Jamie Revell
Following the previous two comedic pieces (one of which worked for me, and the other of which was too over-the-top to gel), we're back with horror again - and it's another superb piece. One of the limitations of this series is that there are rarely more than two actors in it, and that's the case here, too... but in this case, it's very much a strength, not a weakness.
The entire story takes place inside Gwen and Rhys's car as they drive home after a successful mission out in the Welsh countryside. The dialogue is beautifully written, contrasting the mundanity of everyday life with what they do for Torchwood (the story is set at a point when they're the only surviving members). The question implicit in the title is key - will they always be lucky enough to survive, and what toll does their double life take on their relationship?
From there, the horror and mystery build as it's clear that something isn't quite right, and what we're hearing on the soundtrack doesn't quite match with what the characters are aware of. It's worth noting that everything we hear is from a perspective inside the car - they get out at a few points, leading to either stretches of silence or faint sounds in the distance. So this may not be one to listen to somewhere that isn't quiet (while mowing the lawn, say). But it adds to the creepiness, as does the isolation. Taken together with the top-notch characterisation, this is another great edition to the audio series.
The Doctor and his companions become trapped in a modern tower block that has somehow been pulled out of the regular world in a story that has quite a mix of styles. Much of it takes place inside the condemned tower block, made bleaker than it already is by the perpetual night and the near-starvation of the few residents that remain alive. Quite a lot of the story is an exploration of the setting, trying to figure what's going on, with the individual responsible being heard by the listener in voice-overs but not turning up directly until past the halfway mark.
Zombies patrolling the halls provide the action elements, along with a psychic battle once the villain shows up. There's also rather a lot of exposition in the third segment. Although this is handled well and there's the added element that we hear two different perspectives on what happened interspersed with one another, you're never really in any doubt as to which of the two expositors is the one giving the more accurate account.
The story is prevented from being entirely grim by the addition of an alien hunter who speaks in Mancunian idiom due to an automated process that allows her to blend in with the locals. Despite being on a quest that's actually quite serious, her irreverent asides and frustration with what's happening and with the ‘primitive' nature of 21st-century technology add some much-needed lighter moments to the story. The guest characters are well-drawn, although the sub-plot with the woman recovering from an abusive relationship doesn't have space to go anywhere.
There are a couple of weak points, that are just enough for me to lower it to a 3... but only just. The first comes right at the beginning with a pointless and poorly acted scene on a spaceship that doesn't add anything to what follows later (I imagine it's meant to intrigue the listener, but for me, it didn't achieve this). The other is the resolution, which is achieved a bit too easily, and largely ‘off screen', albeit offset by some more dramatic stakes for those who are ‘on screen' at the time.
The story ends on an unrelated cliffhanger that leads directly into the next release in the series.
Here we are at the end of the series, and, unsurprisingly, there isn't much to say about this that I haven't said about the earlier instalments. Scott has previously been the stronger of the two writers, but this is his weakest offering, in which he apparently struggles to bring to life a segment of the original campaign that doesn't seem to have had much depth to it.
Having said which, the opening part of the story, with the adventurers stumbling across a haunted waystation in the mountains is rather effective. The ghosts have a backstory, and there's a good focus on the dwarven ranger as our heroes deal with a problem that can't be dealt with simply by hitting it with swords. It doesn't feel especially “high level” (as it presumably was by this stage in the original) but that's a good thing, making the characters feel more vulnerable and endangered.
From then on, however, the bulk of the story is just a long string of fights leading towards the predictable final encounter. The villain just rants, being less developed than the underlings we've seen up to this point and there isn't any real development of the overarching plot, just a slog to finally get to where he's hiding. There's a sense of something grander behind it all, but there isn't time to explore any of it, and we're mainly left with the combat. Without the first segment, I'd have given this two stars, but, fortunately, that pulls up the average.
The Early Adventures series of partially narrated stories moves back a little chronologically from the previous release, here again featuring Vicki and Steven as the companions. Both O'Brien and Purves provide the narration, and the latter also plays the First Doctor. Compared with the First Doctor audios, with the all-new cast, the format of this now seems to be creaking a little, although some may prefer the original actors, even if they no longer sound like they did in their twenties. But it's this, and the fact that narration adds very little, that leads me to give this four stars rather than the full five.
Because, honestly, it's a very good story.
Although they don't turn up until about 30 minutes in, there's no prize for guessing what monsters are used in this story. Up until then, we have the usual, somewhat leisurely exploration of the setting - in this case a lone city on an isolated planet, currently in the midst of a joyous festival - that was so common in the First Doctor's era. Once they do show up, however, there's an intriguing story about how the Daleks have subjugated the planet in a way rather different than their usual modus operandi.
To be sure, there are some themes that have been used here before, notably in the TV stories Victory of the Daleks and The Krotons but the details here are different, and there's a real sense of menace from the tinpot monsters. What makes the story good is that things are not clearcut. Certainly the Daleks are bad, and so is one of the humans helping them, but there is a question of what it's really possible for the inhabitants of the planet to do about it, even if they understood what was going on.
Surely they're too far gone, and have little other choice given their situation? These questions are properly explored, and the planet's ruler is also very well portrayed as a weak and vainglorious man who may not be likeable, but isn't entirely the villain that he could be. There are some good moments of drama and tension, and a great subplot with a factory worker and her brother. It's far from the most upbeat story of the series, but it's also something more complex than we typically see with Dalek stories on TV.
Although there's no real cliffhanger ending, there is a teaser for the next episode included before the closing credits. (As was, of course, the case in the first season of the TV show, although not the third, which is the one being emulated here).
Although titled as if it were a new series, this collection carries on directly where Aliens Among Us left off. The length of it means that it is, in a sense, an imagined ‘sixth season' for the TV show, where its predecessor was the fifth, but it's more like the second half of a 24-episode season in which (as often in such shows) the original Big Bad turned out at the half-way mark to have been hiding a bigger one.
• Future Pain – The first episode sees the characters trying to come to terms with the fallout of the previous cliffhanger. The focus is largely on Colchester and his husband in a mostly sedate tale about love and loss, and different people's reactions to it. This alternates with a less successful and more traditional story about an alien leech monster which, even at this stage, is obviously a misdirection away from the real villain of the piece (whose brief appearance is, it has to be said, well-played). There's also a thread that's simply wrapping up the plotline of the previous ‘season', ending it all in a bit of an anti-climax, sweeping things clean for the new plotline. It's a necessary link between that season and this but, taken on its own, it's a bit of a muddle. 3 stars.
• The Man Who Destroyed Torchwood – From that, we move to something that's closer to a comedy in style. This is about an alt-right vlogger who believes that they have stumbled across the truth about Torchwood and wants to bring the organisation down by shining the light of publicity on it. The episode will likely not sit well with anyone who has sympathies with the alt-right viewpoint, since it so thoroughly denigrates its ostensible protagonist, a stereotyped loner with a persecution complex. Taken as a black comedy about a rather pathetic man completely out of his depth, though, it works well, especially when it slips into his fantasies about what Torchwood and its agents are really like. The connection with the larger plot arc is minor, but this works as a one-off change of pace. 4 stars.
• See No Evil – Another strong, although largely standalone story as Cardiff is mysteriously plunged into darkness. The story is stylistically dark as well as literally, with the disaster suddenly bringing out the worst in ordinary people and a number of gruesome deaths adding to the atmosphere. Obviously, it's the sort of story that works better on audio than it could on video (a sort of reverse of ‘Hush' from Buffy), although Big Finish have done similar things before, even if here, it's more exploring a pessimistic view of human nature than fear of an unseen menace (although there's that, too). Hartmann is at her cold and calculating best, while Jack shows his more positive and heroic side in a story that nicely contrasts the two. 4 stars.
• Night Watch – No sooner has one crisis ended than another starts as, this time, the city falls peacefully asleep. For differing reasons, the various main characters of the series manage to fight it off and there is, once again, a threat from a monster. But it's a non-physical threat that allows us to explore the characters' flaws and past traumas – one grieving for the death of a lover, another seeking refuge in drugs and meaningless sex (and no, that isn't Jack), and so on. This makes it a particularly effective story, despite the relative lack of action, and the fact that none of these internal problems are really resolved by the end. While there is a resolution to the episode's central plot, there is also a cliffhanger ending that leads into the next part of the series. 5 stars.
To my mind, this is another good entry in the Early Adventures range, although I can see why others might find it problematic. When the TV show started, a large part of its original remit was to be educational which, in the case of the SF elements of the show meant that it was supposed to teach about science. That essentially came to an end after Planet of the Giants early in the second season - well before the third season which we're supposed to be emulating here. Yet this story comes across as being firmly in that style.
The TARDIS lands on an uninhabited planet being surveyed by a slower-than-light colony ship from Earth. (The star fits the description of Tau Ceti but may, of course, be fictional). The first hour consists largely of a struggle against the environment, with bad weather and an only marginally breathable atmosphere providing the main obstacles. In the second half, the action moves to the orbiting colony ship and the science exposition switches to more medical and technological matters, with an important plot point revolving around Steven and Vicki's familiarity with nanotech.
The result is a slow-paced story that only really acquires a villain in the final thirty minutes, once the nature of the real problem is revealed. There is a monster, but it's not terribly important and doesn't last all that long. Plus, once we've dealt with the science in the first three ‘episodes' we get a lengthy discussion on ethics in the final one as different characters suggest different solutions to the situation.
I enjoyed this as a piece of comparatively hard SF by Doctor Who standards, and with distinct echoes of some of the very early stories - albeit without Ian in the science teacher role. Largely because of the nanotech, it's not the science we'd have likely got in a '60s episode, and the setting feels like modern SF (even if Steven finds the technology backward) but that's a plus when it comes to hard SF. On the other hand, the slow pacing, almost complete lack of action, and the lengthy discussions may put some listeners off.
Class ran for a single season in 2017 – although fairly well-received by critics, it failed to garner the hoped-for audience when it switched to the mainstream BBC channel. Here, the original cast are reunited for three hour-long audio stories that manage to overcome what was (at least to me) the biggest weakness in the original – the rather naff Shadowkin villains of the original arc. The stories are, however, set during the TV run, so there's no resolution here to the end-of-season cliffhanger. It's also notable that each story features only two or three members of the cast, doubtless due to the logistics of recording and the differences between the audio and video formats. (Oh, and there's a new theme tune, presumably for licencing reasons).
If you're a Doctor Who fan who didn't much care for Class as a spin-off, this is unlikely to change your mind, since it has little connection with the former. But if you did enjoy the original, this is a good expansion of it, developing some of the characters a little further. Fortunately, there are three more volumes to come.
• Gifted – The first story features April and Ram. Although it's implied that the villain is really an alien, it's closer in style to a supernatural horror story as an entity with ties to British folklore. Indeed, it's pretty much a modern retelling of a specific legend, with the theme of recasting old tales in this way being a meta-theme within the story itself. It also ties into themes in the TV series, with April and Ram's growing attraction to each other and the latter's disappointment with his football performance both being featured. But mainly, it's a good creepy story, something a little different than we normally got on the show, but still managing to fit in with it. 4 stars.
• Life Experience – This time we switch to Ram and Tanya, who both attend a mysterious new laboratory as part of their work experience. Because when has that sort of thing ever gone wrong in this genre? It's the most traditional story of the three, and the only one with a significant amount of action. In fact, it's styled much like a Doctor Who base-under-siege story, complete with an alien monster and a corporate villain. Tanya comes out of it particularly well, with her intelligence and determination both very much on display, although Ram does have his part to play as well. 3.5 stars.
• Tell Me You Love Me – The other three leads appear in the final story, as Charlie and Mateusz become infected with something alien and call on Miss Quill for help. In fact, they are almost the only three characters in it, with the entire story being told through conversation. This, obviously, is something that audio is suited for and it does a good job of drawing out the personalities of its three characters and their relationship to one another. Miss Quill, as was often the case on the show, comes across as the most interesting, trapped into protecting Charlie against her will and very clearly not anyone's moral compass. The only downside is that the constant talking is almost a bit too much, becoming tiring at times (as it's clearly meant to be for the characters) but even so, it's an interesting nebulous threat that wouldn't have worked on TV. 4.5 stars.
Full disclosure: I was given a free review copy of the book by the author.
This is a dark steampunk novel set during the Crimean War, with much of the emphasis on the desperate straits that the British army have found themselves in. The plot concerns a British officer trying to find the reason for a failure of the telegraph system that the army uses to communicate with London, alternating between a horrors-of-war story and exposition of the fantastic technology involved. It's full of imaginative detail (some of it gory) and the central character is sympathetic and well-drawn given the short length of the story. (It's what literary awards tend to call a ‘novelette' - shorter than most novellas, but longer than a short story). Sure, it's not a light read, but it is a quick one that still managed to draw me in more than I was expecting it to.
The second volume in this collection of 8th Doctor stories follows on from the previous one but has no apparent connection to it until we reach the final episode. Taken as a whole, it's better than volume #1, but not yet up to the standards of the previous “season”.
• Escape from Kaldor – The first episode is essentially standalone. The Doctor takes his companions to Liv's homeworld of Kaldor, where, of course, we meet the robots from Robots of Death. The main story here isn't anything special; better ones have been done with the same ‘monsters' before, and there are no real twists as to why, on this occasion, problems start developing with the robots' control systems. The story is, however, pulled above the average by the elements dealing with Liv, and the reasons for her reluctance to return home. It turns out to be this, rather than the more intriguing set-up of The Sons of Kaldor, that leads into the separate Robots series, and any connection with the rest of the Ravenous storyline is not yet apparent. 3 stars.
• Better Watch Out/Fairytale of Salzburg – One might think that the modern show had run the theme of “Christmas special” dry, but this 2-hour story is another twist on that format... albeit one released in October. The TARDIS arrives shortly before Christmas in present-day Salzburg, giving the Doctor a chance to expound his love of the season. Naturally, it all goes wrong, in this case when an overly enthusiastic Krampus descends on the city. Which is doubly odd, because it ought to be mythical. An interesting feature of the story is that it's told in flashback by the Doctor and another narrator who is initially unidentified – as are the people they are telling the story to. The two narrations are independent, and not entirely chronological, so it's important to keep up as viewpoints shift. It's cleverly done, with many Christmas themes in it, beyond the Krampus itself, and a key role for Helen in particular. The only weakness is that it's never really explained what's behind it all. 4.5 stars.
• Seizure – The final story of the set is also the only one that ties in with the series arc (at least so far as one can tell at this point). It sees the Doctor answering a distress call from a dying TARDIS and ending up trapped inside its collapsing structure. One could argue that not very much happens in it, since it's mostly just a fight for survival, but it's full of atmosphere with a sense of despair and foreboding. It ends on a cliffhanger that leads into the next volume. 4 stars.
The second set of three hour-long stories, each featuring two or three of the characters from the TV series is perhaps even better than the first. Class weas partly described at the time as the British answer to the earlier US series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the first two ‘episodes' here are notably in that mode, while the third ties us in more directly to mainstream Doctor Who lore.
• Everybody Loves Reagan – The similarities to Buffy” are most clearly on display here. A new girl starts at Coal Hill and immediately starts making herself popular with... well, everyone except April. It's clear to the listener that something is wrong here right from the start, despite nobody but April being able to notice it, and the depth of the issue becomes more serious as the story progresses. The resemblance to Buffy comes from the obvious focus on teen problems, from concerns about fitting in to worries about exams and so on. Teen angst made literal reality was very much what the US show was about, and this would have fit right in. But it also fits in well here, with some good use of the leads – Ram and Tanya supporting April in this one – and ties in to events that had happened earlier in the series. 4.5 stars.
• Now You Know... – The second story also deals with teen issues, if perhaps less directly than the first one did. This time Tanya and Matteusz are the stars, although it's not really clear in-story why they won't involve any of the others. Something deadly is once again stalking the school corridors, preying on people seemingly at random. (Well, that's the theory; the connection should be obvious from the second victim, but it's fair to say it wouldn't be to the characters in the story). This leads Tanya on a quest to dig into the school's past and, once again, some of the difficulties of school life. This element is well done, and there's a great scene with the two leads trying, badly, to draw the monster out. A good story that will probably resonate with a number of listeners. 4 stars.
• In Remembrance – The only story in the first two collections to have a direct link to the parent show this (as is probably obvious from the cover) involves Charlie and Quill running into a Dalek loose on the school premises... and into the present-day version of Ace. It's a sort of sequel to classic DW episode Remembrance of the Daleks. You don't need to have watched that to follow this, since the basics are explained, but it will likely help, and give it greater resonance. I say that it's a ‘sort of' sequel, since it deals with events of the prior episode, but doesn't directly follow on from them, taking place (from the Dalek's perspective) at the same time. Despite Ace guest-starring, this is largely Quill's episode, digging into some of her personality and stuffed with sarcastic one-liners as she is forced to take desperate measures to protect Charlie. It's great fun, and closer to traditional DW than the other episodes. 4.5 stars.
The imagined second season of the cancelled ‘80s TV series concludes, continuing the plot arc of the first half. For most of the first half, the bad guys seemed annoying, but not murderous – that changed in the final episode and is clearly continued here as the stakes continue to rise. (They also seemed defeated, but it's hopefully not a spoiler to say that, with four episodes still to go, this may not have been true...) Other than that, the main difference is that Pal plays a bigger part in this half than the first, largely replacing new character Priya who is unfortunately sidelined for the first two episodes.
• Dead and Buried – The opening episode sees Devis investigating a problem with the paperwork at a Lunar cemetery, while Nathan and Pal look into the death of an apparent burglar. Perhaps fearing that this sounds rather dull, we get a preview of a key scene in the former investigation right at the beginning, destroying any suspense as to what the secret behind the burials might be (on a modern TV show, this would doubtless be followed by a caption saying ‘8 hours previously...'). It's unnecessary and, without context, rather confusing at the time. That aside, it's a good story, using the setting in a way that wouldn't work on a regular cop show while staying within the hard SF premise of the series. 4 stars.
• The Killing Jar – Nathan, Pal, and Bailey travel to an orbiting hotel to talk to an informant about cost-cutting that's allegedly breaching the strict safety protocols required in space. Pal is an important character here, having had some sort of past relationship with the hotel owner and getting to show her prickly nature to the full (there is, for instance, a good scene where she has to interact with Box when Nathan isn't present). Devis, on the other hand, is more in the background, mostly acting as a comic foil back on the Moon while Priya only has a few lines. However, it's a strong story, with a good mystery and plenty of danger as things get increasingly hectic on the space station – and one that would be difficult to do on live-action TV due to the amount that takes place in zero-G. 4.5 stars.
• Moonshine – The starting point for this episode is the discovery of some illegal booze on Moonbase (where alcohol is, understandably, banned). From there, however, we get into a story that's more complex than it first appears. The moonshine investigation leads to Australia, where there's some fun interaction between Devis and Pal, while, back on the Moon, there's a story about a sick construction worker causing embarrassing issues just as a top bigwig is conducting an inspection into the Star Cops' success (or lack of it) against Mother Earth. If there's a weakness here, it's that the villains' motives are only explained in general terms and we don't really get to the bottom of the mystery. 4 stars.
• Hostage – The final episode feels very much like a season finale. Mother Earth step up the deadliness of their attacks, but the real focus of the story is on a hostage situation on the Lunar Farside. That's well-played, and it's here that Priya gets the only real chance to shine in this half of the season. In addition to that, there's a car chase (well, Lunar rover chase), villainous bureaucrats, plot twists, and a dramatic climax. The Mother Earth plot arc is properly wrapped up, complete with the explanation for why their tactics changed part-way through the season and it's a satisfying conclusion. 5 stars.
This is the concluding part of the ‘Daniel Hopkins' trilogy, following up on The Helliax Rift and Hour of the Cybermen. Here, the Seventh Doctor encounters Hopkins a few years after the events of the second story and once again clashes with the post-‘70s version of UNIT (the story is set three years prior to Battlefield, and Bambera isn't yet in charge). Notably, of course, as is obvious from the cover, he also meets Elizabeth Klein, although there is no mention of the cliffhanger ending of the last story to feature her, which remains unresolved.
The story is somewhat mixed, and how much you like it may depend on your attitude to UNIT, at least in this era. The monster is a decent one, and the segment set inside the abandoned base where it resides is atmospheric and effective. And there's decent use of the various characters, showing how each of them can be tempted to do the wrong thing for different reasons; in many respects, the story is about how talking can be more effective than using weapons, a common theme in Doctor Who.
But that necessarily tends to put UNIT in an adversarial position. We once again have a commanding officer who shows all the failing of the military mind, although he's at least trying to do the right thing. It's reminiscent of the debates between the Third Doctor and the Brigadier, but without the mutual respect. Hopkins, of course, has also changed and become less sympathetic than he was before; his motivations are clear enough, but without having seen the intervening years through his eyes, it's harder to empathise with him. Furthermore, while Klein's arc gets some degree of closure here, Hopkins' story just peters out, as if Lyons wasn't quite sure what to do with him.
For me, the central story about the threat to Earth was enough to overcome these issues. They do make the story somewhat bleak, but at least some characters do get redemption at the end, and it's not as wholly dark as it might be. The way that the monster twists people's minds and how they respond to it is well done, and the Doctor comes in for almost as much criticism as UNIT does. But, if you're a big fan of UNIT as an undoubted force for good, you might find this a little too dark and negative.
So far, I've been critical of Mark Wright's offerings in this series, which seem to stick more closely to the plot of the original scenarios (with its different dramatic requirements) than those of the other author. But I have to say that this is the best of his three. Whether that's the nature of the particular scenario being adapted here or the sign of a different approach, I don't know, but I'm inclined to the latter.
That's because there's not so much fighting in this story as in the previous ones, although there is some (notably with the white dragon shown on the cover). Instead, much of it concerns the heroes trying to piece together clues as to where they should go next and then exploring a largely abandoned ruin. This results in more dialogue than fighting, and the scenes in the darkened sinkhole at the beginning work particularly well, especially when the fighter comes under the mental influence of an evil force.
The villains are less effective here than in the previous instalments, but this does at least leave more room for characterisation of the leads. It's not particularly deep, being pared down at the end to a consideration of which of the seven deadly sins each of them is most driven by... which may be going somewhere in the final instalment but here is little more than (for example) the wizard saying “yes, I suppose I am a bit envious” without it being otherwise apparent from his actions.
Once again, the story is more about moving from A to B (which a pre-published RPG campaign typically has to be, in order to work) than it is about the characters doing the travelling. But this one at least makes an effort to try and put things in context and give the heroes something to do other than hitting things with swords.
The third set in this ‘season' of Eighth Doctor stories is tying in closely to the plot arc now, with the Ravenous moving close to centre stage. Fortunately, however, since they don't do much except slaver and chase after people, the story is more about escaping them than fighting them directly, and the Eleven has a key role that largely overshadows them. Plus, Liv is on cracking form throughout.
• Deeptime Frontier - The first episode carries on directly from where Ravenous 2 ended, taking us to a sort of mining operation in the Vortex. Once we get past the initial rescue sequence, it's a base-under-siege, with the Ravenous as the monsters. We do finally get a proper explanation for what they are, but it turns out to be the sort of thing we've heard many times before in other stories. And then there's a lot of running through corridors and getting split up and honestly not much else. It's not a badly done story, but there's nothing new to it, and it seems to exist mainly just to get the characters to where they need to be next – a necessary bridge, perhaps, and one providing some needed exposition, but unremarkable on its own merits. 3 stars.
• Companion Piece – What follows is fortunately much better. Here, Liv and Helen find themselves the prisoners of a madman who's trying to collect a full set of the Doctor's companions. The result is bonkers, with lots of great one-liners and more nods to the series' history than you can shake a stick at. River Song appears, but we also get (as is apparent from the cover image) Charlie and Bliss, with the latter getting a particularly good turn in a story that's more comedic than her usual fare. It's a great Doctor-lite story, full of fun and putting the companions centre stage. 5 stars.
• L.E.G.E.N.D. – Next, we're off to 19th century Germany for a meeting with the Brothers Grimm. The story, naturally enough, deals with folklore, with elements taken from the stories that the Brothers collected – although not in the cop-out “they were inspired by real events” way that's sometimes used. Instead, we have a story about the arrival of an alien folklorist which, after some initial comic moments, leads to unforeseen complications and a real monster stalking the woods The resolution, when it comes, is a little abrupt and there's perhaps not quite the sense of time and place that mark the best stories set in Earth's past, but it works better than it might have. 3.5 stars.
• The Odds Against – Initially, the concluding story seems like it's going to be another run-around in the style of the first one in the collection. Trying to track down the Ravenous, the Doctor arrives on an alien planet, stumbles across a dead body and is immediately arrested by a patrolling robot before becoming embroiled in trying to solve a mystery. All of which seems fairly routine, but it turns that that's rather the point, and the story soon heads off in an entirely different direction. The Ravenous themselves are, honestly, rather tedious but here, they are really an ancillary threat to recurring villain the Eleven. The latter is very well employed here; even if it at times it gets confusing trying to follow his self-interrupted monologues, it's well worth it. 4.5 stars.
Although Magrs has written a number of serious stories for Big Finish over the years, here he's back to what he's best known for (at least to me): surreal fiction with larger-than-life characters. Which, in this case, means the return of his creation Iris Wildthyme, a slightly crazy Time Lady who is, in some senses, a pastiche of the Doctor himself.
The story is set out of sequence with most other 7th Doctor stories, in that it features Hex as a travelling companion, about four years after the publication of the story featuring his departure. He fits right back in, with a large part of the story being built around the fact that he has a different perspective from Ace. Also guest starring is, of course, Katy Manning as Iris, reprising the role she's played in a number of previous audios, in some of which she was the main viewpoint character.
The story features the TARDIS landing in Paris in 1922, where the Doctor discovers that history - and specifically art and literary history - has been changed. It becomes clear that Iris has something to do with this, putting her and the Doctor at odds. Meanwhile, there's also some alien activity going on in the city and a terrible poet is suddenly becoming popular.
There is an explanation for all of this weirdness, but it has to be said that it doesn't hang together terribly well. We can see what Iris and Panda are doing, and why, but it's rather less clear why any of it would work. Listening to this, it's better just to come along for the ride, enjoying the characterisation and the fun ideas (playing on, among other things, the works of Picasso) rather than thinking about it too much.
And there is plenty of fun to be had, and quite a bit of humour. There are some great ideas in this, and it's an entertaining listen. Iris isn't as perpetually sozzled as she usually is and there's a bit more of a serious edge to her - although I, at least, worked out what she was up to well before the Doctor did. Panda is fun as well, and we even get an explanation as to what he's supposed to be (or at least what the Doctor thinks he is) although, as usual, his oddities are mainly just lampshaded.
So surreal, funny... but not, on the whole, making an awful lot of sense. Whether you'll enjoy it may depend on how much that matters to you.
Tosh investigates a series of mysterious deaths in this rather routine Torchwood offering. We're explicitly told in the pre-title sequence what's going on, so the mystery is around how she's going to stop the killer rather than who he might be or how he's doing it. This makes the story rather more leisurely than it might be, much of it consisting of Tosh trying to befriend the killer and get him to realise what he's doing and the effect it is having. As a result, things only really move forward in the final segment, and the fact that we know what's happening robs it of much of the tension.
Having said this, it's far from a complete loss. It's well performed, and written with sympathy for the characters that Tosh encounters along the way. In part, it's a story about the frustrations of everyday life, and the killer succumbing to the temptations that his ability creates for him. But Tosh doesn't get to do very much, and I got the feeling that she's in this one because the plot wouldn't have worked with the other regulars at all, rather than because she's a particularly good fit.
There's an interesting theme of what a regular person might want to get away with if they could, but it's too slow for the story to be as engaging as it might be.
Here, the TARDIS crew become embroiled in a mystery set at Cambridge University in the mid 1930s (supposedly 1937, although certain elements of the story place it earlier, perhaps in 1934). It's a very different story from anything that we had on TV during the black-and-white era and, in that respect, might have fitted better with one of the later Doctors such as Five or Seven. On the other hand, the First Doctor fits right in with the atmosphere, pretending to be a visiting professor.
The reason for this is that it's essentially a mystery story, and one that involves alien technology yet lacking much in the way of a monster. (Not that there aren't any at all, but they only attack directly once and are a minor, if necessary, element of the story). It takes quite a time to come together, with the Doctor, Vicki, and Steven all investigating different elements that clearly must have a connection yet appear quite disparate. The mystery and political elements of the story, however, are supplemented by action scenes and moments of peril that help to move things along.
In fact, the story has a number of twists along the way and takes a surprising turn for one of the characters at the halfway point. Some of the twists are telegraphed in advance, but others are less so and one at least I was kicking myself for not having spotted earlier. (Although, of course, that may just be me). There are ties to the era it's set in as well, although some listeners will doubtless be pleased to note that, while the title does indeed refer to quantum mechanics, there isn't much detailed discussion on the subject and you don't need to know what (say) the EPR paradox is to follow the plot.
Some listeners might, on the other hand, be disappointed to discover that Vicki is the only female character in the story. This, however, is difficult to avoid in a story that's set in an exclusively male environment - the fictional setting is loosely based on Trinity College, which didn't admit women until the 1970s. Indeed, one suspects that, in the real setting, Vicki's presence would likely have caused more scandal than it does here. On the other hand, at least three of the characters turn out to be gay... certainly not something we would have seen in the B&W era of Doctor Who.
The story ends on a particular dramatic cliffhanger.
I have to be honest; of all the TV stories from the First Doctor's era I could think of doing a sequel to, The Rescue would not have been top of my list. Not that it's one of the weaker stories, mind you; it just doesn't seem suited to such a thing. Yet that's exactly what we have here - and it's very good.
After something goes wrong on the TARDIS, Vicki wakes to find herself back on the UK-201 just hours before it crashed and set up the events of the TV story. The first 30 minutes deal with the immediate ramifications of that and of having the chance to prevent her father's death. From there on, however, things get increasingly timey-wimey. There are at least some parallels to Father's Day, not to mention the film Groundhog Day, but the focus is on exploring the effects on Vicki and, in particular, how her life might have turned out had things been different.
It's not a simple story, especially towards the end, where the exact sequence of events matters. O'Brien is the lynchpin of it and does a fantastic job voicing different versions of Vicki throughout her life, helping to bring things to life without the prosthetics that a TV show would have to use. Obviously, it's not the sort of thing that the show would have done in the '60s (The Space Museum has some similar themes, perhaps, but not to the extent used here) and it isn't one for those who dislike the “timey-wimey” trope. Furthermore, it's worth mentioning that the Doctor is barely in it, leaving this more like one of the Companion Chronicles where the focus is on Vicki and, to a lesser extent, Steven.
But if, like me, you don't mind those issues it's a great story with strong acting and an intelligent and emotional plot.
The TARDIS arrives on an alien spaceship transporting a war criminal with telepathic powers to his prison. Soon enough, things start going wrong, and everyone is trying to survive on a hostile planet. That's the basic plot, anyway, and it moves along at a good pace, with plenty of changes of scenery as things develop. But it's not the plot that's likely the main selling point here.
Instead, that's the first appearance of Kamelion in a Big Finish story (in fact, the first of a trilogy featuring the character). Kamelion appears in only two TV stories, and for much of those is under the control of the villain, so that we never really get to see him as a companion. Arguably, of all the characters who appear on official lists of TV companions, only Katarina is more obscure. Here he's played by impressionist Jon Culshaw, something made easier by the fact that most of the time he's in robot form and speaking with an electronic voice.
Naturally, Kamelion has a key part to play in the story, which is connected (of course) to the villain's telepathic powers. We perhaps don't get much insight into the character here, although it's debatable how complex he's supposed to be, since he may not be programmed with much personality of his own. More significant is Tegan's distrust of him, something that we saw in The King's Demons, but that was never worked out on screen when technical issues curtailed Kamelion's role on the show.
In fact, Tegan is key to the plot. The Doctor is partially incapacitated for much of it, and, while not exactly sidelined, passes much of his usual active role to his companions, with Tegan being the more prominent of the three. For much of this time she's forced to interact with the potentially untrustworthy robot and this drives a significant element of the story. There are also a number of twists and turns along the way, as different concerns come to the fore and it turns out that not everything going on with the aliens is quite what it seems.
A good, fun story that fairly zips along. With a shape-changing robot and space hippos.
This lengthy arc focuses on Maxwell Lord and new villain Liar Liar and is essentially one long story, albeit with a diversion in the middle that doesn't quite seem to fit. It's mostly pretty good, with decent art, although I can see why some readers might find it a bit too long (I didn't, for what it's worth). The new villain is interesting as a character as well as providing the sort of challenge that can't simply be met by hitting things, which fits well with the Wonder Woman ethos. Yes, the segment in the middle with Lord and Diana teaming up does feel a bit like padding but even that works as part of the arc I found it more enjoyable than the previous volume in the current series.
The Doctor visits present-day Iceland in a story that has vague links to the Predator movies and Nordic noir, but doesn't really resemble either very closely. The companion role is taken by Yrsa, a police detective whose own father died under mysterious circumstances and is now drawn into the investigation of what seems to be a similar death.
Most of the plot concerns trying to track down the alien responsible and somehow bring him to justice. There's much talk of Icelandic belief in elves and trolls, and one can only assume that this is why Yrsa seems to accept the Doctor so easily even before being presented with clear proof that he isn't either mad or pulling her leg. There are also a few elements of humour, some concerning an office printer that quite literally has a mind of its own (for no terribly plausible reason, to be honest).
It can't really be described as a mystery, since we know who's responsible, although there are some questions as to who is helping them out and who exactly can be trusted. The story moves along at a reasonable pace, although there are a few plot holes and the ending is rather predictable. Whether you'll enjoy it may depend on whether you enjoy the intentional absurdities (and there are a number) or find them distracting in a tale that's not otherwise much of a comedy.
Perhaps it should have either gone for all-out bonkers or played up a grim Nordic noir tone. As it is, it falls somewhere in between. The result is a decent enough Sixth Doctor story, without any fatal flaws, but not especially memorable either.
A collection of three stories linked solely by the theme of UNIT facing a re-appearance of something they have faced before. Albeit, in two out of the three stories, not directly on TV. It's not the strongest set in the series, which seems to be running short of new ideas and isn't developing its leads as much as it might, but each of the stories has something to recommend them.
• Hosts of the Wirrn – We start with UNIT facing off against the Wirrn, which, of course, they only know about from Harry's reports of his experiences in The Ark in Space (although, in fairness to him, his report seems to have been quite thorough). Here, UNIT rather unwisely decides to experiment on a Wirrn egg they have recovered, and much of the story is told from the perspective of the entomologist they bring in from academia to help them. Naturally, things go wrong and build to a dramatic situation in the second half. There are plenty of references to the original story and quite a few moments of humour alongside the inevitable body horror. There's also an original take on the Wirrn's hive mind and some changes/enhancements on the basic format explained by them being a different ‘strain' than the ones seen thousands of years later on the Ark. There are a couple of weak points, however. Firstly, many of the characters spend a lot of time in hazmat suits that muffle their voices; they're easy enough to understand, but it's not a great effect for audio. Secondly, the solution, when it eventually comes, really doesn't make any sense, which is rather a pity given some of the effort in the rest of the story. 3 stars.
• Breach of Trust – The ‘returning' aliens here turn out to be ones that UNIT encountered in an untold story, meaning that they're essentially new. They are, admittedly, quite original, and the core concept is one that works well on audio. They are also, at least initially, ambiguous, and the focus of the story is on whether or not the alien that has walked into UNIT headquarters with an offer of help can be trusted. It moves nicely along, managing to do quite a bit in its one-hour length as we initially explore the mystery of what the alien is and why it's here and then onto a more typical UNIT threat – albeit one that cannot be countered with infantry soldiers. There's some good characterisation of the leads, showing their different approaches to what seems an impossible situation, although the sort of fallout that we'd expect from it in future episodes is unlikely to surface. 4 stars.
• Open the Box – Finally, we have an investigation into a New Age Wellness retreat that (of course) feels suspiciously like a dangerous cult. It's this story that features a monster from the original TV series and it's good to see that it's one that presents a more nebulous threat than, say, Silurians would. This uses an admittedly common SF trope to get inside the character's heads and explore what makes them tick, but it is one that's used well here. As is the initial mystery as to what our heroes are really facing – helped by the fact that, for various reasons, it's changed from the details that we saw before. While it doesn't have the action elements that the longer first story in the collection has, it has the advantage of working well with its shorter length and being an effective follow-up to a TV adventure that's often underrated and overlooked. 4 stars.
The initial entry in this series was a set of four episodes linked by a common arc; here, although the episodes are individually titled, it's much more one single story in four parts. It concerns a failing mining colony and the attempts of its administrator to make a go of things despite the efforts of a corrupt official higher up in the Earth Empire. The Master is in every episode, but is only prominent in two of them, playing things from behind the scenes in the others.
There are, as is apparent from the cover, ties to the modern series. In particular, the Ood have a major role to play - and, when you think about it, they're a race tailor-made for a story featuring the Master. But the real stand-out is, of course, Jacobi making his version of the Master scary and menacing even while he appears to be friendly. And that's one of the key features of this Master, setting him apart from other incarnations - his ability to seem like a good person, avuncular and friendly yet always remaining the same man underneath. In fact, given how pantomime the other villain of the story is, you can certainly understand why the colonists assume him to be preferable.
I'm not giving this five stars because the beginning is rather slow. Yes, it's all necessary as set-up and there is a pay-off at the end, once we discover what the Master is trying to achieve. But at times it's... well, a story of a failing mining colony. Indeed, the third episode is entirely an aside, albeit a very good one where things become increasingly surreal and disjointed as it moves along.
This is, as we're basically told before the theme music even starts, not a story that's going to have a happy ending. Indeed, much of it is very dark, leaving the listener with the question of just how many of the other characters the Master is going to trample on the way to his mysterious objective and whether they'll survive the experience.
The second part of the ‘Kamelion trilogy' consists of two hour-long stories, unconnected beyond the fact that they take place consecutively and that both have a theme of Kamelion getting everyone in trouble. Both are a little off-the-beaten-track for DW which listeners may find a good or a bad thing, depending on their tastes.
• Black Thursday – The TARDIS arrives in a Welsh mining village in 1902. (Unusually, it's a real village, close to Ebbw Vale, and the story is apparently loosely inspired by real events). It's what I'd describe as a semi-historical - there are no SF elements beyond the presence of the travellers, but the fact that one of the travellers is a psychically susceptible shape-changing robot is absolutely key to the plot. It's a good story, dealing with the extreme danger of mining at that point in history and the ties that are so integral to communities of that type.
Obviously, we know that Kamelion is going to go wrong at some point, since there doesn't seem to be much else to do with the character but it's still quite alarming when he does. One minor downside is that the character who can loosely be described as the villain is a stereotype, standing out as less believable than the others, but he's a minor element in something relatively short, so there likely wasn't space to make anything more of him. But it's still a good, and dramatic, story. 4 stars.
• Power Game – I'm less sure what to make of this one, but it certainly wins points for originality. Essentially, Tegan becomes trapped in an '80s game show based on the real-world BBC program The Adventure Game (itself a forerunner of The Crystal Maze). It's mostly light-hearted, with the Doctor and Turlough wandering through York trying to work out where she and Kamelion have got to and then trying to deal seriously with the bizarreness of the situation once they discover the answer.
This is aided by the fact the game show elements evidently have cheesy '80s era computer graphics - although this is something that would work better if we could see them rather than having them described. The plot, on the other hand is a bit daft and much of what's going on is basically hand-waved so a lot likely depends on far you can immerse yourself in the surreal concept without worrying too much about how it's supposed to be possible. 3 stars.
To be honest, this story doesn't have much to do with Torchwood. They're mentioned, briefly, just the once and none of the regulars appear. The only reason that this is a Torchwood story is that Bilis Manger is one of the two main characters in it, and it could just as well have been written for somebody else given that we don't really know much about who Manger is from the TV series. (Nor do we learn much in this). If anything, what this reminded me of most was Sapphire and Steel, with its themes of time as an enemy.
But, having said all that, it's a good story, and that's what counts. It features a motorist seeking a room for the night in an isolated hotel outside of Cardiff and then finding things increasingly unnerving. It's spooky and claustrophobic, with Manger as the suave host at the hotel slowly giving out crumbs of information about what's really happening as it becomes more and more obvious that something isn't right - and that there seems no escape. The result is an effective piece of psychological horror, with much of the detail shrouded in mystery, and Manger's real role in it all being left ambiguous until the very end.