The Axis of Insanity (2004)

Its been 14 months since the awful Nekromanteia. Its almost long enough for me to want a Fifth Doctor adventure with Peri and Erimem. Not that the previous story was their fault but their tainted by association. The Axis of Insanity is written by Simon Furman and he manages to resurrect the team that has become quite a nice combination. The Axis is something that was created by the Timelords to prevent alternate timelines from contaminating the primary timelines. This is quite a good idea and this is where my hopes for the story started to climb.

As with any Doctor Who story there is a bad guy and in this story it’s the Jester. The Jester is very well played by Garrick Hogan. It’s Hogan’s energetic performance that really sells the threat that the Doctor faces and you know he cant just con his way out of trouble like he normally would. There a grim moment when Jarra To is trying to con Peri into murdering. If Peri had been conned into murdering Peri then it would have been a truly shocking moment. Thankfully it would never have happened and so we can all move on.

All the main cast perform brilliantly and show why they are maturing nicely. Like a fine wine. Davison does a great job against the Jester and reminds me of the Doctor/Master relationship that we all know and love. Morris and Bryant are playing Peri and Erimem like sisters which is the best way for these two to go. The fact that Peri could have killed Erimem tested their sisterly relationship.

I liked the return of the idea about a Tardis graveyard. It was first mentioned in Omega (2003) and it was good that they continued with the continuity by mentioning this. The overall feeling that I have of this story was that it fully made up for Nekromanteia. The story was probably a bit mis-paced at times but that didn’t really bother my enjoyment as with the plot and the great characters along with some cracking music and sound effects I thought this was a very good story.

Time Works (2006)

Time Works is a very curious story. Which is one word that I would associate with all of McGann’s adventures. Steve Lyons’ previous scripts were the very good The Fires of Vulcan (2000) and the very complex Colditz in 2001. As Big Finish is fighting to keep people interested in their product instead of the newly polished TV version, its bold stories like this that show why Big Finish are so good.

The Doctor, Charley and C’Rizz arrive where the people on this planet are frozen in time. When they start moving the Doctor learns that everyone is obsessed with time. They build their lives around it. Now normally something like this would bore me to tears but what Lyons has managed to do is create a world with characters that are very interesting and have a lot of things going for them. For one the minor characters in this are written so well that when they are killed I felt really sad.

A name that stood out to me when I read the casting list was Tracey Childs who previously starred in the Lyons written Colditz. She plays the Figurehead. The character has been created by the occupants of the old world who we learn we wiped out by a meteor because they essentially couldn’t be bothered to come up with technology to prevent it. Paul McGann, India Fisher and Conrad Westmaas all performed very well with a script that gives them lots to do. In fact the partnership between Charley and C’Rizz was one of the best that these two have had for quite sometime.

Whilst I don’t think that this was as good as Other Lives I do think that it’s a better offering than I thought it would be. All the main cast performed well and were well supported by the guest cast members. Whilst I felt that the first episode was the weaker of the four once you get past part one. Lyons has written another good story and Edward Salt has done a good job keeping the pace move at a nice steady pace.

The Twilight Kingdom (2004)

The next instalement of the Eighth Doctor adventures in the divergent universe. In this story the Doctor, Charley and C’Rizz arrive in a jungle which is overrun by soldiers. I really liked this story the first time that I listened to it. This is a first story from Will Shindler and he has written a story that has to wrap up the Divergent Universe until it gets resumed in the next series.

The plot does have a big plot point which would be false to call it a plot twist seen as if you look at the front cover you will know what the caves are actual living beings. It was probably a bit of an own goal for Big Finish to do that on the cover. It was great to have the Kro’ka back. His absence in The Natural History of Fear was noticed and so to have him back even briefly was great. Stephen Perring was a brilliant piece of casting,

The acting is of the highest quality that there has been during this series. From the main actors to the supporting artists everyone provides a superb performance. Paul McGann is slightly different from recent adventures. The Doctor has now been without his TARDIS for a few adventures and quite ingeniously McGann portrays as the Doctor as someone who is starting to miss the TARDIS which is a part of his character. Off the supporting cast I found Alan Rothwell to be very good as Janto who is a scientist who has been isolated. C’Rizz and Charley do their companion thing brilliantly and are typically split up and do their best to help move the story along. India Fisher and Conrad Westmaas are gelling well.

This story continues the good run of adventures. Apart from Invaders from Mars which I thought was dreadful I think that we have now had a good run of stories which have all varied in terms of what they offer but still manage to hit the spot in enjoyment. This is the last story of the series so this story had to help move the overall story arc along a bit and if I had to make a criticism then it would be like the previous story and it didn’t really move the story along bar a little bit at the end. It should have been more. That said it’s still a damn good stand alone story.

The Natural History of Fear (2004)

The Natural History of Fear is the third story of the third series for the EightH Doctor series and also the third story in the Divergent Universe. What is quite unusual for this story is that there is a list of actors on the back of the CD but no credit for the characters they play. Obviously we know the roles that Paul McGann, India Fisher and Conrad Westmaas play but unless you know the actors personally you wouldn’t be able to attach their voices to a name. This is also the first story to come from Jim Mortimore who also does a Nicholas Briggs and does the Music and Sound Effects.

You know how the Philip Hinchliffe Era was essentially an homage/rip off of all the horror genre that be recreated on a modest BBC TV budget? Well it seems the Jim Morimore read George Orwell’s 1984. The setting is Light City and the Doctor, Charley and C’Rizz are in trouble for daring to ask question which is a crime according to the city laws. This is C’Rizz’s second story as a companion and he has to play a different side to the character. I don’t know how smart this was as it’s the first few stories that determines how successful the character is going to be.

I do have a problem with the choice of when this story has been used. The thing about Scherzo and Creed of the Kromon is that they could only really have been set in the Deivergent Universe but with this story it could quite easily have been set in a futuristic Earth or something similar. Also the story didn’t really do much with progressing the story arc very much. Apart from the beginning we are not treating to anything new. That said as a story its darn good.

As a part of the divergent universe it probably wont be up there because of how little it moves that particular story arc along but as a single stand alone story then its wonderful with a great plot really great characters and music and sound effects (done by the writer remember) that help create a wonderful atmosphere which falls under the should have been made for TV category.

Something Inside (2006)

Something Inside is one of my favourite Eighth Doctor adventures. After a run of hit and miss adventures, this was the first one that I loved from start to finish. From the opening moment where the Doctor doesn’t know what’s going on there is a lot of mystery going on. Trevor Baxendale wrote the very dark and grim The Dark Flame back in 2003 and manages to keep the dark tones in Something Inside but to a lesser extent.

The Doctor we get in this story has had his memory wiped so he doesn’t know who he is which allows for some interesting moments and we get to see a different McGann Doctor to what we are used to. There is a ‘Lost’ feel to it with the Doctor’s interrogation taking place in the present and the bits with Charley and C’Rizz taking place in the past. What we have is knowing what happens to the Doctor but we are then told in a agonisingly slow way how he got there. All the action takes place in The Cube which is a prison for telepaths. The prisoners have been genetically engineered to be telepathic who can kill with a single thought. Once they had served their purpose they were chucked in the Cube.

It’s very rare that real life events make it into a Doctor Who but I thought it was very strange how the Doctor whilst trying to spur on Charley and C’Rizz mentions how Liverpool Football Captain Steven Gerrard inspired his team to win the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final against AC Milan when they were 3-0 down. Possibly the most surreal moment in DW history. The music is also something that I found slightly odd. To start off with I found it very different and unusual but by part three it was starting to grate on me.

C’Rizz is on brilliant form in this story. Since they have left the divergent universe C’Rizz has gone on a different journey. Conrad Westmaas has really stepped up a gear over the last few stories. In this story C’Rizz almost goes mad due to being in the cube. India Fisher takes a back seat out of the three main actors. I think that whilst she did her bit in this story she wasn’t really given much to do like the Doctor and C’Rizz. John Killoran was probably one of the best guest stars in this story as Gordon Latch. The character was slightly unnerving which suited the setting of this story.

Trevor Baxendale has written a story that is better than The Dark Flame and will probably be difficult to beat if he writes story number 3. Nicholas Briggs was the director of this story which doesn’t really surprise me. Briggs is one of the best directors Big Finish has and did a brilliant job. Something Inside is a very strong script with well designed characters that are brilliantly acted. The cliffhangers are slightly below par but because the story is so good that its merely a blip. Nothing could ruin my enjoyment of this fine fine piece of sci-fi drama.

Embrace the Darkness (2002)

Embrace the Darkness is one of those stories that is going to divide opinion. I think that it’s a story that requires a lot of imagination from people. It falls on Nicholas Briggs to try and get what seems like a complex story and make it work. The Doctor and Charley travel to the Cimmerian system. The reason is simple enough, the Doctor wants to know what really happened to its sun. It seems to be a trait now that the Doctor goes where he wants to go as opposed to arriving somewhere by accident.

The story does have a flaw to it and that it doesn’t move the Charley story arc along any further. Admittedly with six stories in the series there is room to have just one that doesn’t deal with the main story arc however it would have been nice that they did something. Like The Chimes of Midnight, there is a lot of eeriness about this story. The sound effects and music help create a very dark image. The ROSM robots were a brilliantly thought of creation and fantastically used in radio. The moment where she tries to destroy Charley was quite a dramatic moment.

This is the third strong story in a row and McGann is fast becoming just as popular a Doctor as Davison, Baker and McCoy. India Fisher is also becoming just as good as any companion in the Big Finish range. She is becoming more and more strong and is a very good actress alongside Paul McGann. Nicola Boyce is one of the best guest stars. She plays Orllensa who is a very frightened leader who has her eyes removed and plays that brilliantly. It was quite a brave thing to do by Briggs but it paid off. Nicholas Briggs as well as writing and directing this story also did what he does best and that was the Cimmerian Voice. It was very spooky and I loved it.

Embrace the Darkness is an inspired piece of drama. It’s a really imaginative story. The plot was sound and the pace of it was nice and steady. Nicholas Briggs has done a superb job coming up with a story that relies upon sound. The ending could have done with a little bit of tightening up but apart from that it’s a nice release.

Nekromanteia (2003)

Nekromanteia is bad. There I’ve said it. It ranks as one of my least favourite stories that Big Finish have ever produced. It pains me to write this but it’s true. It’s unnecessarily grim. There are threats, murders but more shockingly implications of rape. Now this isn’t Brookside or Hollyoaks but Doctor Who where the worst thing should be an invasion by Daleks.

The Doctor, Peri and Erimem arrive in the middle of a war. The war is between the Corporation which goes without a name which not surprisingly cares more about improving its profits and depriving the workforce out of every penny. On the other side are the witches who like nothing more than to kill members of the corporation.

Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant and Caroline Morris are given absolutely nothing to work with. Granted Erimem has a slightly different journey in this story when she is nearly raped and beaten. Family stuff I think you’ll admit. Austen Atkinson have written a poor script had potential but throws all the good stuff and replaces it with truly awful stuff. I can’t believe that Davison, Bryant or even Morris objected to this stuff. There is nothing that justifies what happens in this story. Unless the story is Prime Suspect.

I think that this story should be listened to in order to be believed. It’s a shame that the Fifth Doctor wasn’t given a better story but ultimately it had to happen sooner or later I suppose. The corporation is unoriginal and the witches sacrificing member of the corporation just for the hell of it is also unoriginal.

Not a good story in any sense.