Jamie Revell

This story is set shortly after Owen joins Torchwood and sees him called to a hospital by a former colleague. Naturally, something is very wrong in the hospital, with the full details of the mystery being slowly revealed over the course of the story. The colleague is also behaving strangely, and much of the story explores her relationship with Owen, building on how he dealt with his fiancee's death and how he sees himself deep down.

Some of this foreshadows what will eventually happen to him in the TV series, although that's a fairly minor element in a creepy tale about a deathly quiet hospital night shift and a patient who seems to be hallucinating following a tragic loss. It's one of the better solo outings for Owen, drawing on his medical background rather than some of the more overt aspects of his personality more commonly in display on TV.

As the title and cover both suggest, this is a story about Rhys and Ianto having a barbecue behind Rhys' flat. As one might expect, there's a bit more to it than this, and, yes, there is very definitely a science fiction element to what follows. Much of which is, as in many of the best Torchwood audios, weird and mysterious with a threat that's both creepy and physically dangerous.

But, for all that takes up a fair proportion of the runtime, it's just a setup to explore the real themes of the story. It's partly a clash between Ianto's middle-class aesthetics and Rhys' more working-class preferences. But it's also about masculinity, grief, and human connection as the pair are literally forced together and have to ultimately confront the real reasons behind the “lads' night out”. Moving from humour to tension to pathos, and with well-written dialogue and a great performance from the two leads, it's another strong story that really isn't what you expect it's going to be.

Andy is performing a dull stake-out in Llandaff when Owen unexpectedly joins him; neither of them turns out to be there by coincidence. From there, the story is initially one of investigation, which leads into something more dramatic, with the second half dealing with the consequences of what they have uncovered.

An unusual feature is that the story takes place entirely inside Andy's police car (although why the driver's seat is on the left in the cover picture is just another mystery). While scenes do take place outside it, at least one character is always in the car, listening to the other over a headset - and thus no more able to see what is happening than the listener is. It's a device that Big Finish have used before, and it does work well on audio, turning the limitations of the medium into an advantage at specific points in the narrative.

The story itself is, when you get down to it, uncomplicated without any real twists beyond the nature of the alien device Owen is looking for. What works well, though, is the interaction between the two main characters (there are only a couple of brief cameos from other voice actors) as they react to the situation they find themselves in and discuss whether they should take advantage of it. Owen's undead status plays into this, and there's also a parallel to the real-world Horizon post office scandal, of all things. Plus a toy monkey.

The story opens with a woman approaching Torchwood with a seemingly impossible story that hints that something alien or supernatural must have happened to her. As Ianto investigates, it soon becomes clear to the listener that something else is also very wrong but that none of the characters in the story are able to notice it.

This makes for an off-kilter story, although far from the strangest thing Big Finish have done with the series. To begin with, it's largely a procedural, with Ianto trying to solve the mystery but not seeing the bigger picture of which it's a part. In the later portions, the threat builds up and it's quite close to the end before we get the explanation, told through a series of flashbacks.

Ianto might seem an odd choice for the Torchwood protagonist here, but that's part of the point, and it's hard to imagine any of the others working so well. There's also a good performance from the guest star, a woman out of her depth and relying on the man who makes the coffee (this is probably set during season 1 of the TV show) to help her out of her increasingly dire situation. There's a good mixture of action and sci-fi mystery with the odd dash of humour and the whole idea is really rather clever.

I have not really been a fan of these Victorian-era releases, but I have to say that this one is better than the others I have listened to so far. Admittedly, it has a similar flaw in that it's hard to see Queen Victoria travelling to a remote location with only a single bodyguard and no other retinue - even if her motive for coming at all is plausible this time around. But, if you can ignore that, it's a good story.

The set-up is that the Queen is visiting Flat Holm, the Welsh island from which the world's first over-sea radio transmissions were made in 1897. There are some minor differences from real history to accommodate the plot, but the radio experiments were real, and form the basis of the story here when they begin to pick up an apparently alien signal. With the Queen and four other people trapped on the island overnight, each tries to deal differently with the signal's message of apparent doom.

Those who like neat resolutions and answers are going to be disappointed, with much of the story shrouded in mystery. (For what it's worth, I found the Torchwood agent's explanation for events the most plausible, and there's little to contradict it... but nothing much to confirm it, either). It's clear from early on how things are going to unfold, if not necessarily how they'll conclude, but the story manages keep up the suspense as to how we're going to get there. The portrayal of Victoria is stronger than in the previous releases, making her more imperious but still sympathetic. With relatively little action, this is instead a psychological horror story exploring differing attitudes to the building sense of paranoia among the characters.

Sgt Andy investigates a series of unexplained deaths at a simulated Mars base just off the A474. The result is part techno-thriller and part murder mystery, with more than a passing nod to 2001: A Space Oddessy. It's also, of course, a base under siege, although here without the usual connotations of alien invasion that we'd get in a Doctor Who story of that type.

Despite the base in question being in a fenced-off quarry near Neath, the story still has the sense of claustrophobia that being set on a real Mars base might have, but with the added frustration that the real world is just somewhere outside the door, yet apparently beyond reach. There's also a plausible sense of the crew cracking up under the strain, forced to be cooped up with another for a protracted period. Whether you'll like it will depend on what you expect; there are no sinister aliens here and, while the story is tense, it isn't regular horror, either.

It's a change of pace for Torchwood, keeping things mixed up with something that feels more like hard sci-fi, or even a detective story, than the usual offerings. For me at least, that's welcome once in a while, and this is a well-done story in that vein, keeping a serious tone despite the absurdity of the underlying situation.

While Torchwood tries, with varying degrees of success, to save the city from aliens, life in Cardiff goes on around them. This is the story of the first three seasons of the show, as told from the perspective of a couple of staff working at a cafe on the Bay where Ianto is a regular customer. In this respect, it's somewhat like the earlier release Broken but the story covers a longer period and is focused on the lives of the guest characters rather than on Ianto and Jack.

A knowledge of the TV series is clearly needed for this since, while there are several side incidents peppered in among them, there are multiple references to the events of specific TV episodes. There's a real sense of just how bad things can get in Cardiff in the series as its events have repercussions on ordinary people that we rarely see in it - most of whom, of course, have no idea what's really going on. As the story unfolds, Ianto's relationship with the cafe staff goes through ups and downs as (from the listener's perspective) the coming events of Children of Earth hang over things.

It's a great slice-of-story with a strong SF twist. There is the odd moment of humour, a fair bit of pathos, and good characterisation and strong acting from everyone involved. If you're after action or horror, there's very little of that, since it really is just the story of a cafe struggling to get by in difficult circumstances. But as a character study and a look at Torchwood's actions from the outside, it's an excellent story with plenty to reward fans.

The twist in this story, if you can call it that, is that it's mostly told from the perspective of a taxi driver ferrying Tosh around Cardiff. Which has the potential to be one of those Torchwood stories that's about the effect that the organisation has on the regular residents of the area and somewhat is, although the chase she's being led on across the city is at least as important. However, unlike some other stories with that premise, this one feels rather slight.

It's not bad by any means. Nice touches include the driver trying to deal with her family over the phone between the sci-fi elements, and, in particular, how her detailed knowledge of the city and its inhabitants is key to saving the day. It may well be that those more familiar with Cardiff than I will get a lot out of this that I didn't. Numerous real-world locations are mentioned and the story makes good use of the geography, in a way that I'm sure I'd appreciate were I a local.

But I'm not and, while this story certainly works and has some good acting, there wasn't much else in it that stood out. For instance, there's no particular reason that Tosh is the Torchwood character here, beyond the fact that any of the others might have overshadowed the taxi driver's side of the narrative. It's a decent, middling story, not bad but not remarkable either.

I went into this not expecting to like it much; it doesn't have a particularly good reputation and the Victorian Torchwood stories have mostly not been to my taste. But, in this case, about the only flaw is that, for obvious reasons, it doesn't include any of the Torchwood regulars. And, if one simply takes it as a Victorian ghost story, that doesn't matter. (It may also be noteworthy that the only Victorian Torchwood story I previously liked was by the same author).

The basic plot here is that a psychiatrist is invited to see a patient who claims to be Queen Victoria and then listens to her tale of how such a thing is possible. It's a supernatural ghost story, largely told by the madwoman (or is she?) that is both macabre and mysterious; it's not clear until almost the end how exactly the story is going to conclude. Considering that it's mostly narrated it's atmospheric and well-written with a great performance from Rowena Cooper. And, for once, the usual objections about Queen Victoria travelling without a retinue in these stories disappear, because that's the whole point.

Well, here's a thing I didn't expect to see for a long time, if at all: Christopher Eccleston returning to the role of the Doctor, albeit in an audio. But, nonetheless, here it is and, if it's not the strongest outing ever, it's certainly good enough to bring back some nostalgia for an often-overlooked era of modern Doctor Who. The blurb claims that it's “three new adventures” - but it isn't, it's one 3-hour story broken into three episodes in much the same way that Aliens of London and World War Three are undeniably a single story.

It's also rather complicated, playing about with time in a way that's more reminiscent of the Moffat era than anything in Eccleston's single season. Indeed, the story isn't even linear, with the first episode starting in media res and making extensive use of flashback - something that continues to a lesser extent in the following two episodes. This, on top of the fact that events occur out of order even for the characters and that they visit multiple different time periods and worlds and that, yes, the plot is about yet another threat to the existence of the universe means that Briggs is, arguably, trying a bit too hard with this one.

On the other hand, if you can follow the plot, there are enough positives to make it work. The villain, for instance, is working for more complex motives than at first appears to be the case - even if her reason for not explaining what she's doing earlier on, and saving herself a lot of trouble, is a bit thin. The constant scene changes, although they're filler in the sense that the core plot doesn't absolutely need them, do give a sense of scale and drama that a shorter story might lack, and it never really drags. Which is a considerable plus, given the length.

The story is probably intended to be set before Rose, although one could just as well argue that it's set during the seemingly brief gap between the TARDIS disappearing and then reappearing at the end of that episode (if you assume Nine is newly regenerated at the start of it). Either way, Rose isn't in it, and we have a surrogate companion instead, in the form of an indentured cook working in the canteen of a big corporation. She's one of the stronger points of the story, a worthy companion but one who would rather just find somewhere nice to live than traipse across the galaxy.

But the real joy is hearing Eccleston again, effortlessly slipping back into the character and sounding as if he's never been away. This may be a good, fun, outing, although it isn't a flawless one - but I suspect there's better to come.

Well, here's a thing I didn't expect to see for a long time, if at all: Christopher Eccleston returning to the role of the Doctor, albeit in an audio. But, nonetheless, here it is and, if it's not the strongest outing ever, it's certainly good enough to bring back some nostalgia for an often-overlooked era of modern Doctor Who. The blurb claims that it's “three new adventures” - but it isn't, it's one 3-hour story broken into three episodes in much the same way that Aliens of London and World War Three are undeniably a single story.

It's also rather complicated, playing about with time in a way that's more reminiscent of the Moffat era than anything in Eccleston's single season. Indeed, the story isn't even linear, with the first episode starting in media res and making extensive use of flashback - something that continues to a lesser extent in the following two episodes. This, on top of the fact that events occur out of order even for the characters and that they visit multiple different time periods and worlds and that, yes, the plot is about yet another threat to the existence of the universe means that Briggs is, arguably, trying a bit too hard with this one.

On the other hand, if you can follow the plot, there are enough positives to make it work. The villain, for instance, is working for more complex motives than at first appears to be the case - even if her reason for not explaining what she's doing earlier on, and saving herself a lot of trouble, is a bit thin. The constant scene changes, although they're filler in the sense that the core plot doesn't absolutely need them, do give a sense of scale and drama that a shorter story might lack, and it never really drags. Which is a considerable plus, given the length.

The story is probably intended to be set before Rose, although one could just as well argue that it's set during the seemingly brief gap between the TARDIS disappearing and then reappearing at the end of that episode (if you assume Nine is newly regenerated at the start of it). Either way, Rose isn't in it, and we have a surrogate companion instead, in the form of an indentured cook working in the canteen of a big corporation. She's one of the stronger points of the story, a worthy companion but one who would rather just find somewhere nice to live than traipse across the galaxy.

But the real joy is hearing Eccleston again, effortlessly slipping back into the character and sounding as if he's never been away. This may be a good, fun, outing, although it isn't a flawless one - but I suspect there's better to come.

Unlike the first release in the series, this really is what the blurb says it is: three separate hour-long stories. As before, all are set before the Doctor is travelling with Rose and, this time, we have one each for a contemporary, historical, and futuristic setting. But here, the stories are much more like what we got in most of the Ninth Doctor's TV run, rather than something more in the style of Moffat, as the first volume was. Eccleston is great in the role, really getting back into it, and bringing out the character's love of life.

Girl, Deconstructed – The contemporary story (which is to say, it's set around 2005) sees the Doctor responding to a distress call after dozens of teenagers have simultaneously vanished from Dundee. There isn't much mystery as to where they've gone, since that's revealed in the opening teaser, and the Doctor is able to work out the why almost instantly (although it takes him a while to explain it), leaving the story more focused on how to get them back again. Which basically consists of a lot of running about confusing people and building gadgets.

Arguably, not much happens in the story, and there isn't a real sense of threat, either. It's largely conversational, although this does result in a good portrayal of the relationship between a single parent and his teenage daughter – through whose eyes we see the disappearance, although supposedly many others are also involved. The companion surrogate is a police officer whose main role is to be alternately puzzled and exasperated by the Doctor; she's a necessary part of the story from a plot perspective but doesn't bring anything very notable. There are a few callbacks to the classic series, and a foreshadowing of an event in one of Nine's own TV episodes. Unfortunately, though, it's evident from early on where it's going and, the Doctor's chirpy eccentricity aside, not much happens on the way there. 3.5 stars.

Fright Motif – The second story is a more traditional “monster” story, although the monster is based on sound, rather than anything visible, and thus not the sort you're likely to see on TV. It's the historical one of this set, taking place in Paris in 1946, a city just recovering from a long occupation. There isn't a clear companion surrogate in this one, but the three guest characters are all worthwhile and bring out some of the themes of the era. Perhaps most notable is the concierge of the hotel where the story begins, who starts out just being obnoxious but is revealed to have greater depth as the story unfolds.

The result is a good Doctor Who story, with the monster chasing the characters across Paris, and bringing in modern themes as well as a feel for the burgeoning jazz scene of the time. (Some listeners may, however, be put off by the British-actor-doing-an-American accent thing; I'm not in the best position to judge that – although at least nobody's trying to pretend to be French). Like the TV era on which it is modelled, there are some humorous lines here and there, and a good mix of wackiness and seriousness from the Doctor that keeps it effective and enjoyable. 4 stars.

Planet of the End – Once again answering a distress call, the Doctor arrives on an uninhabited world used as a planet-sized graveyard. It's not the first time that particular concept has been used on the show, but here, it's a peaceful place, full of nature, rather than the spookier vibe that such settings normally go for. The story, of course, concerns the nature of the distress call and it's interesting to note that there isn't a monster in this one, with the villains instead being provided by sinister corporate types that appear in the opening teaser, but whose connection to events takes a while to become apparent.

The journey to getting there is, however, enjoyable, partly due to the commentary on it provided by the plant's automated caretaker, who effectively takes the companion role in this story despite initially distrusting the Doctor's motives. The changing scenery and the evolving nature of the threat keep things moving along more swiftly than they might otherwise. True, the villains are rather one-note and prone to expressing everything in corporate-speak, but the clever use of the caretaker offsets that and the story is overall an enjoyable one that manages to balance a sense of peril with the Doctor's positive outlook – without relying quite so much on the craziness. 4.5 stars.

The opening teaser sets up the premise as Owen discovers that Andy has a new girlfriend and there's something unusual about her that he is uniquely placed to sense. From there, though, the story does not necessarily go in the direction you expect, as we learn that she also has an unusual ability that draws Owen in. How he reacts to that and how the relationship between the two changes form the first part of the story, but then a shocking event intercedes and things begin to slowly spiral out of control.

Although Andy is important to this, the focus is primarily on Owen, with Gorman providing a strong performance as he struggles to keep his head above water and his ruthless and self-centred side clashes with his conscience. The ending might perhaps, be a little too neat, but there are limits to where one can go in a story set within the regular TV continuity and it works within the context of the show. This may not be gory, but it does get quite dark and, if the story manages to pull you along with Owen's plight, he's never entirely sympathetic. Andy's decency and dogged determination to do what's right are a different matter, but you know from the opening moments that he isn't going to get a happy ending...

And so here we are, after 275 releases over the course of more than two decades, at the very final story of Big Finish's flagship monthly range. From here on in, the individual Doctors will each have their own series, with less regular release schedules rather than being a slave to the calendar - or the two hour format. As the final release, it was inevitable that it, like the very first one back in 1999, would be a multi-Doctor story, featuring all of the incarnations that have appeared regularly elsewhere in this particular series.

It's a single story, but told in four distinct episodes and, to be honest, multiple Doctors aside it's good, but hardly exceptional; Day of the Doctor it isn't. The Fifth Doctor is up first, in a story set in 1911 in what is now Iraq (although this isn't clear until later). It concerns a chase against a villain trying to be the first to reach a ruined city with a fabulous treasure and has something of a Lawrence of Arabia vibe to it. It feels overly compressed, as if there was more that might have been explored, with what could have been an hour-long episode squeezed down into the 30-minute format. But, despite that, it's fun with a good sense of desert-themed adventure.

The next story is set during the 51st century, with a space colony (Titan, apparently, although it must be heavily terraformed by then, because nobody's living under domes) threatened by robotic pirates. It brings back a character from an earlier 6th Doctor audio, albeit mainly as a taxi service to get the Doctor to where he needs to be. We get Constance on her own as the companion, presumably because of the need to cut the cast list down, and she works well here - with a running gag about her not noticing when the main guest character tries to chat her up.

We then skip an incarnation to the 8th Doctor visiting London in 1999, when his only TV story was set. It's a fairly straight monster story, and with a monster that isn't original, either, but like the 6th Doctor's offering, it does feel the right length for its slot. To keep the link with Eight's audios in this series, rather than his own, we get Charlie back as the companion, but India Fisher is doing her voice so differently that it honestly took me a little while to work that out.

Everything comes together in the final episode, where the links we have seen up to this point bring the three Doctors together to face down the real villain. There are a few good twists in here, but the real strength is in seeing the characters meeting up and interacting with one another; taken on its own, the story is unremarkable. Yes, the universe gets threatened, because that's probably the sort of thing they felt they should do in a series finale, but it's been threatened a lot down the years, and it takes more than that these days to make something special. That the 7th Doctor makes only a brief cameo appearance feels like another missed opportunity, too, but I guess they only had so much time.

This all sounds pretty negative, and it probably shouldn't, because this is a decent celebration of what this particular run of 275 stories has covered, with four Doctors and stories set in the past, future, and present(ish). Plus two companions first introduced in the monthly series, reminding us of how it developed things for the Expanded Universe. If it's not quite the five-star celebration it could have been, it's still enjoyable and there's plenty more to come as the various Doctors spin off into their own audio lines.

While I liked Adams' previous volume, this one falls short of that. It's not really his fault; the problem is the disjointed nature of the narrative due to the number of crossovers this has to fit in with. So we start off with a story that doesn't go anywhere, because it's followed up in another comic, and then we have stories that tie in with the major DC arc for the year, seeing sections of a bigger story only parts of which are collected here. We do finally return to the main plot towards the end (which may explain why this collects a full ten issues) but the sliced-up route to getting there just doesn't help.

Having said which, there are some good bits here. As before, Adams does a good job of tying Wally's superheroics in with his everyday life, and at least Linda gets more to do this time around. There is, however, some overuse of Wally's children - having young kids be involved in the superhero action without facing any real danger (because, obviously, there's a limit to what you can do to kids in a regular comic) makes what the adults are facing less of a threat. The titular section of the collection sees the Flash Family visiting three alternate universes to find Barry; one is clever, one works well enough, and the other (a Mad Max pastiche) is a bit dull.

Hopefully, things will be able to settle down for the next volume because I rather like what Adams is doing if he doesn't have to fit other comics in around his story.

The third volume in this plot arc sees the protagonists no longer stranded, with the TARDIS able to travel to alien planets again – albeit with its full functionality yet to be restored. The previous volume, however, set up more than enough plot to keep this one going as the Doctor and companions seek to avert the dystopian (and ultimately apocalyptic) future timeline that two of the prior episodes were built around. It's relatively slow, and one of the stories is a little weak, but overall, it continues what's been another great 8th Doctor series.

Patience – The first story sees the Doctor and companions hiding out on three different, apparently abandoned, planets. Their pursuers do eventually turn up, but until then it's mostly a story of the interactions between the two pairs of companions, interspersed with the Doctor recounting a fairy tale. By the point that there is somebody else for them to talk to, however, it's already clear that all is not as it seems with the three threads of the story having more in common than initially seemed to be the case. The result is an odd mystery that has something of the feel of a ghost story without actually being one – and that eventually involves Judoon. While arguably nothing much happens for much for it, it's nonetheless an interesting story that also provides some character development that hints at upcoming changes. 4.5 stars.

Twisted Folklore – The theme of fairy tales and folklore continues in the second story. Here, the TARDIS has arrived on a world on the fringes of the Earth Empire where the human rulers are subjugating the indigenous inhabitants. It all ties in to the altered history created by events in the second volume and it becomes apparent early on that the Empire is, in part, using indoctrination through children's stories to achieve its aims. With the companions separated as they help out various parts of the resistance, and the whole thing beginning in media res for no particular reason, it's harder to get to grips with than the previous story, and is quite confusing in places. The details of the Empire's scheme and how the Doctor plans to stop don't make too much sense either, although, on the bright side, there are some strong moments for Liv and the alien voices are done better than is often the case - having a subtle but distinctive sibilance rather than using some electronic distort. 3 stars.

Snow – This is, in large part, a story about grief and abandonment. Sure, there's a mysterious phenomenon that acts as a metaphor for what some of the characters are feeling, but it's not the core of the tale. In addition to this, and almost feeling like a subplot, there are further revelations about how the alternate timeline came about, as we see the origins of the fascist state that was a setting for one of the stories in the previous volume. Unless you count the proto-fascists, however, there are no monsters in this one, which is focussed more on character and emotion albeit with a conclusion that's less maudlin than one might expect. 4.5 stars.

What Just Happened – 5 stars. Speaking of which, it ends (or rather, begins) on a cliffhanger. We know how it ends, but the mystery is in how we got there, which isn't fully revealed until the beginning as well as reflecting the story's wider themes about cause and effect. Some listeners may well find that (like this review) pretentious and confusing but, for me, it's cleverly written, with twists and turns that work in the opposite way to those in a regular story. But what's significant about it is that it's told in reverse, even to the extent of starting with the closing credits and ending with the opening theme music. The basis of it is straightforward, as the Doctor tracks down his nemesis and tries to prevent the destruction of the human race. As previously in this series, the best story is saved for last.

Children of Ruin is good, but it's not quite as good as the first book in the trilogy.

To begin with, it looks as if it is going to follow a similar plotline to that, but with octopuses instead of spiders (this much is obvious from the opening paragraphs). However, it soon heads off in a different direction. We get the background of how the octopus civilisation got its start, but far less of its history, with the focus on the inhabitants of the human ship that originally explored the system they end up in. Partly, that's due to the fact that the octopuses are even more alien than the Portiids, so their history has less resemblance to a human one. But it's also, one assumes, to avoid repetition.

This is initially intercut with a story about a human/Portiid ship discovering the system and seeing the outcome of events unfolding in the other parts; this is deftly done to keep things mysterious even though we know that octopuses have to be involved somehow. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that there is something else at work as well, and this becomes the main antagonist, with some moments of horror as the seemingly unstoppable threat advances. It's all part of this series' exploration of non-human intelligence and it manages to keep this story feeling different from its predecessor even though it's dealing with the same general topics.

Still, the characters are once again not as memorable as the concepts and, without quite the same sweep as the first volume, it doesn't come up to the same mark. But it's a good read, nonetheless, and it looks like the third book will be off somewhere different again, keeping this more varied than the basic premise might suggest.

The twist in this story, if you can call it that, is that it's mostly told from the perspective of a taxi driver ferrying Tosh around Cardiff. Which has the potential to be one of those Torchwood stories that's about the effect that the organisation has on the regular residents of the area and somewhat is, although the chase she's being led on across the city is at least as important. However, unlike some other stories with that premise, this one feels rather slight.

It's not bad by any means. Nice touches include the driver trying to deal with her family over the phone between the sci-fi elements, and, in particular, how her detailed knowledge of the city and its inhabitants is key to saving the day. It may well be that those more familiar with Cardiff than I will get a lot out of this that I didn't. Numerous real-world locations are mentioned and the story makes good use of the geography, in a way that I'm sure I'd appreciate were I a local.

But I'm not and, while this story certainly works and has some good acting, there wasn't much else in it that stood out. For instance, there's no particular reason that Tosh is the Torchwood character here, beyond the fact that any of the others might have overshadowed the taxi driver's side of the narrative. It's a decent, middling story, not bad but not remarkable either.

The low-key story of the Doctor being stranded on Earth continues in this collection. More pieces of the plot arc come together here, but the main distinguishing feature from Stranded 1 is that the TARDIS is once again capable of time travel – but not yet of travelling through space. Still stuck in London, this allows for a heavier emphasis on time travel as a plot device (rather than, say, alien planets), and makes good use of the cast of characters set up in the previous volume.

Dead Time – Starting directly where volume 1 left off, this soon sees the Doctor taking an unusually large number of travelling companions off in the TARDIS, only to arrive on an uninhabited Earth six million years in the future. It's clear that part of the purpose of this is to lay seeds for future episodes; we see the eventual outcome of some major event that has yet to happen. Aside from that, though, the story sees the travellers wandering about in an empty desert, giving them plenty of time to interact with one another and for the show to develop their characters – Tania, especially, being built up as potential companion material. Despite the eventual danger of the setting, it's almost a downtime episode, taking time to show how the different characters react to their predicament. 4 stars.

UNIT Dating – The cheeky title of this episode doesn't refer to what you might think it does (although there are nods to that, too). It sees the Doctor travelling back to the UNIT of his third incarnation's days and ending up causing a temporal anomaly that not only affects him and Andy in the past, but Liv and Helen in the present day. It's a good time travel story, further enlivened by being wound around a couple of UNIT soldiers starting a romantic relationship whose outcome is changed by the shifting events. Plus, of course, we have Jon Culshaw as the Brigadier getting some good scenes with Eight that address issues that the ‘70s show never did. 4.5 stars.

Baker Street Irregulars – With time travel available again, a story set in the past was inevitable, and it feels appropriate that this one is mostly a straight historical. That element of the plot sees the Doctor taking two of his tenants back to 1941 to learn more about their grandmother's work for the SOE. Naturally enough, that soon leads to adventure – albeit with Nazis less directly involved than one might expect – but it is accompanied by an SF side-plot concerning an unexploded bomb that turns out to be anything but. The historical elements, borrowing on a nickname for the SOE when it was, indeed, based on Baker Street, are loosely reminiscent of the real-world story of Noor Inayat Khan... one of those little bits of history that our white-male-dominated vision of WWII era Britain tends to overlook. 4 stars.

The Long Way Round – The concluding story alternates between scenes of the time travellers being interrogated by a mysterious woman holding them captive and The Curator having a friendly chat with a child on a park bench. It's the sort of thing that's ideally suited for audio, since it wouldn't have much in the way of visuals if it were made for TV. Instead, it relies on the personalities of the various characters as each is interviewed one by one and the story, and how it connects to the larger plot, slowly unfolds. I worked out the ‘surprise' reveals early on, but they aren't the beauty of the story, which come from the top-notch acting and dialogue. 5 stars.

And so here we are, after 275 releases over the course of more than two decades, at the very final story of Big Finish's flagship monthly range. From here on in, the individual Doctors will each have their own series, with less regular release schedules rather than being a slave to the calendar - or the two hour format. As the final release, it was inevitable that it, like the very first one back in 1999, would be a multi-Doctor story, featuring all of the incarnations that have appeared regularly elsewhere in this particular series.

It's a single story, but told in four distinct episodes and, to be honest, multiple Doctors aside it's good, but hardly exceptional; Day of the Doctor it isn't. The Fifth Doctor is up first, in a story set in 1911 in what is now Iraq (although this isn't clear until later). It concerns a chase against a villain trying to be the first to reach a ruined city with a fabulous treasure and has something of a Lawrence of Arabia vibe to it. It feels overly compressed, as if there was more that might have been explored, with what could have been an hour-long episode squeezed down into the 30-minute format. But, despite that, it's fun with a good sense of desert-themed adventure.

The next story is set during the 51st century, with a space colony (Titan, apparently, although it must be heavily terraformed by then, because nobody's living under domes) threatened by robotic pirates. It brings back a character from an earlier 6th Doctor audio, albeit mainly as a taxi service to get the Doctor to where he needs to be. We get Constance on her own as the companion, presumably because of the need to cut the cast list down, and she works well here - with a running gag about her not noticing when the main guest character tries to chat her up.

We then skip an incarnation to the 8th Doctor visiting London in 1999, when his only TV story was set. It's a fairly straight monster story, and with a monster that isn't original, either, but like the 6th Doctor's offering, it does feel the right length for its slot. To keep the link with Eight's audios in this series, rather than his own, we get Charlie back as the companion, but India Fisher is doing her voice so differently that it honestly took me a little while to work that out.

Everything comes together in the final episode, where the links we have seen up to this point bring the three Doctors together to face down the real villain. There are a few good twists in here, but the real strength is in seeing the characters meeting up and interacting with one another; taken on its own, the story is unremarkable. Yes, the universe gets threatened, because that's probably the sort of thing they felt they should do in a series finale, but it's been threatened a lot down the years, and it takes more than that these days to make something special. That the 7th Doctor makes only a brief cameo appearance feels like another missed opportunity, too, but I guess they only had so much time.

This all sounds pretty negative, and it probably shouldn't, because this is a decent celebration of what this particular run of 275 stories has covered, with four Doctors and stories set in the past, future, and present(ish). Plus two companions first introduced in the monthly series, reminding us of how it developed things for the Expanded Universe. If it's not quite the five-star celebration it could have been, it's still enjoyable and there's plenty more to come as the various Doctors spin off into their own audio lines.

This novella is set in a steampunk alternate world where djinn interact with humans and (among other things) helped to ensure Egyptian independence fifty years early and make Cairo one of the world's greatest and most influential cities. The main story concerns a pair of investigators looking into an apparently haunted tram car and trying to exorcise the spirit concerned. This provides the fantasy elements and, in fairness, the plot is pretty straightforward - the real strength being the realisation of the setting.

Middle Eastern settings are not unusual in fantasy, but it's rare to see one quite as well-developed as this, with the mix of early 20th-century modernity and Islamic myth. Indeed, this expands on the first novella in the series by extending the supernatural elements beyond the Islamic world - although still featuring something that isn't Western European. It gives the impression of setting things up for a bigger story later (and a novel did follow) with several threads left hanging even though the core plot is neatly resolved.

The Doctor travels to Dorset in 1830 to meet Mary Anning, the famous fossil collector. Of course, he manages to turn up just after a man is killed by a mysterious “monster” and sets about tracking it down in a story complete with whisky smugglers, wandering crocodiles, and plenty of fossils. The aliens involved in it all don't turn up until the halfway mark, but there's plenty going on before then, with Anning making a strong supporting character of the sort that, were she not a real historical person, would make a good companion.

Unfortunately, the first half is stronger than the second. Up until then, there's a good sense of 1830s society, something that kept Anning out of the scientific discourse at the time despite her obvious ability and knowledge. Since that's such an important part of her real-life story it feels entirely appropriate to deal with it here (through, for example, people's reactions to Leela) in a way that many Doctor Who historical stories tend to gloss over. Plus, there's all the whisky and the crocodiles to keep things busy, even if the villain is hamming it up a bit much.

Once the aliens make their appearance, however, the story becomes more focused on action and this, as so often on audio, doesn't work so well. It's often difficult to work out what's happening from bystander's descriptions or sound effects alone, and this applies to scenes of people trapped by the tide as much as the fight scenes with the monsters. Plus, the young lovers who find themselves caught up in it all turn out to be really quite annoying, constantly whimpering about how useless they are - which, may, perhaps, be intended to showcase Leela's heroism (and she is pretty good in this) but does wear thin after a while.

A minor point that I suspect most others won't have noticed is the use of words that didn't actually exist at the time - “dinosaur” is an example, having been coined in 1841. On the other hand, one could argue that it makes it easier for modern audiences to understand, in much the same way that we don't expect 16th-century stories to be written entirely in Shakespearean English. But there are surely ways around that.

Two more stories featuring the original TARDIS crew, one set in the future, and one a pure historical.

For the Glory of Urth – The TARDIS lands in what appears to be Earth in the far future, to discover it is ruled by a brutal dictatorship hostile to all aliens and constantly on the brink of a war that never comes. It's primarily a story of survival, with the characters split up early on and then spending most of the story imprisoned in one way or another and trying to get back together so that they can escape.

Which isn't such a bad idea in itself. While we may expect futuristic fascist states to be overthrown in this series (as, for example, in The Sun Makers or Enemy of the World) realistically, that won't always be an option. The Doctor being unable to change the world of The Aztecs or The Massacre is something we expect, and it's a good fit for his era even here. Unfortunately, the story just isn't very good. That's largely because almost everyone in the story other than the regulars is either an idiot or insane (or possibly both) and the whole thing is just completely implausible. It could be that it's intended as a comedic farce, and for some reason, I kept thinking of one villain as being played by Hattie Jaques, which wasn't helping. But, if it is intended as a comedy, it's sorely lacking in laughs, unless you find stupidity funny in itself.

There are some positives in amongst the dross. There are a few clever ideas, including one alien character and, arguably, the eventual explanation for the setup. Susan gets a decent chunk of the plot, although Barbara is rather less well-used. But, while there I also have some minor gripes about the science (such as a confusion between bacteria and viruses) it's the characters and the disjointed and unfocussed plot that really let this one down. 2 stars.

The Hollow Crown – The second story, fortunately, is much better. This sees the Doctor arriving in London on the eve of the spectacular failure that was the Essex Rebellion of 1601. This probably isn't a well-known event in English history but no prior knowledge of it is required from the listener beyond the fact that it obviously didn't end with Queen Elizabeth I being deposed. Here, Essex is portrayed as noble and decent, while the real villains of the piece are his sister Lady Rich and, to a lesser extent, Essex's real-world nemesis Lord Cecil.

Into this recounting of a minor piece of English history the story also throws William Shakespeare, in a far more central role than he played historically. The story doesn't ignore the fact that both he and the Queen have previously met the Doctor, although only one of the prior encounters has an effect on the plot. A downside is that Barbara is underused here; she gets to deliver a few bits of historical exposition, but most of those are provided organically through the characters involved. Susan, Ian, and the Doctor all have rather more to do, with Ian putting himself in danger, Susan generally getting into trouble, and the Doctor trying to sort it all out.

There are naturally some adjustments to real-world events to accommodate the story, which pushes the regular characters right into the middle of the rebellion. But, on the whole, it fits well enough with history as we know it, and the fact that it's a relatively obscure incident to modern people makes it easier for the events to carry the story. Some of the tension comes from whether or not history can be changed enough to ensure an at least partially happy ending – reference is made here to a story in the previous collection where the failure of the characters to alter events left an emotional scar on them, as well as to obvious comparison point The Aztecs. (There's a red herring here about the existence of a particular character implying a different history track, but the explanation is obvious from pretty much the first time they open their mouth). With plenty of Shakespearean quotes dotted through the dialogue, this is a good historical story, lacking in aliens but still very much connected to the Doctor Who universe.

Ends on a cliffhanger that (as of August 2023) there seem to be no plans to resolve. 4 stars.

This six-part (3½ hour) story sees the Doctor and Leela arriving on an isolated colony world that has devolved back to roughly 18th-century technology. Once there, they face a whole slew of problems - ghosts of the recently departed keep showing up, an invading army from another part of the colony threatens to destroy the featured town, an inventor has access to anachronistic technology, a third group of colonists hides out in the woods living a neolithic lifestyle, the Doctor keeps fainting and experiencing dreams about anvils... and, well that's not even the whole of it.

This complexity allows the story to keep going for its entire length without some of the padding that affects the longer TV stories of the era and also permits a larger cast than usual - by my count, there are eleven significant guest characters. But, on the other hand, the length is also something of a weakness, throwing too many things into the mix when a tighter story might have been more effective. For instance, an offworld colony that doesn't just consist of a single town is a plus, and there's a real feel that the world has complexity and depth to it, but the invading army is a cypher, an important threat but one that distracts from the main plot and is never fully explained.

The villain, once it becomes clear who he is, also isn't terribly interesting. Fortunately, many of the supporting characters are much better, even if the gender balance isn't great (which, I suppose, could at least be taken as accurate for the era of the TV show it's trying to emulate). There isn't much fun or humour in it either, leaving us with a sober and serious version of the Fourth Doctor more in line with his final season than with the Hinchcliffe era. Leela is good and gets to do a range of things, leading the action at several points.

This wasn't, for me, as epic as it was doubtless intended to be. It has a large scope, to be sure, and there are plenty of ideas in it but it goes on a bit too long and overstays its welcome. I'm torn between three and four stars, but I'll round up to save myself the hassle of deciding between them.

This follows the usual format of two 2-hour stories, with one set in the UNIT era, and one in space. The difference here is that these stories feature Liz Shaw and Sarah rather than Jo Grant, with both characters played by the daughters of the original actors. Thus, for the first time, we have a story in this series that features nobody from the original show – but, honestly, if you're put off by that, you'll probably have been deterred by the earlier releases and won't have gotten this far.

The Unzal Incursion – Liz Shaw, obviously, gets the UNIT-era story in this one. As the uninspiring title indicates, it's an alien invasion plot, but it rings a few changes on the regular format. For one, the aliens don't appear in person until nearly the end, making this almost an invasion by Zoom call – but their Earthbound agents are sufficiently active up until that point that you barely notice. The story also isolates the Doctor, Liz, and the Brigadier from their usual UNIT resources and still finds plenty of time for action shoot-outs that fans of season 7 will probably love.

There are a few flaws here and there, with the Brigadier turning out to be a qualified aeroplane pilot being one of the harder ones to swallow. The presence of a female army sergeant on active combat duties, while welcome from a modern perspective, also feels out-of-place in a story that's set no later than the early ‘80s and some listeners might feel the lack of Sgt Benton in her stead. (She's also Black, but it's the TV series' all-white casting that's the discrepancy here, if you really want to go down that route). These are, however, minor points in what's generally a strong evocation of the era, helped by the ‘70s style incidental music.

By this point, Treloar and Culshaw are familiar enough to forget they aren't the original actors, and Daisy Ashford does a good job as Liz Shaw; she's not really doing an impression of her mother, but it's good that she properly gets to play the hero this time – unlike her previous appearance. There's also some subtle foreshadowing of Liz's departure, and some rather less subtle hints fitting the story in with a larger arc – all explained in a short segment after the closing music. 4.5 stars.

The Gulf – Sadie Miller had previously played Sarah Jane Smith in Big Finish's remake of Revenge of the Cybermen but this marks her debut playing the character in a fully original story. She does not, of course, sound exactly like her mother, but, at least for me, she's close enough that I soon became used to it – which is more quickly than I did to Treloar, in fact. Although Sarah Jane is better known for her partnership with the Fourth Doctor, she was arguably written as a stronger and more independent character during her initial season with the Third Doctor and, naturally, that's what we get here. (Not that one would expect otherwise in a modern story set during, say, season 13, but it's perhaps less noticeable here).

The story is a base-under-siege set on what's essentially an oil rig on a waterworld during the waning years of the Earth Empire. A small group of artists have set up a facility on the abandoned rig, giving a different dynamic to the ‘base' format than we see in most such stories. It's notable that they all happen to be women, leaving the Doctor as the only male character (indeed, almost the only man even mentioned). It's not something we're likely to have seen in the TV series but here it's not even commented on – as it should be, really.

The base-under-siege format is well-played here. We get some good worldbuilding about the base and the universe around it, which plays directly into the plot and fits in with themes often seen during the Third Doctor's run. Everyone in the tiny artist colony is hiding a secret of some kind, creating a ‘whodunnit' feel, especially given that the story opens with a mysterious death. This subplot is largely resolved by around the halfway mark as we move into something that's more about trying to escape the monster. Speaking of which, while the basic concept of the monster is nothing new, it's well done, giving us an emotional insight into all of the characters it's facing, regulars and guest stars alike. This is a strong and well-constructed story of its type that manages to fit in nicely with the Third Doctor's era despite having a theme more associated with the Second. 4.5 stars.