruiting other dogs I couldn’t help chuckling to myself. Is this the new Reservoir Dogs?  All the humour that was generated with this thought disappeared once the story moved to the surface of the moon as the tone seemed to shift quite substantially.

The second half of the story seems to be about animals getting revenge on humans for experimenting on them and sending them into space. A sort of anti-Doctor Dolittle story was quite an amusing idea. The moment where the true spy is revealed (about an hour in) was one that I didn’t see coming. Not sure whether its cause I am stupid or just really smart by Morris but either way it worked out well.

The cliffhanger for episode three was another moment that I didn’t see coming and it ties in with the assignation of US President John F Kennedy on November 23^rd 1963. It’s at this point that I decided that I enjoyed this story. The other cliffhangers were all quite good and its good that they all work because it means that the flow of the story continues even with the interruption of the intro and outro there doesn’t feel like things slow down or stumble around.

I thought that Colin Baker was on fine form (as usual) and my favourite moment came when he was trying to defend humanity and basically say that whilst humanity has its bad side, it also have a wonderful side and humans can be good. Effectively the moral message was ‘Don’t tar everyone with the same brush!’. Nicola Bryant was also very good and I would go so far as to say that its one of her best performances for quite sometime. She is productive to the story and is used in a good and interesting way.

I thought that this was a very sound release. It wasn’t what I was expecting and I certainly wasn’t expecting a moral story with humans in animals and it could have been easy for Big Finish to do a standard story about the space race and what they and Jonathan Morris have given us is something completely different. I still think that Fanfare for the Common Men is more fun but certainly this story is enjoyable from start to finish and in the celebrations to the 50^th anniversary, The Space Race doesn’t let the side down

 

Ghost in the Machine (2013)

It’s always good to hear a Jo Grant story because it means that we get the wonderful Katy Manning to read a story and I could listen to her read the phonebook. There is something about Jo Grant stories in this range that they always seem to be special releases.  The third Doctor Companion Chronicle starts off with the Doctor nowhere to be seen or heard. When Jo does find the Doctor he appears to be in a frozen state similar to the one that he was in back in ‘Planet of the Daleks’. One of the things that I had read about this story before listening to it was how atmospheric this release is. I have to say that I completely agree with this. Part of this is down to Damian Lynch who plays Benjamin Chikoto. The other part is down to the story which as time progresses becomes more and more creepy. Things that you think you’ve heard but in fact you haven’t is something that creates the unsettled feeling to the story.

I think that doing cliffhangers in these stories are quite difficult because it depends on the performer and the writer to create the right tone to make the ending seem effective. The cliffhanger in this is rather good as Jo finds herself in the machine. The second half of this release does all the explaining part and it’s when Jo finds herself in the machine and we learn that she can only say/remember words that she has recorded into the machine. Mary had a little lamb seems to be an important part of this story and whilst its relevant to the story it becomes a little bit annoying as the story goes through its relatively short (1 hour and 17 minutes) running time. The final scene with Ben was quite sad really. He wants to be killed by the Doctor because he is tired of just existing on the recording. I actually wanted the Doctor to be able to save Ben because I thought that he was a good character and I enjoyed listening to Damian.

It’s a great performance from Katy Manning who can always be relied upon to give a great performance. Such stories as ‘The Many Deaths of Jo Grant’ and ‘Find and Replace’ show how much she is part of the character and manages to seem strong and vulnerable at various moments during the story. Damian Lynch is a good bit of casting and delivers his lines in the right tone of voice which is calm and somehow creepy. When he has to do the Doctor I think he does a good job. It’s a lot closer than I would have expected but it’s still a good attempt. His impression of Katy Manning is less successful but its still a good attempt.

Another thing about this story that is quite interesting is that it is directed by Louise Jameson who has done countless releases in the booth and now gets to direct a companion chronicle quite like Nicola Bryant did with ‘The Prisoner of Peladon’. Jameson should be credited for directing a story that has a great feel to it and manages to capture the fantastic feeling of the story and also gets great performances out of Katy Manning and Damian Lynch. The Ghost in the Machine is a chilling adventure that uses its two cast members well and help continue to strong run of third Doctor Companion Chronicle adventures. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is in the winner or at the very least top three companion chronicles at the Toms Tardis Awards at the end of the year. With the number of Companion Chronicles yet to be released starting to dwindle down it seems that this story reminds us of how effective and how good the range has been since it started back in 2007. It will be a shame when its gone.

The Skeleton Quay (2013)

Jago and Litefoot are now in their six series which is an amazing achievement and one of the reasons why the series have managed to continue is that they haven’t sat on their laurels and just thought about doing the same thing over and over again but have instead tried to do something different. Series 5 saw them travel to the 1960’s and I really enjoyed that and at the end of the series they found them back in Victorian England but not in their usual surroundings. The first story of this series is written by Jonathan Morris who is a regular to the series. Sadly the story doesn’t start of great because we don’t get the sixties version of the tune but I suppose that is probably for the best considering they aren’t in the 60’s anymore. After reminding us of how the fifth series ended we are thrust immediately into the story and we find our favourite dynamic duo on a train going towards the Suffolk Coast.

I like how Jago has a moment where he reminds us of their previous adventures with the Sixth Doctor and in the last series. It’s a nice moment but it’s done for a reason as Jago seems to be a bit worse for wears on the train. When they eventually arrive in Suffolk the feel of the place seems to ring close to ‘The Horror of Fang Rock’ where there is some fear associated with the fog.

The supporting cast were all quite good. Geoffrey Whitehead sounded a lot like David Warner when he first appeared as the Colonel. Francesca Hunt was a good piece of casting from the moment she first appeared as Camilla Tevelyan. With no Lisa Bowerman here to play Ellie, she becomes Ellie version two and does it quite well (though she’ll never be as good as Bowerman). As the story progresses it becomes clear that there is something rather funny about her and not in a funny ha-ha kind of way. Another good performance was Keith Bartlett as Isaac Pawley. I cant figure out why but I thought that he was perfect for the story.

As for the central performances both Benjamin and Baxter are on their usual fine form. After enjoying ‘Benjamin and Baxter’ last month, my opinion of these two has improved and I think that these two are enjoying themselves and enjoy being in each others company which helps to create one of the nicest feelings that you could have during a Big Finish release. Christopher Benjamin can always be counted upon to be funny when the situation calls for it and Trevor Baxter leads the duo in his usual charismatic style. Both are fine performers and show us why they have lasted so long.

The story centres around a night which saw lots of people die and it was Camilla is the one who has to protect its secret. Even going to the extreme of killing anyone who tries to find it out. It makes the character even better as far as I am concerned because she wasn’t over the top and she wasn’t totally unlikeable but she was a good villainess. Her exit was perfect because she was killed by the ghosts that her father killed all those years ago and it was Litefoot who said it best about the sins of the father visiting the daughter.

It’s curious that we don’t get to meet Queen Victoria (and judging by the credits on the Big Finish website we won’t). We get a nice final scene where we get the impression that Queen Victoria is up to something but I suppose as the stories progress in the series that it will all be revealed. As an opening story it was a nice gentle one and it seems like there is a sense that we don’t need to have a killer opening story to get us hooked as anyone who has made it to series six will know what’s going on and they the writers can get on with just telling their story. Jonathan Morris is one of the strongest writers in Big Finish and he continues that fine form here. He’s written an entertaining story that has more ‘corks’ from Jago than I can remember in any story and it’s a good plot that doesn’t overstay its welcome with a nice limited number of characters to get to know. A solid opening.

Mastermind (2013)

Mastermind is the first story of the eighth and sadly final series of the Companion Chronicles. This is the second story from Yee Jee Tso and Daphne Ashbrook who reprise their roles of Ruth Matheson and Charlie Sato who appeared in the 2011 story ‘Tales of the Vault’, I thought that it was a good story but I can’t say that I thought it was screaming out for a sequel. Any doubts that I may have had about this release were quickly dispersed when I discovered that Geoffrey Beevers would be returning as the Master. The first thing about this story is that it doesn’t actually feature a Doctor.

There is a wonderful build up to Sato and Matheson’s scene with the Master. There are basically rules to how they should be with him and there seem to be water-tight precautions to prevent the Master from escaping. When the Master does finally appear we get a nice explanation as to what happened to the Master after the TV Movie. It’s an interesting one which works well and would have looked great on TV. Once that explanation has been given then the story moves on a bit more to the Master being on the Titanic and how he ended up in Las Vegas. He wants to use Earth’s technology to become a Timelord again but had to wait for the technology to get up to the standard that he wanted but didn’t want to help otherwise he would attract the attention of the CIA and also the Doctor. It’s quite a good excuse as to why the Master doesn’t speed up the technology.

The idea of the Master running casinos is quite a fun idea and also the scene where the he is left to die is a great scene and is played well between Beevers and Tso. The whole theme of the story is about the Master’s survival and how he leaps from one body to another. At the end of the story he has escaped from what seems unescapable and it hopefully means that we are going to get more Master stories in the near future. I like what Jonathan Morris has done with the Master because we get a lot of the story from the Master and its all really fascinating stuff and well done.

I love that after all the speeches about how not to listen to the Master and to speak to him for only a short time and the other person watching them, they are still possessed into doing the Master’s bidding without even realising. It leads to arguably the best scene in the entire story (which is quite a compliment) where they realise that they have both been had and that they will be effectively imprisoned for the rest of their lives. They wont because Big Finish will find a way of getting them out because I get the feeling that this story will be very popular and will lead to another story but obviously it wont be in the companion chronicles series.

Geoffrey Beevers is one of those people that has a truly wonderful voice and every time he has featured in a Big Finish audio. Here he doesn’t disappoint and easily steals the show. Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso are both really good in this and well in what is effectively a supporting role. They were always going to be in that position against Beevers but that doesn’t mean they are below par because we learn a bit more about their characters and they deal with it well.

Mastermind is a fine story and a great way to start the final season of Companion Chronicles. It’s a good story told well and it has an ending which some may have seen coming but it doesn’t mean that its not a great way of ending it and its crying out for a next instalment.

Prisoners of Fate (2013)

The final instalment of this Fifth Doctor series. I was hoping that Jonathan Morris would be able to come close to matching the good work he did on ‘Protect and Survive’. I think that story is one of the best stories and was hoping that there would be something that this story to be a fine way to end the series. The story starts off with the impression that the story is going to be about Nyssa’s return to her time in ‘Cobwebs’ where she was looking for the cure to Richter’s Syndrome but in the world of Doctor Who some time has passed. However what seemed like a promising concept soon went downhill.

The problem with this story I felt was that I didn’t feel like it knew where it was going. Whereas with ‘The Lady of Mercia’ and ‘Eldrad Must Die!’, I could see what they were aiming for but with this I struggled with this. The first two episodes were good and I felt that the third was perfectly fine but it was the final episode which I thought was too long and seemed like padding. It needed someone to say whilst making this that they needed to lose about 10-15 minutes from the final episode.

Whereas in the previous adventures Nyssa wasn’t the centre of attention, this story manages to rectify this. I liked the family drama that came up in the first part of this story, it was good how Nyssa’s son tried to hide his face so that Nyssa wouldn’t know what he looked like. Sarah Sutton is the best thing in this story and I thought that Nyssa had the right amount of the old Nyssa and the mother Nyssa. Mark Strickson and Janet Fielding seem to suffer from background filler syndrome where they have to let Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton take centre stage.

Whilst this story has its moments, I have to say that I found Prisoners of Fate to be a bit of a let down. I think had it just been about Nyssa and her son then I could have dealt with it but this story is one of those rare adventures where I struggled to keep up with it and as I never give up on a release mid-way I just kept with it and whilst its not the worst release that Big Finish have ever done its not one that I will be in a rush to re-listen to.

Phantoms of the Deep (2013)

The latest Fourth Doctor adventure takes place under sea. I can’t recall in the 10 years that I have been listening to Big Finish plays that a story has ever taken place in the sea. When the story starts the TARDIS is on the bottom of the ocean.
 
K9 was actually quite good in this story. He serves a purpose instead of running out of energy after 10 minutes. The moments when K9 goes bad are amusing but its still the best performance or anything approaching the best that I think we have had from K9 for many years. In fact I would probably say that he was the best character in the entire piece. The Doctor was his usual self and Tom Baker played him in the only way that he could be played in this story. Mary Tamm is really good as she doesn’t put a foot wrong in this. The most noticeable name on the credits is Alice Krige who I remember as playing the Borg Queen in the Star Trek movie ‘First Contact’ back in 1996. Here she plays Dr Patricia Sawyer and what I like about the character is that she seems to just go along with things after the initial reluctance to trust either the Doctor or Romana. By the end of the story she sacrifices her life is probably a tad bit soppy but to be honest it was the best way really that she could leave the story. It’s a noticeably small cast which I always like as it means that there are less name and characters to have to remember.

This story wouldn’t half as good were it not for the mystery of what is at the bottom of the sea. There is a squid that is quite intelligent and there is also someone who has been trapped and kept alive for 100 years but to him it doesn’t seem that long. The squid as it turns out is looking for intelligence and was keeping the office alive, it shows that the squid though might be powerful aren’t without compassion.

Jonathan Morris is one of Big Finish’s top writers and I think that the reason is he knows how to tap into what makes a good story. It’s not complicating things for the sake of doing so but doing a story that could easily work on TV. This is another fine offering from him and I like the reference to the Great Space Elevator which Morris wrote and was released in the companion chronicle range back in mid-2008.

I really liked Phantoms of the Deep as it had that ‘base under siege’ vibe to it and as the TARDIS had gone there was no realistic way of anyone escaping alive. It’s a very atmospheric tale which is helped in a large part by Jamie Robertson who creates a wonderful atmosphere. I think that this story would have worked better as a four part adventure as opposed to two, that said I think that it’s my favourite story of this series so far.

 

Babblesphere (2013)

The fourth in the series features the Fourth Doctor and Romana. The action takes place on Hephastos which is quite a creative place but there is something that allows them to connect with each other. It’s called the Babble Network which started off good but as with most thing soon became addictive and got out of control. The title isn’t the most exciting that there has ever been but about 51 minutes in, it suddenly becomes quite clever. There seems to be a pop taken at social media where everyone become addicted and daren’t be left out.

There’s a nice moment when the Doctor and Romana have both left their sonic screwdrivers in the TARDIS, assuming that the other would have bought it. The bit about the sonic screwdriver being charged is something that I must admit I was confused with. In all the years that I have been a fan I have never thought about the Sonic Screwdriver being something that you charge up like an iPod or a mobile phone. I did find myself chuckling with Zagreus was mentioned late in the story. Thought that was a nice bit of continuity.

The story moves along really well and I thought that the sound/music effects were rather well done but it’s the performances of both Lalla Ward and Roger Parrott. It’s refreshing to hear Ward’s Romana that isn’t trying to prevent political overthrow. We don’t get a stressed sounding Romana but a Romana from the TV which helped the story seem a bit more fun. Roger Parrott is also good as Aurelius. It was a nice character and Parrott seemed to enjoy playing it. It’s fun to think that the best way to stop someone is by thinking pointless babble and stuff that is so mindnumbing that only someone who watches The Only Way is Essex would consider it intellectual.

Jonathan Morris is a writer that you can trust to come up with an entertaining story. His credits include ‘The Haunting of Thomas Brewster’ which won the Best Story Prize at the 2008 Toms Tardis Awards. He has managed to write a fun story which felt very much of its time and you could easily believe it was a late 1970’s Doctor Who story.  

One of my favourite ‘Destiny’ stories so far.

The Age of Revolution (2013)

The fifth series feels like a bit of a reboot. After 16 stories and the two specials last year it seemed like something was needed to keep it fresh and breathe new life into this spin off series. The series has moved to the 1960’s after the Doctor drops them off later than he picked them up. This means that it would be interesting to see two Victorian gentleman in a different time and see what they would do in swinging sixties. It’s a bit line Adam Adamant but times two. First thing that strikes me is the new theme tune. I have always liked the one that was used in the previous four series and would normally be reluctant to want something like this to change but I instantly listened to it again after it had finished cause it was that good.

Whilst listening to this story I was getting the sense that it felt like one of the earlier stories whilst not feeling outdated. The story centres around the Victorian Value Preservation Society who are trying to brainwash society into going back to Victorian Value. It’s a bit like Invasion of the Dinosaurs but that not a bad thing. It done incredibly well and the whole pacing of the story had that first story of the series vibe to it which I very much approve of. The start was a bit odd as we were introduced to Jago and Litefoot in their respective new careers. Litefoot is working in a bookstore and Jago is working on TV now. We are introduce to Timothy Vee who has a show on TV called the T.V Show. He sounds like he has come out of a hip TV 1960’s show and it was played brilliantly by Ben Willibond. He captures the role really well and he does a similar (if exaggerated) voice in a BBC radio series called Double Science. Lisa Bowerman returns as Ellie and I had forgotten that she was a vampire and it meant that they had a clever way of moving her character into this time period and help keep the dynamic that she is part of now. Both Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin are on their usual fine form and its Benjamin who provides the comedy as he gets use to being on TV.

If I had to be picky (and I’m struggling here) it would be that I cant’ understand why Litefoot doesn’t have some involvement in his previous career. I know that medicine would have moved on a lot in 70 or so years but it can’t have been that much of a stretch to find a way to overcome this. Jago’s career seemed like the natural evolution as TV was starting the invade people’s homes and variety shows were on TV so that would have been a perfect choice for him. Ellie running the pub was also a natural thing to do.

The whole point of this story is to ease us as the listener into this new surrounding. That’s why the story isn’t particularly complicated. It’s like slot a goes into tab b and whilst that might not sound like a compliment I thought that the plot was comforting and it effectively and creatively set its stall out for the series and managed to tell a good story in the process. As much as it may feel like a reboot it manages to continue the fine run of stories in this particular range. The new setting is fun to think and about and everyone involved has messed it up. I love the theme tune, I love the central performances and I loved the story. I can tell that I’m going to enjoy this series as I loved this story and that’s been the case for the first three series so this bodes well for this series.

The Auntie Matter (2013)

The Auntie Matter is the first story of second series of Fourth Doctor Adventures and feature Mary Tamm who passed away last summer.  The story has the same sort of feeling as the 2008 story ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’. Written by Jonathan Morris, the story sees the Doctor and Romana ‘enjoying’ themselves and they come across. K9 is taking the TARDIS on a wild goose chase with the Black Guardian when the Doctor and Romana come across some alien technology and in separate directions get involved. It’s quite good how Jonathan Morris has managed to make the story work without either the Doctor or Romana knowing that the other is involved in what they are doing. It doesn’t feel like it’s getting silly because the plots that each character is involved in is enough to keep your mind on the story.

The alien threat is not technically a threat. Ok they were taking the bodies of women and Florence/Auntie was using them but the reason why she is there is perfectly fine. It does mirror what happens to the Sontaran in ‘The Time Warrior’. Landing on earth by accident isn’t an evil thing but taking people’s lives is enough to constitute a threat and it works quite well.

Julia McKenzie is the big name of this story and she is really good as Florence. She manages to give a an elegant performance yet comes across as a very effective baddie. McKenzie previously appeared in the 2007 story ‘No More Lies’ and she is most famous now for being Miss Marple and she is someone who can be relied upon to give a  solid performance. Robert Portal gave a great offering as Reggie who seemed to be an upper class twit and the sort of person who would have slotted in well to a Miss Marple episode. Lucy Griffiths (best known for appearing in Robin Hood as Marian), I liked the character and thought that in a normal adventure she could have come on board in the TARDIS but her exit was very nice.

For the central performances. It feels like Tom Baker has definelty settled in and Jonathan Morris’ writing enables him to get as close to Doctor from that era on TV that we have had. Tom Baker is a great performer and he works well with Mary Tamm and despite not actually spending that much time together they still work well together. Speaking of Mary Tamm, listening to ‘The Auntie Matter’ was very much like when I was listening to ‘The Last Post’. My approach is different to what it would have been. Also like ‘The Last Post’ I found myself not think about that until after I had finished listening to the story. Tamm’s performance is very good and when you listen to it there is a sense that this could easily have slotted in just after the Key to Time trilogy series. She is intelligent yet doesn’t even humour Reggie when he is being romantic towards her is something that helps cement this character in this series and shows that it could have taken place in late 1979.

The interviews at the end are very enjoyable. The first half is the usual interviews with all the cast talking about how the they have enjoyed the time that they have been recording and what they thought of their character. Then the focus shifts to the passing of Mary Tamm. We don’t hear from her at first and then David Richardson talks about her and it intercut with her talking about returning to the role alongside Tom Baker. It was extremely sad to listen to as on one hand its sad that she’s past away but knowing that at least that we get a series of her Romana alongside the Doctor.

The first story of the series is a highly enjoyable one. I felt that everything worked really well and Jonathan Morris has written a very solid story with interesting characters. It’s not quite up there with ‘The Wrath of the Iceni’ which I think it the mark that all Fourth Doctor stories should be aiming for. But I don’t think not being the Iceni story is a bad thing. It’s a pacey story with some amusing characters that aren’t in the slightest irritating and it’s a good start to the series with the promise of some strong stories coming.

The Shadow Heart (2012)

The Shadow Heart is the final seventh Doctor story of the year and after complaining that there wasn’t much of Sylvester McCoy in the main range, that has more than be sorted out in the bonus releases and this story. As the final story of the multi-Doctor series, there is a certain amount that this story has to achieve. The responsibility falls to Jonathan Morris who has had a cracking year with the what I consider story of the year adventure Protect and Survive and the equally entertaining The Curse of Davros. The thing that I knew about this story was that it would feature a character who would be getting her own series. Vienna Salvatori will be appearing in her own story in 2013 but now she plays someone who is after the Doctor.

Sylvester McCoy has had a really good year. After his relatively light involvement in the main range, he has been great in everything he has been in and it continues in this. As much fun as it is when the Seventh Doctor is with Ace and Hex, he seems to thrive when he is on his own. Two of the three stories that he did in 2011 were brilliant and he is just as good as in those stories. He was superb from start to finish. Chase Masterson plays Vienna and she has some history in the sci-fi genre having played Leeta in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1995-1999). She was exactly what this story needed. She sounded like she should have her own TV show and the way that Masterson plays the role in a way that is never dull, never repetitive and something that the Doctor Who world hasn’t had before. I loved the character of Talbar and Horval. It seems like Morris has taken a leaf from Robert Holmes’ book of having an amusing double act in his story. Eve Karpf (Talbar) and Alex Mallinson (Horval) worked brilliantly well together and at first I thought were better than Vienna. As the story settled down and Vienna took her rightful place.

As the story deals with timey-wimey things it only works because Jonathan Morris has done it and he has form with the 2003 story Flip-Flop which had two cds which could be listened to in either order and managed to make sense. I did at times lose what was going on but it wasn’t long before I found a thread in the story again.  I found the idea of Monkey bats and flying snails to be highly amusing and it could only happen in Doctor Who.

I thought it was a rather good story end for this series. It starts off really well and settles down in the middle before picking up again to give a solid end. But for me what makes this story worth listening to are the characters. That is what you get in a Jonathan Morris story, a good plot but very strong characters. As a series, I would say that it’s the second best series behind the Seventh Doctor series. I thought that The Burning Prince was the best story of the series followed by this one. It was an interesting idea to build a series round three different Doctors and it worked rather well. Whether a Vienna story would, only time would tell but on the basis of this story I think there is potential.

Voyage to Venus (2012)

Voyage to Venus is the first of two special Jago and Litefoot releases. At the end of the fourth and most recent series, the sixth Doctor invites Jago and Litefoot to join him on an adventure.  The thing about this release was that it was released a month early which to my recollection has never happened before, certainly since I have been a subscriber. Anyway the story takes place on Venus which is being run by women who live in a city above the clouds and pretty soon the Doctor, Jago and Litefoot are involved in a war between the original inhabitants and the women.

After being glad that Love and War was made because it was the start point for the Benny/Ace/Seventh Doctor part of his timeline. I’m glad that Jago and Litefoot have finally got to travel in the TARDIS. It’s been something that I have been looking forward to since I first watched The Talons of Weng-Chiang. But Voyage to Venus and the next adventure can’t be just about that and I’m happy to say that it isn’t. The story is pretty straight forward but amusing from start to finish. The reaction of two Victorian gentlemen finding themselves not only in a spaceship that’s bigger on the inside than the outside but on another planet in another time was what you would expect. I found Jago’s reaction to me very amusing though I thought that Jago being referred to as Jago-maam was somewhat tiresome after a while.  The idea that there is a planet run by women and men referred to as mere tools for reproduction aren’t a new idea but it works rather well in this context. The whole feel of this story was that it was more of a Jago and Litefoot story as opposed to a Doctor Who story. The stories that Jonathan Morris has written over the last couple of years have tended to focus more on being entertaining than opposed to be complicated and getting bogged down in paradoxes and stuff like that. He wrote Protect and Survive which I think is one of the best stories since Enemy of the Daleks and whilst Voyage to Venus isn’t on that level or that dark it’s still a good story with strong characters that you can either like of dislike.

Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter have always been a joy to listen to ever since Jago and Litefoot first appeared back in 2009 the fact that they are thrown into a totally unusual setting was always going to be one of the selling points of this story and they both put in brilliant performances. Benjamin in particular was good form as Jago seemed to be finding it harder to deal with that Litefoot. Colin Baker is effectively the guest star of this release which is a weird way of looking at it. The Doctor wasn’t here just to get Jago and Litefoot from A to B but was also there to be the Doctor and it’s another top performance from Colin Baker and its almost the end of another good year for this Doctor. The supporting performances were all very solid and no one really put a foot wrong which is always good.

Voyage to Venus is a wonderful adventure. It was what I hoped it would be and now we can say that Jago and Litefoot have travelled in the TARDIS.  This is the third of the special releases that I have listened to and they have all delivered in different ways. The next story sees Jago and Litefoot travel to the new world and hopefully it will live up to the standard that this story has set. On a side note, you can buy this on CD for £5 and on download for £1. Yes I there isn’t much that you could buy for £1 that makes you feel like you have got your moneys worth and for £1 there isn’t really much that you could grumble at.

Protect and Survive (2012)

Protect and Survive is the first story to feature Ace and Hex since 2010’s Lurkers at Sunlights Edge. Since then there have been references to the colour of the TARDIS. It’s the second script to come from Jonathan Morris after his very enjoyable opening story THE CURSE OF DAVROS. The title is borrowed from the 1970’s and 1980’s Government public information series which was designed to tell UK citizens how to protect themselves during a nuclear attack. The story starts off with Ace and Hex in the TARDIS and no sign of the Doctor, to add to their worries the Cloister Bell. This pretty much indicates that this isn’t going to be a nice happy bunny rabbits story with rainbows.  The story focuses on Ace and Hex and as the TARDIS lands we encounter Maggie and Albert who are a nice couple who are just doing what needs to be done to get themselves. There is a note made that history has been changed and that’s

It’s the end of episode two before the Doctor turns up. It’s quite a bold thing to do on the face of it because it means that the companions have to drive the story and Philip Olivier and Sophie Aldred are superb. The fact that there is no sign of Sylvester McCoy doesn’t register until he actually turns up. It’s 55 minutes that its just the four actors and throughout these two episodes I really did get a feeling that this is a very dark story. In fact I don’t think that a Doctor Who story (in my mind) has gone this dark since the Gary Russell era (pre-2007). It was quite a refreshing change of pace. At one point Hex is blinded and its well played by Olivier. These sort of scenes were quite harrowing and that’s quite an achievement for an audio play. If it had been on TV then I suspect it would have been even more shocking.I thought that the moment it really got quite dark was when they all got radiation sickness and they get progressively worse. They were trapped in the basement and had been there for nine days.

The moment when Maggie and Albert admit that they are aware that the same days are playing over and over again was quite a surprise and seemed to mark the moment when the story went from grim and dark mystery to proper sci-fi and the shift in tone was seamless. I didn’t see the whole timeloop thing coming. It was very clever and suited the story just right, then it gets even cleverer with the revelation that its all taking place in a sort of prison where Maggie and Albert are infact Elder Gods who have been put in this situation to be punished by the Doctor. It does seem quite a shocking thing for the Doctor to do but it fits in well with the latter stages of the Seventh Doctor’s era. The story poses some nice emotional scenes because there is one point where Ace and Hex have to decide who is going to stay and who is going to leave

I’ve been quite big on cliffhangers recently and this story has some pretty epic ones. Episode one is a nice once because it’s the build up of waiting for the heat blast to hit. The second one is better because it’s a chilling entrance for the Doctor who is overheard talking about being taught a lesson and I think it leads into a scene where Hex lets his frustrations with the Doctor come out. The final cliffhanger is also good one as we are introduced to Molok. The voice used seemed very familiar to me though I couldn’t think where. The Elder Gods were a very effective villain, their inclusion in the story was well handled.

There has been a thing in the Seventh Doctor stories over the last year or so about the colour of the TARDIS. It was white in ANGEL OF SCUTARI and black in ROBOPHOBIA and in this story its both. I am curious as to where this will end up. Protect and Survive is my favourite story of the year and possibly even for the last couple of years. It’s superbly written and directed,  It’s solid with a tiny cast and like the previous Ace and Hex series, the opening story leads into the next which makes for an epic cliffhanger.

The Guardians of Prophecy (2012)

The Lost Stories return after a brief break and it’s the return of the Sixth Doctor Lost Stories. The story sees the return of the Melkur who previously appeared in the 1981 adventure ‘The Keeper of Traken’ where the Master was using the Melkur as a TARDIS. In this story the Doctor and Peri arrive on Serenity which is one of the few places not wiped out in Logopolis. The story sees the rise of Malador who has been in stasus for a very long time. The plot is relatively straight forward which I was relieved at because at the moment all I want is for there to be simple or near straight-forward adventures and Johnny Byrne and Jonathan Morris have managed to accomplish this. It did seem to get a bit confusing towards the end but it kept hold of itself enough for me to still follow what was going on.

Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are a good double act and it’s a shame they don’t do more stories together. You can pretty much guarantee that both will manage to get the best out of the Yellow Pages and so as this story has a good plot they have trouble getting a handle on this story. I found Baker’s performance to be on the usual level that we expect from him. Nicola Bryant did a good job and was good in her part of the plot strand. It’s good how out of all the companions from the classic era, Bryant is the one who’s voice hasn’t really changed over the years (Sarah Sutton being the exception). Graham Cole is for me an interesting piece of casting as he had previously appeared in Doctor Who as a Cyberman and also quite ironically as Melkur in Keeper. I think that he had a good voice for radio and the character of Ebbko was quite a fun one and was possibly a nice bit of lightness in what at times was very serious. Another piece of good casting was that of Simon Williams as Guardian. Williams (soon to be in Counter Measures) was the best of the guest stars, I liked how the character just sounded so good. Stephen Thorne as Malador is always enjoyable and in this Thorne gave the character of Malador something that made the character one of the best baddies that we have had in these lost stories since perhaps the Celestial Toymaker.

The casting was good and large chunks of this story was very good. How good would it have been on TV? I think it would have worked well on TV even in by 1980’s standards. My enthusiasm for the Lost Stories has wained over the last few releases as the major Lost Stories have now been made and anything else is something that existed probably on a single A4 piece of paper. It’s not the best Lost Story that there has been but it is certainly better than other Sixth Doctor Lost Stories such as Hollows of Time and Point of Entry.

The Valley of Death (2012)

The Valley of Death is the second of the Lost Stories from the Fourth Doctor Box Set, this story came from the idea of Philip Hinchcliffe who was producer of Doctor Who from 1974 to 1977 and oversaw some of the greatest Doctor Who stories of the classic era. This story has a certain similarity to ‘The Seeds of Doom’ in that it spends a part of the story in an restricted environment before moving to more surburbian surroundings. In this story the Doctor and Leela join an expedition led by the grandson of some explorer from over 100 years before. However once they get to the jungle things start going slightly wrong. We actually get to meet the grandfather that Perkins the younger had been talking about. What we have is a fun idea that for the grandfather only a few weeks had passed but to the Doctor and the crew it had by over a century. This was due to a time bubble that was a convenient but effectively used and became quite important over the course of these adventures. That is one of the good things about this story is that there is nothing that seems pointless. It’s a straight forward adventure which doesn’t rely on complexities to tell a story which is what I like about the Hinchcliffe era of the show.

The story is far more enjoyable than ‘Foe from the Future’ because it only has four episodes as opposed to Foe’s six. The story has a stronger for half because I found that whilst the story was in the jungle it felt quite good yet when it moved into London and the business with clones of humans in order that UNIT wouldn’t fight for fear of killing the Doctor and others it seemed to stumble a bit. The story is still quite enjoyable because of Tom Baker who’s infectious personality appears in abundance throughout this story. Louise Jameson has impressed me in the stories that I have heard this year. In the companion chronicles that she has done there has always been something missing in her performances and its clear that it was someone of Baker’s stature because Jameson’s performances have been great. The supporting performances were also very good David Killick plays the role of Cornelius Perkins very well. It’s clear he is a very stupid character who has more money than sense though he thinks he has honourable intentions. Killick makes you believe this. Another good character was Valerie Carlton as played by Jane Slavein (who appeared in the 1993 radio play ‘Paradise of Death’). As the only other female character she started off as an unlikeable journalist but by the end had shown herself to be a strong and very likeable character.

It’s not a perfect story because as I mentioned earlier it does start to lose some momentum in the early stages of the second half but you sort of go with it as Tom Baker is wonderful as the Doctor and is complimented by Louise Jameson. As with all the Lost Stories that Big Finish produce I find myself asking if we have missed anything by this story not being on TV and to be honest for the first time my answer is yes and no. There are things that would have looked great on TV but there’s a feeling that they just wouldn’t have been able to pull it off like Big Finish have done.

The Tom Baker section of Big Finish goes from strength to strength and this something to be enjoyed.

The Curse of Davros (2012)

Exactly one year before this release we were treated to ‘The Crimes of Thomas Brewster’ and in particular to one Flip Jackson. To be honest I was so focused on Brewster and Evelyn that I didn’t notice Flip so when I heard that the character would be returning in a series of adventures, my reaction was kind of ‘hmmm’. The first monthly release of 2012 sees the return of Davros who hadn’t been seen in a Big Finish play since 2005’s ‘Terror Firma’ though the character did appear in his own series in 2006 but its been too long since the Daleks’ creator appeared in Doctor Who. The story starts off with the Doctor acting very strangley. To be honest it was clear something wasn’t quite right because everything the Doctor said was un-Doctor like. Jonathan Morris has written a story that has one of the most imaginative uses for the Daleks and Davros ever. The idea that the Doctor and Davros have swapped bodies may not be original in some formats but for Doctor Who it was totally brilliant. The title was also very clever because the curse of Davros is being Davros. Normally Davros would want to kill the Doctor but in this story he wants the Doctor to suffer in his body and know what its like the be in the condition. This is quite ruthless and far more sinister than a straight forward extermination.

The Davros/Dalek thing aside, the story also moves from 2012 England to 1815 Belguim where we are treated to two historical figures. Napoleon Bonapatre who’s other Doctor Who credit was of course in the 1964 adventure ‘The Reign of Terror’. The story sees Bonaparte using Dalek technology to help win the Battle of Waterloo after being shown what will happen. This is the where the majority of the story takes place and despite everything being thrown into the mix, the result is a satisfying balance between wanting Davros and Dalek stuff and the Waterloo stuff. There were some nice scenes between Jared and Flip which did a great job in making Flip look like the companion and doesn’t make Jared look like Rory who is a weak character than has only recently got a backbone. In this story Jared does get some of his own action which makes him look like what he is which is a guy from 2012 thrown into 1815 with Binaparte and Daleks.

It’s always good to have Terry Molloy in a Doctor Who because no matter what role he is playing whether it is Davros or someone else he instantly lifts the scene that he is in. In this he sounds like Davros but has to act like Colin Baker. That’s a big ask but did remind me of the episode of Red Dwarf where Rimmer and Lister swap bodies and it sounds like an easy thing but in reality its quite difficult but credit to both Molloy and Baker for pulling it off. It’s fair to say that Colin Baker’s Doctor didn’t have the strongest year ever in 2011 but this is an absolutely cracking story. Having to play Davros was a big achievement for Baker and its actually quite fun when I was trying to figure out why he was the proper Doctor. Considering I wasn’t bowled over by the idea of a character that I never remembered being a companion, I have to say that I was very impressed with the character of Flip. Lisa Greenwood is sort of an amalgamation of Rose Tyler and Martha Jones because she is young and can be brash like Tyler but seems to be more understanding like Jones. I think that this character does have potential and I was hoping for a minute or so that Jared would join the TARDIS crew because it would be quite a good idea but then remembered that its been done on TV and it highlights some issues I have with that set up.

The Curse of Davros is a very good start to 2012. Jonathan Morris has written another story that doesn’t get bogged down in science fiction complexities but just goes from A to B in the most entertaining manner. At no point did it become boring or slow or anything that required to stop and think. It has a strong plot and also has the Daleks and Davros to help add superb icing to a very nice cake.