Jamie Revell
A second volume in the series about the Time War from the Gallifreyan perspective. This time around, Leela is absent and so are the Daleks, with any fighting taking place entirely off-screen. Instead the focus is on the early days of Rassilon's new regime as Gallifrey slides towards an increasingly authoritarian dictatorship in the name of wartime security. The four stories form a single arc but each is distinct and has a separate writer.
• Havoc – The first story is primarily about the politics in the immediate aftermath of Rassilon's takeover; he's already entrenched in office and is seeking to enhance his grip on power. Rassilon himself (played by Terrence Hardiman in the obvious absence of Timothy Dalton) isn't in it all that much, mostly turning up to make brief and ominous announcements before fading into the background again. There's certainly no effort to develop his character or explain what he's doing beyond him just being a bad guy. Some of the other characters from the first volume aren't behaving very consistently, either, with Narvin, for instance, seeming a far less confident man than he used to be. There's an intriguing side-plot with a killer from the future hiding out in the Citadel, but it mostly seems to be going through the motions. 3 stars.
• Partisans – The focus here is more on Narvin, better written in this episode but still not in the sort of story that really suits him. Furthermore, there's an incredibly long info-dump of exposition at the beginning that means it takes quite a while for the story to get going. Once it does, it's not bad, featuring the War Council and Romana having different plans for how to turn a world war on an alien planet to their advantage in the larger Time War. Here, it helps that some of the story is told through the eyes of a local soldier for whom a world-spanning war is quite big – and terrible – enough on its own but has no idea of the brewing larger conflict. 4 stars.
• Collateral – Following on from the events of the previous episode, although set some years later, this is the strongest story of the collection. It has much the same theme as its predecessor, with Rassilon and Romana taking different views as to what the appropriate course of action is - and, in this case, what they're even trying to achieve. But it the theme of the futility of war is stronger, and we see Gallifrey actually using time travel to further its ends. There's a sense of ticking doom, and some effective use of nonlinear storytelling that doesn't fall into the trap of getting confusing (no more so than a typical flashback sequence, really). 4 stars.
• Assassins – The final story, however, suffers especially strongly from the problem that the collection as a whole does. Essentially, it's a prequel to events already played out in the TV stories, so we know how it all ends, robbing it of much of the tension. We know that we'll never see how the Time War ends, because we've seen that already, and we've also seen that Rassilon survives – and this particular episode is supposedly all about whether he will or not. We do get to see more of him than in the previous three offerings, but he basically turns out to be a gitt with little depth, wandering around confident that he can't be harmed. Which, since we know he won't be, doesn't help with the tension. Yes, there's some interest in seeing exactly how we get there, but the resolution at the end is a bit of a cop-out and for all of the semi-cliffhanger ending promising that Leela will be back in volume three, I don't feel especially inspired to listen to it. 3 stars.
Unlike the previous seasons this, presumably the final one, consists of three individual releases, rather than a box set. The '70s ambience for this first story is provided by it being set at a New Age retreat, during the initial wave of popularity of such things. (Well, that and one minor character being a '70s era sexist). The exact year is never stated, although one line in the dialogue implies either 1978 or 1979, so we've moved on again.
The story concerns an investigation into the retreat, some of whose visitors have unaccountably gone mad. Are aliens involved, or some secret scientific project, or have the New Agers just been at too many of the magic mushrooms? It's the sort of territory that the series has visited before, and arguably the '70s New Age wasn't that different to '60s counterculture aside from some changes in terminology. But what's going in here is new and does at least feel appropriate for the era in which it's set.
The short length doesn't allow for much development of the characters, many of whom are largely going through the motions. Sir Toby is used the best, a clear holdover from an earlier era out-of-touch with ‘modern' culture. On the other hand, Potter seems to forget that Alison would be around 40 by the time this is set and, while Rachel is key to the resolution, she doesn't get much to do up to that point.
But I'm nudging it up to four stars for the unexpected twists in the plot, which makes for a good investigative story. There's also, even at this late stage in the series, foreshadowing for something that's presumably followed up in the final two stories.
Although there were (and still are) those uncomfortable with recasting the title role, as this line of audios has done, by the time this volume was being prepared, it had evidently proved popular enough that Big Finish felt comfortable in taking the next obvious step. So, this time, it's not just the Third Doctor that is recast, but also both the Brigadier and Liz Shaw, the former by impressionist Jon Culshaw and the latter by Daisy Ashford, the daughter of the original actor. Obviously, like Treloar himself, neither is a perfect imitation, although Culshaw does come pretty close. But it seems likely that anyone who finds that a problem won't be listening to this series anyway, and allowing the characters back opens up possibilities that relying solely on Jo Grant cannot.
To make full use of this, for the first time, both stories in this volume are ‘70s set UNIT stories, rather than one of them being set off-world. As usual, the '70s ambience is boosted by incidental music that effectively imitates that used on the show in this era, helping these stories feel even more like actual episodes from the time.
Primord – Although Inferno is one of the most well-regarded of all the Third Doctor stories, few would argue that it's because of the monsters that feature in it. Yet here we are with a story that features them as the focus... and, given that premise, it's surprisingly good. The problem with the Primords is that they're just growly monsters that kill people, which isn't the basis for a great story on TV, never mind on audio. So, instead, what this story is really about is the human villains that are trying to use the Primords for their own ends, rather than the monsters themselves. Although, when they do get to run amok in the final 30-minute segment, they do so quite effectively.
The story sees Jo and the Doctor go to meet up with Liz in Cambridge while the Brigadier separately investigates something that we know from the opening scene (not to mention the title) has something to do with the eponymous monsters. The way Jo is handled here is one of the story's strengths; the Doctor is out of the way for a long stretch, leaving Jo – assisted by the Brigadier – as the primary protagonist fighting against the Primords and human villains. That the story manages to do this while staying true to the character is a definite plus. On the downside, considering that it's her debut in a full-cast audio (she had previously appeared in some of the Chronicles series, when Caroline John was still with us) Liz spends almost the entire time acting out of character. Yes, there's a good reason for it, but, as a return to the series, it's a little disappointing. Here's hoping for something better the next time she's used. 4 stars.
The Scream of Ghosts – Liz does not appear again in this one, although we do get Benton. The latter is still voiced by his original actor, although he's old enough now that Culshaw arguably sounds more like the Brigadier than he does like his younger self. We also move back from Cambridge to the ever-popular Big Finish setting of rural Kent, where people have been hearing strange sounds and televisions are acting up. This seems to have something to do with a research laboratory trying to invent a mobile telephone in a clever use of “futuristic” technology that (from the description) seems primitive to us 50 years on.
The first half builds up the mystery as events in the village become ever stranger and more deadly, without any hint as to what is really behind them. That comes a little past the halfway mark, with a twist that ties into a TV story that (were there not a clue on the cover) is probably not one you'd expect. The result is a good story, that feels very much a part of the ‘70s and that makes particularly good use of the audio format. Of course, Big Finish can't build every story around audio effects but when they do so successfully, like this, the result is something that's better than it likely would be on TV. It's also another instance of making a ‘monster' seem more original and interesting than they actually were on the original show... 4.5 stars.
The recast version of the First Doctor adventures continues with one straight historical and one SF tale. In this case, while the historical is good, the other fails despite the gimmick of having Carole Ann Ford in the cast, leaving this the weakest of the three volumes so far.
The Phoenicians – The TARDIS arrives in the ancient city of Tyre in 814 BC, where the Doctor and companions soon become involved with the feud between King Pygmalion (no, not the sculptor) and his sister. The first half of the story follows the usual formula of close scrapes in Tyre, dealing with mysterious assassins and sinister prophets. In the second half, we're off across the Mediterranean in one of the longer trips that typified this era of the TV show – concluding, of course, with the Doctor witnessing the founding of Carthage.
In some respects, this is most like The Aztecs, with the clash between modern sensibilities and iron age culture being a recurring element. Given the intended audience, the temple prostitutes are only alluded to, but there is plenty of casual slavery and some (‘off-screen') human sacrifice with none of the guest characters coming out of things well from a modern perspective, although the Scythian amazon comes close. On the downside, the first two cliffhangers are particularly limp – both revolve around a central character being apparently killed off when we know they can't be, and an almost casual resolution of why they weren't in the next episode. But otherwise, it's a strong example of this particular type of story, exploring an ‘alien' culture that happens to be human, as the earlier historicals on TV tended to. 4 stars.
Tick Tock World – The second series TV serial The Space Museum is chiefly notable for the first episode, in which the TARDIS managed to jump slightly out of its usual time stream. Once things are restored to normal at the end of that episode, the remainder of the serial is comparatively mundane. Here, a similar premise to that first episode is stretched out over a full 2-hour story... and it turns out there isn't really enough in it to carry a story for that length.
The travellers find themselves on a world of ruins that has been affected by a similar sort of time jump, so that they are seeing echoes of the past, and of their own futures. They team up with some other survivors and we get the usual leisurely exploration of the setting for which the First Doctor's era was often known on TV. Which, in this case, doesn't particularly go anywhere, even once the monsters turn up and start eating people. And what is it with killing off LGBT couples in the audios of late? The main positive in the story is an examination of the Doctor's relationship with Susan which can also be seen a commentary on her being underused in the TV series itself after An Unearthly Child. But even this is achieved largely by making the Doctor unlikeable; he's at his most cantankerous here and unwilling to accept help even when he clearly needs it and others are in a position to provide it.
I can see what Adams was trying for here but, while the result has some good points, he doesn't quite pull it off. 3 stars.
The Kamelion trilogy concludes with the eponymous robot returning to his home planet and discovering that it has been destroyed in a civil war. So if you ever wanted to know what Kamelion's background is and why anyone ever thought that building a robot like him was a good idea, this provides some answers. (Although whether you consider them canonical or not is another matter). However, the story does lampshade one of the main problems with Kamelion - he doesn't have a personality and there isn't really any room to build one. As the focus of a story, he just isn't very interesting.
Indeed, as we've seen in the previous stories of the trilogy, the only interesting thing that Kamelion can do is get taken over and turn evil. This happens yet again here, accompanied by rather a lot of the robot lying about his origin and function, with the truth not coming out until past the halfway mark. In fairness, it's quite a good mind control story, with the scenery shifting from the ruined planet with its gangs of motorcycling gorillas to a consensual virtual reality to a final episode set largely inside the TARDIS. The villain is cliched and only thinly developed, but he does at least come across as a worthy opponent and there are some dramatic twists in the story as a consequence.
The misfortune of this, perhaps, is that it's the concluding part of a trilogy (four stories, actually) all of which revolve around the same thing happening to the title character, albeit for different reasons. Had it been a standalone I might have had a more positive reaction to it, but repeating the same plot device will only carry you so far and merely highlights the limitations of Kamelion as a character. This one does, of course, end with an explanation of why he's not mentioned for the next five TV stories but it's largely what you'll have thought, if a little heavy-handed with the “and let us never speak of this again” trope.
The set up at the end of the previous volume pays off here, as we get a longer story with Catwoman setting out to rescue Ivy from a drug cartel. It feels very much like a crime drama, set in grimy Gotham backstreets and mostly featuring typical gangsters, although a couple of costumed (and, in one case, superpowered) villains do make an appearance. This means that the section towards the end where we get the backstory of a Bible-quoting assassin feels somewhat at odds with the rest, being further removed from a real-world setting. But, even having said that, the writing is good, and the art is more consistent than is often the case, with a style that evokes the grey backstreets and splashes of occasional bloody violence.
It's hard to read this and not get an X-Men vibe, given the setting of a school for teenagers with superpowers. But, of course, it's clearly the DC universe and ties in with other Titans stories. The plot concerns a new intake of students (some familiar from previous comics, most not) one of whom is secretly a villain up to... I'm not really sure what because he hasn't done much that's obviously bad yet.
The main appeal is the new characters and the problem here is that there's a sufficiently large cast that, even by the end of the volume we don't really know who all the key ones are - Brick, Summer, Gregg, and especially Dane just don't get any development or backstory yet. So it may be something of a slow burn, possibly with DC trying to out the ideas to see which ones prove popular so they can be used more going forward. Having said that, the section where the Bat Pack become the main protagonists is good, balancing comedic moments with a serious backstory. And at least the collection includes the issue of Suicide Squad that was part of the plot arc, something that DC often overlooks when they put these together.
It's certainly intriguing enough for me to want to read more, although mainly to see what they do with the new characters than for the central mystery of Red X's identity, which remains unsolved at the conclusion. Stitch and the Bat Pack are great, and Bolt is fun, too, but give me more of Summer...
The final collected edition in Williamson's run focuses on Eobard Thawne, and does a good job of it. There's plenty of action, but also some reflection on the character and his motivations. It's also an ode of sorts to the Flash Family, with Barry the core of it, but the presence of his support network also being crucial. This makes it partially an excuse to get as many supporting heroes and villains into the last few issues as humanly possible, even if some of them just appear once or twice in the background of a splash panel. It feels a little self-indulgent at times, but if a writer can't be self-indulgent at the end of their run, then when can they be? (And I do feel some sympathy for Avery when she keeps having to say “who's THAT?” - albeit she mainly says it about the characters I recognise, not the many I didn't).
This has the feeling of a celebratory lap, which I guess is the point.
In the second part of the “werewolf trilogy” the Doctor takes Mags back to her homeworld, a few hundred years before she was born, ostensibly so that she can be among her own people but (given this is Seven) probably as part of some longer-term manipulation. Whatever his motives, Mags soon becomes involved with one of the noble houses, with a pair of suitors pawing over her while a young scion of the family plots societal change.
The first half of the story is good, with Mags trying to come to terms with a society that's less advanced and enlightened than the one she grew up in, even if they are her own race. The Doctor is away for pretty much the entire second act as it becomes clear that not all is right with the Vulpanans, even ignoring the rivalries within the noble clan. This leaves the focus more on Mags, who is the viewpoint character for much of the rest of it too, which is something that works well. Even though all but one of the guest characters are werewolves, there's also less of the animalistic growling of the previous instalment, which is a plus.
Unfortunately, it stumbles at the halfway point once it becomes clear what's actually going on. And that's because it really makes no sense. Not so much because the plan wouldn't have the outcomes it does - heck, they're aliens, and this isn't hard SF, so who knows? - but because it's completely implausible that the villain could have carried it out. There is some handwaving about alien technology, but it isn't convincing. Come to that, how has he even built his base without anyone noticing?
Sadly, this lets down the plot, which otherwise isn't too bad, with some of the themes of self-sacrifice, deception, and covert planning for which Seven's era is known. Plus, a better use of Mags than last time. But there are limits.
This is the second half of a two-part story. I have reviewed both parts at The Movellan Manoeuvre.
A collection of four one-hour audio stories, each built around the work of the Air Transport Auxiliary in WWII. This was the civilian service responsible for flying warplanes from factories to airfields, and similar “ferrying” duties. It's best known for employing female pilots (on equal pay, no less, which was more than the US did at the time). In reality, even towards the end of the war, only around one in five of ATA pilots were women but, since that's the thing that's most interesting about the organisation they are rightly the focus here. The stories are connected in the sense that they share some of the same supporting characters and have a common framing device set in the present day (2016), but they're otherwise standalone.
• Up in the Air – The first story in the collection has the additional burden of explaining what the ATA was for those unfamiliar with it. This it does a good job of, showing it through the eyes of new recruit Deborah. That takes up a good portion of the story, but it's done in an engaging way that helps to show what a unique opportunity it was at the time. In addition to this, of course, we have the episode's plot. This is partly a story of bereavement (plenty of that to go around in WWII) and ties in with the ramifications of the Battle of the Bulge. It's a bittersweet tale with some well-drawn characters that does a good job of drawing you in. 4 stars.
• Dancing with a Spitfire – Although this is set two years prior to the first episode, since the main characters in it are different, and there are no ongoing plotlines, it's barely noticeable. It's the story of two contrasting women, one a glamorous attention-seeker and the other an American tomboy wallflower, thrust together by circumstance as the US enters the War and sends some of their own women pilots over to join the ATA. Both are hiding secrets, although neither is particularly hard to guess. 1940s attitudes to women (at least by some men) play a significant role and, for all its short length, it's another good character piece peppered with the joy of flying. 4.5 stars.
• Flying Blind – There's rather less joy in this emotional tale of a widowed pilot with a young child having an affair with a married man. The impossibility of resolving the pair's situation is at the heart of it, as are the expectations of ‘40s society; flying is a theme, of course, but mainly as a metaphor for freedom rather than a direct element of the plot. There's also a subplot with a teenage pilot who may be making the same mistakes with her life as the central character once did with hers... and a particularly harrowing scene that might merit a trigger warning. It's not an easy listen at times, but it works very well. 5 stars.
• Grounded – The final story, as it names suggests, takes place entirely at the ATA airbase. At least to begin with, it's more introspective than the others, exploring the attitudes of the various characters to the war and the situation they've found themselves in. The pointless loss of life in air raids is a major theme, along with psychological strain, making this another relatively dark one. There are ties back to two of the previous episodes and the lead character in the framing device takes centre-stage for the first time... making it clear why (like so many veterans) she doesn't talk about her time in the service. 4.5 stars.
This is the first of a set of four stories in which various members of Torchwood face off against monsters from the regular Doctor Who series. Here, as is obvious from the title and cover, it's Gwen versus the Fendahl. There isn't much background on that given, so this probably won't make much sense to anyone who hasn't seen Image of the Fendahl. If you have... well, it had some good ideas, but it didn't work all that well for me.
The story concerns the making of a snuff movie at Fetch Priory based around the events of the original TV story some decades before. This means that all of the characters involved, apart from Gwen herself, are deeply unlikeable. That's fair enough, given that misogyny is a central theme of the story, but with Gwen acting strangely and only really coming to the fore in the closing segments, it makes it hard to really care what happens to anyone.
The result is a fairly traditional horror story where the makers of the horror movie are the victims of a real monster. The fact that the Fendahl doesn't directly speak doesn't help much on audio, and at times it's difficult to follow exactly what it's supposed to be doing. Certainly, they were going for a dark and unpleasant vibe here and I'd say that that worked, along with the message about the attitudes of the filmmakers towards women (mostly, although not entirely, shown through their actions rather than explicit dialogue) which partly subverts the genre. A lot may depend on whether you like the sort of supernatural horror film it's emulating - which, in fairness, is something that fits well with the Fendahl as a monster - but I didn't feel this was one of the stronger entries in the series.
Set on a space station some time around the 30th century, this is, as its title suggests, partly a story about memory. One of the first things that has to be said, therefore, is that, while I'm no expert on the subject, I've read enough about memory to know that it doesn't work in the way portrayed here. But that's something you have to take as part of the premise and it doesn't really get in the way of the story.
In fact, the tyrant of the title is also something of a MacGuffin. We don't really learn much about him and get only a vague outline of what he's done. While the first part of the story builds up the titular mystery, it soon switches to a focus on what different people are prepared to do to either punish or rescue him and only partially returns to the original question. It does this deftly enough that it isn't disappointing and didn't feel (at least to me) like too much of a bait-and-switch.
Peri is an awkward character to use as a companion, given her history on the TV show. While that's not ignored here, it is brushed over in favour of giving her more agency and less whininess than she was often written with, as well as a more positive relationship with the Doctor. Most notably, she's really the driving character behind the third half-hour segment, with the Doctor effectively absent. We also get a couple of scenes delving into her own childhood memories, which are touching but don't add too much to what we already know.
The result is something of a mixed bag, with some good elements and some weaker ones. Peri is used well, and Baker gets to show off more of his acting range than usual. But the setup is a little weak, and the motivations of the villains are very much on shaky ground. 3.5 stars, then, but I think I'll be generous and round up.
This is the conclusion not only to this imagined future season of the TV show but to the longer arc of the audio “Torchwood Continued” storyline. Although there is a clear conclusion, the ending is left open a little, presumably in case Big Finish wanted to write more about this incarnation of the team. Sadly, though, subsequent revelations about Barrowman's behaviour make any full reunion of this specific cast now seem unlikely. So, while we might see some characters return individually, this is probably all we're going to get for this incarnation of the team. Fortunately, it's a good send-off.
A Mother's Son – The first episode kicks off some time after the cliffhanger ending of the previous box set as Cardiff tries to come to terms with what just happened. Unusually, the story is told from the perspective of a woman tragically affected by the events. Most of the regular characters do show up, of course, popping in and out of the story as its protagonist tries to uncover the truth, but the focus isn't on them. This makes a surprisingly effective way of bridging between the relevant parts of the larger arc, showing us how the outside world perceives what is happening, with echoes of government responses to real-world disasters. The campaigning central character successfully brings a human heart to a story that nonetheless still has aliens and SF technology in it. 4 stars.
Scrape Jane – Now we're over to Colchester and Ng as they investigate an obviously fictional urban legend that seems nonetheless to be real. This, it turns out, is the follow-up to “Cardiff Unknown”, the insert story in the previous box set. That didn't work so well on its own and is really an overly long teaser for this. Still, now we get the pay-off, and it works well as a violent horror story with an interesting opponent. Initially seeming like an unrelated side-story, it all ties into the larger arc and makes good use of both of its leads, here working without the backup of the rest of the group. 4.5 stars.
Day Zero – Returning to the theme of the first episode, the situation in Cardiff continues to get worse (you'd think that by now, the Red Cross or somebody would be organising humanitarian relief convoys just to get people out, but apparently not). Initially focussing on the human side of events, the SF elements become more significant in the second half, which ties in more closely to the main arc. With the various members of the team caught up in different aspects of the ongoing crisis, there's a sense of widescale societal breakdown and a feeling that things have changed some of the central characters for the worse. It's all really a part of the rising tension leading into the final episode, but it does also work on its own. 4 stars.
Thoughts and Prayers – The final episode is suitably apocalyptic, putting the future of the Earth on the line. It brings all the main characters together again and wraps up a lot of what's been going on in the Torchwood audios for some time. Inevitably, not everyone gets as much to do as one might like, but some have already had their climactic moment in earlier episodes and can easily cede ground to those who have not. It's dramatic and world-shaking in a way that Torchwood often isn't, but, if you're going to go out, go out with a bang. 5 stars.
The second of these “Torchwood versus monsters” stories is, rather obviously, a sequel to the Third Doctor story The Green Death. The story starts in media res with Jack accompanying an elderly Jo Grant down the abandoned mine in Llanfairfach where the original story took place. It's never really explained why they are doing this in the way that they are, although Jack at least has reason to be investigating the apparent return of the giant maggots.
The story makes a number of references to the original, beyond the mere presence of the maggots, which have changed subtly over the intervening decades. There's also commentary on how the world has changed since the 1970s, with (among other things) the Nuthutch hippy commune having been superseded by a mainstream corporate business that loosely resembles Quorn or Impossible Foods from the real world.
The main appeal, however, is seeing Jack and Jo interacting, and their very different attitudes to the problem they are facing and the larger world in general. Jo is portrayed here as still ditzy, as she was on TV, but is also noticeably older and more experienced, a plausible extrapolation of the character and one that allows her to drive the plot rather more than she often used to. Overall, though, there's a feeling that this doesn't quite mesh with Torchwood, and the story lacks the strong adult elements that the audio line usually has - its roots as a continuation of a Doctor Who story are rather obvious.
But there's still much to like here, especially for fans of one of the more memorable Third Doctor stories, and I'm giving it 3.5 stars, rounded up.
I'd have to say that one weakness of the Wild Cards books has been that the sections set in Britain or with British characters tend to lack verisimilitude; the authors are, after all, American and don't always seem to get the culture. (This may well also be true of sections set in Congo or Kazakhstan or wherever, but it's not as if I could tell). This book is a reversal of that, doubtless due to the fact that, this time, many of the authors are themselves British.
It's an anthology, somewhat in the style of the very first Wild Cards book, with each story set at a different point in Britain's history in this alternate reality. There's less of an interstitial than usual, although a set of three short stories featuring an immortal character spreading discord in Northern Ireland comes close to filling that role. Otherwise, we have a couple of stories about London gangsters (including the Kray Twins), one about espionage that's more Harry Palmer than James Bond, the Falklands War, pro-Joker terrorism, and two that put a superhero spin on everyday tragedies.
The characters are mostly new, or have only shown up in passing before. The exception is Noel Matthews, who here receives what's effectively an origin story set in the '90s, well before his appearances in earlier books. Which has the advantage that you don't need to know his backstory, and, more generally, means that you don't need to have read the previous books to follow this one. While there are some characters that appear in multiple stories, they mostly stand alone, with British post-War history (or this alternate version of it) as the backdrop. Indeed, while there are two books to go in this triad, I suspect some of the characters here won't show up again, except perhaps in minor roles.
It's a good twist on the format of the first book in the series, looking at a different country. I didn't find that any of the stories in it missed a beat, although some are more memorable than others. As an anthology, it may not quite have the strength of the interweaving narratives of the mosaic novels, but there's pathos and peril and the great feel of placing superheroics against a mundane, realistic background that the series as a whole often does so well at.
Three stories with very different themes, all united by starring Jack Harkness. Whereas the previous volume concentrated on his life before he joined Torchwood, here only one is set during that period, although none of the other characters from the show are present.
Piece of Mind – The first story is a comedy that sees Jack pretending to be the Sixth Doctor in order to try and save a planet from invasion by killer robots. Much of the initial humour comes from Barrowman's imitation of Colin Baker but that would hardly sustain the whole story and, fortunately, it doesn't need to. Instead, we get Jack's very different approach to solving the sort of problem that's a better fit for Doctor Who than it would be for Torchwood, giving us a ‘Doctor' who uses guns and sexual seduction to achieve his ends. It's perhaps more lightly amusing than laugh-out-loud funny, but it is a nice twist on the format, with the comedy counterbalanced with the subplot about a fangirl whose adoration and trust of the Doctor ends up putting her in peril. And there are some fun bits of banter between Six and Jack. 4 stars.
What Have I Done? – In a total contrast to the opening episode, the second one is set during the Gallipoli Campaign in World War I, showing us a different battlefront than we usually see, at least in British stories. It's almost entirely a two-hander, with Jack rescuing an injured Ottoman deserter and becoming trapped in No Man's Land as they attempt to make it to safety. There is a science fiction twist beyond Jack's immortality, but most of the story concerns the relationship between two characters on the opposite sides of a war that neither of them wants to be a part of. If the dark secret that the soldier is hiding is a little easy to guess, it's otherwise a strong story with a solid emotional core. 4.5 stars.
Driving Miss Wells – The final story is essentially a regular Torchwood story, little different from those in the monthly audio series, which typically only feature one or two of the regular characters anyway. This is slightly unusual in that it's told from the point of view of a newsreader who has come to doubt the existence of aliens but now finds herself embroiled in what certainly looks like an alien conspiracy of some kind. This leaves less room for Jack, who is evidently trying to work out whether she has genuinely stumbled across something but spends at least as much time flirting with random men and seemingly not getting much done. Instead, it's the newsreader who drives the story and whose responses to the situation rapidly escalate and raise the question of whether she is an unreliable narrator. Compared with the first two stories, there's nothing much unusual about it, but it works as what it is. 4 stars.
Compared with the previous volume, there are many more costumed heroes and superpowered villains in this one. Yet it still manages to convey a gritty street-level feel, partly helped by the style of the artwork, which doesn't flinch on the battering that some of the characters are taking. It's a story of cons and double-crosses as Catwoman is forced to team up with others to try and save one of the poorer neighbourhoods of Gotham and her friends in the process. The larger Fear State storyline feeds into it and, since I haven't been following that, its presence didn't do much for me, but at least it suits the broader atmosphere that Ram V is going for and doesn't feel too badly shoe-horned in. The coda at the end has a different artist but works as a good conclusion to the arc, wrapping up the themes while (obviously) leaving things open for the next writer.
It often seems that Daleks have been used so many times on Doctor Who that there is nothing new that can be done with them; every story is essentially retreading old ground. But, every now and then, something comes along that manages to put a new spin on them or that views them from a different perspective. This is not one of those stories.
In fact, it's a perfectly serviceable, but ultimately unremarkable tale of the Doctor trying to liberate a planet conquered by the menacing pepperpots. The Doctor wanders around mostly being supercilious and brashly confident, with no sense at any point that he's under any real threat. There's a minor mystery as to why the Daleks aren't operating in their usual manner but you'll probably work out what the explanation is fairly early on and it's not especially exciting. Peri is written better than she was on TV, being more adventurous and strong-willed, but that's not hard and is par for the course in modern audios by now anyway.
One positive point that the story does have is the use of the title character. Here, we get to see somebody who is a key collaborator with the Daleks, and get some perspective of her point of view. While Dalek collaborators are not by any means a new concept, they're usually weak, greedy, or blindly deluded as to their own importance. The Emissary here is none of those things, albeit still very clearly in the wrong and that makes her more interesting, and more important to the story than we'd normally expect.
Other than that, there's a lot of exterminating (the body count among named characters is unusually high) and escaping from capture and a reasonable amount of action. There's some good variety in the scenery too, showing different aspects of the planet's occupation. It's not one of the most original Dalek stories, but it does what it does well enough and should be an entertaining ride for those wanting more of these particular foes.
The third release in the “Torchwood versus Monsters” quartet is the only one to deal with a monster unique to the modern series of Doctor Who. The story is set between World War Three and Boom Town, and centres around Suzie Costello meeting Margaret Blaine/Slitheen during the latter's brief stint as mayor of Cardiff.
It's a sort of buddy story with the two forced to work together to save themselves and, while there are moments of peril and action, the focus is really on the interactions between the characters. This is written well, filling in some background for both Suzie and Margaret and how their lives parallel one another more than one might think. Annette Badland is particularly good as Margaret, mostly in her human persona, condescending towards humanity yet not entirely unsympathetic.
Having said that, this is a fun story, rather than anything particularly deep. Nor is it one for those who only like action-filled or complex plots since what's going on is relatively straightforward and largely consists of a trip across the outskirts of Cardiff. But it is entertaining and the acting is great, which raises it up a notch and just gets it into the four-star territory.
Here, Big Finish takes the unusual step of jumping back into their own chronology to add additional stories between those already released. This is common enough for most Doctors, since the needs of internal chronology take a back seat to whichever companion is required for a given tale, but hasn't been for the Eighth Doctor. Here, though, are four new stories featuring Lucie Miller, set at some point during the original run of the Eighth Doctor Adventures line. Despite the title, they feature the Doctor as much, if not more, than Lucie and the first three are largely (although not entirely) standalone.
• The Dalek Trap – The first episode has the unusual device of having the Doctor be effectively incapacitated for almost the entire story. This, of course, places Lucie front-stage, leaving her as the primary character to try and deal with the situation they find themselves in – marooned on an isolated planetoid that is also home to a crashed Dalek spacecraft. The Daleks are also behaving oddly and its initially unclear to what extent they are responsible for what's happening or are just taking advantage of something else. Seeing Lucie so crucial to the plot is good, especially for the opening episode of a series with her name in the title although arguably she isn't really stretched, and the alien setting doesn't make much of her distinction from other companions. 3 stars.
• The Revolution Game – In many respects, despite the lack of returning monsters, this is a more traditional story, with the Doctor up against corporate greed on an arid colony world. There are a few twists along the way, largely concerning the native life on the planet, which there is rather more to than it first appears. Aside from helping to investigate the central mystery, Lucie's main role here is getting to take part in a local roller derby, something that's less effective on audio than it would be with visuals – a voice-over from a sports commentator would have helped here, although in fairness the details aren't a major part of the plot. 3.5 stars.
• The House on the Edge of Chaos – Unusually, there is no story set in Earth's past in this collection, but this is the closest it gets. It's set on a human colony world where things have been set up to mirror the social structure (and, apparently, the costumes and décor) of early 20th century England – a sort of Downton Abbey in space. Albeit one with a mysterious force preventing anyone from leaving the vast house, which now seems to be leaking inside and killing people. It's a well-done story, with some thought having gone into how such a society could function, with a good mix of investigative and action elements... although the resolution does, in the end, feel a little abrupt. That Lucie is instantly identified by the housekeeper as being upper-class material and treated as such from then on is also an amusing change for the character. 4.5 stars.
• Island of the Fendahl – This tale set in the present day is to my mind, a more successful sequel to TV story Image of the Fendahl than Big Finish's previous attempt to do so as part of their Torchwood series. It has a distinct feel of Folk Horror, the genre that the original TV story was emulating, creating an entirely new story that fits with the atmosphere of the original – of which some knowledge is required, since there are a number of connections. There several twists along the way, leading to an effective finale that ties some apparently disparate threads together. 4.5 stars.
The title of this is, perhaps, a little misleading. The story does concern the three tribes of Amazons (the two we already knew about and the newly discovered Esquicidas) meeting on Themiscyra to take part in a trial to see which is worthy of a high honour - but the contest itself takes up just one issue of the seven that comprise the collection. So, if you're here only for that... not so much.
Instead, we get a story about the tribes coming together, and how the contest creates strife among them. There's also a murder mystery, although, again, the fallout of the death is more the focus than the whodunnit element. Taken this way, as a character piece that happens to have some action and combat in it, it's quite effective, although some might find the opening segments slow going, given how long it takes to get to the eponymous contest (which is then over rather quickly). Yara Flor perhaps comes out of it the best, the fact that she can now be contrasted directly with the other Amazons allowing more emphasis on her unique character traits.
As “events” go, it's not going to be one of the most memorable, but it does move the plot forward for all of the series that make it up, and it's fun to read, with some good artwork. But you have to be okay with a lot of talk and posturing and a long wait for the main action.
The last of the ‘Torchwood versus monsters' quartet sees Rhys under threat from autons on a container ship in the mid-Atlantic. This makes it a base-under-siege story more in the style of Doctor Who than Torchwood, although Rhys is very far from being the Doctor, which gives it a distinctly different feel. That's supported by some bad language and a few mild sexual references, although there's nothing particularly extreme beyond regular horror elements. The adult nature of the story and the nature of the lead characters arguably also makes it more effective than Praxeus, which otherwise had some similar themes.
There's a good sense of tension as Rhys and another passenger are trapped on the ship with no obvious means of fighting back. There's also a good use of the autons - never actually named in the story, although it's obvious what they are - building on modern themes of plastic pollution that echo the Doctor's description of them in Rose. It's the sort of mix of science fiction and present-day concerns that Torchwood often did at its best, dressed up as a short horror story with a new twist on these particular ‘monsters'.
The Fifth Doctor visits the great Roman orator Cicero at his villa... and they are almost immediately abducted by aliens. They're taken somewhere that feels rather like a video game based on Greek and Roman myth, which occupies the bulk of the story. The result inevitably feels rather like The Mind Robber, with perhaps a touch of The Keys of Marinus. In this respect, the story is nothing special, since we've seen similar things done before and (while it's not actually the Land of Fiction) this doesn't ring many changes on the formula.
This leaves the story relying on the characters and their portrayal and, fortunately, this is done very well, making this more than just the formulaic runaround that it could otherwise have been. Cicero is well depicted, in particular the clash of personalities with the Doctor, with both of them feeling that they are the natural leaders of the group. Tegan shines, finding herself in a situation where her lack of academic smarts puts her at an advantage against the Doctor and Nyssa. She also bristles against the casual acceptance of slavery in the Roman Republic, which leads to a subplot with one of Cicero's slaves.
The latter is, perhaps, a little overdone as capable, seeming to have few weaknesses. The semi-cliffhanger ending make it likely that something is being set up here for a larger plot arc, which might explain the vagueness about his background - for instance, Cicero expresses surprise that he's able to read, but nothing more is made of this. Nonetheless, he's a worthy addition to the cast of this story, and where it's going we shall see...
This is, in effect, Torchwood's take on The Stepford Wives although what's going on is entirely different. Jack and Ianto go undercover in the sort of gated community that's far more common in the US than I suspect it is in Cardiff and initially we're treated to the saccharine banality of an over-the-top idyllic suburb. Soon enough, we discover what they're doing there, and needless to say, aliens are involved. It's partly a satire on a desire to preserve a way of life that probably never really existed outside of soap commercials and partly more traditional sci-fi as the protagonists try to get to the bottom of what's going on. The adult elements are relatively minor, with some allusions to sex and the occasional bit of bad language, but nothing explicit. It's very well done, a strong mixture of comedy and alien peril with some great lines and good performances from the leads.