The Last Adventure: The End of the Line (2015)

The Last Adventure is the special release which gives Colin Baker the send off that he deserves. The unceremonious way in which he was dumped is not the way that any actor in the role should be treated. If anyone was going to give him the send off that he deserves then Big Finish was going to be the one to do it. There was a slight problem before I even started to press play on my generic MP3 player. The audiobook version of the download is in one block which is four hours and eight minutes which is a long track and with my mp3 player it cant do what an ipod can do and pick up where you left off if you want to play a different track so I have to remember where I was before I can even start. They did this stunt with the latest New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield and its one that I hope they stop soon.

Anyway back to the first part of this series which is called The End of the Line and is the debut of Constance Clarke who is going to make her debut in the main range in September but this its hard to imagine that her debut would have been better in that story. I have to say that this was a truly superb start to the boxset because its atmospheric and also all the performances are perfect. I like how the Master is bought into this story but writers Simon Barnard & Paul Morris have come up with a genius way of getting around the fact that Anthony Ainley isn’t alive and that is by saying that Keith Potter is an avatar that the Master has created because his plan is so dangerous.

I also loved the fact that the Master went with such as normal name as Keith Potter because it’s not the sort of name that he would have gone for because he normally would have gone for something that had a tie in with Master so it was a surprise really. The appearance of the Valeyard at the end of the piece ended it on a really strong note and it immediately increased the tension. Even though he has a little speech, Michael Jayston came close to stealing the show. That is how good he is. I was slightly distracted by Anthony Howell because I am so use to hearing him in The Avengers and he uses exactly the same voice but does actually give a different performance as Tim Hope.

Colin Baker seems to be in a new stride. It almost becomes boring to write that he doesn’t give a terrible performance. However he seems to be better than normal and I think that he is just enjoying himself and it almost sounds like he is stress free (despite whats going on). Miranda Raison is perfect casting as Constance. I love how it seems like it feels they have been together for years even though this is their first outing. Its difficult to pin down exactly what it is about the character that I like but there is something and both Baker and Raison are going to make a good combination in the main range.

The opening story of this boxset had to hit the ground running and it does it very well indeed. By the end of this story I was glad that I had bought it and was looking forward to carrying on with the rest of it. I just wish that they hadn’t put it all in one release.

Murder at Moorsey Manor (2014)

After being wowed by the previous story, I had a renewed enthusiasm about the remainder of this series. This penultimate adventure is a whodunit which isn’t something that I was expecting from this adventure. This release is written by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris who were behind the Sacrifyers series and it’s perhaps easy to tell. Like the first story, there is more than a subtle sprinkling of Holmes and Watson as Jago and Litefoot arrive at Moorsey Manor where everyone has been summoned by Moriaty and are dressed like Sherlock Holmes. The story starts off in a slightly light hearted story but soon turns very dark and I quite like that because it’s something that this range does quite well and after a while people start to be bumped off.

I like the setting because it has a sort of base under siege vibe to it whilst feeling like a murder mystery adventure. The sort of thing Agatha Christie would have written but it’s the setting of what I am imagining to be a lovely house is what sells this story and credit should go to Howard Carter who has done a great job in this and the other two stories to create the perfect atmosphere for the story to do its job.

The performances were all very good with Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter being at the top of their game.  The supporting cast were all very good and they all good in their respected roles and they all sounded like they had just come out of a Miss Marple or a Poirot story.

Being that it’s the penultimate adventure, it ends on a cliffhanger which means that the final adventure is going to be epic and it was one that I didn’t see coming but it was quick and it did the job perfectly and it’s a great ending to the story. I thought that whilst this adventure wasn’t as good as ‘The Night of 1000 stars’, it was still an enjoyable adventure and this series continues to be a highly enjoyable one.

Council of War (2013)

John Levine is the last of the companions from the Third Doctor era to tell a Companion Chronicle. He is an interesting individual and I base that on purely on the DVD commentary of ‘Inferno’, Levine does his own track which at the time I thought was down to him not being available but it seems like he wanted to be on his own. Whatever the reason for this, it is a commentary that you should listen to.

The Council of War is the final story of the penultimate season of the Companion Chronicles and new writers have been chosen to pen this story. The story initially deals with ghosts and missing people and with all due respect to the writers, its not the most exciting topic in my opinion but I am willing to be won over. However what starts off as a ghost story becomes something quite different and I like how it pulls you in an just changes what you think its going to be. The story takes place after ‘The Green Death’ and Jo has left and the Doctor isn’t reacting well to her exit. Also Mike Yates isn’t there due to what happened in that story. Benton has to go undercover by pretending to be a councillor.

Sinead Kenean plays Margery Phipps. The name sounded familiar and a bit of work on Wikipedia led to me find out that she played the cactus looking alien Addams in ‘The End of Time’. Marjorie Phipps is an MP and considers herself to be more of a hippie than a member of parliament. However what seems like a character that is going to get dragged into the story is in fact someone who’s involvement was always part of the story. It takes until the second episode (or 35 minutes) to explain to Margery Phipps and more importantly to us to explain why she is on trial. It turns out that in 1992 she would become Prime Minister. The planet is rather amusingly called Kettering after Phipps. It seems like they have got all of their beliefs and understandings from a book that she wrote.

It was something different that Margery was trying to fit what she saw into something that she could comprehend. She thinks that they have landed in the council archives. Before we know what’s going on the Margery has been put on trial and with what seems like flimsier evidence that what we got in ‘The Trial of a Timelord’, she is found guilty and Benton gets to do a breakout.

The cliffhanger was ok. The line that Benton gives about them not being on Earth was one up on “I don’t think were in Kansas anymore”. It’s delivered perfectly fine and perhaps the right way to end the episode. The second half essential becomes a battle with Margery. It’s well into the second episode before the Doctor makes an appearance after Benton and Margery have worked hard up until this point.

There was a nice jokey line which was similar to ‘Reverse the polarity of the Neutron Flow’. It was a nice bit of humour after the past few minutes of drama. There was even an intergalactic version of UNIT called UGIT which sounded quite funny and also double up as an insult. The story was wrapped up in a just the right way and I didn’t think that it was rushed. John Levine’s long awaited debut in the range is a good one. Hopefully this wont be the last time that we hear from him because I thought that he put in a good performance from start to finish. I liked the Benton that we got here because it seemed like a more serious Benton and there was no sign of the loveable yet slightly simple Benton. Hopefully the next Benton story would carry this on.

As the final story of the Seventh Series I thought it was a good way to sign off. The writing was solid and the pace of the story was just right. It was the right length and I really liked the humour. In short, Council of War is a highly enjoyable adventure.