Jamie Revell

An anthology of four 30-minute stories.

* Breaking Bubbles - The Doctor and Peri meet the deposed ruler of an interstellar empire, and become involved with her attempts to escape her imprisonment. This is a pretty decent story for its length, with a few twists in its relatively short run-time. There's perhaps little that's truly remarkable about it, although it's notable that Peri has almost as much to do with the resolution as the Doctor, and overall it's a pretty fun short story. 4 stars.

* Of Chaos Time The - The Doctor contracts a time sickness that causes him to experience events out of chronological order. We hear the story from his perspective, trying to piece together what is going on as he does, even as the characters around him are moving through time in the usual manner., and so often know what is happening before he does. Since the time jumps come quite rapidly (as they'd have to in a 30-minute story) events are particularly jumbled up, so it makes sense that the underlying story, about the development of a time-based weapon, is quite straightforward. Even so, such stories have been done before by Big Finish, and this is a reasonable, but not standout example of its kind. 3.5 stars.

* An Eye for Murder - This takes as its setting a women's college at Cambridge University at the outbreak of World War II (there are a few obvious nods to Gaudy Night). As the only significant male character in the story, the Doctor quickly becomes sidelined as the professors assume that he must be Peri's assistant and curtail his activities to avoid any hint of impropriety. This set-up leads to some great moments as McCormack plays with the altered dynamic, as well as a mystery story involving a Jewish professor being threatened by an anonymous Nazi sympathiser. Although it fits its length here, it's the sort of thing that might have worked even better with more room to breathe. 4.5 stars.

* The Curious Incident of the Doctor in the Night-Time - Like the book that was the obvious inspiration for the title, this takes the form of a first-person narrative by a teenage boy with autism spectrum disorder. It's a nice mix of comedy, focusing as it does on the threat to Earth posed by some garden gnomes, and pathos, as the narrator struggles to understand the more basic things around him while not batting an eye at the bits about aliens. There are some nice parallels, too, with how the Doctor also sometimes has difficulty with basic human emotions (something that probably works better with Six than it would with, say, Five). 4.5 stars.

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

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

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

This is the final Sixth Doctor release of Big Finish's main monthly range, before he was moved to his own series (and antepenultimate release in the series overall). As such, it's standalone, fitting early on in Constance's travels in the TARDIS, before she was joined by Flip.

As you might guess from the title, it's a base-under-siege, with the giant hornets on the cover being the creatures responsible. In this respect, it's a standard format for the series, with human colonists being menaced by an alien threat. The threat does eventually turn out to have some unusual properties, but even there, it's nothing we haven't seen before with different aliens. Aside from the fact that this is well done, however, there's an additional twist in the form of a subplot concerning a previous visit to the planet by the Doctor that he has no memory of.

This latter mystery doesn't really become important until the second half and even then, the full details of exactly what happened are left vague (although one can infer quite a lot). It makes good use of time travel, as well as highlighting some of the Doctor's flaws, and it's what lifts this story above the routine. Constance is also used well, getting plenty to do and once again making an excellent companion for this particular Doctor.

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

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

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

A collected edition of the first two “seasons” of Dorian Gray, the 30-minute episodes are presented in chronological, rather than publication, order, with a few 60-minute stories rounding out the set. Alexander Vlahos (of Merlin and Versailles, among other things) plays the eponymous antihero, narrating the stories assisted by a small number of additional actors playing various guest characters.

The series features the eponymous character, who, in this version, does not die as he does in Wilde's real-world novel. It's a series of (mostly) supernatural horror stories, making use of Gray's immortality to visit various decades throughout his life. With different writers for each episode, the various stories tend to have markedly different tones; some work, others do not, but the former are more common.

This World Our Hell – The series stakes its pitch with an opener that is part character piece, with Gray visiting the dying Oscar Wilde in 1900 Paris, and part horror story, as something horrible stalks the hotel. For such a short story, it works quite well, and Vlahos delivers a good performance as the tortured yet callous title character.

The Immortal Game – This story ventures into more psychological horror as Gray becomes involved with two men playing an unusual chess game in Brighton on the eve of the First World War. The story muses on the nature of good and evil, and has a twist in the tail that only deepens the question of which, in this story, is which.

Murder on 81st Street – A fairly straightforward monster tale enlivened partly by the setting, with Nazi sympathisers in 1939 New York City, but mainly by Gray's encounter with Dorothy Parker. The latter is played by Sarah Douglas (of the ‘70s Superman films), who brings a well-written script to life, lending an earthy tone to the story.

The Houses In Between – A particularly dark tale set during the height of the London Blitz, which sees Gray haunted by mysterious spirits. The devastation of the bombing parallels the more psychological damage that Gray has left in his wake, as some really quite unpleasant sides of his character show through. It certainly reminds us that our protagonist is no hero.

The Twittering of Sparrows – Another psychological instalment, with the monster never truly described and staying largely in the shadows. The story instead focuses more on Dorian's connection with an elderly woman in 1950s Singapore, and how it reflects on his past. It's perhaps rather a slight story, and, while the tone manages to be quite sinister, the emotional punch at the end is undercut by what we've already been through in earlier episodes.

The Lord of Misrule – This tale of Mods and Rockers in the British music scene of the ‘60s is a rather mixed bag. On the one hand, most of it doesn't feel like horror, and Gray is portrayed as more of a traditional hero than usual. On the other hand, swearing, drug-taking, explicit sex (for audio), and one particularly gory scene all hint that something rather darker was intended. The lively music aids the former aspect, but clashes with the latter... oh, and Vlahos may be a good actor, but, judging from this, he's no singer.

The Heart That Lives Alone – A subtle supernatural romance, much of which is co-narrated by the object of Dorian's obsession/affection, emphasising his status as an equal. The story contrasts the lives of the immortal Gray and the mysterious guest character, who is hiding a particularly dark secret of his own. It's a beautifully written piece, making Dorian more vulnerable than usual, and with a memorable final scene.

The Picture of Loretta Delphine – A more traditional horror story, about the legacy of a long-dead serial killer, this is also makes good use of the format, with only one other person being present during the events in question. More significantly, it examines how Dorian has fared, and changed, over the course of a lifetime, that has, by this point, lasted for well over a hundred years. The ending is, perhaps, a little obvious, but it works as character development.

The Ghosts of Christmas Past – A rather different story than most of the others, and not just because it is a full-cast 60-minute instalment, this is more of a mystery with supernatural elements than a horror tale. It also revolves heavily around the repercussions of the events in Wilde's original novel (bar, of course, Dorian's death) and, perhaps more significantly, involves Gray meeting Sherlock Holmes. Unfortunately, putting Holmes in a supernatural story isn't something that really works, betraying much of the point of the character and blunting his usefulness.

The Prime of Deacon Brodie – The second 60-minute story makes a better use of its length to tell a tale more in the style of the regular episodes, but with more depth than they can typically allow. Here, a supernatural threat related to the (real) 18th century thief Deacon Brodie is placed alongside the more mundane horrors of World War I. It also has time to portray Gray as a more complex character, acting out of love, yet with his darker side still bubbling beneath the surface.

The Mayfair Monster – The third of the double-length stories starts off as a romance between Dorian and a famous artist. Soon, it takes a much darker turn, and delves into the relationship between Gray and his portrait. It's more of an exploration of the character and his nature than a regular horror tale, and makes good use of the guest actors to tell an engaging piece with its theme of endings built around the central date of New Year's Eve 1999.

Running Away With You – Both the first and the last story in the set, chronologically speaking, this sees the present day Gray reminiscing about a particularly formative time in his youth. I have to say that I didn't fully follow what was going on here, although there are certainly some uncomfortable moments with a psychologically damaged governess. It also seemingly wraps up the arc of the series, although, in fact, three more seasons followed before the actual finale. Hopefully, that will be less confusing than this was.

Big Finish have had a decent success rate at turning round some of the less popular monsters and villains of the classic TV series and making them into something that's at least respectable. With Sil, unfortunately, they've bitten off more than they can chew.

The story is written by Philip Martin, who created Sil for TV, and wrote both of the broadcast stories that he appeared in (plus a third, which wasn't broadcast, for reasons beyond his control). So he certainly knows the character, as does Nabil Shaban, the actor who played the character in the originals, and reprises the role here. But that may be part of the problem, because Sil doesn't really work much better now than he did then.

The Doctor and Flip arrive in 24th century London to discover that Britain has become a corporatist state, with Sil as financial advisor to the government. In many ways this parallels Vengeance on Varos, although the nature of Sil's scheme is different, as is the means the government uses to control the populace. If Sil was originally created as a sort of commentary on '80s corporate greed and Thatcherism, here there's a whiff of satirising the austerity measures of the Cameron government, although it's not really the main theme.

Instead we have an evil scientist who wants revenge on the Doctor, and a new monster that, at least for me, failed to suspend my disbelief. There are some good scenes in here, mainly involving the supporting characters, that prevent me from giving this an even lower rating, but they're largely drowned out by Sil being Sil.

He's such an over-the-top caricature of ‘evil capitalist' that, taken with the straight-faced way it's all presented, this is too blunt to work as satire (if, indeed, it's intended to) and too crude to be taken as serious drama. We don't, of course, have the visuals, but there's still the use of revulsion to replace horror that often characterised Six's time on TV. Shaban is clearly having a great time playing the part, but the character is what he is and, frankly, he doesn't even work as a pantomime villain.

It's a long time since Big Finish produced a story that was a real disaster, and this doesn't really break that trend (it's perhaps notable that one of the earlier stories which did was Creed of the Kromon, also written by Martin), but this struggles even to earn the three stars I have given it. It's one of the weakest stories in a while, and for reasons that were entirely avoidable.

This is reminiscent of the film Pitch Black, only the other way around, featuring a planet that is (for some unexplained reason) in almost-but-not-quite permanent eclipse, so that it only experiences sunlight for twelve hours or so every thousand years. Which, since that's when things become dangerous, means that, not for the first time in a Big Finish audio, much of the story takes place in the darkness.

Given that premise, it's hardly surprising that this is a base-under-siege story, with the titular “white ghosts” as the aggressors. The tone as a whole is unusually grim, much more towards the horror end of the spectrum than action adventure, and is peppered with references to the darker aspects of common fairy tales. The one-hour length does mean that there isn't much room for plot development, although the full story behind the base and the planet it is on is more complex than it first appears, so there is more depth to it than merely the siege itself.

The mostly female cast is notable for including Virginia Hey, who played Zhaan, the blue-skinned plant-woman in Farscape. However, it's Leela's portrayal that's more significant, playing up the fact that, while she may come from a primitive society, she is nonetheless quite intelligent and not merely the “savage” she's sometimes written as. On the other hand, the apparent character development plot arc started off at the end of the previous episode is dealt with here, but seems to fizzle out rather quickly. Which there's a certain logic to, given that this story has to be inserted within the TV show's continuity, but does illustrate a limitation of writing “past Doctor” stories in general.

The ending feels rather rushed, and doesn't make a lot of sense, and there's a weird point where we switch to voice-over narration for no particular reason. The former detracts more than the latter, which is just one brief scene, but is offset by an original foe, and the strength of the Leela/Doctor interaction. Nonetheless, I'm giving this 3.5 stars, rounded down.

This is a prequel to the second season TV story Adam, showing the memory-stealing alien's first encounter with the organisation and explaining how it ended up in the box that Jack recovers it from. In this respect, it's not a great mystery - we know roughly what's going to happen from the pre-title teaser, although the scale of it is much greater on this occasion, with the alien (played by the same actor as in the original) being far more successful. The strength, however, is in the characterisation and in the building dread of Adam being seemingly unstoppable.

It's set in the 1950s, and it's notable that the consequent lack of any of the regulars doesn't matter at all. Instead, our leads are Norton Fulgate, a familiar character on the audio series by this point, and his immediate superior Lizbeth Hayhoe, whom we've only seen briefly before. Here, she's very good (as one would expect from Dervla Kirwan), coming across as the stronger of the two even while the story explores her weaknesses and vulnerabilities alongside Norton's more obvious ones as a gay man in '50s London.

This is an ‘adult' story, with sexual encounters for Norton and references to various sexual positions in the dialogue. Plus, there is something undeniably disturbing about having memories stolen and the inability to remember for long that there's even anything there that you should recall. I might knock half a point off for retreading old ground, but no more, so w'ere still in five-star territory, in one of the more successful Torchwood audios not to feature the original team.

The Doctor and Leela visit an English town in the modern day, to try to solve a series of mysterious killings. At the heart of it all are a young couple who have just inherited a house where something strange is going on in the library.

The first half of the story unfolds rather like a procedural, as the Doctor talks to the police and possible witnesses about the murderous goings on. This attracts the attention of the killer, and both the action and the strangeness of the setting ramp up in the second half. What initially appears to be a standalone story does turn out to have links to a certain televised story, and I confess I didn't see that coming until the big reveal.

However, that's not really the big twist, and the one that is is so well telegraphed, it's hard to imagine that many listeners won't have figured it out long before the Doctor explains all in the closing segment. In fairness, it makes perfect sense, and does give a sound justification for a plot motif that was used less convincingly a few times during the Moffat era on TV.

Leela is perhaps used less well here than in some of the earlier stories in the era; she does get to reflect on her father's death at one point, but there's nothing particularly new or insightful in it. There's some decent banter, too, although it doesn't really sparkle. None of this is a fatal weakness, however, and some of the more surreal elements of the story do raise it above the merely average. But only to 3.5 stars, which I'm going to round down.

With the action restricted to a stately home in southern England in the year 1911, comparisons with the TV story Black Orchid (set only a decade or so later) are perhaps inevitable, and, especially in the early stages of this tale, they're probably justifiable. As it progresses, though, the stronger parallel seems to be with Kinda, both in terms of the supporting characters and the abilities (if not the nature) of the monster.

In many respects, this is a base-under-siege, where the defenders are mainly stock characters from adventure tales - the blustering explorer, the glamorous daughter, the evil industrialist, and so on. Some might well regard that as too simplistic for their tastes, but I found that they were all acted well, without descending into overblown caricature, and that, in any event, they suit the sort of Edwardian adventure story that we have here. Indeed, there's a bit more complexity to most of the characters than at first appears - the industrialist is an exception, as is his son, who's really only there as a love interest for the explorer's daughter.

Yes, the story is something of a romp, and not particularly deep, but it's a good romp that fits the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa well, and that's supported by some quality soundscaping. It perhaps veers more towards fantasy than outright SF, especially in the sequence set in the Spirit World, but does so in a way that doesn't feel out of place in the DW universe.

The Doctor and Flip arrive in 2071 just as an unmanned spacecraft is being launched to help clear up Earth's orbital space junk. Naturally, the mission soon goes wrong as a mysterious alien object becomes involved.

The action is divided between Earth orbit and Mission Control, with a lot of the events consisting of satellites and the like maneuvering about in space. This actually works rather better in audio than one might expect, forcing the focus of the actual story onto the conversations between the various characters, rather than on more traditional, visually-oriented, action.

One of the main sub-plots is based around the fact that this isn't a NASA mission, but an ISRO one, backed by British funding that causes evident strains with the Indian operators. There are some digs at Britain's colonialist past in here, as well as an indication that alien spaceships have just as much reason to materialise in the skies over New Delhi as they normally do over London. Notably, the play features Anjli Mohindra, formerly of The Sarah Jane Adventures, as a journalist - it's one of those moments where you think “that character would make a good companion”, although that's not the way the story goes.

Some of the orbital mechanics do seem rather dodgy, and perhaps some of the tensions in the operations team are a little overplayed. One of the main characters also has a somewhat implausible backstory, albeit one that's very relevant to what's going on. But I did like the fact that the main antagonist remains a disembodied voice (something that works better on audio than it would on TV) rather than just another odd-looking alien. And, while there are surely many countries that have received even less attention on Doctor Who, it's good to see India being in the spotlight for a change.

The supposed plot arc that kicked off a couple of releases back still doesn't properly materialise, although that fact doesn't impact this story, when taken on its own. Indeed, it would likely draw attention away from Flip, who received some good characterisation here, with her daredevil side particularly coming to the fore.

The story ends on a cliffhanger, but, as it's at the end of its loose trilogy, it's one that doesn't get resolved for quite a few releases to come.

The Doctor and Flip arrive in an interdicted star system where they face a god-like being and its impish ‘brood'. While it can hardly be described as hard SF, given the powers and nature of the main villain, some thought seems to have gone into how the Drachee aliens actually work, and the overall setting works rather well. Interestingly, despite being written before they were broadcast, the story has parallels with two notably weak Nu Who episodes (Rings of Akhaten and Kill the Moon) but is far better than either of them.This is largely because, while the antagonist may be similar, the plot is superior, with rather more complexity, and makes rather more sense. In particular, a space traveller with amnesia that the Doctor picks up en route is intimately connected with what's going on, and adds a nice sense of mystery. The aliens other than the main antagonist are also effective, and there's good use of audio to suggest that the cast of the play is much larger than it actually is.There are weaknesses, however, most of which come out in the final 30-minute segment. While the motivations of the amnesiac character make perfect sense, the actions of another character that precipitated them are mind-bogglingly stupid. Furthermore, the resolution at the end involves some leaps of logic and a good deal of post-climactic moralising that some listeners will probably find rather tiresome. I was sufficiently swept up by the story at this point not to really mind, but, for others, these points might prove more of a deal-breaker.

When recurring Big Finish foe The Eminence first appeared in The Seeds of War, it was clear that the Doctor had fought it once before. Here, we see that first encounter, making this a prequel of sorts - although, apparently, it was written and recorded first, and so only became such through the vagaries of the publication order.

The first half of the story ‘introduces' us to The Eminence, before the Doctor and Leela arrive on a scarred colony world under its tyrannical rule. They become involved with the resistance, but this is largely scene-setting, in a manner that might be more typical of a 4-part than a 2-part story. In the second half, things open up into a space opera, as the Eminence's flagship takes on the might of the Earth Alliance fleet. While the first half, therefore, feels quite like the sort of thing we got on TV in the 4th Doctor's run, the second is more '70s Star Wars than '70s Who.

While The Eminence is an effective villain, and the space opera elements work well enough, the story is, at times, a little lacking in tension. It isn't even really that we know the enemy has to survive to appear in further stories, because the focus is successfully held on the immediate threat, rather than the bigger picture. It's more that there's never really any doubt of how the Doctor is going to defeat it this time round (and Leela more or less keeps reminding us of that fact). If anything, Leela is the more proactive of the two in the second half, and it's her half of the story that's the more interesting one, once again giving her a key role to play in the resolution.

While it wasn't a problem for me personally, the biggest issue many people are likely to have with this story is the open ending. It feels like we're being set up for an epic story arc - and of course, that's because we are, but it's an arc that's followed up in the 6th and 8th Doctor stories, not here. So, those who listen only, or primarily, to the 4th Doctor line will get a set-up with no pay-off. For those of us who listen to the other two series The Eminence appears in, this is a decent, but unremarkable, prequel story.

The Doctor and Nyssa find themselves exploring a labyrinthine spaceship designed as the tomb for an alien God-King. For a story apparently inspired by a large number of sources, from Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones to Alien and Warhammer 40K, for the most part it brings across little of the excitement of any of them. This may be because navigating a maze full of traps is something that works better as a video game than it does as a story; something it's more interesting to try and do yourself than to watch somebody else attempting.

In fairness, there is more to the story than this, as a callous archaeologist pushes her own sons into danger to try and get to the treasure at the heart of the tomb, dogged by a mysterious stranger already trapped there. The characters are well-drawn and distinctive, and there's plenty of bickering between the brothers and general unpleasantness from the expedition leader, but it doesn't elevate the story as much as its clearly intended to. There are also giant insects in the corridors, but they don't do terribly much except got shot at and occasionally jump people - which would probably look cooler on video than it does to just listen to.

Things finally change in the last 30 minutes, with the tomb on the verge of destruction, and the conflict between the various characters finally coming out into the open. This part is quite dramatic and exciting, at least giving a pay-off to what has gone before, but up until then, the story, while competent, is merely average and not terribly memorable.

I did, however, like the surprise revelation near the end of part 3, and look forward to seeing what they do with its repercussions in the next story.

The third season has more ongoing plot elements than the previous two, with only the second episode being really stand-alone. It also features a harsher and more discordant version of the theme tune, which I, personally, didn't think was an improvement, but perhaps reflects the somewhat darker tone of the stories this time round.

* Changing of the Guard - Following on more or less directly from the end of the previous season, this story consists of two parallel plotlines. In one, Sir Toby faces a parliamentary enquiry into his admittedly dodgy machinations in the previous season finale, while the rest of the team struggles with his even less sympathetic replacement. There is not quite as much tension here as is likely intended, given that we know one of the main characters isn't going to be written out in the first episode. Fortunately, this is more than made up for by a more traditional plot involving East End gangsters and some alien goo. Everyone has a key role to play in the resolution, in a story with clear parallels to a certain real-world crime story of the time. 4.5 stars.

* The Concrete Cage – This is essentially a ghost story that takes, as its setting, the construction of one of those ghastly brutalist tower blocks that were so popular at the time (among architects, that is, not residents). There is some mystery as to whether the ghosts are genuinely supernatural or have some mundane explanation, but the strength of the story is its weaving together of ‘modern' urban development, with hints of Ronan Point a few years later, and the legacy of the Blitz, 20 years prior. As a ghost story, it's quite effective, and something of a change of pace for the series, and a glimpse into the grimmer side of ‘60s ambience. 4 stars.

* The Forgotten Village - Allison returns to her home in Wales to care for her ailing father, and, naturally enough, runs into an alien mystery in the process. The story is a good character piece for Allison, revealing a lot about her past, in addition to trying to deal with the main threat on her own until the true scale of it becomes apparent. The episode leaves some issues intentionally unresolved, as well as highlighting the different approaches used by the members of the Counter-Measures team. 4 stars.

* Unto the Breach - With the unresolved tensions and fall-out of the previous episode still raw, the team heads to Berlin to investigate reports of an alien spaceship having crashed in East Germany. This, of course, leads into a Cold War spy story, and, perhaps partly because of the East Berlin setting, one that reminds me more of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold than it does of, say, Danger Man or '60s James Bond films. Granted, George Smiley never had to deal with possible alien technology, but what we get here is a complex plot with double-crossing agents and an ever-present fear of the Volkspolizei. The fact that the Germans do, in fact, speak German (you can't do subtitles in audio...) adds to the verisimilitude. The whole thing ends on a huge cliffhanger with multiple questions left unanswered. 5 stars.

A selection of three stories (one double-length) in a mix of different styles, yet all infused with the strong Victorian atmosphere and banter between the two main characters that keeps this series strong. I think it's the first time that I haven't any of the stories to be particularly weak in comparison with the others, which gives it a final rating higher than I usually award.

• Encore of the Scorchies – This is nominally a sequel to a Third Doctor Companion Chronicle. However, aside from the same titular aliens, the two stories are unconnected and it's perfectly possible to listen to them in either order. Another difference is that while the previous story did feature a couple of songs, this is a full-on musical episode, including a number of original tunes as well as some famous Victorian music hall numbers adapted to fit the plot. Indeed, music hall is, as one might expect, the main focus of the story, almost all of which takes place inside Jago's theatre. The result is a mix of comedy, music, and drama, complete with commentary from a pair of characters with more than a passing resemblance to Statler and Waldorf. 5 stars.

• The Backwards Men – From comedy we go straight to something that's more gruesome, with the creepy image of people literally growing eyes in the backs of their heads. This turns out to be linked to a travelling show of curiosities, of the sort popular in Victorian times. While Jago investigates the show, Litefoot picks up an unusual companion which forms an interesting counterpoint to the main story with what's often a lighter tone. There's an unusual motive for the main villain as well, making one sympathetic with his aims, if not his methods. It's another well-written drama with the taste of Victoriana that's so often the strength of this series. 4.5 stars.

• Jago & Litefoot & Patsy – A more traditional J&L story as the titular duo team up with a mudlark to investigate the case of a mysterious glowing fish in the Thames. A series of deaths link back to events in the city forty years prior, giving part of the backstory a Dickensian feel (it's set in the same area as a large part of Oliver Twist). Mudlark Patsy is also as much of a strong character as the usual leads, a link to the seamier side of London life as an entertaining, if somewhat larger-than-life addition to the team. You will probably see the ending coming a way off, but it's entertaining nonetheless, and the story remains open for...

• Higson & Quick - ...the second half of the story. The title implies that this is an episode in the style of, say, Blink, with the usual leads largely absent, but, in fact they're central to most of the events. Nonetheless, we do switch to a story that's more focused on the supporting characters in the latter half of the episode, as they find that they only they can stop the villains' plans. With Inspector Quick often relegated to the role of the ‘cavalry' (and frequently absent altogether) it's his presence that's more notable here, although Ellie the Barmaid arguably has the larger role to play, with some good scenes in the tavern. 4.5 stars.

The difficulty with using the Rani as a Doctor Who villain, and, presumably, the reason that it hasn't been done very often in the tie-in media, is that it's hard to distinguish her from the Master. While there are some differences in motivation, to be honest, the main distinguishing feature in the TV series was that she happened to be a woman. Which makes it unfortunate, perhaps, that this play was released just a few weeks after Missy's big reveal on TV. And doubly so that, here, they chose to give the new incarnation of the Rani a Scottish accent...

In fact, the part was written for original Rani actor Kate O'Mara, who sadly passed away before it could be recorded. She was replaced by Siobhan Redmond, whose portrayal of the character is calm and collected, more reminiscent of Delgado's Master than Gomez's. However, bereft of what otherwise would have been the draw of O'Mara's reprise, the choice of this being the Rani, rather than the Master - or, indeed, any other random villain - is blunted. Redmond is good in the role, and there are some harks back to the Rani's two TV appearances, but, without knowing who the part was originally written for, it's hard to see the point.

The story is, for the most part, quite leisurely, with the Doctor and Peri wandering around a future university trying to uncover, and then foil, the Rani's plan to perform dastardly experiments on the students. To be honest, I wasn't really clear what her end game was - it's pretty obvious how she plans to get there, and what her accomplices mistakenly think she's up to, but less so what she actually expected to achieve. For the story, in this case, the means matter more than the objective.

I will say that the play is well-performed and well made, and that Redmond is particularly good in it. But there isn't much to the plot, which feels rather like filler, and doesn't really stretch the title character, or do anything to expand her mythos. That probably wasn't the point when the script was written, but, shorn of its original selling point, it turns out that the story doesn't have much left to fall back on.

A Second Doctor story told from the perspective of Zoe, this was the last in the original monthly run of Companion Chronicles.

The problem with Zoe as narrator, of course, is that she had all her memories of her travels with the Doctor erased in the TV episode The War Games. Over the course of her audio tales, therefore, we have had a long-running frame story in which the sinister “Company” tries to recover those memories in the hope of (among other things) learning the secrets of time travel. That began with the second Chronicle, back in 2007, and finally concludes here.

The first half follows the standard format, with an interrogator once again trying to recover those memories, this time revealing a story of the TARDIS's arrival on a doomed space station in (from Zoe's perspective) the near future. This is itself a decent tale, with some interesting plot devices used along the way, such as the interrogator skipping questions about the “boring bits” to jump the narrative forward, and, at one point, switching to the narrator role herself as her memory recovery device retrieves an event from her own past.

The real strength, however, is in the second half, once it transpires that so much time has passed since Zoe left the Doctor that that “near future” is now the present, and both she and the interrogator head to the space station to try and change the course of events. This creates a strong time travel story, with past and present colliding, and the usual frame story now becoming the central narrative. Much that happens in the first half now becomes directly relevant as we head for a dramatic and emotional ending that wraps everything up.

While this particular plot arc comprises only five of the eighty CC releases in the initial run, this feels like a fitting conclusion to the entire line, a suitable “season finale”, if you will. Not only is Zoe herself a key and proactive player in the events - the Doctor is almost sidelined - but I'll note that Padbury is particularly good at doing the voices of the other characters (often a weakness in the Chronicles).

And, oh, yeah... I loved her delivery of the very final line.

On the face of it, the First Doctor arriving just outside Moscow in 1812 ought to be the basis of a pretty good story. And, indeed, this is by no means a complete flop, and has some elements that work quite well.

However, there are a few things that let it down. One is admittedly a bias of mine, which is that I feel that First Doctor stories ought to feel like First Doctor stories and that, specifically, those set in the past ought to be straight historicals. This isn't; it has aliens in it, and, for me, that dilutes the setting.

If that sort of thing doesn't worry you, you may like this more than I did, although it doesn't help that the listener will have worked out what's going on long, long, before Steven does, giving the impression that he's a bit dim. (In fairness, his interpretation of events isn't unreasonable in context, but it certainly feels that way).

As a good Companion Chronicle should, the story does at least take advantage of the fact that we see everything through Steven's eyes, and don't know exactly what the Doctor is up to at any given point. He's reasonably well written, too, and, for all the presence of aliens, in every other respect, there are plenty of homages to the First Doctor's style.

It could have been quite a bit better, but overall, it's not a bad story.

The Doctor and Nyssa arrive at a mansion in 18th century France, with no memory of how they got there, or, indeed, who they really are. It's clear from the beginning that there's something very strange about the mansion and its inhabitants, with ghostly sounds from the cellar and the grounds, and the regular characters' memories not being the only ones that are affected.

It doesn't take terribly long before it becomes clear, at least in general terms, what's going on, but, unfortunately, very little of it makes any sense. Cole seems to think he's created something that's at least reminiscent of Dangerous Liaisons, which he manifestly hasn't, beyond some superficial resemblance of the setting in the first 30 minutes. And then it's all about robots, aliens, and alternate realities in what's really quite a confused mess.

This is, quite honestly, the weakest Big Finish release I've listened to for a long time. This is not to say that there are no good points, mainly based around the fact that the actors are doing quite a decent job with some muddled material. Davison and Sutton are good as always, but the guest cast are effective, too, with those called on to play two parts (that is, the same characters, but with and without their real memories and identities) doing so in a way that adds verisimilitude.

It may well be that the whole thing is just too complex to really work as an audio drama, and that it might work better in the roomier, text-based, confines of a novel. Even so, I'd be inclined to give it 2.5 stars, and round it up, but what just pushes it over the line for me is the unusually poor sound balance - the incidental music is too loud, and, crucially, drowns out some background noises that are a key element of the plot. (“What's that sound?” asks a character at one point, and it's a while before I realise that the answer isn't supposed to be “an organ playing”).

It's not as bad as, say, Nekromanteia, or as charmless as Time Reef, but it's surprisingly weak nonetheless.

I have a guilty confession to make: when it was first broadcast, The Invisible Enemy was one of my favourite Doctor Who stories. Now that I'm no longer ten years old, it doesn't really stand up at all, and it's scarcely surprising that it took nearly four decades for anyone to bother doing a sequel. But still it's there, lodged in my memory in a way that some other stories of the era are not.

This sequel, in fact, adheres a fair bit to the plot of the original, albeit with the details updated for the modern day. The setting is the same one, starting out on Titan, and rapidly moving to the Bi-Al Foundation in the asteroid belt, where most of the action takes place. The first half of the story, set 80 years before the events of the TV serial, is largely exposition, providing, for the first time, an explanation of what The Swarm really is, and setting up the second half, which takes place a couple of hundred years later.

What's perhaps the most memorable sequence in the original gets a re-working, now pastiching Tron, rather than Fantastic Voyage, but it's still essentially the same idea. Other elements of the plot are mirrored as well, and one can certainly argue that Morris isn't really stretching himself on this one. By having Hex be infected by The Swarm for much of the story, we also don't get any significant follow-up from the (literally) life-changing events of Afterlife, either, although they are referred to more than once.

On the other hand, one of the strengths of this story is that it doesn't shy away from the some of the inherent absurdity of the original, acknowledging, for example, that the main villain is, in fact, a microscopic prawn. There's even a meta-joke about the poor quality of some of the serial's effects. At times, of course, it's own plausibility suffers as a result, notably in its insistence that biological and computer viruses are basically just the same thing... but at least one can argue that this is in the spirit of the original.

Revenge of the Swarm is a hokey bit of fun, and was likely written with no intention of being any more than that. I'll admit that it's likely that it's only the memories of my ten-year old self that nudge this (narrowly) into four-star territory for me, along with the fact that, while it's no comedy, it isn't trying to take itself too seriously. I can well understand that others will feel differently, but I quite enjoyed this one, whatever the reason.

The events of The Dalek Invasion of Earth have been used in a number of tie-in stories (including Big Finish audio) before. However, such stories have (at least to my knowledge) always been set in the aftermath of the TV story, based around Earth's attempt to rebuild, and, inevitably, some Daleks turning out still to be around somewhere. This is different, in that it's set a year before the TV story, well into, but not beyond, the time of the occupation.

This, inevitably, leads to a different, and rather unusual, sort of story. Because he knows his earlier self will eventually face and defeat them, the Sixth Doctor has to avoid doing so on this occasion, or even giving them any foreknowledge of who he is.

The story avoids too much duplication of the original by being set in northern Scotland, rather than London and Bedfordshire, but it also has all the trappings of that earlier tale: Robomen, the Slyther, and so on. That the Doctor and Peri spend three quarters of this story on the run from the Daleks adds to the recreation of the atmosphere, and, for the same duration, the story is a largely personal one without world-shaking stakes, painting a bleak picture of the Dalek Occupation.

In the final quarter, we have something that's more akin to a typical Dalek story, although, for bonus points, it does foreshadow an episode of the modern TV series (tangentially, of course, given BF's license at the time). This is, to my mind, rather less strong than the previous parts, which are stronger on atmosphere and individual peril. It's also true that Peri isn't as well used here as she might be, being a fairly generic companion and mostly being threatened.

I think you would have to be familiar with the Dalek stories of the '60s to really enjoy this and get all the references. As well as, of course, be okay with the idea that the Doctor doesn't - indeed can't - save the planet at the end of the tale. For me, however, these features only enhanced the atmosphere and I found it an effective prequel/sequel to DIoE.

The final part of the “Hector Schofield” trilogy is by far the strongest of the three, and also brings to an end what could be regarded as an even longer story arc that started way back in 2004 with The Harvest. And, arguably, another, more intermittent, one that dates all the way back to the TV series.

Here, the TARDIS crew travel back to the Liverpool of the near future, as Hector, unable to remember his previous bonding experiences with the Doctor and Ace, asks to be taken back home to try and lead a normal life. Instead, of course, the TARDIS arrives just as an apocalyptic prophet claims - seemingly with good evidence - that the world is going to end.

The story makes good use of the Liverpool setting, with plenty of references to local landmarks, as well as a few digs into aliens always seeming to invade southern England, rather than the north. It's real strength, however, is two-fold. Firstly, there's a decent plot, with a number of twists and turns that change the listener's perception as to what the real threat is, as consecutive layers of the onion are peeled back. While there's a fairly dull military officer involved at one point, the rest of the guest cast do a great job with some well-realised characters.

And then, secondly, we have the resolution to the trilogy's arc, with Ace desperate to recover Hex's memories, and the latter less sure that he even wants them. The characterisation is particularly strong here, with Fitton following up on his earlier Afterlife with a story that further explores the relationship between the main characters, and how far they are willing to go for one another.

Which naturally brings us to the fact that (and BF didn't keep this as a secret at the time), after ten years with the audio plays, this is the last story to feature Hex. This is doubly tricky, since he was seemingly written out once before, so that a clearer sense of finality was needed this time around. But it's this section that edges the story into five-star territory for me, with a wonderfully fitting - and, yes, very final - send off for the long-running character.

This is the middle story in the “Second E-Space Trilogy”, with the TARDIS and its crew trapped in the titular pocket dimension again. Where the first story was a direct sequel to the TV story Full Circle, this is a clear homage to State of Decay in the original trilogy, but tells an entirely new and mostly unconnected story.

The similarities are in large part due to the setting, on a backwards planet where a small community huddles around a great castle. That the rulers are hiding a dark and ancient secret is also a point of similarity, although, in fairness, hardly a unique one for Doctor Who. It's also true that the story focuses rather more on a literal ‘state of decay' than the TV story it is modelled on, and that the trials of the peasants on the two planets do have a number of parallels.

Nonetheless, this is an original tale, and as part of the minority of fans who don't particularly like State of Decay (although it's hardly the worst the series has to offer) I actually felt that this was rather better. The setting is bleak, despite the grandiose appearance of the ice palace at its heart, and the sacrifices that the people have to make to survive in their unforgiving, yet starkly beautiful, landscape lies at the heart of the story. Much of this is quite clever, with some decent twists along the way, and some good character moments for the guest cast, especially Anette Badland as the Queen.

The story is more suited to the Fifth Doctor than it would be to any of the others (prior to Thirteen, anyway), pitting him against the inexorable forces of entropy. However, while the companions are well used, each getting their own little piece of the plot and written to their respective personalities, in fairness, there's not much that's truly distinctive for them, apart from a subplot with Turlough and a warrior princess.

As with the first part of the trilogy, the story ends on a cliffhanger.

It's hard to imagine that anyone buying a release with this title won't already know the background, but just in case: Philip Hinchcliffe was the producer/showrunner for Doctor Who at the beginning of the Fourth Doctor's run, one of the most highly acclaimed periods in the classic show's history. Under pressure from moral campaigners who felt he was making the show too scary for its intended audience, however, the BBC suddenly removed him at the end of his third season.

The two stories in this box set both derive from plans that he had for his fourth season, had it ever happened. They never got as far as a formal outline, let alone a script, so we can't really say that this is what we would have got had Hinchcliffe remained in charge for another year - even allowing for the difference in format. But here, with the assistance of a modern writer more used to working with audio, he gives a good stab at revisiting the style of the era that he shaped together with then script editor Robert Holmes.

The Ghosts of Gralstead - We're certainly in full gothic mode with the first offering, which runs to an unusually long three hours. The Doctor and Leela arrive in 1860s London, and become involved with a tale involving body-snatchers, freak shows, and a family curse, among other things. It is, of course, immediately reminiscent of The Talons of Weng-Chiang, although it's set thirty years earlier (the Doctor says ‘forty' in the script, but he seems to have mis-calculated). Indeed, while the plot is quite different, there are more similarities than merely the setting, with the thematic links including some Robert Holmes-like commentaries on social division.

The longer running time allows a larger cast than usual, with quite a number of guest actors. The first two hours are rich with setting and characterisation, and don't at all seem to drag. It is, however, a little weaker in the final third, with one 30-minute segment being devoted to what feels like something a of a side-quest to bulk out the length – it is directly relevant to the plot, but, for example, uses a different villain to the main story. This is followed by an ending that is, arguably, a little overdone, moving away from some of the more character-based story we have had up to this point.

Leela gets to do a lot in this story, showing many of her skills, not just those involving combat, and is treated respectfully by the authors. It's interesting to note that she's given a love interest here who actually makes sense (obviously, it can't go anywhere, but at least you can believe it, which is more than can be said for Andred in the TV series).

Despite this, it undeniably has the feel of a Hinchcliffe-era story and has plenty of the dark, gothic elements, it was noted for – but perhaps with more gore than they would have got away with at the time.

The Devil's Armada - The Doctor and Leela arrive in Elizabethan England at around the same time as the Spanish Armada, and become involved not only with the abortive invasion attempt, but also the anti-Papist hysteria surrounding it. It's worth noting that co-author Platt wrote Flames of Cadiz, involving the Armada from the Spanish perspective, only a year or two earlier than this, and, indeed, that story is referenced again here. But that was a straight historical, which, given the conceit that this is a season 15 story “that might have been” won't work here, so, instead there's aliens involved.

In fact, while the tone has some of the darkness of Hinchcliffe's era, it's also reminiscent of The Daemons, and even, perhaps, of The Massacre. It's at its best dealing with the human side of the story, with the monster just egging things on from the background, and falls a little flatter once the creature actually has to move into the foreground. Leela is also slightly less effective here than in the first story, too often held back and out of her depth, but at least she gets into a rapier fight.

Even so, it's a good story, with a decent resolution at the end, a decent secondary villain, and a foreboding atmosphere.