Tag Archive: Big Finish

Masterpiece Scheduling

Cpt 6

Swimming in darkness, her mind cast about for something, ANYTHING to latch itself to. It settled on an old memory of happier days and simpler times when she wasn’t floating helplessly on a Dalek Saucer trapped in THE DARK TIMES without power, or heat, or air, or wifi… any of those conveniences the kids go all-in for nowadays. She wanted to stay in the memory, wrap herself up in it like a comfortable blanket and just sleep. A rest. A long, quiet, well-deserved rest.

Her eyes sprang open at the thought.

She was no longer floating helplessly on a Dalek Saucer without power, heat, or air. She was floating helplessly on an incredibly comfortable hover-mattress in a softly lit, warm room. Wifi was still in question, but she tabled the idea, for now, trying to determine exactly what had happened.

“Ah, you’re awake my dear.” Came a velvety smooth voice from a darkened corner. “Feeling better?”

She was actually, as the cobwebs began to clear and she realized she had blacked out from oxygen deprivation back on the saucer. “Where am I?” Her voice sounded small and far away.

“My TARDIS. I’ve rewired the Zero Room components into the sickbay here. I find the creature comforts of a bedroom particularly regenerative, and you, my dear, certainly seemed in need of a rest and recharge.”

“You rescued me?”

“From both the debris of the Dalek ship and THE DARK TIMES, yes. Though my methods were unconventional, they were ultimately successful.”

She closed her eyes, dreading the next question but knowing it had to be asked. “And what do you want?”

The voice chuckled in the darkness, sweet and sinister. “I should think a word of gratitude to start.”

Arissa made to bolt off the bed, thinking a surprise attack might just buy her time to escape. Hell, she might even get lucky enough to wrap her long fingers around the collarless jacket he wore closed about his neck. But all she succeeded in doing was rattling the bed frame. She had forgotten the part at the beginning about floating HELPLESSLY on an incredibly comfortable hover-mattress.

She was held in place, though whether by straps or stasis field she didn’t know.

He laughed again. “You will find you’re quite immobilized, my dear. Didn’t want you to hurt yourself. Or me, for that matter. Consider yourself my guest. When you’ve had a bit more rest, you’ll find your clothes and sword in the wardrobe, which I’m afraid does not lead to Narnia. We’ll chat some more, and then you can decide if you still want to attempt to kill me.”

“One more question?” She asked.

“Of course.”

“Did he send you?”

“He…?”

“The author.”

The third laugh seemed to lower the temperature in the room, for Arissa shivered. “My dear, the author is exactly the reason why I’m here. The very heart of the matter, you might say. And yet, he is completely unaware.”

She sank back, unable to process exactly why that riddle left her more exhausted than when she initially awoke.

He pressed a button a small remote nearly hidden in his palm.

486 – I Am The Master – Legends of the Renegade Time Lord

487 – Big Finish The War Doctor Series 1: #1 The Innocent, #2 The Thousand Worlds #3 The Heart of the Battle

488 – Titan Comics The Thirteenth Doctor Vol 2 (Issues #5-#8), Big Finish 8th Doctor Adventures #4.2 Situation Vacant

489 – Base Under Siege Discussion

490 – Doctor Who Annual 1974: The Short Stories Listen – The Stars & Out of the Green Mist, and the Comic The Time Thief

“You can relax, I’ve just transmitted the next bit of their ridiculous schedule. Now, get some rest. The trials to come are likely to be more strenuous than those prior.”

He padded softly out of the room, leaving Arissa to reflect that she may have been better off suffocating in the debris.

Companion Archive: Thomas Hector “Hex” Schofield

Hello there,

I’m back with a new article. This will be a look at a companion arc, in this case featuring Thomas Hector Schofield also known as Hex. Hex was Big Finish’s first original companion for the Seventh Doctor and traveled alongside the Doctor and Ace. While Hex is primarily an audio companion played by Philip Olivier, he’s also appeared in a handful of stories from the print Short Trips collections from Big Finish.

I will try to put the audios in chronological order for Hex, though there are three that were released after Hex’s final departure that are harder to place. The Short Trips will be very vague and included after the audios. As I either haven’t read any of them or maybe a couple very long ago (these collections are difficult to get a hold of), my comments will be very limited, possibly to just the most basic of information.

As with all my articles, there will be spoilers throughout. Most of these are six years old or older and thus I consider the statute of limitations on spoilers to have lifted. However, the three released after the arc ended, especially the most recent one from September 2020, are a bit more recent. Feel free to skip those entries if you’re worried about spoilers. However, from this point on, note that you have been warned.

Hex is a special character in that the Doctor has had precious experience with him in the form of his mother Cassie from “Project: Twilight” and “Project: Lazarus” which are (primarily) Sixth Doctor and Evelyn stories. He’s also the first nurse companion and, as far as I can tell, the second companion with a medical background after Harry Sullivan.

I’ll get more into Hex as a character later, but I’ll say here that I really like Hex as a companion. As the fourth original companion created by Big Finish (after Evelyn, Charley, and Erimem), he’s really well written and offers a sharp contrast to Ace. But more on that later, let’s get into the stories.

The Stories

We’re introduced to Hex in The Harvest. Here we meet Staff Nurse Schofield on his 23rd birthday. As opposed to some companions who only have a slight reaction to the adventure they’re thrown into, Hex comes across as a likable average bloke who has a hard time adapting to the fantastic and dangerous world he’s just entered. His first encounter with the TARDIS produces several “Oh my God”s.

The plot of the Harvest is excellent and very well acted. Essentially, the Doctor and McShane (see the Big Finish stories “Colditz” and “The Rapture” for the history behind this) are at St. Gart’s Hospital investigating the use of xenotech. The date is October 12, 2021, and the EU is using Cybertech to further its space program. Meanwhile, the Cybermen are involved in a scheme to become human again in order to regain advantages that humans have but that the Cybermen have lost. And into this is thrown Hex.

This is very worth listening to. Not only is it necessary for Hex’s arc as his introduction, it’s also just a really good story. Ace seems older, wiser. And the Doctor is more plotting and scheming than jokey or screaming, the latter something that often doesn’t work as well on audio as on TV. This story has a spy thriller/techno-thriller vibe to it and is just a joy to listen to. The biggest things that don’t seem plausible with this story anymore are the lack of Covid and the fact that Brexit never happened, things that couldn’t have been imagined when this was released in 2004. I’d rate this at 10/10. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, see Episode #239 from July 2015.

The next story is Dreamtime, which is an odd one. It’s Hex’s first trip in the TARDIS bringing the crew to Uluru (Ayers Rock) in the far future. He gets his first spaceship, first alien species and first trip off Earth, sort of. Then, he gets thrown in the deep end as the Doctor disappears and Hex and Ace end up splitting up.

Essentially, when the Earth was near destruction in the far future, a group of native Australians gathered around Uluru following a Guru named Baiame. The colony launches itself into space but is slowly taken over by the mysterious Dreamtime, a powerful, ancient force. The Doctor and crew land several years later followed shortly by a Galyari (see Big Finish story “The Sandman”) ship.

It’s not a terrible story. I feel at a disadvantage because I don’t know anything about the Australian Aboriginal folklore that seems to be a big part of this. It feels confusing but is one of those stories where there’s no real villain or enemy and where everybody lives. The cast do fine, and I continue liking Hex. I’d rate this 4/10. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, see Episode #298 from September 2016.

The third story in the line is the wonderful LIVE 34. Another of Big Finish’s experimental stories, this one taking place over sixteen days on a distant Earth Colony and told entirely in the form of radio broadcasts. And, it works really well. Featuring the Doctor and crew overturning a dictator, it feels surprisingly relevant to the political climate of 2020.

While the Doctor shows up in all four parts, Ace doesn’t appear until Part 2 and Hex doesn’t appear until Part 3. There’s also no theme music denoting episodes. Instead, there’s a short bit of increased static and tiny fragments of recordings. The cast does exceptionally well in this, with McCoy giving another quiet performance until the end and even then, the shouting works well. We also get a bit of backstory on Hex when asked why he became a paramedic.

Part Four, which takes place on Election Day and where everything we’ve been shown thus far comes together, is brilliant and very well done. This is a story that you just have to listen to for yourself. Apart from possibly needing a basic understanding of Seven and Ace, and just knowing that Hex is the new companion, this story is a very good introduction for people new to Big Finish. It’s easy to get into, the format lends itself to the average person, and apart from knowing who the TARDIS crew is on a basic level, there’s no backstory that’s required to understand the plot (unlike later entries in this run like Project: Destiny for example). I’d rate this story at 10/10. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, see Episode #313 from January 2017.

The next story in line, as best as I can tell based on various sources, is Shadow Planet / World Apart. This is an anomaly in the Hex arc in that it is Main Range release #226 and was published just under three years after the Hex arc ended in Main Range #191 (which will be covered later in this article). There are two other releases that were released after the arc ended that we’ll get to later. As for placement as mentioned in the CD Extras, it’s simply early in the run because there are still hints of a potential romance between Hex and Ace.

This is a release that I haven’t actually listened to before, so this is my first time experiencing these stories. That’s right, stories. This is one of a handful of Main Range releases that were made up of two two-part stories. This is the last of a loose trilogy (and I use the word “trilogy” in the loosest of terms) that featured this format. It will be used again in the Main Range again twice for a total of four more releases, one of which is another Seven/Ace/Hex release that we’ll be covered down the line.

Shadow Planet is an interesting and decent story. While the Doctor works on the TARDIS, Ace is bored. A look through the database for nearby planets comes up with Unity, a physic planet where the Unity Corporation helps you fight your shadow self and come out a better, happier person. What could go wrong?

It’s a standard story with good ideas, centering essentially on yin and yang, and corporate greed. We get a little bit of insight into Ace and Hex via their Shadows, but there’s not that much depth to this story. It’s still good though, and the end cliffhanger’s into the next story that makes up the next half of this release.

World Apart is another interesting story. After leaving the Shadow Planet, the TARDIS finds itself vying for space in the vortex as something massive appears in its path. The TARDIS manages to land on something which is revealed to be the rogue planet Nirvana which is known to phase in and out of the universe. This becomes a stark survivor story when Ace and Hex end up trapped on the frozen planet after the planet shifts out of the universe before they can reach the TARDIS.

This is a rather bleak story, especially the second part. It’s well-acted, but still not a favorite in my opinion. Of course, the Doctor saves them in the end, but Hex is still quite upset and hurt. We get more into the mindsets of Ace and Hex a bit here, but there aren’t any great revelations.

This is my first time listening to these, and I don’t think I’ll return to them anytime soon. As a whole, I’d rate this release at 6/10 with Shadow Planet receiving a 6.5/10 and World Apart receiving a 5/10. They’re not terrible stories, and they’re not confusing or hard to understand. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, as this was released after the initial run of Hex stories, they have yet to review this one.

Next in line is Night Thoughts. This is an interesting story historically because it was originally submitted as a three-part story for the canceled Season 27. As this was released before the creation of “The Lost Stories” range from Big Finish, it was converted into a four-part story and Hex was added.

It is said that the memory cheats, and going into this story this time around, I remembered not caring for it much. I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a very good story that feels similar to Ghost Light in tone and atmosphere. The Doctor, Ace, and Hex arrive on a Scottish Island in the middle of a stormy night and end up taking shelter with a handful of eccentrics in a house.

From here we get very colorful characters, murder, mystery, and time experiments. It has a murder mystery feel tied with a slight horror vibe with a tinge of zombie to it. The Doctor is in top form, Hex does well while Ace feels a bit subdued. In amongst everything going on, we get a little background on Hex’s growing up, raised by his Dad and his Gran. We also get a little background on Ace and her Mum carrying on from the revelation in Curse of Fenric.

It takes a bit to figure out where this is going, but we get the pieces of the puzzle slowly dealt out and once it gets there it’s a very good story. Everything seems to be resolved and the Doctor and Co leave for the next adventure. And then we get a really creepy coda acted to perfection by the late Bernard Kay (who starred in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Crusade, the Faceless Ones and Colony in Space) as Major Dickens. This is a great story for the Halloween season. Creepy and atmospheric, I rate it at 8/10. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, see Episode #324 from April 2017.

Next up is The Veiled Leopard, a story that all my timeline sources place the same. Initially released on CD as a bonus with DWM 367, this features Peri and Erimem, and Ace and Hex, each on a separate mission revolving around the theft of the Veiled Leopard diamond similar to the Pink Panther franchise. I think it’s available on the Big Finish Sound Cloud and I think I tried listening to it several years back. I remembering being very confused about what was going on.

So, I was going to skip this one this time around because I didn’t feel like trying to track it down. However, I then discovered that I’d picked it up during a sale from Big Finish. So, here goes. The Veiled Leopard is a flawless diamond with lots of little flecks in it giving it its name. It’s resurfaced in Monte Carlo in 1966. The first half of the story is Peri and Erimem tasked by the Fifth Doctor (after a meeting with the Seventh Doctor) to prevent the diamond’s theft at its unveiling.

The second half is Ace and Hex stealing the diamond, which is actually the last remnants of a dead alien race. It feels a little James Bond (think Casino Royale) and very much Pink Panther, though not a comedy. It has good fun, funny moments, but for the most part, is played straight. It’s fun, especially the Peri/Erimem side.

While Ace and Hex are on this mission, the Seventh Doctor is taking part in the audio “Thicker Than Water” (Main Range 73), a Sixth Doctor/Mel/Evelyn story where the Doctor reveals Hex’s parentage to Evelyn, a story thread that will become important down the line for Hex. I’d rate this at 8/10. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, they have yet to review this one.

The next story is The Settling which is a pure historical set during and after the Siege of Drogheda in September 1649 during Oliver Cromwell’s war in Ireland. It’s told through flashbacks as Ace helps Hex come to grips with the horrors of history and their part in events. I won’t say much about the plot except that the TARDIS crew gets separated and Hex ends up with Cromwell, and the Doctor helps deliver a baby.

It’s a very good story, well written and very well acted. This is an excellent story for character development, both for Ace and Hex, but especially Hex who takes what happened hard. There’s an aura of melancholy that radiates through the story and in some ways makes it even more enjoyable.

I understand why the pure historicals died out on TV, but if you can make them as good as this, then they deserve a comeback. Making me feel for Cromwell, and making me want to learn more, are definitely pluses to an already excellent story. While this isn’t a story I’d come back to often, I’d definitely rate this at 10/10. For any fan of Doctor Who and/or British history, it’s definitely worth a listen. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, see Episode #320 from March 2017.

Up next is No Man’s Land which finds the Doctor and crew at a field hospital in No Man’s Land in 1917 during World War I. The Doctor learns that he’s here to solve a murder, a murder that hasn’t happened yet. This story is brutal in places, exploring themes of patriotism and cowardice. It features mental conditioning experiments and concepts like the “hate room” and the “daily hate” where recovering soldiers are whipped up into a frenzy and turned against the enemy. Here, being a coward is considered the worst of all sins.

It’s a good story. The characters are enjoyable, and you like and feel sorry for them, or hate them depending on the person. We get two guest stars that do really outstanding jobs, Michael Cochrane (from Black Orchid and Ghost Light) as Lieutenant-Colonel Brook, and Rob Dixon (Reggie from Project: Twilight) as Sergeant Wood. That said, the whole cast does an excellent job as always.

It seems like Big Finish likes to put Hex through the wringer. The creepy goings-on in Night Terrors, Ireland and Cromwell in The Settling, and here he gets locked alone in the hate room overnight. And, without going into early spoilers (we’ll get to them in time) what he goes through later is a bit brutal.

The investigation leads to a secret mission to an abandoned church in No Man’s Land, and to psychological experiments that, while clumsily administered, if the data got out could be catastrophic to history. The story culminates at the church where Brook ends up killed at the hands of his own subjects. Back at the hospital, the two soldiers who sided with the Doctor get happy endings and the Doctor reveals that Brook is a member of The Forge.

Without getting majorly into spoilers for stories that come later in this article, I want to talk briefly about the Forge in relation to Hex. The Forge seems to be intrinsically linked to Hex, at least for the first half of his arc.

We first met the shadowy organization, described here by the Doctor as “completely amoral”, in the Sixth Doctor/Evelyn story Project: Twilight where we’re introduced to Cassie Schofield, whose son “Little Tommy” grows up to become Hex. We then have Project: Lazarus which sees Cassie sacrifice herself to save the Doctor and Evelyn. We then, as far as Hex is concerned, get a glimpse of them here and then one more glimpse of them in the anthology Forty-five before they become front and center in Project: Destiny. But, as I said, we’ll get there.

Anyway, back to this story. Again, we have another really good outing with the team of the Doctor, Ace and Hex. We get some good character development for all three leads and get just a really good story. I’d rate this a 9/10, really good but not quite the raw emotion that I got from The Settling right before it. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, see Episode #339 from July 2017.

After our visit to World War I, we have Nocturne. The Doctor takes Ace and Hex to Glasst City on the planet Nocturne in the middle of the planet’s “High Renaissance” that is said rival that of Florence. It’s supposed to be a surprise vacation, visiting old friends of the Doctor whom he’s visited on many occasions, at least once when traveling with Miss Jovanka.

The planet is at the crossroads in a long-standing war in the region. And though the war is a bad thing, it’s part of what allows this Renaissance to exist. The story ends up revolving around two twin brothers, one who went to war where he’s injured and one who stayed home. The one who went to war had discovered an alien form of music that turns out to be very destructive. Because of this, he deletes all references to it. The brother who stays has copied the other brother’s notes and plans to one-up his brother by taking the copied notes and letting the music be heard.

It’s a slower story that deals with art, siblings, grief. I didn’t remember it being that great from my last listen, but it’s actually not bad. In the “What trouble can we land Hex in” category this week, we have him in jail and accused of murder after the Episode 1 cliffhanger.

This is another Seven/Ace/Hex story that I didn’t remember liking. It was just kind of there. But it is a good story if a bit of a slow burn and a bittersweet ending. I’d rate this at 6/10. Also of note is that this is the first story in the Monthly Range to feature behind-the-scenes interviews. They’d been doing them for the Eighth Doctor Adventures range (with Lucie Miller) for a couple of releases before this if not other ranges around this time, but this is where they start in the Main Range. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, see Episode #349 from September 2017.

Next, we have The Dark Husband which starts us right in the middle of things with Ace and Hex running back to the TARDIS from the “Snot Monster’s Garden”. We then go on a vacation to the Festival of the Twin Moons of Tuin, a week-long festival with beer tents and spas. It also happens to be in the middle of a war between two species from the planet’s twin moons, the long red-haired Ri and the bald Ir. And we learn, there’s to be a wedding.

This is one where I didn’t remember liking it. It was too humorous, and not in a way that feels natural. Still, I’m re-listening to all of these and may change my mind as I go, but so far, my memories are matching up. And what do you know, another one that’s surprisingly not too bad.

The fourth part is really good with themes of duality shining through as things come together. It’s getting there that’s just okay. I found at least some of the humor on the juvenile side and wasn’t overly thrilled with the wedding stuff. So while this came together well and was enjoyable on the whole, it’s not one I’ll listen to again very often.

The highlights of this are McCoy who does quite well and guest actor Danny Webb who plays three different roles and does very well indeed. I’d rate this at 6/10 because it stuck the landing very well and was fairly enjoyable. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, see Episode #394 from August 2018.

After the mediocre Dark Husband, we have the other two releases that came out after the final end of Hex’s arc. As far as I can tell (all the timelines I looked at agreed on this), these two releases place here. I haven’t listened to either of them yet and until I listen to the CD Extras, this is as good a place as any, though there’s definitely a gap between Nocturne and The Dark Husband that they could fit in as well.

The first of these is Muse of Fire and features Seven, Ace and Hex meeting Iris Wildthyme and Panda. A disclaimer here, I haven’t actually listened to or read anything featuring Iris. I couldn’t get into The Wormery when I first tried it and just haven’t gotten around to anything else featuring her. (What? I do read things that aren’t Doctor Who. And, on top of that, there’s a lot of Doctor Who out there.)

It’s an interesting story that’s somewhat humorous at times. Set in Paris, 1922, something is wrong with time as famous artists who were flocking to Paris at this time have been leaving. In the midst of this are Iris, art critic Panda and the mysterious Dora Muse. The Doctor, Ace and Hex arrive for a holiday and we meet Kevin Archer, an aspiring American poet and his wife Isabelle.

Everybody gets something to do in the story and the mystery is wrapped up well. Katy Manning does well as Iris and I really enjoyed Panda. That said, I don’t plan on going out and trying Iris’s adventures without the Doctor any time soon. She’s okay and enjoyable, but I didn’t really find her that fun. There are lots of other stories that I’ll hunt down before I’d even consider hunting down Iris. That said, if she happens to show up in another Doctor Who story, I won’t refuse to give it a try.

As for where this places in Hex’s run, all the CD Extras say is that it’s early but that we’re past the romance that had sort of been building between Ace and Hex and that they’re now in a more sibling relationship, so I’m fine with sticking this after The Dark Husband. I think I’d rate this a 7/10, good but not outstanding. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, as this was released after the initial run of Hex stories, they have yet to review this one.

The final release that came out after the end of the arc is The Flying Dutchman / Displaced. Just released in September 2020, I’ll try not to be too spoilery. The first story is The Flying Dutchman and it’s a simple tale. The Doctor and crew arrive on what seems to be an abandoned cargo ship in or around 1742. It turns out that the ship isn’t abandoned, but has instead seen the ghostly Flying Dutchman. I won’t go any further into story, but it’s a nice little mystery. The regulars all get things to do and it wraps up well.

The second story is Displaced. What we have here is essentially a haunted house story. The Doctor, Ace and Hex are considering another vacation after an unseen adventure featuring flammable fireflies controlled by an alien slug. When Ace goes to look at the database, the TARDIS seemingly crashes in a recently abandoned house and locks them out. It turns out the house is a smart house controlled by the latest AI, Harri and they’re in the Fenns in 2020. There’s a little bit where Hex mentions his time as if it’s a few years out instead of the next year saying something about this area having been all developed or something like that. (Wow, we’re coming up to the point of Hex being a present-day companion instead of near-future, a bit weird when you think about it.)

This is a nice haunted house story and in some ways has the feel of an escape room (never been to one, but I understand the concept). We get more into the personalities of Ace and especially Hex, both of whom accuse the Doctor of this being another test, though he’s as much in the dark as they are. It ends well and was rather enjoyable. The only major downside is that the alien’s voice is very hard to understand, especially at the beginning.

An enjoyable release, nothing really groundbreaking or arc-changing, but still an enjoyable listen. As a whole, I’d rate this release at 8/10 with The Flying Dutchman receiving a 7/10 and Displaced receiving a 8.5/10. As far as timeline placement, there’s still a slight hint of romance between Ace and Hex, but the teasing is much closer to a sibling relationship. The CD Extras don’t really give any further details beyond the fact that it’s after The Harvest (like that helps me any). As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, as this was released after the initial run of Hex stories, they have yet to review this one.

After the sidestep into stories released after Hex’s departure, we return to the original run and begin the buildup towards what feels like the first big finale. First up is Forty-Five, an anthology of four single-part stories that have the number “45” as a motif running through them. The stories are “False Gods”, “Order of Simplicity”, “Casualties of War” and “The Word Lord”.

The first story is False Gods and sees Howard Carter unearthing the tomb of an Egyptian nobleman which will later be known as KV 45. One of the artifacts inside is a set of 45 Shabti statues, one of which holds special significance to the plot. This was a fun one and of special notice is Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Doctor Strange) as Howard Carter.

The second story, The Order of Simplicity, is set in a large house in 3380 where the titular order has released a virus that regresses those infected (including the Doctor) to an IQ of 45. It’s good, though I liked the previous story better. The virus can possibly be tied into the loose virus arc that is tied up (and given an origin) in the Sixth Doctor story Patient Zero.

The third story, Casualties of War, sees the Doctor, Ace and Hex chasing alien tech on VE Day, 1945. We discover that the thief has been stealing from The Forge, and also happens to live next door to Ace’s mum. Thus we get a continuation of Ace’s history from Curse of Fenric with Ace getting more closure, we also get a moment where the Doctor (under influence from the alien tech) almost reveals the fate of Cassie Schofield to Hex.

Finally, everything gets tied together in The Word Lord. This is the best story of the set by far and they’re all really good. The TARDIS arrives at a military base in Antarctica in 2045 at the height of the Second Cold War (see Warriors of the Deep) and are immediately accused of murdering one of the delegates here for a peace conference. Very soon, we are introduced to the true murder, Nobody No-One, a Word Lord from a dimension forty-five billion dimensions to the left of ours.

His ship, a CORDIS, hides itself as language and is only detectable by its emissions, in this case, the number “45” and its many variations (section 4.5, corridor 4 room 5, etc.). Nobody is a being with complete mastery over language just as the Doctor is a lord of time. Nobody gets his power from language, if someone were to say “Nobody can enter this base without clearance.”, then Nobody can do just that. This is a great story and Nobody is wonderfully fun villain. He definitely deserves a re-match with the Doctor, and the end of this story sets up the possibility.

Forty-five is a great anthology celebrating the 45th anniversary of Doctor Who. The stories are all really good and concise. And, they’re all fun. I’d rate this at a 9/10 with all but The Order of Simplicity getting a 10/10. Order gets a 9/10, but only because I just enjoyed the other three a little bit more. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, see Episode #421 from March 2019.

So, we have moved into the trilogy era of the Main Range. At the start of January 2009, the Doctor Who Main Rage began releasing trilogies. Previously, each release had featured a different Doctor (usually) and apart from the Eighth Doctor seasons were very loosely connected. Therefore, just to take a random sample, you’d have Five/Nyssa followed by Six/Peri followed by Seven/Ace followed by Six/Evelyn followed by Five/Peri/Erimem.

So starting in 2009 we started getting trilogies with the odd anthology or stand-alone release thrown in. For example, the first three trilogies were a solo Fifth Doctor trilogy focusing on the Key to Time, a Seven/Ace/Hex trilogy, an Eighth Doctor anthology single release and a Six/Charley trilogy that concluded Charley’s travels with the Doctor.

Our focus now is that first Seven/Ace/Hex trilogy which starts with The Magic Mousetrap. We start with an amnesiac Doctor in a cable car traveling to a sanatorium on a Swiss mountain. It turns out that the sanatorium is the realm of the Celestial Toymaker in his first return to performed media. The first half is quite confusing as the Doctor is in the dark while Ace and Hex are the chess masters. But then, things begin to slot into place and everything is revealed for a superb ending.

While it took a bit to get into, the Magic Mousetrap is a very good story with the second half really standing out as an exciting thriller. Note the chess sets that appear as they will be a signpost of things to come. I’d rate this an 8.5/10 because the first half is rather confusing but the second half pulls it up. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, see Episode #422 from March 2019. Also of note is that this audio also includes the first episode of The Three Companions “Polly’s Story” by Marc Platt at the end of Disc 2.

Next in line is Enemy of the Daleks and it’s Hex’s first encounter with the creatures. In the middle of the Dalek Wars, the Doctor, Ace and Hex arrive on the planet Bliss which the Doctor likens to the Galapagos Islands for biological diversity. Upon arrival, the Doctor tells Ace and Hex to stay in the TARDIS while he sorts things out. Ignoring his warnings, his companions follow him into danger.

Meanwhile, a space battle between the Daleks and a refugee convoy occurs in a nearby star system. A ship containing a Valkyrie squad (a squad made entirely of female soldiers) flees the battle and arrives on Bliss. Both the Valkyries and the TARDIS crew come across a research station on the planet. Soon, the Daleks arrive as well.

The Doctor knows what will happen here, a terrible atrocity. However, we discover over the course of the story that it’s a trap for the Daleks. A mad scientist has created a new species that, in their mature form, eat metal. These are to be used as a weapon against the Daleks.

This is the story that almost breaks Hex. The death and horrors he sees here make him feel helpless and wonder if this life isn’t for him. We also get almost a New Adventures soldier Ace here as the piece is very action-heavy. The Doctor suspects things but is quiet and reserved for the most part.

This is another really good story, very action-heavy with a lot of electric guitar in the soundtrack. The cast does well and Nick Briggs is excellent as the Daleks. I think I’d rate this at 8/10. As for Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story, see Episode #428 from May 2019. This release also includes the second episode of The Three Companions at the end of Disc 2. I’m not listening to these bonus stories for this review.

The final story of this trilogy is The Angel of Scutari and it carries on from the end of Enemy of the Daleks. An excellent engaging story that finds the Doctor, Ace and Hex in the midst of the Crimean War between Britain and Russia, known for the Charge of the Light Brigade. After the horror of the previous story, the Doctor brings Hex to Scutari where he can do some good with his medical training and regain some hope. Meanwhile, after reading a report, the Doctor and Ace go to Sevastopol, a few months prior.

What follows is a pure historical with appearances from famous historical figures like Florence Nightingale, Leo Tolstoy and Czar Nicholas I. The TARDIS is seemingly destroyed and the Doctor, Ace and Hex each get their stories placed against the backdrop of history.

There’s a bit of back and forth through time as Hex’s segments take place a couple of months after the Doctor and Ace’s. However, it seems to work here and make for a really enjoyable story. We learn that a school project on Nightingale coinciding with a career day is what caused Hex to choose the medical profession. The story ends with Hex getting shot in the shoulder and requesting to be taken home to St. Gart’s for treatment leading directly into the next story.

Angel of Scutari is a gripping historical set in the Crimean War. The cast does really well and all our leads get something to do. This story also introduces us to the White TARDIS. This is the state of the TARDIS for the next five Hex stories (and ties into most of the other Seventh Doctor Main Range stories released during this period). This is a great story that continues to show that the historicals are still worth making. I’d rate this at 10/10. There isn’t a Traveling the Vortex’s review of this story as Enemy of the Daleks is their most recently reviewed Seven/Ace/Hex story at this time. This release also includes the third episode of The Three Companions at the end of Disc 2.

The second Seven/Ace/Hex/trilogy starts off running with Project: Destiny. Here is where all the loose threads of Hex’s arc seem to coalesce. Despite being released a year-and-a-half after Angel of Scutari, we pick right with the Doctor and Ace bringing Hex to St. Gart’s to take care of him after he got shot in Scutari. However, we find ourselves in an abandoned London.

This is the final installment in the Forge/Project trilogy after Project: Twilight and Project: Lazarus. As such, it brings the Forge, which has been lingering in the back of the Hex arc after appearances in No Man’s Land and Forty-five: Casualties of War, front and center. It also brings the fate of Hex’s mother into the foreground in the worst possible way.

It has the feel of a zombie/contagion movie with lots of action as London is a quarantine zone because an insectoid hive-mind species has begun infecting the population and have overrun London. We meet Forge operative Lysandra Aristedes who will be returning later. Nimrod has been rebranded as Dr. William Abberton and is the head of Department C4, the Forge’s public face.

In the midst of all this is Hex who is caught between the Doctor and Nimrod. The confrontation that leads to the Episode 3 cliffhanger is highly emotional and really good. And then, there’s the return of Cassie Schofield in Part 4. After a roller coaster of a story, Hex quits and leaves the TARDIS. Then, as the Doctor and Ace prepare to leave, Lysandra mentions that there’s a sarcophagus with the Seal of Rassilon (confirming that we now have the TV Movie console room) buried in the Forge archives which leads into the next story.

I found this to be a really fun story that really puts Hex through the emotional ringer. Everyone gets stuff to do and the actors get lots of stuff to sink their teeth into. Nimrod again is a superb villain and works really well against McCoy’s Seventh Doctor. The only downside is that this isn’t a story to jump on with. Maybe on a second listen, but there’s definitely homework that is required. I would suggest that you at least need the two other “Project” stories that form a trilogy with this, and The Harvest, and at least Angel of Scutari if not Enemy of the Daleks too. Beyond that, there’s a coda to the story Thicker Than Water that is primarily a Six/Mel/Evelyn story that’s heavily referenced in the CD Extras for this. All said though, I’d rate this 10/10.

The next story, A Death in the Family, deals with the fallout from the revelations of the previous story. This review will be heavy in spoilers because I can’t talk about it without them. Without spoilers, this would be one paragraph telling you to go listen to this story. Anyway, let’s dive into this.

The Gallifreyan sarcophagus contains a future Seventh Doctor who has managed to defeat the Word Lord Nobody No-one. By recovering this Doctor, Nobody is freed and ends up killing the Doctor. The next two episodes focus first on Hex who has been taken to a planet in the distant past where Evelyn has ended up and then on Ace as she tries to fix things while falling in love. The final episode brings these threads together for a heart-wrenching finale.

So that’s the story. Now, let’s break this down a little. First, Nobody has regenerated into Ian Reddington (known as the Chief Clown from Greatest Show in the Galaxy) who is wonderful as the Word Lord. Manic, twisted, a joy to listen to. He feels a lot like Mark Hamill’s Joker here. Second, Hex gets a chance to heal thanks to learning the truth about his mother from someone who isn’t playing games with him caught in the middle. The Doctor wins thanks to some really clever writing that I won’t spoil here. But the cost of the victory is heart-breaking. Even knowing it was coming, I was tearing up. So the big SPOILER is, that Evelyn dies! She does so in a wonderfully heroic way that Maggie Stables delivers to perfection. Listening to Evelyn and Nobody going head to head is a wonderful scene. But, it’s still a final end to the character of Evelyn Smythe complete with a funeral, which is made even harder with the passing of Maggie Stables.

A Death in the Family is a wonderful, excellent story. Everybody shines in it and it works so well as a season or even series finale. If this had been the final end of the Hex Arc, I would’ve been perfectly happy. Yes, Hex leaves with the Doctor and Ace at the end, but this still could’ve been a great endpoint. I’d rate this at 10/10.

Now, we start the next Seven/Ace/Hex arc, the Elder Gods arc. It’s already been in the background a little bit I’m told. The White TARDIS continues in this arc culminating with Black and White. There are also stories in this Elder Gods arc that aren’t part of the Hex arc (such as House of Blue Fire) and as such won’t be reviewed here.

The other main thing going forward is that apart from two stories in the final trilogy of the Hex arc, all of these will be brand new experiences for me. I know some of the arc’s plot points, but haven’t actually listened to any of these. A Death in the Family was where I dropped away from the Hex arc because of life and the fact that other stories caught my interest. Yes, availability was a big part of it at the time, but once availability wasn’t a factor, I still never made it back to these.

With that out of the way, we have Lurkers at Sunlight’s Edge. Lurkers finds the Doctor, Ace and Hex still in the White TARDIS, landing in 1934 Alaska on an island that shouldn’t exist. The story revolves around releasing ancient monsters that pre-date history, the Karnas’koi.

In essence, this is a straightforward adventure in which Doctor Who does HP Lovecraft. I’ve never delved into Lovecraft. Yes, I’ve heard of Cthulu, but these stories have never piqued my interest. However, that said, the Cthulu Mythos has seemed to have been entangled with Doctor Who. If I understand things, at some point the “Great Old Ones” of Lovecraft has become equated with various Doctor Who monsters such as the Animus, the Great Intelligence and above all, Fenric. If Tardis Wiki is to be believed, this happened during the Virgin era.

As for this story itself, it’s really enjoyable. Not necessarily something I’d return to often, but still quite enjoyable. Going into this knowing in basic strokes the arc going forward might affect it, I don’t know. Anyway, I’d rate this at 8/10.

So we come to Protect and Survive, the first of the second-to-last Seven/Ace/Hex trilogy. This is the “Elder Gods” trilogy in that, after the preview in the previous story, the Elder Gods are front and center. It also continues the “White TARDIS” arc that’s been going on since Angel of Scutari. Finally, it’s also notable that the Doctor barely features in this story. He doesn’t make an appearance until Part 2. That’s because this was recorded at the same time as the Hobbit was being filmed.

So, the story. This was an interesting one. Ace and Hex are dropped off in a timeline where, instead of the Soviet Union collapsing in 1989, World War 3 breaks out with a nuclear strike. Seemingly abandoned by the Doctor and TARDIS, they meet an elderly couple Albert and Peggy Marsden and get caught up going through the motions of “Protect and Survive”, a pamphlet that in the real world was never distributed. It turns out that Albert and Peggy are Elder Gods (like Fenric) that are trapped in a pocket dimension after the Doctor stopped them from changing history and destroying the Earth. The pocket dimension is a two-week time loop of the start of nuclear war so that “Albert” and “Peggy” can learn to be human.

The first half is your standard nuclear war story, though things begin to fall into place that something else is going on here. The second half is where it gets a bit more weird and frantic and where the Elder Gods really come into play as the background of why this is happening is revealed. The ending has the TARDIS return for Ace and Hex, though this time it’s black. Inside isn’t the Doctor, but instead Lysandra (from Project: Destiny) and new companion Sally Morgan (introduced in House of Blue Fire).

It’s a good story, dark and bleak, but good. It’s not a favorite but was still a worthwhile listen. It’s confusing at first but acts as an interesting look at what could have been historically. The Black TARDIS has made appearances previously in Robophobia, The Doomsday Quatrain and the aforementioned House of Blue Fire. Because they don’t feature Hex, I don’t plan on reviewing them here (this is already long enough as it is). And, as best I can tell, the only one that ties into the Elder God arc is House of Blue Fire. Anyway, I’d rate this at 7/10.

Next up is Black and White, which sees the two sets of companions set off to find the Doctor who has apparently gone to meet Beowulf. We get a rough account of the Doctor’s crusade against to Elder Gods through flashbacks of his adventures with Lysandra and Sally. We also learn a bit about the Black and White TARDISes, and the previous Seventh Doctor trilogy (which were companionless and seemed to me to be toward the end of Seven’s life) were test runs of the newly minted Black TARDIS.

The main story continues on from the end of Protect and Survive where the Black TARDIS arrives to pick up Ace and Hex with Lysandra and Sally (played by Amy Pemberton: Gideon from DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) on board. From there, Sally and Hex end up in the White TARDIS while Ace and Lysandra end up in the Black TARDIS. Both follow the Doctor to meet Beowulf but end up sixteen years apart.

This was an enjoyable story. Garundel, a toad-like alien who serves as the inspiration for Grendel in the Beowulf legend, is really fun. The character interactions between the companions is good and the Beowulf stuff is fine. However, where this becomes important is setting up the next story with the Companions retrieving Weyland’s Shield. There’s even a clue to the true villain of the trilogy in the name Beowulf. I won’t spoil it here (though I definitely will in the next entry), but if you think through with a mind toward the Elder Gods and the Seventh Doctor, you should get it easy enough.

This story was fine. But, what with it acting as a bridge and buildup, and having all the flashbacks, it’s not as good as a stand-alone story as it is part of a trilogy. Be aware that there’s a post-credits scene between the credits and the CD Extras. I’d rate this at a 7/10.

The current trilogy concludes with Gods and Monsters. Having used Weyland’s Shield to find the Doctor, the four companions find themselves on a giant game board hovering in space. The game board is a battlefield littered with Saxons and Vikings, and soon an army of Haemovores is marching towards them.

I won’t go deep into plot details for the bulk of the story. Needless to say, the main villain is Fenric who has been playing this game since at least the Magic Mousetrap. It’s a good story, though a bit hard to follow at times. It’s littered with chess references, as expected with a story featuring Fenric. Fenric is battling another Elder God, Weyland, for control of the shield, and the Doctor and friends are just pawns in the game.

This is an enjoyable story with a lot going on. It requires that you have at least listened to the previous two stories and watched the Curse of Fenric, to understand this. It helps to have listened to all the previous Hex stories as well with Angel of Scutari and the Magic Mousetrap getting a mention.

However, the end of Episode 4 is worth the entire story. And here I will be presenting major spoilers. Hex is Weyland’s pawn, who as planned is to use the shield to destroy Fenric. Even the Forge figures into the game as Weyland’s creation. However, Hex turns the shield’s power against Weyland, at which point Fenric disappears. Because Weyland has been destroyed, Hex’s wound from Scutari, which Weyland had fixed, begins bleeding again and Hex is rushed into the TARDIS. We soon find that Hex is possessed by Fenric. However, Hex sacrifices himself to defeat the monster. This handful of scenes is worth picking up this story just for this alone.

Gods and Monsters is an enjoyable story. Good acting and, for the most part, good effects. Had this been the end of Hex’s story, I would’ve been fine with it. However, there are still four more stories and this one has a post-credits scene leading into the next one. I did rewatch Curse of Fenric in the midst of my listening to this. I would’ve rated this a 9/10 because there are some confusing bits and the chess references get a bit old. However, because of the ending, I rate this a 10/10.

Fifteen months after Hex’s death in Gods and Monsters, we get Afterlife, a solitary release sandwiched between trilogies in December 2013. This story deals with the fallout of Hex’s death. The first episode is entirely made up of the Doctor and Ace working through their grief mixed with a letter Hex wrote to his Nan probably just before Live 34 that features flashbacks to an unseen adventure. And it’s brutal. I was on the verge of tears at times with Sophie and Sylvester giving excellent performances. In the end of this first episode, Ace will only accept the Doctor’s apology if he mails the letter and then, once the letter has arrived, deliver news of Hex’s death like a good Commanding Officer should at the death of a soldier.

So while the Doctor does as Ace asks and delivers the bad news to Hilda Schofield, on New Year’s Eve of all days, Ace stays in the TARDIS. We get some lovely acted scenes between the Doctor and Hilda who go to a wake that the Doctor’s set up, where Sally Morgan happens to show up. Meanwhile, Ace gets involved in a gang war between Lily Finnegan, a fire-elemental and a “Mister Thomas”. At the end of Episode 2, after a confrontation between the two gang leaders, Ace comes face to face with Mister Hector Thomas, who is in fact Hex.

It turns out that Hex survived, sort of, and won a lot of money playing cards in the Afterlife. He then cashed it in for a year of life on earth, however, he didn’t get to keep his memories. Instead, it appears they were stored and sent with him. The climax, a battle with Lily Finnegan, is actually not bad. It appears that Hex’s memories are lost forever leaving Hector a clean slate. The Doctor and Ace take Hector with them in the TARDIS, setting up the next trilogy, while Sally stays in Liverpool with Hilda.

This isn’t a bad story. The first episode is outstanding and the interactions between the Doctor and Hilda are really good. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that into the gangster subplot with Mrs. Finnegan. Yes, this was needed for Ace and the Doctor, but the whole Hector Thomas trilogy feels like an add-on that overstayed its welcome. I’d rate this at 7/10 with Episode 1 bumping it up from a lower score.

And so we begin the final Hex trilogy. Revenge of the Swarm acts as both a Sequel and Prequel to the TV story “The Invisible Enemy”. When Hector touches the console while the Doctor and Ace are outside, he ends up contracting the Swarm, which has lain dormant in the TARDIS since the Fourth Doctor’s time. Under the influence of the virus, he sets the TARDIS in motion to coordinates that lead to Titan.

This is a surprisingly fun story. The biggest problem is that I never really cared that much for the Invisible Enemy. So, while this story clips along at a decent pace, my indifference towards its parent story keeps me from truly enjoying this one. We get to look a little bit deeper into Hector, who having lost the Hex part of himself, is more susceptible to the swarm’s influence.

The other problem I have, apart from the ties to Invisible Enemy, is that once things get going Hector doesn’t really seem very different from Hex. Whereas in Afterlife, he was a hardened gangster and his accent was slightly different, here he often sounds just like regular Hex.

All that aside, the scenes with the Doctor and Ace in a computer confronting the Nucleus of the Swarm are really fun, though the sound effects are a bit noisy. And, John Leeson does an excellent job hamming it up as the Nucleus. In all, this was enjoyable though kinda a rehash of the original story. I rate it at 6/10, though some of that is my indifference to the original and my not finding Hector that great a character.

The penultimate Hex story, Mask of Tragedy sees the Doctor, Ace and Hector arrive in Athens, 421 BC to see the theater. This is the final Hex story that’s new to me. Because Ancient Greece isn’t a huge draw for me (as opposed to say, Ancient Egypt), I was a bit ambivalent towards the lukewarm start. However, as the story progressed, I found myself enjoying it more.

Essentially, the plot revolves around the Doctor sponsoring plays by Aristophanes and his rivalry with Cleon, the ruler of Athens. Meanwhile, a strange plague is haunting the city and the Spartans are at the gates of the city. Now, this would all make for an enjoyable historical. However, in the midst of this is the fact that Athens is a very popular travel destination for time travelers and everyone knows it.

As such, one visitor is a giant, alien beetle. And here lies the bulk of the story as the beetle’s mask (which allows him to blend in) is on the fritz and ends up being used by Hector to try and fix things before falling into the hands of Cleon. Meanwhile, Ace is ostracized from the city and ends up joining the Spartans where she leads a female battalion into the city.

This isn’t a terrible story and gets better as it progresses. That said, it wasn’t spectacular and was stuck between trying to be a comedy and a serious drama. Hex seemed to go back and forth between sounding like the old Hex and being Hector. Otherwise, while I enjoyed the story, in the end, it only gets a rating of 6.5/10.

Finally, we have Signs and Wonders. After their adventure in Greece, Hector demands the Doctor take him home to Liverpool. However, the TARDIS arrives two years later at the End of Days. Hilda has passed and Sally is looking to rejoin the military, a reality TV star turned prophet named Rufus Stone is holding raves in the streets, and people are seeing their own deaths in their dreams.

This is a loud, noisy audio. The first half is a bit confusing as the pieces are laid. Rufus Stone is in reality an agent of the Aquillians, an alien race that looks like Eagles, who are using the psychic power of the crowds to summon interdimensional alien leeches called Hirudines. There’s a lot going on here so that it’s confusing at first. However, in amongst the action, we get the conclusion to the Hex/Hector arc and the conclusion of the Elder Gods arc.

So there’s an ancient Elder God named To’koth who, having grown tired of the fighting among the other, younger Elder Gods, moved to Liverpool and went to sleep beneath it. Now he’s dying and several parties want to absorb his powers. The Aquillians consider To’koth their god and thus his power to be theirs. Then there’s Ginny Greenteeth.

Introduced early in the story as Vicar Janet Green, Ginny is another Elder God. She wants Ko’koth’s power for herself. Seemingly killed off early on, she suddenly reappears and ends up in a battle with Hex/Hector. It turns out that Hex’s memories weren’t lost but instead stored in his St. Christopher medal that Sally had hung onto. Ginny is defeated and To’koth is taken back to his dimension to die, an act that creates a truce between the Doctor and the Elder Gods. Hex then stays on Earth with Sally where they settle down. We then get a nice coda set 15 years later where Ace and the Doctor say goodbye to Hex before reiterating the ending of Survival.

And so ends the Hex arc. While the first half of this final story was a loud, chaotic mess, the second is quite enjoyable. Hex gets a really good finale. I’ll go into more of my thoughts on Hex in a bit, but I was kinda mixed on this story. The first half is kinda meh for me but the second half was quite good. Therefore, I’ll give this a rating of 8/10.

So, while Hex’s arc is focused in the audio stories of the Monthly Adventures, Hex also features in six Short Trips from the print collections from Big Finish. These are spread out across five collections. The first is These Things Take Time by Samantha Baker from the collection Short Trips: Monsters. The next is found in the collection Short Trips: A Day in the Life and are Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Dan Abnett and The Heroine, the Hero and the Megalomaniac by Ian Mond. The second of this pair also features Eight and Charley who are actually the primary protagonists. I think I’ve read these two because their descriptions sound vaguely familiar.

 

After these, we have three more, each from a separate collection. First, we have Presence by Peter Anghelides from the collection Short Trips: The History of Christmas. Reading the plot on Tardis Wiki, this one seems rather sweet. Next is Natalie’s Diary by Joseph Lidster, a four-part story from Short Trips: Dalek Empire. Finally, we have The Report by Gary Russell from Short Trips: Snapshots. I know I haven’t read any of these. I include these for the sake of completion and am a little surprised that Hex hasn’t featured in any of the audio short trips from Big Finish.

The Main Cast

Right. So, we’ve made it through all the Hex stories and taken a look at each of them. Let’s take a look at the main cast members. First up, the Seventh Doctor. I love the Seventh Doctor. I don’t know why, maybe it’s just the strength of his stories or his scheming plotting nature. Maybe it’s just the Scottish accent and rolling “R”s. Or maybe it’s the spoons. I just don’t know.

While the New Adventures are said (I haven’t read that many of them, or very many that recently, so I can’t say from personal experience) to take the scheming, chess-master as far as it could go, the Big Finish stories seem to find a more balanced take on this incarnation. I’ve seen reviews (primarily from the blog Doc Oho) that state that the screaming Seven and Ace don’t work well, especially on audio. Part of me agrees, but then there are times, like the finale of LIVE 34, where it works so well.

Over the course of this arc, while we see the scheming chess-master, we also get instances where the Doctor’s just as much in the dark as his companions. We also get quiet, tender moments where we see the Doctor is still vulnerable despite his mysterious aura and secretive persona. I think it comes down to both the writing and the acting where you can have great acting bringing up a mediocre script and mediocre acting bringing down a great script.

When McCoy is good, he’s excellent. When he’s just okay, he’s just okay. I think that, unlike say Colin Baker or Paul McGann who can liven up even the most average script, McCoy doesn’t quite have that ability. But, that said, I still love McCoy’s Doctor and usually enjoy his stories. As far as seeing him in roles outside of Who, I’ve seen him in the Hobbit, that’s it. I enjoyed his small role, but otherwise can’t really comment much.

Next, we have Ace. So, Seven and Ace are one of my favorite TV TARDIS Teams. They work so well together and Ace actually feels like a person unlike say Mel who was supposed to be a computer programmer but becomes just a cardboard cutout that is primarily a fitness fanatic and a screamer. Ace meanwhile gets a fleshed-out backstory and an actual story arc.

On audio, we’ve had TV Ace, New Ace (a battle-hardened war veteran from the Virgin New Adventures) and something in between. And yet, there are times when Ace doesn’t seem to have changed much. I agree with reviews that I’ve read (primarily Doc Oho again) that older Sophie Aldred can’t match the younger screaming Ace anymore, and I think that’s true for the most part. There are occasions where it works, but there are more where it doesn’t quite work.

When we first meet Hex, Ace is going by McShane. This is because of the events of the previous two Ace stories (Colditz and the Rapture). The first affects Ace a lot with definite emotional abuse and seeing a man die in a gruesome way. The second finds Ace meeting her lost younger brother. (I’ve already reviewed these so I won’t go any deeper.)

Hex gives Ace someone to gang up on the Doctor with. While there are inklings of a romance between Ace and Hex early on, this relationship evolves into something more akin to siblings. Ace ends up becoming a mentor to Hex. When Hex dies, it affects Ace immensely giving us an excellent first episode of Afterlife.

After Hex’s final departure, Ace continues to travel with the Doctor and wonderfully paraphrases/reiterates the Doctor’s speech at the end of Survival. During the conclusion of Signs and Wonders, both Ace and the Doctor get visions of their deaths/futures. The Doctor of course gets Madame Butterfly in some sort of theater. Ace meanwhile gets three: her wearing a high collar, riding a motorbike in Paris in the 19th century and being surrounded by “three giant fleas”. These represent her departures in Big Finish (joining the Time Lords), the Virgin New Adventures (see the novel “Set Piece”) and the Doctor Who Magazine comics (see the story “Ground Zero”). Whether this is intended to be three different timelines or just as an easter egg to fans in the know, I don’t know. All that said, Ace still works well in these for the most part and is still one of my favorite companions.

And so we come to Thomas Hector “Hex” Schofield, a London nurse from Liverpool. Originally a near-future companion from 2021. Wow, I still can’t get over the fact that Hex’s native time is THIS year. Hex starts out as your average bloke thrown off into the deep end in his first adventure.

He joins the Doctor of his own volition and doesn’t look back. Then he’s pulled through the wringer as he goes on his travels. Cromwell, the hate room, Nimrod, the Word Lord, Fenric. He had a good run and his arc finales (Project: Destiny/A Death in the Family, Gods and Monsters, and Signs and Wonders) are outstanding. He’s just a very likable character.

I think the only place where his arc falls down is in the Hector trilogy and the Hex stories released post-Signs and Wonders. After such an amazing end in Gods and Monsters, did we really need more? Maybe. Probably not. Yes, I know I’ve referencing Doc Oho a lot here, but he often makes some good points. One is that Big Finish possibly kept the Hex arc going because they liked working with the actor Philip Olivier so much. I don’t know, it’s possible.

The majority of the Hector arc was lackluster to me. Afterlife wasn’t terrible and the first episode was worth the price. Revenge of the Swarm wasn’t terrible, it just happened to be a prequel/sequel to a story I’m not terribly fond of. Mask of Tragedy was just kinda there at first but ended well enough. And Signs and Wonders had an okay first half but then a really strong second half that wrapped up a lot. The biggest issue was that there wasn’t often a clear difference between Hex and Hector, which in turn made the choice to have a technically new character kinda moot. As for the three post-Signs and Wonders releases, they were enjoyable, just nothing super amazing.

So, that wraps up my thoughts on Hex as a character. He’s still a favorite of mine and one that works well and has a well-defined arc, even if (as stated in the CD Extras) some of it was made up as they went along. As for seeing Philip Olivier in anything outside of Doctor Who, I haven’t to my knowledge seen anything with him in it.

 

Final Thoughts

So, after four months and 26 releases, I’ve finished the Hex arc. While this seemingly took forever, it was worth it. There were more good stories than bad and even then, most of the lower-rated ones were middling or average as opposed to truly bad. I enjoyed the arc and while there were middling stories, the high points were really high.

There are plenty of stories in this arc that I’d go back and re-listen to. And Hex is an enjoyable character that is just fun to listen to. He melds well with the Doctor and Ace as a team. Out of curiosity, I went and averaged my ratings for the stories above and came out with an 8/10.

Are there returning villains or concepts from this arc that I’d like to see a return in some form? I don’t know. I’m kinda done with the Elder Gods at this point. Maybe seeing Fenric come back on TV, but I’d be fine if he doesn’t return. The Word Lord might be cool to see, but he’s another who had a complete arc and a final end.

Maybe a TV story with Cromwell could be interesting, but I don’t think the TV series could do it as well as The Settling. I wouldn’t mind seeing Iris Wildthyme and Panda show up on TV, but unless done really, really well, I don’t see that working. The only other thing I could see returning in some form is the Forge. I’d love to see a three-way confrontation between UNIT, Torchwood and the Forge on TV (or audio, books or comics, I’m not picky). That might be fun.

So that’s it for this Companion Archive. Hex was an enjoyable companion and this gave me an excuse to listen to all these, especially the ones I hadn’t gotten to yet. I look forward to hearing the Guys’ thoughts on the rest of these stories whenever they get around to them. I’ve got a few ideas for what I might do next for one of these, but I’m not going to tell you what they are right now. SPOILERS!!! Anyway, that’s it. If you want to discuss anything about these stories, be sure to check out the Traveling the Vortex Listener’s Forum on Facebook.

Episode 483 – Free of That Appalling Dress Sense

This week we return to the Unbound Universe for two more offerings from Big Finish’s Doctor Who – Unbound series.

First, we review Full Fathom Five, written by David Bishop and starring David Collings as The Doctor.

Then we take a look at He Jests at Scars… written by Gary Russell and starting Michael Jayston returning to the role of The Valeyard.

Hear what we thought about these two stories,

Plus, more Big Finish news and new books coming out from our friends at Candy Jar Books.

Enjoy!

Scheduling Victorious: Chapter V – Scheduling Unbound

Chapter Five

Compared to the universe, she burns bright and hot like a young star, yet she is ageless and infinite. Her wisdom goes hand in hand with her neurotic mischievousness, the sly smirk on her lips never belaying the surprise she feels at learning something new. Her temperament as unpredictable as her hair, and her fury…

Her fury burns hotter than all those bright stars.

It’s the fury the Daleks feel—smoldering white hot rage—as they die in droves all around her, screaming their ineffective threats of extermination. Some are panicked, yelling about impaired vision. If your eyestalk was sliced off, your vision would be impaired too. She moves like poetry, like water droplets playfully cascading down a brook, as she darts across the control room of the scout ship from one drone to the next. Her weapon cuts just as deep as words, an ancient sword rumored to have come from these very DARK TIMES, forged by the great weapon smiths of Andromeda, its alloy folded more times than could be counted, fused in the vortex itself and imbued with any number of incantations and spells, covered with magic charms and runes from dozens of galaxies.

It’s also on fire, because, reasons.

The sword’s name is lost to time (and likely unpronounceable, given the Andromedan alphabet) but legends passed down through the eons roughly translate it to “sharp burning stick”. A gift to her from Absalom Daak—

“You can stop there.” She warns, driving the blade solidly through the dalekanium hull of another drone. “Bad enough you gotta go all “smoldering eyes” on me, but to mention HIM…” She withdraws the sword and whirls on the Dalek commander, “is hitting below the belt.”

The Dalek Commander’s gunstick quivers, just enough to signify the retargeting computer has locked on her, and without a second thought she thrusts out and upward, decapitating the dome off the engine of war. The gun falls limp.

“Ha.” She says.

She looks around and takes a deep breath, and for the first time since this whole Time Lord Victorious started, feels reassured. As if history was back on track

And that’s when the temporal distortion wave hits and knocks her on her ass.

The Dalek scout ship instantly tumbles end over end, sending drones careening into bulkheads and ceilings, sounding like a washing machine full of cast iron skillets. Sparks fly from Dalek casings and computer bays, their interfaces fried by the temporal wave. Arissa dodges artfully and avoids most of the debris thrown around the control deck, finally coming to stand on the communications board. She nearly swoons, her mind awash on the shores of history, as the tide runs out and takes half the sand making up the beach with it.

“I never swoon.” She says through grit teeth, looking up at the forward view screen, now orientated on the ceiling, trying to get a feel if the Pyramid ship survived the impact. More sparks fly from shorts and blown connections. One certainty is that the scout ship won’t much longer. She was a little overzealous with the Osiran weapon pods when overtaking the Daleks, and of course there was the whole sword play thing.

“What was that—“ She starts to ask, but is cut off by the blaring speaker below her left heel as it starts to recite an incoming transmission. “But there’s no one to transmit—”

 

“Attention. Attention. The following schedule” (the voice pronounced it “shed-u-all” and sounded oh-so familiar) “reflects the next month of transmissions from Traveling The Vortex, delving into the Unbound rage from Big Finish:

482 – Doctor Who Unbound #1 Auld Mortality, #2 Sympathy for the Devil 

483 – Doctor Who Unbound #3 Full Fathom Five, #4 He Jests at Scars

484 – Doctor Who Unbound #5 Deadline, #6 Exiles

485 – Doctor Who Unbound #7, A Storm of Angels, #8 Masters of War 

“Follow along, or don’t. It makes no difference to me.

And my dear Arissa, if YOU are receiving this message, you’ll know what to do.”

 

The voice transmission trails off into a series of chuckles that chill her to the bone despite the heat coming off Sharp Burning Stick. It couldn’t be HIM…

She runs along the wall to the science console and kneeling down does a quick sensor sweep…

…only to have her worst fears confirmed. (Well, second worst fear. The recurring dream about showing up to the first day of class naked and surrounded by evil clowns is her worst fear, obviously.) But this is just as bad.

History HAD been rewritten. Whatever the Doctor has been doing in THE DARK TIMES was now over with, and time has reset. Which means with one or two exceptions, the Osirans die out here in the next couple of centuries.

Which mean they do not exist in the 35th century. Which means they will never construct a golden Osiran Pyramid Ship. Which means it isn’t floating nearby, ready to get her home.

She is trapped in THE DARK TIMES, and the author is in terrible danger…

She tries to utter a dramatic “dun dun DUN!”, but finds her throat is too dry.

Episode 480 – Traveling the Victorious – Part 10 – Frozen in Space

We return to our adventures in the Dark Times with two more Time Lord Victorious Tales.

First, it’s the final story for the Daleks in the Eaglemoss, Hero Collector magazine short story, Exit Strategy which comes with the Dalek Executioner & Dalek Strategist figures.

Then we join the Fourth Doctor on the Starship Future for the Big Finish audio, Genetics of the Daleks,

Find out what we thought of these stories,

Also, some novelization news.

Enjoy!

Episode 473 – Traveling the Victorious – Part 5 – Screeching Sweet Nothings in Your Ear

In this episode, we head back to the Dark Times, back when the universe was young, and we explore three new offerings from the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ story arc. We start with another Big Finish offering, Paul McGann starring as the Eighth Doctor, and teaming up with his most iconic enemy for The Enemy of My Enemy.

Then, we join the Eighth Doctor and the Daleks again for another installment from the Doctor Who Comic Maker called Tales of the Dark Times Episode Three.

Then we rejoin the Ninth Doctor in the final installment of his ongoing Doctor Who Magazine comic, Monstrous Beauty Part 3.

Plus we react to some of the news that came out this past week.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Episode 471 – Traveling the Victorious – Part 4 – An Assassin Named Killie McDeath

In this week’s episode, we return to the Time Lord Victorious crossover media event, with another audio offering from Big Finish. We start with a review of Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor in He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not.

Then we look at the second part of a story we began a few weeks ago with Doctor Who Magazine’s Monstrous Beauty Part 2 featuring the Ninth Doctor and Rose.

No news to discuss this week.

Enjoy!

 

Episode 469 – Traveling the Victorious – Part 3 – The NEW Grumpy Bear

In this week’s adventure through the materials covering the Time Lord Victorious event, we review two more comics, this time from Doctor Who Comic Maker. We review Tales of the Dark Times Episodes 1 & 2. Plus, we explore the first of several audios to come from the event. We review Big Finish’s Master Thief and Lesser Evils, Short Trips.

Hear what we thought about these materials.

Plus, we look at some news from the week.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Big Finish Reviews – Doctor Who Monthly Range 41-50

Welcome back travelers of the Time Vortex,

My name is Jamie and I will be your guide through the Worlds of Big Finish. In this installment, I will give my thoughts on releases 41-50 in the Doctor Who Monthly Range from Big Finish Productions. These are all available from the Big Finish website for download only at $2.99.

The stories that follow are full-cast Doctor Who audio dramas featuring the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctors as played by Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and Paul McGann respectively. The companions featured that are returning from the TV series are played by the original actors.

On a side note, I consider Big Finish to be on the same level of canon as the TV series. Especially since Moffat had the Eighth Doctor mention all his Big Finish companions (or at least all he’d had at the time of filming) during his regeneration scene in Night of the Doctor.

Disclaimer: All of the opinions expressed hereafter are my own. There are stories that I love that others may hate and vice versa. I am not responsible for any reactions others might have to my comments and opinions.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

41 Nekromanteia

Written by: Austen Atkinson
Featuring: 5th, Peri & Erimem
Released: February 2003
TTV Episode: 206

My Thoughts: This is a strange one. It starts off with a space battle between a corporate fleet and a fleet controlled by a necromancy witch cult that worships a creature named Shara. Meanwhile, the Doctor and friends visit the Garazone Bazaar (which last appeared in #17 The Sword of Orion). The Doctor is here for TARDIS parts which he acquires, but the arrival of security forces him to beat a hasty retreat.

Upon leaving the Bazaar, Erimem requests to go to the Nekromanteia system based on a Centaur model she bought from an old war veteran. They arrive on Talderun in the belly of a crashed ship. Part 1 ends with Erimem getting shot.

Erimem and the Doctor are then transported to a Corporate Fleet ship in orbit while Peri is stuck on the below at the mercy of the witches and their zombie army. We also get stuff going on at Corporate HQ that I’m not fully understanding.

The biggest problem with this is that it’s confusing and weird. And not in a good way. At least with a story like Zagreus (Main Range #50), it’s confusing but in a continuity-heavy way that’s enjoyable. This is just bizarre. There’s so much going on that has threads of connectivity, but just feels disjointed. It’s violent, in a creepy way, with both Erimem and possibly the Doctor getting injured in the first half. It feels like there are no good guys and the Doctor and crew are just bouncing through trying to survive.

Part 3 has Peri and Erimem reunited and trying to survive and at least recover the Doctor’s body, as it seems he’s dead. Meanwhile, in a sort of dreamscape of the 2060 Olympics, the Doctor watches cricket with Paul Addison (played by Simon Williams who is better known as Group Captain Gilmore). It turns out Addison is a form of Shara and they are stuck in a pocket loop in the vortex, or something like that. It turns out Shara wanted a slice of eternal happiness but didn’t think to factor in human greed.

The final part sees the Doctor returned to life as the major players converge. This actually is rather enjoyable as things come together. Unfortunately, it comes too late. Erimem’s cat, Antranak, sacrifices himself for the others and the Doctor and crew manage to escape.

This is a creepy, weird story that’s hard to follow and violent. We get cannibal necromancy witches, an evil corporate head, dark space mercenaries. There are a beheading and a possible rape. I think that if this were just your ordinary generic sci-fi, and maybe a novel, you’d be fine and have a good, dark story. But as a Doctor Who story, it doesn’t work. Project: Twilight is dark, but it has a solid story and isn’t as sadistic and adult as this is. This is one of the few true failures of Big Finish.

Rating: 3/10

 

42 The Dark Flame (Side Step)

Written by: Trevor Baxendale
Featuring: 7th, Ace and Bernice
Released: March 2003
TTV Episode: 231

My Thoughts: The Doctor and Ace are on their way to pick up Benny when they get a call through the telepathic circuits from Remnex, a friend of the Doctor who is also on the same station as Benny. Remnex warns them to “Beware the Dark Flame”. The station itself orbits a lifeless rock of a planet and is involved in Black Light experiments.

Meanwhile, down on the planet, Benny’s friend Victor and his robot Joseph discover an ancient skull that belongs to a former leader of the Cult of the Dark Flame. Victor is then rendered unconscious by his mysterious employer.

Back on the station, the Doctor inspects the Black Light apparatus while Benny and Ace are off together. Soon though, they all converge on Remnax’s quarters where they find him dead, stabbed through the eye, and clutching a key component of the apparatus. The Doctor is then accused of the murder by one of the station’s scientists (who is so obviously a bad guy) before deciding Ace is the killer.

Ace and Benny head off to get some air, Slyde (the bad guy scientist) follows. Soon, Ace is unconscious and Slyde has taken Benny beneath the planet’s surface in a one-way transmat. Once there, she is thrown in a cell. So far, Benny is the highlight of the story, her sarcastic comments quite fun and enjoyable.

Slyde brings Benny, Victor, and Joseph to the crypt where he’s also collected Remnex’s body and the Skull. The former leader returns to life and plans are set in motion while the Doctor tries to wake Ace so they can stop it. Victor manages to escape with the skull which is then given to the Doctor who gives it to Ace for safekeeping. The Doctor then goes and confronts the Emissary, the leader of the cult.

The Doctor and Benny learn more about the Cult while Ace plays hide and seek with the two surviving scientists (both of whom we learn are members of the cult). Turns out that the dead cult members who’ve been buried on the planet over the centuries, are a ready-made zombie army just waiting for their leader to awaken them.

The Doctor and Ace bring the Skull and the Doctor has a plan to destroy it. However, Benny has been converted and the cultists make their escape. The Doctor manages to fix the transmat with Joseph’s help and then he and Ace return to the station where the Black Light explosion has been detonated. The Doctor and Krull (the Cult Leader) go head to head in mind games. The Doctor wins and everything ends well. This is the final Main Range Side Step into Virgin New Adventures territory. Not having read many of these stories and none within the past couple of years, I can’t attest to the authenticity of the originals. However, despite feeling similar to the previous story with death cults, resurrections, and such, this is much more enjoyable. Overall, enjoyable tale that’s worth the listen.

Rating: 8/10

 

43 Doctor Who and the Pirates
Written by: Jacqueline Rayner
Featuring: 6th & Evelyn
Released: April 2003
TTV Episode: 188

My Thoughts: Ah, the Doctor Who Musical. We open with Evelyn returning home to see one of her students, a girl named Sally. She meets Sally and invites herself in where she tells the story of landing on a ship being attacked by pirates. After a few rehashing of details at Sally’s insistence, we get to the point where the TARDIS has been taken to the pirate captain Red Jasper’s ship, the Doctor has been conscripted into the crew and Evelyn is stuck in a barrel on a burning ship.

In part two we learn of One-eyed Trent and how he was the only man who knew where Captain Bones’ treasure was located, buried on the Ruby Islands, and that Red Jasper now seeks the treasure. Meanwhile, Evelyn is rescued by Gem, the cabin boy, and son of One-eye. Together with the ineffective Captain Swan, they escape the burning Sea Eagle on a raft and make for the Ruby Islands.

While the Doctor tells of Red Jasper, who is quite mad, shooting anyone who won’t tell him where the Ruby Islands are, Evelyn has trouble going on with her bits. Apparently, Gem doesn’t survive the adventure and his death is hard on Evelyn. When Sally mentions a line from a musical, it gives the Doctor an idea. While debating with the first mate about whether the Doctor qualifies as a Pirate, he begins to break out in song, thus ending episode two.

And now we get the musical. All Gilbert and Sullivan tunes. Some of the amended lyrics are rather clever and fun. Musicals usually aren’t my thing, but it works and the more times I listen to it, the easier to handle it seems. It’s amongst the music that we come to the heart of the Doctor and Evelyn’s visit to Sally. Sally accidentally killed someone close and is now considering suicide. Evelyn has come to distract her and talk her out of it.

Back on the seas, the raft comes upon the pirate ship while the Doctor and first mate see who’s the better sailor. Evelyn and crew arrive and, after another song, Evelyn is captured while the Doctor is thrown in the hold. The Doctor goes after Evelyn and is forced to walk the plank, thus ending part 3.

The Doctor survives thanks to Captain Swan and the raft. He then, at Evelyn’s bequest, makes for the Ruby Islands. Meanwhile, Red Jasper enters the cabin and Evelyn mentions the Ruby Islands. This sets Red Jasper off and when Gem doesn’t know where the treasure is, Jasper kills him.

On the island, the Doctor discovers the map inside Gem’s compass. Once they have the map, finding the treasure is easy. The Doctor and Swann then return to the ship, send the pirates after the treasure, and maroon them there. Then, the Doctor takes Evelyn home. An enjoyable story with catchy music. Humorous at times but with a dark underbelly. Really good and well written. Colin shines as usual, but really the whole cast is wonderful. A good story and one that’s made better if you like Gilbert and Sullivan.

Rating: 9/10

 

44 Creatures of Beauty

Written by: Nicholas Briggs
Featuring: 5th & Nyssa
Released: May 2003
TTV Episode: 210

My Thoughts: This is the one told out of order. It’s kinda surreal. We get a short scene about government-funded research, then the Doctor and Nyssa in a truck heading somewhere that’s four days away and then we get a police interrogation of Nyssa, observed after the fact by the interrogator and his superior.

The planet, Veln, has suffered an ecological disaster, leaving the natives disfigured mutants. Then there are the Koteem. It’s rather confusing and hard to follow. Nyssa is rescued by the Doctor and I think a Koteem, though they’re aided by Brodlik, the interrogator. The episode ends with what I think is a flashback, but again it’s confusing.

Part 2 opens on Lady Forlean’s estate with the Doctor being captured. He’s taken to Lady Forlean while Nyssa is captured by the locals, presumably leading to the interrogation in Part 1. Lady Forlean talks to the Doctor who wants to warn them about the radiation poisoning their world. Forlean’s guards recover the TARDIS and are surprised as its appearance.

The Doctor is then shown a picture of Nyssa’s capture and we soon cut to the Doctor and Nyssa in a truck or cart or something that we’d seen early in Part 1. The owner/driver of the vehicle appears to be one of Lady Forlean’s staff. So, if I understand this so far, the Doctor and Nyssa arrive on Veln and get separated, plus a Koteem girl gets killed in the process. Nyssa is captured and interrogated but is then broken out by the Doctor. The two of them are then taken somewhere by Lady Forlean’s staff. This is still quite confusing.

The Doctor and Nyssa are taken to where the TARDIS is, a camouflaged bunker hidden in a snowy landscape behind a force field. Inside, however, they are scanned and then taken to the Koteem. Meanwhile, one of the cops from Part 1 is at Forlean’s estate and is conducting a search for the Doctor and Nyssa, I think. Here we get a lot more talk of beauty and ugliness.

The Doctor and Nyssa meet the Koteem and things begin to fall into place. We learn about the ecological disaster. While Forlean’s secret basement is discovered and blown open. We learn that the Koteem are at least partly responsible and that the “beauties” aren’t surgically modified but naturally beautiful.

At the half-way point, things are becoming clearer and this is becoming more enjoyable. Some of the ideas behind this are interesting and well thought out. However, it’s hard to get into, especially Part 1. If you can get past that, it’s actually pretty enjoyable. Still confusing, but enjoyable.

Part 3 opens with a bad reaction to Forlean’s experiments involving the girl who died when the Doctor and Nyssa arrived or is it arrive. It almost feels as if we’re moving backward through events. We return to the two from the interrogation who are discussing the events on the estate revolving around the Doctor’s arrival. Returning to the bunker, it appears that the Koteem, who are revealed to be arthropods and extinct, are using Veln bodies as their avatars on the planet. The Doctor doesn’t approve. We keep going back and forth between the planet and estate and meeting the Koteem, who at this point have let the Doctor and Nyssa go. Part 3 ends with the Doctor and Nyssa discussing whether their visit made a difference to the people of Veln or not.

Part 4 opens with the Koteem ship skirting Veln with their toxic waste. We then have the Doctor and Nyssa in the TARDIS and having power issues. They materialize briefly in the space around Veln. They pick up the radiation that had infected the planet and dematerialize quickly. They make an emergency landing on Veln a century later. The Doctor leaves the TARDIS to effect its repairs leaving Nyssa with the ship.

We then seem to jump to the Doctor being brought to Lady Forlean. Which I thought we’d had before as Nyssa is still in prison. But the Doctor now knows about the Koteem simulacrums. I know I’ve said this already, but this is confusing. Now we learn about the cure to the poisoning and how the Koteem got involved. Finally, we learn that the TARDIS, materializing in the space above Veln, caused the damage to the ship carrying the waste which had its containment shields down. In an ironic statement, the Doctor says, “As for making a difference, I don’t think we really influenced anything at all.”

It’s definitely an interesting story. Being told out of order makes it stand out. The ecological disaster, talk of beauty and ugliness, genocide and rebirth, are all interesting ideas. The central premise is to paint the Doctor as the villain without him ever knowing. The Doctor and Nyssa seemingly caught up in events as normal and only at the end do we learn they were the cause of it all. This is one of Nick Briggs’ better stories. However, because of the confusing nature of it all, I have to rate it a bit lower than I might’ve if it had been told linearly. The behind-the-scenes interviews don’t start appearing on Main Range releases ‘til #92. This is one though, that I feel could’ve benefited from them.

Rating: 7.5/10

 

45 Project: Lazarus

Written by: Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
Featuring: 6th , 7th & Evelyn + Nimrod & the Forge
Released: June 2003
TTV Episode: 233

My Thoughts: This one is a sequel to Project: Twilight. It’s also more of a duology of two-parters that just happened to be linked. We start off with the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn in the TARDIS where we learn that the Doctor has made a breakthrough with the Twilight Virus. He’s also tracked Cassie to southern Norway two years after being dropped off in the northern part of the country.

Upon arrival, they find Cassie being pursued by a Professor with a gun. Though it turns out that the Professor isn’t after Cassie and is instead hunting the Huldran, a creature of legend that is actually a small, blue-skinned alien with deadly blue slime and a siren’s call. Part 1 ends with the capture of one of the creatures and the reveal that Cassie has been recruited into the Forge by Nimrod and is now the operative known as Artemis.

The Doctor and Evelyn are then transported to the Forge base under Dartmoor. While Nimrod shows the Doctor around the base, Evelyn talks with Cassie. Here we learn that Evelyn has a heart problem that’s been an issue all through her travels. We also learn that Cassie doesn’t remember her son, Tommy. While Evelyn breaks through Cassie’s conditioning, forcing her to remember her son, Nimrod has the Doctor in a lab in an attempt to force a regeneration as part of Project: Larazus. Cassie then frees the Doctor and they make their escape. However, Cassie is killed in the escape, much to Evelyn’s horror and the Doctor’s anger.

Because of the nature of this release, I’ll talk about the first half before moving on to the second. This is an excellent two-part story. It’s exciting and rather adult. The Doctor trying to console Evelyn at the end of Part 2 goes a long way to show his softer side that Big Finish has brought out. It’s well-acted, well written and a very good story. Colin just shines in this, the whole cast does. This first half just hits you hard as Part 2 closes.

However, we must now continue on to Part 3 which features the Seventh Doctor towards the end of his life. Here, after detecting disturbances in the Vortex, he arrives at the Forge base in Dartmoor and becomes embroiled in an attack on the base. It turns out that the Forge is experimenting on the portal generator from the Huldran ship and the aliens are attempting to use the portal experiments to attack the Forge.

We also meet the Forge’s scientific adviser, the Sixth Doctor. Or rather, as the story reveals later, a clone that can’t regenerate and is quickly degenerating. When the “Doctor” learns the truth, he activates the Hades Protocol which is designed to destroy the base. In the end, the only people who escape are the Seventh Doctor and Nimrod.

This is a story that plays to Sylvester’s strengths. I’ve read reviews online that find his screaming and hysterics getting old fast. And while I don’t mind those performances, I do find that the stories where McCoy’s allowed to play on Seven’s quiet menace much more enjoyable. I don’t know why but it fits the Seventh Doctor’s character so much better. Maybe it just reminds me of the stellar anti-gun speech from The Happiness Patrol.

That brings us to Nimrod. Possibly the BEST original villain that Big Finish has given us. At least in the top ranks then. Amoral, driven, played to perfection by Stephen Chance (not that Rupert Booth in Project: Twilight was bad). It does seem like there’s too many secret organizations in the 20th and 21st Centuries in the Whoniverse. We’ve got the Forge, UNIT, Torchwood, Department C19 (from the novel The Scales of Injustice) all operating in the same general time period. The Forge does feel like a precursor to Torchwood, but that said, I still like the Forge as an antagonist to the Sixth and Seventh Doctors.

Anyway, this is an excellent story. Nimrod is an excellent villain, the first half with Six and Evelyn leads to a major emotional ending, and the Seventh Doctor shines in a sort of Multi-Doctor story in the second half. It’s too bad that we have to wait nearly a hundred releases for more of this arc.

Rating: 10/10

 

46 Flip-Flop

Written by: Jonathan Morris
Featuring: 7th & Mel
Released: July 2003
TTV Episode: 205

My Thoughts: So, this is another experimental story. We get four episodes told across two discs: a black disc and a white disc. The nice thing is that you can listen to the discs in either order. We get a nice little open-ended time loop on the human colony world of Puxatornee where, looking for Leptonite Crystals to defeat the Quarks, the Doctor and Mel arrive on Puxatornee at Christmas. Here, they get embroiled in the invasion/occupation of Puxatornee by the Slithergee, a race of slug-like aliens with poor eyesight that use the humans as seeing-eye dogs. The Doctor and Mel are captured as rebels, then freed by the rebels and forced to help the rebels prevent the occupation.

The Doctor and Mel get forced into helping change history, leading to a different future for the inhabitants. There are references to Groundhog Day (Puxatornee, the Time Loop) and It’s a Wonderful Life (Professor Capra). There are two sets of the Doctor and Mel and a couple main characters running around at the same, in both cases, the Doctor leaves it his other self to work things out.

It’s a timey-wimey story that deals with a bit with hate-speech (surprisingly relevant as I write this in 2020) and a time loop. A bit confusing and just kinda middle of the road for me, though it picked up a little as I worked my way through it. There’s not really much more to say without severely spoiling it.

Rating: 6.5/10

 

47 Omega

Written by: Nev Fountain
Featuring: 5th + Omega
Released: August 2003
TTV Episode: 70

My Thoughts: So, the first of the “Villains” trilogy. This acts as a loose sequel to Arc of Infinity and features a solo Fifth Doctor facing off against Omega (again voiced by Ian Collier) in a story about legends, hero worship, and the battle of which is better: books about or dramatizations of historical events.

We open with a dramatization of Omega’s historic event. It turns out that this is part of a Jolly Chronolidays tour. We get our old lady stereotypes, though they’re still enjoyable, we get a professor with a rivalry on the subject of Omega lore, and an older actor playing the fictional Omega, and a young actor playing Omega’s assistant.

Things are strange here though, as the young actor named Tarpov, seems to be possessed by the ghost of the character he’s playing. After this, Omega speaks to the Doctor, it turns out that he doesn’t like our universe and wants the Doctor’s help to return to his.

Scattered throughout the story are mentions of the mysterious Scintillans. As we progress through Part 3, Omega descends further and further into madness. Until, by the end Part 3, we learn a surprising turn of plot. I suspected this plot twist as we progressed through Part 3, and I won’t spoil it here, but if you know the plot of Arc of Infinity, you’ll probably be able to guess.

I enjoyed this story a lot more than I expected too, based on my memories of a previous listen a few years ago. The ideas it bandies about, heroes and villains, legends, insanity, guilt, are all interestingly played with. This is a very strong outing for Peter Davison, both as the Doctor and as an actor. All around, thoroughly enjoyable.

Rating: 7/10

 

48 Davros

Written by: Lance Parkin
Featuring: 6th + Davros
Released: September 2003
TTV Episode: 227

My Thoughts: The second story in the “Villains” trilogy features a solo Sixth Doctor and a solo Davros in between the events of Resurrection and Revelation of the Daleks. Taking after the era it’s set in, it consists of two hour-long parts instead of the usual four.

It starts with a dead Davros in space being recovered by a group of people who work for a major corporation TransAllied, Inc (TAI). The Sixth Doctor is summoned to the planet where TAI is headquartered in a huge dome because of rumors of mine closures. While being briefed by TAI staffer Kim and journalist Willis, the shuttle carrying Davros arrives. When the Doctor inadvertently reveals himself, he and Davros are forced to work together. It’s really rather amusing.

The heads of TAI are Arnold and Lorraine Baynes, played respectively by Bernard Horsfall and Wendy Padbury. Arnold is an extreme capitalist and businessman, while Lorraine is a Dalek apologist and sympathizer who wishes to write the definitive biography of Davros. Intercut with the main story are flashback scenes to a pre-Genesis Davros and his experiences, something that would be explored in greater detail in the I, Davros series.

It’s also in this story that Davros sets his mind on eliminating the current famine that plagues the galaxy, setting him on his way to becoming the Great Healer. The atmosphere just oozes from this story, it’s engaging and chilling at the same time. Things continue to ramp up to a crescendo in a satisfying finale that’s highly enjoyable and exciting.

There are a lot of interesting ideas that it throws about. We get the evils of capitalism, specifically corporations, Nazi-sympathizing/apologizing, the history of Davros, and an interesting look into his character, all wrapped up in an engaging story. I would have to say that, while the cast is all stellar, Terry Malloy as Davros steals the show, something that’s rather hard to say in a Colin Baker story.

Rating: 10/10

 

49 Master

Written by: Joseph Lidster
Featuring: 7th + The Master & Death
Released: October 2003
TTV Episode: 223

My Thoughts: The third story in the “Classic Villains” trilogy features the Master and the Seventh Doctor. The Doctor, nearing the end of his life, finds a hired sniper at a victory parade and tells him the story of Doctor John Smith, an amnesiac who’s lived a happy life for the last ten years in the colony of Perfugium. It’s his birthday and his two oldest friends have arrived to help him celebrate.

I’m not going to go into plot details as this is just a really good story that needs to be experienced. The character of Death (an Eternal from the Virgin New Adventures) makes an appearance and the guest cast, which includes Who legend Philip Madoc, is excellent.

The ideas in this are wonderful. Nature vs. Nurture does a killer always need a motive, Jekyll and Hyde. The bulk of Part 2 is the Doctor and Master discussing these ideas in relation to the Master. Really well done. Well acted, well written, a small scale story that really gets into the head of the featured villain.

Rating: 10/10

 

50 Zagreus

Written by: Gary Russell and Alan Barnes
Featuring: 8 th& Charley + 5th, 6th & 7th (Sort of) + Romana II, Leela, K9, Rassilon, Brax
Released: November 2003
TTV Episode: 97

My Thoughts: Previously on Doctor Who… after preventing the Daleks from erasing Shakespeare from history, the Eighth Doctor and Charley were captured by Gallifreyan forces because the Web of Time had been stretched to breaking. Journeying to a universe of anti-time using Charley as the gateway, and into a trap, the Doctor saved the universe by materializing his TARDIS around an explosive casket of raw anti-time absorbing it into himself and the TARDIS and becoming in the process the entity known as Zagreus.

So, we’ve reached Zagreus. I’ll try to help make sense of this so it’s best to start with the basics. This was the 50th Main Range release, Big Finish’s entry for the show’s 40th Anniversary, and as of 2019, the longest Main Range release and second-longest Doctor Who release period at a duration of 3 hours and 56 minutes. This is a story that is usually either loved or hated, as it’s a narrative and continuity mess that features every Big Finish Doctor and companion to have starred with the company up to this point. If you want a cohesive Anniversary special with a streamlined plot, you’re much better off looking at “The Light at the End” or “The Legacy of Time”. Also, on a personal note, this was one of the first Big Finish stories I listened to.

We start with a “Previously on…” introduced by Rassilon which recaps Neverland. To be fair, it had been sixteen months since Neverland’s release. And, at seven minutes long, it’s almost better to re-listen to Neverland and skip the first track of Zagreus. We pick up where we left off with Zagreus chasing Charley through the TARDIS corridors. This is short-lived though, as Charley finds herself with mother going to see Dr. Zagreus while the Doctor finds himself in the TARDIS library.

It’s here that we meet the Brigadier (who is actually an aspect of the TARDIS), who becomes Charley’s guide through the rest of this, and it’s also where we start getting the blatant Alice in Wonderland parallels and references that run through the story. In the library, the Doctor/Zagreus hears the faint voice of the Third Doctor (taken here from the fan-film Devious) who leads him to the Alice Compendium, some of his memories, and a secret passage. It’s a shame that they didn’t just use an actual actor here because the repurposed audio of Pertwee is so faint and hard to hear. It works story-wise, but they could’ve gone a different route with better results.

We get a brief scene of Charley’s mother standing up to her teacher after Charley’s departure for the R-101 where we learn that we’ll be seeing a handful of holographic projections of historic events that will shed light on and help cure the Doctor’s ailment. Meanwhile, the Doctor finds a still point of positive time and converses with Zagreus where they discuss the multiverse and the nature of anti-time. Soon after this, he wanders through the TARDIS before finding a forest and meeting Schrodinger’s Cat.

Finally, we get our first segment of memory that begins to tease out the nature of the Divergence and sees our first “Doctor” apart from Eight. Here we get Project: Dionysus headed by Dr. Stone at Cardington in 1951 with the help of Reverend Matthew Townsend. The TARDIS and Charley fit in as a Ministry Investigator and his driver. A heavily emphasized “For King and Country” seems to indicate that this is a Forge (see Project: Twilight and Project: Lazarus) project. Rev. Townsend is a conflicted man after the war and plans to use Dionysus to get to the stars and discover why evolution seems to favor human-like features (two arms, two legs, two lungs, two eyes, etc).

We get all of our Fifth Doctor cast members here with Peter Davison as the Reverend, Nicola Bryant as Dr. Stone and Turlough, Nyssa and Erimem playing other major characters in this segment. The fun part of this is the actor able to play roles that often go against their primary Who characters. Townsend activates the device and overloads it, opening a tear in space-time. We get our first glimpse of the Divergence before a bomb explodes destroying the equipment and killing all involved.

The next simulation is from the early days of the Time Lords in the days shortly after Omega’s sacrifice and Rassilon’s coup. The main focus here is a meeting the Great Mother and a high priestess of the Sisterhood of Karn (played by Maggie Stables and Bonnie Langford respectively) and Time Lords Tepesh and Ouida (Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant) who are secretly Great Vampires. They’ve come to learn the secrets of Rassilon’s Foundry, where he keeps all his projects and experiments. While viewing this event, Charley is put in the form of Rassilon while the Brigadier disappears.

It is here in Rassilon’s Foundry that gets a nice handy info dump via the Recorder (played by Frobisher actor Robert Jezek) on the Divergence which are the creatures (exact classification unknown) that were to rise to power after the Time Lords. We get Rassilon revealed as a xenophobic megalomaniac who seeds the humanian Time Lord form through the cosmos and anchors the Web of Time to Gallifrey. The Brig tricks Charley into releasing the Diverenge (which are powering the Foundry) causing the Foundry to purge all life within. Meanwhile, the Doctor, safe in the Zero Room, realizes that the TARDIS is infected with anti-time and the Evil TARDIS is with Charley. Soon, he encounters the Evil TARDIS and is forced to fight off a Jaberwock.

Meanwhile, Charley has entered the third simulation in which she finds herself in the role of General Mouse leading an army of animatronic animals against an army of robot humanoids for control of Cosmic Mountain and the Animator. We get Sophie Aldred and Lisa Bowerman as a Duck and Gazelle, while Bonnie Langford is Goldilocks and the Brig/TARDIS takes the role of Captain Dodo. We wake up the animator (played by Sylvester McCoy), and learn that the amusement park, Uncle Winkle’s Wonderland, has been relocated to the dead husk of Gallifrey and that we are at the end of time where the Divergence are about to break free.

The Doctor rescues Charley and we learn that six months have passed since Neverland. Rassilon appears and has made a sinister deal with the TARDIS effectively making the ship his slave. What follows is the Doctor and Charley, together with Romana II, Leela, K-9 and the aspects of the Doctor from the simulations braving the Death Zone and Dark Tower on Gallifrey before battling Rassilon, who is attempting a coup with Zagreus as his puppet ruler, and the TARDIS in the Matrix. In the end, the Doctor takes the TARDIS and exiles himself to the Divergent Universe in the anti-time is still infecting him. Leela then helps Charley stow away so that the Doctor won’t be alone.

I apologize for the length of this review, but as stated above, this is a very long audio play. As stated, this is often a love it or hate it story and I can see why. It’s long and full to the brim with continuity. It can be very confusing and seems to be a mash of ideas thrown at a page in hopes that something might stick. I don’t it. It’s got some good performances (barring the use of Jon Pertwee that you can barely hear), especially Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier/TARDIS. It seems that some of the actors enjoyed playing against type as it shows in their parts. I found lots of enjoyable moments scattered throughout. That said, it is a mess. As a multi-doctor story, it fails as we really only have the Eighth Doctor and he isn’t really himself at the moment. The other Doctors are holographic avatars and poor sound quality disembodied voice. It’s jam-packed with companions of whom only four (Charley, Romana, Leela and K-9) are themselves.

It’s packed to the brim with little bits of Classic Series references and tries to build on Gallifreyan history. Unfortunately, it’s so hard for the new or casual fan to follow, that this easily has the potential to turn people away from Big Finish. What do I think? It’s enjoyable, but way overlong and a bit confusing at times. Still worth it though for completists and die-hard fans.

Rating: 6.5/10

So, that’s my assessment of releases 41-50 from Big Finish’s Doctor Who Monthly Range. If you want to discuss anything to do with these stories, hop over to the “Traveling the Vortex Listeners Forum” on Facebook. I’ll include the link here. At some point, I may have another ten listened to, and can supply another guide for those interested in dipping their toes into Big Finish. Again, this is not a fast process so the next installment might be a while.

Happy travels,

Jamie.

Big Finish Reviews – Classic Doctors, New Monsters Vols. 1 & 2

Hello there my fellow Vortex travelers,

My name is Jamie and I will be your guide through the Worlds of Big Finish. In this installment, I’m switching things up. To give me a break from the Main/Monthly Range, I’m going to start delving into other ranges from Big Finish.

In this installment, I will give my thoughts on both volumes of Classic Doctors, New Monsters. This is, at the moment at least, two boxsets that do exactly what the title promises. It features a Classic Series Doctor (in this case Fourth through Eighth) without companions and teams them up with a monster that debuted in the New Series (2005-Present).

These are available from the Big Finish website on both CD and Download. The CD version is $42.37 and Download is $30.00.

Disclaimer: All of the opinions expressed hereafter are my own. There are stories that I love that others may hate and vice versa. I am not responsible for any reactions others might have to my comments and opinions.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

 

Volume 1
Released: July 28, 2016

 

 

 

 

1.1 Fallen Angels
Written by: Phil Mulryne
Featuring: 5th + Weeping Angels
TTV Episode: 452

My Thoughts: For the first of these, we get the Fifth Doctor facing up against the Weeping Angels. We start with a newly married couple, Joel and Gabby, on honeymoon in Rome. They seem to have met the Doctor in an unfinished Sistine Chapel and are now sneaking in to see if Michelangelo’s statue of Moses still exists. It doesn’t, in its stead is the statue of an angel, hiding its face as if it’s weeping.

They also meet a priest, who is a member of the Order of the Three Angels. The priest begins blowing out candles as the angel approaches. The angel chooses Joel and Gabby and embraces them in the darkness.

Meanwhile, the Doctor arrives in Rome 1511 and sees on the scanner Gabby trying to fend off nosy Romans while trying to call the police. The Doctor intervenes, “Hat, Door, Rescue.” with a fun distraction “Hey, is that Pope Julius?”. Gabby and the Doctor then begin to hunt for Joel while the Doctor explains what’s been going on.

Joel meanwhile arrives in Michelangelo’s workshop as a priest is trying to convince the artist to put his project above that of the Pope’s. Joel’s arrival ends the discussion and soon, Michelangelo, Joel, and Piero (Michelangelo’s servant) are on their way to the Sistine.

Joel and Gabby reunite outside St. Peter’s Basilica and their memories return. And with their memories comes the Doctor explaining the Weeping Angels. The Doctor sends Piero to protect Michelangelo while the Doctor, Joel, and Gabby hunt the Angel.

Upon arrival at the workshop, Piero is touched by the imprisoned angel. Meanwhile, one of the priests tries to kill the Doctor and co who chase the priest into the catacombs. Once in the catacombs, they begin to learn more about the Order of Three Angels. They discover an aged Piero who tells them the backstory of the Angels and of the Order.

After Piero’s story, the Doctor and friends leave the catacombs into the Sistine and head out to save Michelangelo. They arrive in time and the rest of the story is an attempt to stay alive while luring the angels into a trap. They successfully trap the angels between some Venetian Mirrors with the help of Pierro and then seal them in the catacombs.

Joel and Gabby are forced to stay in the past in order to keep the angels trapped while the Doctor goes to complete the loop so time will snap back into its proper place. We also get the start of the definitions of time that first appear (from our perspective) in Blink. Though the Doctor only has the first part worked out at the moment.

Overall, a very strong start to the boxset. It’s enjoyable, fun with actual moments of light humor, and the Angels are done very well with musical stings as they move that are rather quite effective. It’s rather fast-paced, especially when the Doctor and company flee from the Angels during the climax. If the Angels can be written like this every time they appear on audio, then they’ll do well as long as they aren’t overused.

This has a very Blink-like feel to it (as opposed to feeling like the Series 5 Angel two-parter or the Angels take Manhattan). I think of the Weeping Angel stories I’ve consumed, this, Blink and Touched by an Angel are my favorites, though I do really like the Series 5 two-parter as well. For a concept of having Classic Doctors face off against New Series Monsters, this one worked very well.

Rating: 10/10

1.2 Judoon in Chains
Written by: Simon Barnard, Paul Morris
Featuring: 6th + Judoon
TTV Episode: 452

My Thoughts: The Sixth Doctor is next. This time, he’s providing the defense in court of Judoon Captain Kybo who is charged with desertion. The court is from the 1800s and has been moved by the Judoon to Mars. The trial then becomes the framing story for the main narrative.

A planet is being terraformed for a planetary president’s daughter’s eighteenth birthday by Genesis Corp who has hired the Judoon. Kybo is placing the last terraforming device when something happens causing him to steal a scout ship and flee.

The Doctor, following a psychic distress call, lands on the fleeing scout ship which is under attack and falling apart. He meets Kybo and helps him to the escape pod. The pod launches and the Doctor follows in the TARDIS.

Kybo ends up in 1884 England where he becomes a sideshow attraction. The Doctor follows and ends up in a cage beside Kybo’s. It has a very Elephant Man feel here (at least according to others as I’ve never actually seen the film).

However, it soon is learned that Kybo can speak English despite a broken translator unit. This interests the Doctor since according to him, the Judoon brain can fit in a teaspoon. Also worrying are strange blue lights that appear in the sky, probably from a probe scanning the area. The Doctor quickly picks the lock on his cage and heads to investigate.

The Doctor and one of the circus people, Eliza, destroy one of the probes, delaying the arrival of the Judoon for a few days. Kybo, meanwhile is soon reading everything he can get his hands on, Frankenstein, Great Expectations, Moby Dick, and the poetry of Robert Burns. He even composes his own little poem before the Judoon fleet arrives.

The Judoon arrive and manage to do a lot of damage, including killing the owner of the circus after he blunders in and makes a mess of things. Finally, the Doctor manages to convince the Judoon to use the entrance and follow the signs after which they enter the hall of mirrors and are temporarily scared off.

The circus then prepares to pack up and the Doctor takes Kybo into the hall of mirrors to discover what changed him so much. It turns out that while he was placing the detonation charge on the terraformed world, something like a breeze tapped him on the back. Sentience lives on and in the planet. It is this that effected Kybo.

The remainder of the story is the resulting court case. In which the case ends up not being against Kybo but instead against Genesis Corp who were the ones who shot Kybo down with their terraforming ships because they knew about the sentient species that affected Kybo. They manage to get the owner of Genesis Corp in for testimony which is then broadcast across the galaxy. After which, everything works out and we get a humorous departure.

An enjoyable story that tries to do something different with the Judoon. The Sixth Doctor just seems to work here. While not as enjoyable as the previous story (I may be a bit biased here), this still is well written and well-acted. The sound effects and music are done well and work to make an enjoyable outing.

Rating: 8/10

1.3 Harvest of the Sycorax
Written by: James Goss
Featuring: 7th + Sycorax
TTV Episode: 453

My Thoughts: It’s the far future and the human race has spread across the stars. Designer drugs and viruses are the in thing. Everybody has “Pads”, essentially an iWatch that tells them their emotional state and recommends the proper drug.

We find ourselves on a space station where the bio-data (blood samples) of all the humans are stored for safekeeping. The station is experiencing an invasion by the Sycorax who want the blood samples. We meet the companion of the piece, Zanzibar Hashtag who’s the current hostage to be killed, her blood boiling.

The Doctor arrives and saves her. They then go to where the Sycorax are attempting to gain access to the vault. They scramble the vault lock and get a few people away into escape pods.

There’s also a small fleet checking up on the station. The Sycorax turn them on themselves destroying the fleet. The only survivor is Pharma Corps representative Cadwallader Cadwallader who joins the Doctor, Zanzibar, and Shadrack, a female technician.

There’s a briefly budding romance between Zanzibar and Shadrack who choose to forgo the company dating app. However, this is cut short when Shadrack is killed by a Sycorax. Zanzibar kills the alien and she and Cadwallader transmat over to the Sycorax ship.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is captured and while unconscious, the Sycorax take a blood sample. To prevent the Sycorax from controlling him, he then shuts down. Upon returning from the Sycorax vessel, Zanzibar learns that Pharma Corps sold out the human race to the Sycorax.

Zanzibar then challenges the Sycorax and is forced to fight the Doctor. Forever, she manages to destroy the blood controller, and the Doctor, freed from Sycorax control, surrenders. Stolen Sycorax blood samples are then sneakily supplied and the day is saved.

An enjoyable story on the surface with some interesting ideas about drug use and big pharma thrown in. However, as an online reviewer, I’ve read said, it’s essentially a retread of the Christmas Invasion. It’s not terrible, but it is the weakest of the first set.

Rating: 6.5/10

 

1.4 The Sontaran Ordeal
Written by: Andrew Smith
Featuring: 8th + Sontarans
TTV Episode: 453

My Thoughts: We start this one off with the Doctor shouting at the ether. We are in the Time War and a slice of the War has arrived at the green planet Drakkis turning its entire history into a war-torn wasteland. Here he rescues Paladin Sarana Teel, a dressmaker by trade, from quicksand.

Soon, an unarmed and unarmored Sontaran named Jask is transported down to the surface with experimental tech to face “Ordeal”, a Sontaran punishment. After breaking up a fight between Sarana and Jask, the Doctor plans to take them to the TARDIS to help with their problems. However, we soon discover that the TARDIS has been taken for salvage.

So the Doctor sneaks into the salvage vehicle and locates the TARDIS but is caught while trying to gain access. Meanwhile, Jask tells Sarana about the Time Lords and Time War, setting her against the Doctor. However, before she can kill him, sand serpents attack forcing the three of them to try to escape in the salvage vehicle.

They lose their pursuers and come across Ensign Stipe who has been sent by General Stenk to kill Jask. Jask survives the three heroes take Stipe ship back to the fleet. It turns out that Stenk has been disobeying orders and making un-Sontaran decisions for his own glory. Jask tried to expose him but was thwarted and sent to Ordeal.

Now onboard the Sontaran ship, the Doctor helps Jask expose Stenk and regain his honor. The experimental teleport is killing Jask, but because it initially seemed successful, Stenk is readying it for mass use. The Doctor’s plan works and Jask wins. The Doctor then takes Sarana to her original destination and helps work out a temporary peace, though because of the Time War, it is only temporary.

An enjoyable story and the second Big Finish Time War story not to feature the War Doctor. (The first is the Diary of River Song – Volume 1.) The Sontarans are used well here, though you could say that having Sontarans as a “New Monster” is a bit of a cheat. The Eighth Doctor shines in this as always. His anger and pleading with the unseen Time Lords is wonderful and just goes to show how he ended up at the end of the war.

Rating: 10/10

Volume 2
Released: July 27, 2017

 

 

 

 

2.1 Night of the Vashta Nerada
Written by: John Dorney
Featuring: 4th + Vashta Nerada

My Thoughts: This set is bookended by what is a loose two-part story, both stories featuring the Vashta Nerada. These both have a very Jurassic Park feel to them I find. This story features a small team of hunters arriving on FunWorld, an amusement park planet that was due to open soon. However, a mysterious predator has killed the 30-member skeleton staff.

On approach, the team reads no life signs, and then on the second scan, pick up one. They land and discover the Fourth Doctor trying to beat the crowds and have fun. He’s alone here, his previous companion, having left “for pastures new” indicating either Sarah Jane or Leela. As K-9 isn’t present, I’m more inclined to place shortly after Deadly Assassin, however other timelines have it shortly after Invasion of Time but before he opens the K-9 Mk II container.

The team, lead by Steele, a grizzled female hunter and accompanied by Donnelly, the park’s owner, reaches the control center which the Doctor mistakes at first for a haunted house. Here they find the staff, all of whom have been reduced to skeletons. It also appears that the power was cut deliberately.

Power is restored and the team’s telepath/psychic is convinced to read the skeleton in an attempt to learn what happened. Donnelly, caring only about getting the park up and running, makes some uncaring hurtful remarks, earning a sharp rebuke from the Doctor. Tom Baker is so good at mood changes from curious to anger to comforting. The corpse speaks of the darkness that kills and the Doctor is beginning to think that it might be better to just leave.

The lights are turned back on and the team discovers the Vashta Nerada who reveal their intent and ends up killing two members of the team. Steele then takes the fight to them while leaving the Doctor and Donnelly on the ship. Steele’s trap doesn’t work though, leading to the death of the last member of her team. The Doctor goes to rescue her and in his absence, Donnelly takes flees for Earth in the hunters’ ship.

The Doctor rescues Steele and they realize that half of the Vashta Nerada have stowed away on Steele’s ship which is currently on autopilot for Earth. Arriving on the ship, they find Donnelly dead and so Steele sacrifices herself to end the threat. The Doctor takes the ship off autopilot and sets up a message warning people away before regretfully leaving himself.

A very good story. It’s nice to see the Fourth Doctor bare his teeth in a Big Finish story. This has the feel of Hinchcliffe-era story instead of the Graham Williams-era that we seem to be getting more often. The Vashta Nerada work well here. As I said, it has a rather Jurassic Park/Lost World feel with the park setting, the rescue mission and the team of hunters. Very, very good.

Rating: 10/10

 

2.2 Empire of the Racnoss
Written by: Scott Handcock
Featuring: 5th + Racnoss

My Thoughts: The Fifth Doctor finds himself in the middle of the wars between the Time Lords and the Racnoss. Responding to a distress signal, he rescues the Racnoss Empress’s consort from a burning ship. He returns the consort home only to be imprisoned with two other Time Lords.

A short while later, the Empress summons him. We are told that the Emperor of the Racnoss has fled and is waging a civil war against the Empress. The Empress forces the Doctor and one of the other Time Lords to take her to the Emperor in a bid for peace. They find the Emperor who was abandoned by the Empress to feed their young. All he wants is peace. He abandons his rank and the TARDIS returns to the throne room.

Upon return, they learn that the Empress, now that she knows the former Emperor’s location, plans to launch a fleet and destroy him. The Doctor and one of the Time Lords manage to escape and try to warn the Emperor who instead of taking their offer, pulls back his fleet, and prepares for battle.

The consort is killed and the Emperor plans to destroy the final hatchery. This is too much and the Doctor prepares to try to stop this. He manages to save the children while the Empress turns her fire on the Emperor and then relocates the children.

It’s not bad, it’s just kinda there. While it picks up a little in the second half, nothing really stood out about this one. Just as the Sycorax feel like one-note villains, the Racnoss just feel boring. They feel like C-list Daleks. Shouty aliens. At least the Daleks can be interesting from time to time. The Racnoss are just Spiders. I think part of the appeal of the Racnoss is the visual and because we don’t get that here, they just feel average. Easily the worst of this set.

Rating: 4/10

 

2.3 The Carrionite Curse
Written by: Simon Guerrier
Featuring: 6th + Carrionites

My Thoughts: In a British village, in late October 1980-something, a witch pleads guilty during a town meeting where the townsfolk are also planning a harvest festival. Later, at the festival, the Sixth juggles water balloons for the kids before meeting Katy Bell, daughter of the local vicar who’s returned home from Polytechnic.

The main event is the burning of three witches, which the Doctor stops. The trio then begins flying around and causing havoc. The Doctor manages to seemingly stop them, after which they die. Then he prepares to leave, but Katy follows him into the TARDIS. He finds a replacement for a book of the Vicar’s that was destroyed by a one George Litefoot. However, a thumb through it and the discovery of a “C Chest” give him the clues to what’s going on.

The creatures return and we get a vocabulary match between them and the Doctor, which is the best part of this in my opinion. After this, they’re temporarily petrified. The Doctor and the other main people around him explore the town hall where we learn that this is a plot by the Carrionites to exploit a paradox that ties back to the Shakespeare Code. The aliens are defeated, but it’s not an overly happy ending.

I’m not a fan of witches or the like, so this is a favorite of mine. That said, it’s still enjoyable and the second battle where the Doctor is spouting vocabulary words at the creatures is excellent. Colin just seems to shine in moments like this. Not the worst in this boxset, but not the worst. I just like the bookends so much better.

Rating: 7/10

2.4 Day of the Vashta Nerada
Written by: Matt Fitton
Featuring: 8th + Vashta Nerada & Ollistra

My Thoughts: So this is the final story in this boxset and features the Eighth Doctor and, as the title states, the Vashta Nerada. It’s also a sequel to Night of the Vastha Nerada as the story takes place above the former Funworld. We start with an experiment in magnifying one of the creatures with nanobots. The experiment is deemed successful. Cue theme music. It turns out that we are in the midst of the Time War. The Doctor arrives on Synthesis Station to answer a distress signal. But he arrives early and everything’s fine. In fact, the Time Lords are expected. Soon, the expected party arrives headed by Cardinal Ollistra. They are here on business.

This is one of my favorites. It has a very Jurassic Park feel to it. Feeding bovoids to the big one, the genetic manipulation, the Doctor commenting “no one looks at a shark and says it needs more teeth” and “life finds a way”. Ollistra is taken to the Doctor and we get the sales pitch/info dump. As the Doctor and Ollistra argue over the ethics and danger of weaponizing the Vastha Nerada, the power goes out briefly. This is revealed to be on purpose as a certain Biotech Dendry (which seems an awful lot like a merge of Dennis and Nedry) is planning to steal some canisters of Vastha Nerada hatchlings.

The rest of the main plot is a race to reach the TARDISes and escape. We see some of the experiments such as the giant one and the Nerada Vastha (a negative version that hunts in the light). As I said, a very Jurassic Park feel, very claustrophobic and tense. At one point, the hatchlings are released, killing Dendry and most of Ollistra’s retinue as well as compromising Ollistra’s TARDIS.

Synthesis station is destroyed and the Doctor, Ollistra, Dr. Morrison (the station’s primary scientist), and Commander Roxita (Ollistra’s bodyguard) manage to escape in Doctor’s TARDIS. However, the hatchlings sneak aboard with them. The Doctor gets rid of them, but sadly, only he and Ollistra survive.

I love this story. It’s fun and probably my favorite of this set. Paul McGann as the Doctor and Jacqueline Pearce as Ollistra shine. It’s a shame that we lost Pearce recently because she was excellent and played so well off of both McGann and John Hurt. The similarity to Jurassic Park (another favorite franchise of mine) just seals the whole story for me.

Rating: 10/10

So, that’s my assessment of Classic Doctors, New Monsters. Normally, I’d say that the next installment might be a while. However, as there doesn’t seem to be another series of these anytime soon, I’ll instead give my thoughts on the series as a whole. An interesting idea that has produced some really good stories. While I like the traditional four-part format of the Main Range, the hour-long, single-part stories work well too, especially for the Eighth Doctor as a bridge between Classic and Modern Who. Would I like to see another of these? Sure. Will I be happy if they don’t do another? Sure. Overall, a good idea with two enjoyable boxsets where the mediocre is far outweighed by the great.

Happy travels,

Jamie.

Big Finish Reviews – Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 1

Hello there my fellow Vortex travelers,

My name is Jamie and I will be your guide through the Worlds of Big Finish. In this installment I’m switching things up. To give myself a break from the Main/Monthly Range, I’m going to start delving into other ranges from Big Finish.

In this installment I will give my thoughts on the first season (or series rather, it is a British company after all) of the Fourth Doctor Adventures range from Big Finish Productions. This range started in 2012 when Big Finish was finally able to secure the cooperation of Tom Baker. The first series is made up of six single-disc one-hour releases. Though the final two releases make up one story, I will review them separately.

For timeline placement in relation to the TV series, these all place between “Talons of Wang-Chiang” and “Horror of Fang Rock” with the first release occurring directly after Talons. These are all available from the Big Finish website as both CD and Download versions. The CD version costs $13.36 each and the Download cost $8.99.

Each story has interviews from the cast and production staff after the main story that are worth listening to. You can also find some interesting interviews on each release’s page (except for Oseidon Adventure) on the website.

Disclaimer: All of the opinions expressed hereafter are my own. There are stories that I love that others may hate, and vice versa. I am not responsible for any reactions others might have to my comments and opinions.

 

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

 

1.1 Destination: Nerva
Written by: Nicholas Briggs
Featuring: 4th & Leela
Released: January 2012
TTV Episode: 116

My Thoughts: While not Tom’s first audio for Big Finish (there was a Lost Stories boxset that was released first), this is the first of the Fourth Doctor Adventures range. As stated above, this story begins right after the end of the Talons of Wang-Chiang with mentions of Jago and Litefoot. The story itself actually begins with a battle between some humans and the crew of an alien ship.

The Doctor and Leela pick up a distress signal from one of the aliens, a Drelleran, which the Doctor traces to 1895 Kent. They arrive and meet the alien who implores them to stop the humans from taking the alien ship. Unfortunately, the Doctor is too late and he and Leela are forced to retreat to the TARDIS to avoid being vaporized by the ship’s engines.

We then switch to Nerva Dock which is still under construction and having technical issues. The TARDIS arrives on an approaching ship which is being diverted by a pod from a different using their docking port. The pod contains a single passenger who is acting all mysterious and is infected by something strange. However, because of issues with the comms, he is allowed access to Nerva. The Doctor, Leela, the infected man (who infects through touch), the technician who let him in (and who is also infected) and Nerva’s Commodore soon end up together with the infected one preparing to infect them all. The Doctor, Leela, the Commodore, and the station’s chief medical officer Dr. Allison Foster are forced to retreat into a docked tug. They try to call the departing supply ship but are cut off by Lord Jack, the leader of the infected who plans on building a British Empire among the stars. Meanwhile, the Commodore is infected by the Epiderm (the infection) separating the others from the TARDIS.

The Drellerans soon arrive and rescue the Doctor and co. They explain what happened and infect the Doctor with the cure. Everything wraps up well, with the crew of Nerva returning to normal and Lord Jack and his crew dying because of their advanced age. The Doctor and Leela then leave for more adventures elsewhere.

An enjoyable story, fast-paced that works well as a season opener. The Doctor sounds the same for the most part and there isn’t any place were he really sounds old. Leela sounds like Leela, though I don’t know if that’s truly how she’s been able to sound like she did on TV or if, after all my Big Finish listening, I’m just used to her on Big Finish.

The guest cast does very well and the music is really good. As with most modern Big Finish, there are behind-the-scenes interviews after the “Coming Soon” track. Overall, a fun story that works well as a season opener to get you excited for what comes next.

Rating: 8/10

 

1.2 The Renaissance Man
Written by: Justin Richards
Featuring: 4th & Leela
Released: February 2012
TTV Episode: 159

My Thoughts: This was an enjoyable story with some interesting sci-fi ideas. The Doctor takes Leela to a museum that’s supposed to be unveiling a new exhibit so that she can learn. After meeting an expert on butterflies they arrive at a castle and meet the lord of this domain, Reginald Harcourt (played by Ian McNeice who is better known for playing Winston Churchill in the New Series).

Harcourt shows off the Collection. A collection of what? Well, a collection of everything. Over the course of Part 1, we discover that any information that Harcourt comes into contact with is being drained away in order to expand and fill the collection. It’s explained that Harcourt is the epitome of the term “Renaissance Man”, the man who knows everything there is to know.

The Doctor deduces that the programming and/or equipment has a fault as, instead of copying the data, it’s outright stealing it. Draining people’s knowledge until they have nothing to live for and commit suicide. It’s an interesting idea. And as best I can tell, it’s an idea that hasn’t been overused to the point where it’s a sci-fi trope which is rather nice.

After a bit of a chase across this little English village, we finally get to the main idea. Harcourt isn’t the “Renaissance Man”, he’s simply the main data store. Jepson, the butler (and curator of the museum) is the true “Renaissance Man”. The Doctor exposes this and then as things collapse, he and Leela leave. Later, when the bulk of the visiting scientists arrive, they find an empty room the is brimming with metaphor.

Overall, an enjoyable story. The Doctor is more humorous in this then the last one and Leela is great as always. A welcome addition to the Fourth Doctor’s adventures that seemed (to me at least) to move along at a decent place.

Rating: 9/10

 

1.3 The Wrath of the Iceni
Written by: John Dorney
Featuring: 4th & Leela
Released: March 2012
TTV Episode: 160

My Thoughts: This is a very Leela-centric story. That’s not to say that it’s a Doctor-lite story as the Doctor is very much an active participant. Essentially, as stated in the behind the scenes interviews, this is a Leela meets Boudica story.

The final story in the “Continuing Leela’s Education” thread, the Doctor wants Leela to experience her roots, her past. This involves a trip to Roman Britain. Leela and the Doctor happen across a couple of Romans as they fight the British queen Boudica. Leela jumps in and saves the woman.

What follows is a large jump in Leela’s development. In her mind, the invaders are always wrong and the invaded always right. We get a nice arc that allows Leela to see that sometimes the underdog isn’t always in the right as Boudica wages a war of vengeance.

This is some ways similar to the Fires of Pompeii with the Doctor attempting to save just one. Boudica is portrayed as a flawed individual rather than a national hero. For those who aren’t aware of the British queen, we get some nice background from the Doctor but also get it through the interactions between Leela and Boudica.

Overall, this is a very well done pure historical. The main characters are mostly female and it’s educational and entertaining. The acting and writing are both top-notch. It’s just really, really good.

Rating: 10/10

 

1.4 Energy of the Daleks
Written by: Nicholas Briggs
Featuring: 4th & Leela + Daleks
Released: April 2012
TTV Episode: 215

My Thoughts: It’s 2025 and a man called Damien Stephens is head of the energy company GlobeSphere and plans to give unlimited energy to the planet Earth. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Leela arrive in London just in time to witness a protest. Security breaks up the protest and arrests Leela. While Leela is being interrogated by the security forces (Robomen), the Doctor teams up with Jack Coulson, Damien’s former partner to discover the truth.

Jack fills the Doctor in on Damien’s backstory while they wait for the coast to clear. Then, they sneak into the National Gallery/GlobeSphere HQ through the WWII evacuation tunnels. Meanwhile, the Daleks show up and begin interrogating Leela. Part One ends with Leela revealing the Doctor’s existence, the Doctor and Jack entering the National Gallery and the energy transfer going ahead as part of the Dalek plan to exterminate the human race.

While the Daleks hunt the Doctor and Jack, Leela is sent to be robotized. The Doctor and Jack rescue her and then teleport themselves to the moonbase where Damien is (under Dalek control of course). Once there, they attempt to convince the base’s crew to help them stop the energy transmission. When the Daleks attack though, that convinces people rather quickly.

The Daleks are from the future and plan to use the energy as a force field around the Earth that disrupts gravity and forces away from the moon. The Doctor with a little help from Damien manages to redirect the energy at the Dalek ship and saves the day. However, Damien doesn’t survive the encounter. The Doctor and Leela then use the transmat to return to the TARDIS.

A decent enough story, though nothing really that special. It’s notable for being the first Fourth Doctor Dalek story without Davros and feels very much like a bridge between Genesis and Destiny tone-wise. Leela does well in her first encounter with the Doctor’s arch-enemy and Nick Briggs does well as the Daleks. Unfortunately, none of the other guest cast really stand out. It also was the first Fourth Doctor story that Tom Baker recorded for Big Finish. A serviceable Dalek story, not awful, but there are much better ones.

Rating: 6/10

1.5 Trail of the White Worm
Written by: Alan Barnes
Featuring: 4th & Leela + The Master
Released: May 2012
TTV Episode: 229

My Thoughts: So, this is part one of two. Best to get that out of the way now. The Doctor and Leela arrive in England in the summer of . Stepping out of the TARDIS they find a trail of slime that appears to come from a snake “as wide as a greedy child”. There are dogs hot on the trail and thus, the Doctor and Leela are forced to run.

They are soon separated and while the Doctor goes with the villagers who own the dogs, Leela finds herself at the mercy of the possibly insane Colonel Hugh Spindleton and his remote-controlled tank. While Leela exhausts the tank, the Doctor finds himself at the mercy of the villagers who think the Worm or “You-know-what” has taken Julie. However, a nice lady named Demesne Furze pulls up and retrieves Julie from her trunk. It turns out that Julie hadn’t been taken by the Worm but instead ran away to London.

Meanwhile, Leela meets Spindleton who seems the great African hunter, but also a bit insane. He takes her down into the caves beneath the manor where she meets his “Manservant”. The manservant is in reality his Master. The Master, in fact (played by Geoffrey Beevers). Here Leela is to be sacrificed as bait for the Worm.

The Worm saves Leela and takes her to the Doctor where she (the Worm, who is, in fact, Miss Demesne Furze) saves him from Spindleton. We get the backstory and that the Worm, who can create wormholes in space-time, wants the Doctor to take her away from Earth and the Master’s plans. However, the Master awaits them at the TARDIS and activates a device that triggers the Worm. A wormhole is created, at the expense of the Worm’s life, and the Master prepares to receive his allies.

It’s enjoyable, the Fourth Doctor in fine form, but it’s not great. The Master is enjoyable but doesn’t do much. I’d say that the highlight is Spindleton who is crazy, but a very fun crazy. Yes, this leads into the next story and is billed as one single story, but it feels almost like Invasion of Time where the Vardan Invasion and the Sontaran Invasion are two separate events, or like this is merely a prologue to what follows.

Rating: 7/10

 

1.6 The Oseidon Adventure
Written by: Alan Barnes
Featuring: 4th & Leela + The Master & Kraals
Released: June 2012
TTV Episode: 229

My Thoughts: This is the season finale and a direct continuation from the previous story. Here we get the Master’s reason for needing the wormhole created in the previous installment as well as a return of the Kraals from Android Invasion.

Essentially, the Kraal invasion is a distraction to keep UNIT busy. Meanwhile, get a bit of a runaround with Kraal Android duplicates of the Doctor and Master, which is a bit amusing but also a bit confusing.

The Master’s big plan is to take a battery the Doctor left behind at UNIT HQ and detonate it on the irradiated Kraal homeworld Oseidon. The resulting radiation explosion will restore the Master’s body similarly to his plan in Deadly Assassin.

The highlight really is Colonel Spindleton who’s just entertaining. The Kraals aren’t a favorite villain of mine so their involvement didn’t do much for me. And as far as Master stories go, this seemed middling to me.

This isn’t terrible, Leela gets some good moments as does the Doctor. Beevers’ Master is one of my favorites, but this story just kinda falls in the middle. As a season finale, it’s just kinda there (they have a really good one in Series 2). It’s not bad, just kinda middle.

Rating: 6/10

 

So, that’s my assessment of Series 1 of the Fourth Doctor Adventures from Big Finish. It’s a soft start in my eyes. Not bad, most are pretty good. I guess that I’d expected better for Tom’s first season at Big Finish. The next season is better in my eyes.

At some point, I’ll have another series listened to, and can supply another guide for those interested in dipping their toes into Big Finish. Again, this is not a fast process so the next installment might be a while, especially as I switch between Ranges.

Happy travels,

Jamie.

Big Finish Reviews – Doctor Who Monthly Extras

Hello there my fellow Vortex travelers,

My name is Jamie and I will be your guide through the Worlds of Big Finish. In this installment, I’m switching things up. To give me a break from the Main/Monthly Range, I’m going to start delving into other ranges from Big Finish.

In this installment, I will give my thoughts on the “Free Releases” or “Doctor Who Magazine (DWM) Exclusives”. These are five stories that were originally available as CDs that were available with certain issues of DWM. As such, they contained the story that I’m reviewing here, plus usually a bonus something or other, often a preview of some other release or a “Making Of” feature.

The first four are available from the Big Finish website as free downloads having been reissued there. The fifth one, Cuddlesome, is a little different and I’ll discuss its availability in it’s individual section.

Note: As of this time, these have not yet been reviewed on the Traveling the Vortex podcast.

Disclaimer: All of the opinions expressed hereafter are my own. There are stories that I love that others may hate and vice versa. I am not responsible for any reactions others might have to my comments and opinions.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

 

Last of the Titans
Written by: Nicholas Briggs
Featuring: 7th
Released: January 2001

My Thoughts: This one features the Seventh Doctor on his own narrating a story where he finds himself on a ship piloted by a Titanthrope from Devon. There’s not really much to tell here. It’s a bit slow and kinda boring for the first half. Even with the introduction of a time bomb at the cliffhanger, it’s still slow and kinda boring. There’s not really much to tell. It’s only about a half-hour and it’s free. It’s actually a rather sad tale of the recreated member of a long-dead species and his destruction.

It’s a remake of an Audio Visuals play and was originally released in DWM 300 along with Part 1 of Storm Warning and is now available free on the Big Finish website. This is placed late in the Seventh Doctor’s timeline with Tardis Wiki placing between the Ace/Mel Big Finish stories and the Mags Trilogy and first Klein trilogy.

Rating: 5/10

 

The Ratings War
Written by: Steve Lyons
Featuring: 6th + Beep the Meep
Released: January 2002

My Thoughts: A really enjoyable outing that’s only 35 minutes long. This time, the Sixth Doctor faces off against returning villain, Beep the Meep. Beep originally appeared in the second DWM comic story: The Star Beast, and then later in a sequel The Star Beast II. This is a fun story that is similar to Bad Wolf as a critique of reality TV and docu-dramas. It has references to previous Beep stories, but they aren’t absolutely necessary to enjoy this. I hadn’t read any of them when I’d first listened to this and still really enjoyed it.

As usual, Colin shines in this, and Toby Longworth shines as Beep. The “Beep and Friends” song is downright horrific in both its words if you actually try to listen to them and its pure earworm annoyance factor.

Overall, I think the word that best describes this is fun. It’s light, funny and self-referential. Beep’s show is put on an eighteen-month hiatus, the character of Lowell seems to be a take on Michael Grade, and when asked for a few words after saving the day, the Doctor denounces television and thinks that he needs a medium that allows being “louder”. It’s all just a really fun story.

So, availability and timeline placement. Originally, it was released as an inclusion with Doctor Who Magazine #313 before being re-released as a free download on the Big Finish website where you can still currently acquire it. It also contains Part 1 of Invaders From Mars. As for timeline placement, Tardis Wiki has it placed roughly between Holy Terror and the Six/Charley adventures.

Rating: 10/10

 

No Place Like Home
Written by: Iain McLaughlin
Featuring: 5th & Erimem + Shayde
Released: January 2003

My Thoughts: The Doctor is showing off the TARDIS interior to Erimem. As they explore, things start rearranging themselves with room appearing in the wrong places. Meanwhile, a mysterious, malevolent being is working the Doctor into a trap.

The Doctor and Erimem, and Antranak the cat who’s wandering around leaving deposits everywhere but the litter tray, are saved from stepping out into the vortex by Shayde, a mysterious Time Lord agent who originally appeared in the DWM Fifth Doctor comics before becoming a player in the DWM Eighth and Twelfth Doctor comics.

They are then directed to the villain’s lair. Here they meet their opponent and learn that their mortal enemy, is the Gallifreyan equivalent of a mouse called a Rovie, that’s been mutated by a Time Lord remote control device installed by Shayde on the instructions of the Time Lords. After a nice look at loneliness from both the Rovie and Erimem, the creature is defeated.

An enjoyable story that helps develop Erimem more. It’s fun and we get some great mouse-related jokes at the Rovie’s expense. This was originally included in DWM 326 and also contains a Dalek War Chapter One preview. For timeline placement, it’s still early days for Erimem and features Antranak the cat. Tardis Wiki places it between The Church and the Crown and Nekromanteia.

Rating: 10/10

 

Living Legend
Written by: Scott Gray
Featuring: 8th & Charley + Threllips
Released: November 2003

My Thoughts: The Doctor and Charley are in Italy in July 1982 following Italy’s victory over West Germany in the World Cup. But they aren’t here for the football, they’re tracking an alien signal which they trace to a nearby wood. Here they discover two Threllips preparing a space portal thing for their upcoming invasion. Though essentially a con job, they pit the two aliens against each other and stop the invasion.

This one is just fun. Both Charley and the Doctor get plenty to do from the Doctor getting one Threllip drunk as a cure for the terrible disease of “World Cup Fever” to Charley playing Time Lady and being the Doctor’s superior. The Threllips (played by Stephen Perring and Conrad Westmaas) are hysterical in their stupidity.

I realize that this is rather short, but there’s not really much else to say. You really just need to listen to it. Since it’s free, you really don’t have any excuse. As for availability and timeline placement, it was originally released with DWM 337 and is now free on the Big Finish website. It also contains a behind the scenes feature for Zagreus. For timeline placement, the author intended it to fall between Chimes of Midnight and Seasons of Fear so it’s easy to insert this into a listen through of the Eighth Doctor’s run across Big Finish.

Rating: 10/10

 

Cuddlesome
Written by: Nigel Fairs
Featuring: 5th
Released: March 2008

My Thoughts: Twenty-five years ago, a new toy fad swept the nation: the Cuddlesomes, because you’re never too old for a cuddle. They looked like pink vampire hamsters and would record your name and then say back a phrase with it attached when you pulled the string. Now, they’re back as a collector’s item.

We start with a couple in their flat, watching the news (with who else but Nick Briggs as the news-reader). We get introduced to the toy which prompts the boyfriend, John, to go dig his old Cuddlesome out of the attic. He finds it and pulls the string. The toy/creature comes to life and attacks, biting John in his adam’s apple. It’s here that the Doctor appears, attempting to hit Brighton in 1818, but instead, crashing into the couple’s greenhouse. He stabilizes John who then rushed off to the hospital.

Meanwhile, in the Cuddlesome warehouse, their “inventor” speaks with his “associate”. They discover an interloper, the reporter from the news broadcast who is then taken to be obliterated by the “associate” Thingus. Thingus accelerates his plans and has his Mark Bs (which sound like surfer dudes) obliterate the Mark As (which have the usual cute female voices).

The Doctor meanwhile, with John’s girlfriend Angela in tow, investigates the Cuddlesomes. They first explore a shop that might contain one and then follow it to the factory. Here, everything is explained. The villain is revealed (played to perfection by David Troughton) and reporter having been transformed into Mark 3 chases after them.

More explanations are given before a Cuddlesome civil war breaks out complete with annoying theme music. John also arrives having survived the toxin and escaped the hospital. The Thingus and the “inventor” Turvey both end up dead (telepathically and symbiotically linked and all that), the Cuddlesomes are rendered harmless and the Doctor, John, Angela and the reporter make it out alive. The Doctor arrives, in much the same manner, a few years later to check up on things.

So, this is a really enjoyable story. It’s only an hour-long but is really enjoyable. It’s somewhat creepy with good acting and a good story. It’s essentially a Doctor Who take on eighties toy fads, Furbies, and the movie Gremlins. I’ve listened to it before but had forgotten most of it. Really good. That brings us to availability. While the rest of these are currently available as free downloads from the Big Finish website and are thus easy to get your hands on, this one is a bit different. It’s a remake of an Audio Visuals story of the same title and was released on an audio CD included with Doctor Who Magazine issue 393. It’s been released for free a couple of different times on the Big Finish website but at the moment, it’s currently only available through Big Finish’s Soundcloud. As for timeline placement, this features a solo Fifth Doctor. As such, the TARDIS wiki “Timey-wimey Detector” timeline page places it in the gap between Circular Time: Autumn and Renaissance of the Daleks.

Rating: 9/10

So, that’s my assessment of the DWM Exclusives/Free Releases. Normally, I’d say that the next installment might be a while. However, as there doesn’t seem to be any more of these on the horizon anytime soon, I’ll instead give my thoughts on the bunch as a whole. Apart from the first one that’s just kinda boring, the rest are all really fun. They’re short, which helps, and free. They’re also easy to get a hold of. I’d say, that if you want to introduce friends to Big Finish who aren’t sure about the audio format, this is a good way to start. Until next time.

Happy travels,

Jamie.

Big Finish Reviews – Main Range 31 – 40

Welcome back travelers of the Time Vortex,

My name is Jamie and I will be your guide through the Worlds of Big Finish. In this installment, I will give my thoughts on releases 31-40 in the Doctor Who Monthly Range from Big Finish Productions. These are all available from the Big Finish website for download only at $2.99.

The stories that follow are full-cast Doctor Who audio dramas featuring the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors as played by Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and Paul McGann respectively. The companions featured that are returning from the TV series are played by the original actors.

On a side note, I consider Big Finish to be on the same level of canon as the TV series. Especially since Moffat had the Eighth Doctor mention all his Big Finish companions (or at least all he’d had at the time of filming) during his regeneration scene in Night of the Doctor.

Disclaimer: All of the opinions expressed hereafter are my own. There are stories that I love that others may hate and vice versa. I am not responsible for any reactions others might have to my comments and opinions.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

 

31 Embrace the Darkness
Written by: Nicholas Briggs
Featuring: 8th & Charley
Released: April 2002
TTV Episode: 94

My Thoughts: This is an okay story and isn’t that terrible. It’s just kinda boring. Episode One is semi-decent at creating an atmospheric environment. We start with a research team in the Cimmerian system preparing for the activation of artificial suns after the system’s sun mysteriously went out. We also have the Doctor and Charley on the TARDIS where the Doctor has to move quickly out of the way of a flotilla of Type 70s in the vortex.

The Doctor decides he wants to discover why the Cimmerian system’s sun went dark. Meanwhile, the team on the planet has lost their sight and is close to losing their sanity. The Doctor and Charley arrive on a space station, or ship, and are detained by ROSM, a rescue robot who’s kinda amusing. Charley is targeted for termination because of potential disease and is forced to flee to the planet where she meets the team and discovers their eyes are gone.

There is a species on the planet, the native Cimmerians, a whispering species who are afraid of the light and who want everyone to “embrace the darkness”. This story works well for audio where it might not on TV. It’s not that terrible and the mystery around the sun going dark is interesting and keeps you listening.

So, for at least the first three parts, this story works well as a base under siege story. The leads get plenty do as do the side characters. The aliens are just kinda there in the background though. I don’t know. While I’m actually listening to it, it’s a fairly enjoyable piece of Doctor Who.

It turns out that the Cimmerians turned off the sun to avoid the attention of the Solarians, a threat from ancient times. The Doctor, not realizing the perceived threat, turns on the artificial suns. This purges the Cimmerian particles that have been thus far been wreaking havoc on ROSM’s systems and attracts some unidentified ships to the planet.

It turns out that the Cimmerians, not a name that they know themselves by, are healers who feel compelled to heal. The Solarians, who use solar sail technology (think Dooku’s ship in Attack of the Clones), are the same species, or nearly the same. It turns out that in ancient times, there was a plague and those affected came to the healers in droves. The healers were compelled to heal, even at the cost of their own lives and as result decided to turn off the sun in order to discourage the Solarians and save themselves.

It’s not a bad story. It has decent acting and good sound design. The plot is actually fairly good. The paranoia and atmosphere are well realized. It’s just, this isn’t one that I want to come back to time and again. Not like Storm Warning, Chimes of Midnight or Seasons of Fear. While listening, it’s enjoyable and entertaining. However, it does feel a little anti-climactic with there being no real threat. Overall, it just feels kinda forgettable and middle-of-the-road. Rating: 5.5/10

 

32 The Time of the Daleks (Dalek Empire: Part Four)
Written by: Justin Richards
Featuring: 8th & Charley + Daleks
Released: May 2002
TTV Episode: 94

My Thoughts: This is the fourth (and final) of a loosely linked set of Dalek stories in the Main Range linked together under the banner of “Dalek Empire”. This is not to be confused with the Dalek Empire series that Big Finish later produced which doesn’t feature the Doctor.

This starts with a Dalek fleet stuck in the Time Vortex with the individual from the end of Seasons of Fear, the one the Doctor was telling the story to, narrating over the chatter in the Dalek fleet. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Charley are buffeted by a tsunami in the vortex. When the Doctor makes a rather lame Shakespeare joke, Charley doesn’t recognize the playwright. This causes the Doctor to worry as Orson Welles (famous for,among other things, his Shakespeare films) didn’t recognize him either. The Doctor discovers that there is a time corridor that leads from the mid-21st Century to Shakespearean times. And, so the Doctor goes to investigate.

What follows is an enjoyable story. Short of Nick Briggs convincing Big Finish to let him to record Shakespeare with his ring modulator, this is the only place I know of where one can hear Daleks quoting Shakespeare. In some ways, this is a love letter to Shakespeare. It’s also an enjoyable Dalek story.

The biggest issues I see with this that might turn someone off is that this story feels like a rip-off of Evil of the Daleks with clocks and mirrors as a form of time travel (a major plot point) and Day of the Daleks with guerrillas using time travel to avert a Dalek occupation of Earth (another major plot point).

The play kinda mashes these two previous stories together with the erasure of Shakespeare from time as a sort of lynchpin with a result and solution that isn’t as obvious as expected. Although there’re times when the cacophony of the Daleks gets a bit much, it works well enough. This also links into the previous Dalek stories together with mentions of Kar-Charat from Genocide Machine and the Invasion of Gallifrey from Apocalypse Element.

Paul McGann and India Fisher shine as usual. Although Charley gets relegated to the back burner a little, they still get plenty to do. McGann shines as the Doctor and is a delight to listen to in his first performed Dalek story (there had at least two novels released before this that feature Eight and the Daleks). The Web of Time arc comes to a head here as the Doctor realizes that all the time issues they’ve encountered of late (Chimes of Midnight, Seasons of Fear, this) are all connected to the Doctor rescuing Charley back in Storm Warning. And thus, the first major Big Finish Eighth Doctor arc quickly approaches its finale. Rating: 9/10

 

33 Neverland
Written by: Alan Barnes
Featuring: 8th, Charley & Romana II + Rassilon & Time Lords
Released: June 2002
TTV Episode: 97

My Thoughts: So, this is it. Big Finish’s first Eighth Doctor story arc has all lead to this. We start with (what we later learn to be the voices of the Matrix) recounting historical events. The Crash of the R-101 and Hitler’s rise to power, the events of the Daleks’ Master Plan and Colony in Space before the voices all start forgetting and declaring that they can’t remember.

We then move to the TARDIS where the Doctor and Charley admire a nebula or something like that. They are soon surrounded by Battle TARDISes which call for their surrender before launching Time Torpedoes at the TARDIS. However, a wave of Time Distortion saves the Doctor and Charley allowing them to escape.

The Doctor then excitedly tells Charley that she’s been invited a never-ending party for a year to celebrate her birthday as she must’ve had one given how long they’ve been traveling together. However, after a conversation comparing the Doctor to Peter Pan, Charley hits the fast return switch.

Accompanying the TARDIS fleet is a Time Station bearing CIA Coordinator Vansell and President Romanadvoratrelundar (both returning from their last appearance in the Apocalypse Element). They collect the Doctor and explain that his rescue of Charley, which normally wouldn’t have mattered, has become the tear that has allowed anti-time to enter the universe and wreak havoc with time. Romana shows the Doctor a Matrix vision of what could be or the empire of Zagreus.

Romana and Vansell then hook up Charley and the Doctor’s TARDIS to some equipment that turns Charley into a gateway through which they can gain access into the universe of anti-time, the anti-verse, in an attempt to set things right. However, as they traverse the gateway, something goes wrong and they, the TARDIS and Charley all get sucked in.

Inside they find the anti-verse, a universe where time doesn’t exist and everything is happening at once. However, there is a single planetoid with metal trees that seems stable and everyone makes their way there. They find the planetoid populated by ghosts, or more accurately never-people, and that it’s actually the remains of a TARDIS, specifically one belong to Rassilon.

This is an excellent story. We get more Gallifreyan lore and everything that we’ve gotten with the Eighth Doctor thus far has led to this. Paul McGann shines, as does Lalla Ward. Can we get more Eighth Doctor/Romana II stories, please? They work wonderfully together. Vansell is great, a slimy patriot who is greedy and scheming. Charley too gets a lot to do here.

There are a few things though that might deter listeners. First, this is only two parts instead of four. Second, this is very continuity-heavy (though not as bad as Zagreus) and if you haven’t been following the Eight/Charley arc thus far and aren’t at least a little familiar with the Gallifrey-centric stories from Classic Who, you might feel a little lost. Otherwise, though, this was a great story. The only problem is that it ends on a cliffhanger that the original listeners then had to wait for nearly a year-and-a-half for. Rating: 10/10

 

34 Spare Parts
Written by: Marc Platt
Featuring: 5th & Nyssa + Cybermen
Released: July 2002
TTV Episode: 154

My Thoughts: Big Finish does a Cybermen origin story. First off, might I say that this is amazing. It’s well-acted, well written and keeps you invested the whole time. The Doctor and Nyssa arrive on an unknown planet that is supposed to be Earth. Except, it seems like Earth in the 1950s and there’s no one about. The Doctor and Nyssa split up to explore with the idea of meeting back at the TARDIS in a half-hour.

It turns out that this is Mondas as the Doctor meets Thomas Dodd, “A self-described “purveyor and fitter of necessary bodily parts”,” and Nyssa meets the Hartleys, a family of three: Dad, a mat-catcher, Frank and Yvonne. As the story progresses, we see the Cybermen, who at this stage are only the surface workers, evolve to encompass the whole population.

I won’t say much more plot-wise as this is one of those that is a must-listen. Davison and Sutton bring their A-game to this and the guest cast is superb. We really feel for the Mondasians through getting to know the Hartleys, the tragedy of the Cybermen is much sadder than that of the Daleks. Nick Briggs is excellent, easily replicating the Tenth Planet Cyber-voices for most of the Cybermen and then the Tomb Cyber-voices for the committee (a proto Cyber-planner).

I will talk a little about how this works with the other Cyberman origin story we’ve gotten recently: World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls. I don’t see anything that really contradicts the two. I see the Mondasians sending out the colony ship which would get caught in a black hole and then when no word came back from it, continuing on with what we see in Spare Parts. The Twelfth Doctor also (according to Tardis Wiki) mentions the parallel evolutionary tracks of the Cybermen as well, further allowing both stories to exist.

Overall, an excellent story. The acting and story are superb. You get invested in the characters, you feel for the Doctor and Nyssa who finally deal with the aftermath of Earthshock, the only real thing is that the Committee is a bit hard to understand at times. This is one of the few times that I wish that these came with subtitles. But, alas, it’s audio only so subtitles are worthless here. I realize that some of my recent reviews are longer, but this is a must-listen, one of Davison’s best and I don’t want to ruin some of the key plot points, especially in the second half. Rating: 10/10

 

35 …ish
Written by: Phil Pascoe
Featuring: 6th & Peri
Released: August 2002
TTV Episode: 131

My Thoughts: I will fully admit that “…ish” is not for everybody. This is a story that seems to be for people who enjoy word games and the English language. That doesn’t mean that the layperson can’t enjoy it, but I think bibliophiles and logophiles will get much more enjoyment out of it. At its core, this is a story about a murder mystery at the unveiling of the ultimate English dictionary.

The Doctor and Peri arrive at the conference and soon split up, the Doctor going with symposium organizer while Peri a nice guy named Warren. In the midst of this is the hologlyph “Book” which is the interface for the Lexicon (the ultimate dictionary) and the murder of his boss Professor Osefa, who happens to be an acquaintance of the Doctor.

I’ll admit, the first half is a bit slow. There’s also talk about lexical transcendence and the Omniverbum, the longest (and oldest) word in existence that is possibly still being spoken. The Ish is a sentient affix to this Omniverbum which takes much greater importance in the second half.

Very enjoyable, Colin Baker does very well spouting words all over the place. I enjoyed it, but I can very much understand why people wouldn’t. This is a story that revels in words and language and despite some enjoyable wordplay scattered throughout (a lovely scene between Colin and Nicola going back and forth over British vs American variants) and an interesting plot, this can be seen as kinda boring. I’d recommend it for completists and language buffs, but for general fans, this might be an easy miss. Rating: 9/10

 

36 The Rapture
Written by: Joseph Lidster
Featuring: 7th & Ace
Released: September 2002
TTV Episode: 186

My Thoughts: This is the one with dance music where Ace meets her younger brother Liam. The Rapture is an interesting story. Taking place on the island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean in May 1997, it focuses on the hot new club the Rapture, whose proprietors are two “Angels”: Jude and Gabriel.

After the events of Colditz, the Doctor and Ace arrive on Ibiza for a holiday. Here, Ace goes clubbing while the Doctor investigates. The Angels turn out to be aliens (possibly from another dimension) and the Doctor manages to thwart their plan. In amongst all that, Ace (now going by McShane) meets Liam, the younger brother she never knew existed.

I realize that this is a rather simplified summary. But, that’s it in a nutshell. However, where the Rapture excels, is in its examination of drugs and mental illness with the dance culture of Ibiza in the background. Here, we examine mental illness through Liam’s friend Cat’s depression, Liam’s addiction to helping Cat, and Gabriel’s shellshock madness from the war on their home planet.

I’m not a fan of Dance Music. I usually find it too loud and just not my style. So, in re-listening to this, I remembered the club part of it, but not the rest. This was the first Doctor Who story we got from Joseph Lidster who would go on to write favorites of mine such as “Master”, and “The Reaping/The Gathering” duology. Overall, a surprisingly enjoyable story. Rating: 7/10

 

37 The Sandman
Written by: Simon A. Forward
Featuring: 6th & Evelyn + the Galyari
Released: October 2002
TTV Episode: 167

My Thoughts: The Sandman is an interesting story that essentially puts the Doctor in the position of being the monster. The Galyari are a reptilian race that appears similar to chameleons that live in fear of a monster that tears the hides from their young known as the Sandman. They are a nomadic people that travel in the Clutch (a conglomeration of spaceships joined together).

The Doctor arrives to keep the Galyari on the straight and narrow and is all mean and brash and seemingly violent. Evelyn, seeing a side of the Doctor that she didn’t know existed, is appalled. Meanwhile, in the Clutch, there are smugglers, arms dealers and strange killings going on.

We get the legend of the Sandman (at least from the Galyari perspective) in Part 2. Essentially, the Galyari return to their homeworld, to find it invaded. The Doctor forces them off them with threats, but they return. Upon their return, the Doctor smashes their “memory egg” and forces them into their current nomadic state.

It’s an interesting tale. While Evelyn is somewhat sidelined, she does get things to do. She is very much our representative character, as our shock and confusion at what the Doctor seems to be capable of is channeled through her. Colin Baker really shines as both the softer Sixth Doctor we’ve come to know and also as a magnification of the brash, violent and loud Sixth Doctor that was seen on Television. Also in a major role is a barely recognizable Anneke Wills (Polly) as one of the main Galyari characters.

The Sixth Doctor we’ve become accustomed to, starts to return in Part 3. It turns out that the Galyari were the invaders. Now, fragments of the “memory egg” are being returned, and that could prove very dangerous indeed. We get the Doctor and Evelyn split up as well for part of an episode before reuniting at the cliffhanger of Part 3.

I enjoyed this story, it was a bit different. Having the Doctor be the villain, at least for the first half, was different, but enjoyable. There are decent action and intrigue. This is one that despite having listened to it before, I didn’t remember much. Overall, a good Sixth Doctor story that showcases Colin’s range. Rating: 8/10

 

38 The Church and the Crown
Written by: Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
Featuring: 5th , Peri & Erimem
Released: November 2002
TTV Episode: 187

My Thoughts: For Erimem’s second story, and the first trip in the TARDIS, a trip to the Braxiatel Collection goes awry and the TARDIS crew instead arrives in 17th Century France. I don’t know what it is, but this TARDIS team is possibly my favorite, vying for the top spot with Six and Evelyn. Erimem is amazing. She’s intelligent, witty, brave, she doesn’t feel like the archetypal Classic-era screamer. She’s extremely likable. She’s great.

Anyway, the TARDIS arrives in France. This is the era of the Musketeers. King Louis XIII is the king of France, Cardinal Richelieu is the Prime Minister and Queen Anne is being difficult. The main plot is that Peri gets separated (goes off on her own) and lands herself in trouble because she is the doppelganger of the Queen. This gives Nicola Bryant two roles, with different accents, which she plays brilliantly.

The main villain is George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham who is behind Peri’s kidnapping and is planning an invasion. This is just a great, enjoyable story. Political intrigue, swordfights, it’s just fun. As I said, Erimem shines, Nicola does excellent in her duel role, the relationship-building between Peri and Erimem is so well acted.

Louis and Richelieu are well-acted and you get an excellent sense of their rivalry. The musketeers are fun and the action of the whole is done very well. I think Big Finish should do pure historicals more often if they can be as good as this.

Overall, this is just a really fun story. It flies by without a boring moment. The TARDIS crew all get their moments to shine and it’s hard to pick which is the best. While a very serious story, there’re still a lot of humorous lines sprinkled throughout. If the Fifth Doctor could’ve had stories like this, Spare Parts and Eye of the Scorpion on TV, then I could see him very easily having got a fourth season. A joy to listen to, the Church and the Crown is another excellent addition to the Main/Monthly Range. Rating: 10/10

 

39 Bang-Bang-a-Boom!
Written by: Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman
Featuring: 7th & Mel
Released: December 2002
TTV Episode: 167

My Thoughts: The second official Big Finish “Christmas Special”, this is essentially a Doctor Who parody of Star Trek, Deep Space 9 in particular. We start with Nick Briggs introducing a new adventure that “might just be the Final Frontier for… Doctor Who” before moving on to Dark Space 8 with the chief medical officer making a log entry. The station has just lost its commander to incurable flu that he got from an encounter with a silicon entity. The station is situated at the edge of known space and a seven-year period of adventure and intrigue is mentioned. Anyway, the station is now the host of the Intergalactic Song Contest.

It seems very much a Star Trek episode more than a Doctor Who. The light-hearted Seventh Doctor who does mix his metaphors and Mel are perfect for this. I’m enjoying this so much more than the previous one, “The One Doctor”. Maybe Doctor Who parodying Doctor Who isn’t as fun for me as Star Trek. The Song Contest features two races who are war (among others) and when the new commander is murdered en route, the Doctor takes his place.

While Star Trek and the Eurovision Song Contest are the main subjects being parodied here, there are references to Space: 1999, Babylon 5 and possibly other sci-fi franchises. Not being familiar with these, I only knew of the references once pointed out by Tardis Wiki. Part One is rather enjoyable as a parody and ends with Mel, now an ensign, and the pop star contestant from Earth (who is thrilled that Mel doesn’t recognize him) discovering a dead body.

Part Two begins with Nick Briggs giving a very short recap of events before getting the last few moments of Part One. I also realized that this is the first time in the Main Range where Big Finish used the appropriate version of the main theme. Before this, they’d been using the Tom Baker version for all the Main Range stories. The station’s Medical Officer appears to be a bit useless, pronouncing the death to be of natural causes before the Doctor (McCoy) pronounces it poison. One nice thing about this sequence is that we get a take on “He’s dead, Jim”.

Part Two ends with the Doctor having dinner with one of the main guest characters and falling in love and Mel and the contestant from Earth witnessing another murder. The dinner is very awkward and the guest character, who is of one of the primary races involved in the war that the peace conference is meant to end, is rather grating on the nerves. The peace conference is at the center of the story but always in the background. So far, this a humorous and enjoyable Star Trek parody with a decent mystery. Unlike The One Doctor, this seems to move right along and doesn’t drag.

Part Three continues on ending with the revelation that the peace conference is actually occurring on the space station. Part Four wraps everything up and features some rather annoying entries in the song contest itself. We even get a slight fakeout ending before Mel quashes it with some unfinished business. In the end, everything ends well and we even get McCoy on the spoons.

Overall, an enjoyable Star Trek parody that’s fun and enjoyable. The Doctor and Mel shine and the guest cast is very good too. This may not be for everybody, as I can see it getting on people’s nerves a bit, and non-Star Trek fans may find it a little weird. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed it and had a lot of fun. Rating: 9/10

 

40 Jubilee
Written by: Robert Shearman
Featuring: 6th & Evelyn + Daleks
Released: January 2003
TTV Episode: 178

My Thoughts: The one that was adapted to TV. While Jubilee was the basis for Series 1’s “Dalek” and both were written by Rob Shearman, they are two very distinct, and different, stories despite their similarities. The lone surviving Dalek imprisoned and tortured to make it talk, the Dalek deviating from its original function, the Dalek requiring orders, those are all similar. The ending of Part 1 and the start of Part 2 is extremely similar to the Ninth Doctor’s first encounter with the Dalek on TV.

However, whereas “Dalek” deals with the effects of the Time War for the Doctor and then is a single Dalek attempting escape, Jubilee is much, much deeper and more complex. This is a story that deals a lot with history and how it is remembered, with the nature of evil. There’s a timey-wimey element where the Doctor and Evelyn are in both 1903 during a Dalek Invasion and in the resulting 2003. Colin Baker shines as both the Doctor we know and love as well as a mad, defeated Doctor who’s been imprisoned for a hundred years.

I’ll try not to spoil much of this as it is definitely a must-listen-to. On top of the above mention concepts, we also get thoughts on the nature of power and how merchandising evil diminishes it. There is a comparison between the Daleks and Nazis with the Daleks holding no threat after being featured as movie villains and appearing on everything from cereal to dish soap. Trying to review this one is hard because there is so much good stuff here.

I guess I would say, like all of Shearman’s Big Finish work, it’s a must-listen. It’s a good story for a first listen, and then each listens after that, you get more layers that seem to reveal themselves. There are so many good ideas in this, like Holy Terror, that actually make you think. It’s rare for a Doctor Who story to really make you think about the ideas it’s presented. It sticks with you and I would say that these four Shearman Main Range stories (Holy Terror, Chimes of Midnight, Jubliee and Scherzo), are really good pieces of science fiction. As Shaun tends to say on the podcast, good science fiction takes issues of the time (or timeless issues) and makes you think about them. All while telling a good story. And Jubliee is a good Dalek story that really makes you think. Rating: 10/10

 

So, that’s my assessment of releases 31-40 from Big Finish’s Doctor Who Monthly Range. At some point, I’ll have another ten listened to, and can supply another guide for those interested in dipping their toes into Big Finish. Again, this is not a fast process so the next installment might be a while.

Happy travels,

Jamie.

Episode 454 – Christmas Time Is Here Again!

In this edition of the podcast, we celebrate one of our favorite times of the year with three stories set at or about one of our favorite times of the year.

We begin with Big Finish Companion Chronicles 5.3, Find and Replace featuring Jo Grant, The Third Doctor, and Iris Wildthyme. Then it’s on to an adventure with the Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield in Big Finish Short Trips 6.12 The Hesitation Deviation.

We also look at the Titan Comics 2-part 2019 Holiday Special, featuring the Thirteenth Doctor and her “Fam”

Plus, your feedback.

Enjoy!

 

Big Finish Reviews – Gallifrey Series 1

Hello there my fellow Vortex travelers,
My name is Jamie and I will be your guide through the Worlds of Big Finish. In this installment I’m switching things up. To give myself a break from the Main/Monthly Range, I’m going to start delving into other ranges from Big Finish.
In this installment I will give my thoughts on Series 1 of the Gallifrey series. This features Leela and Romana II after the events of Zagreus and deals with events on Gallifrey. The first three seasons tend to flow from one to the next and tell one large story. The next three tell another long arc. Series 7 and 8 are semi-stand alone and then Series 9 onwards is Gallifrey: Time War.
These are available from the Big Finish website on Download for $5.00. Stories #2-3 are still available on CD for $6.20.
Disclaimer: All of the opinions expressed hereafter are my own. There are stories that I love that others may hate, and vice versa. I am not responsible for any reactions others might have to my comments and opinions.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

 

1.1 Weapon of Choice
Written by: Alan Barnes TTV Episode: 450
My Thoughts: We open with a mission to investigate a possibly threatening piece of time technology on the Third Moon of Kikrit. This team is lead by Commander Torvald of the CIA (Celestial Intervention Agency) and includes a Monan, a Nekestan and a Warpsmith of Phaidon (who are non-corporeal and use slaves to take a corporeal form). In the hut they’re investigating, they find a briefcase. The Phaidon (Napenthe) grabs the case, which she declares is a Timonic Fusion Device and ranting something about “Free Time” vanishes with the case.
We then move to Gallifrey proper and are introduced to Cardinal Braxiatel and CIA Coordinator Narvin (successor to Vansell who bit the dust in Main Range #33 Neverland), and we’re reintroduced to President Romana and K-9 Mk II as they discuss what happened on the moon. A call from the High Monan reveals that Napenthe and the Free Time resistance movement are on Gryben, a temporal enclave that acts as a Time Lord processing center for wayward time travelers.
Leela meanwhile is trying to join the Outsiders. Andred has disappeared and is presumed dead and so there is nothing for Leela in the Capitol. However, the arrival of K-9 Mk I followed by Brax with a summons from Romana ruin her chances. In the Capitol, Romana recruits Leela for a mission to Gryben where she, K-9 Mk I and Torvald, will attempt to make contact with Napenthe and the Free Time movement. The mission to Gryben gets underway. While Leela gets in a fight in the market K-9 seeks information in the local pub. Here we meet Mephistopheles Arkadian, an arms dealer and purveyor of information. Arkadian is a fun character. Scum, but high-class scum. As I listen, having heard all of these (except Series 8 – Enemy Lines), I find it interesting as hints to future events are inserted early. One of these comes when Arkadian is brought to Gallifrey to meet with Romana whom he addresses as “Imperiatrix”. This term will come to mean more in Series 2.
Leela, Torvald and K-9 meanwhile go to the human enclave to seek Napenthe. They find her, or rather she finds them, and Leela attempts to win her trust. Ordered
to kill Torvald, she manages to avoid doing so by revealing a Monan spy which prompts a small-scale Monan invasion of Gryben. However, the Monan actions force Napenthe to arm the Timonic Fusion Device. This forces a mad scramble on both Gallifrey and Gryben.
Romana hatches a plan that gets her to Gryben with Arkadian. She manages to get on Napenthe’s good side before the Monans burst in. The Monan intrusion damages the device accelerating the countdown. A definition from K-9 gives Romana the key while on Gallifrey, Narvin sets the ball rolling on an inquiry and possible impeachment.
The countdown reaches zero and instead of detonating, it just vanishes. Romana explains the purpose of the whole exercise but Napenthe commits suicide before revealing the mastermind behind this. Everything wraps up, though with no real answers, and Romana moves on to the next crisis. She invites Leela back to Gallifrey as her Presidential Bodyguard with K-9 Mk I as her Security Advisor.
A really enjoyable start to the series. It introduces the main characters well, both the ones we already know (Romana II, Leela, the K-9s) and the ones we don’t (Narvin, and Brax). There’s the politics that one expects from Gallifrey but also action, intrigue and surprisingly, humor. It’s plot-driven, but also very character-driven. Overall, a very good start. Rating: 10/10

 

 

1.2 Square One
Written by: Stephen Cole TTV Episode: 450
My Thoughts: This time, we open with Romana, Leela and K-9 in a TARDIS attempting to escape some sort of temporal distortion or some such. Then we jump back to where a temporal summit, the first since Archetryx (see “The Apocalypse Element”), is being planned. Narvin is selected as the Gallifreyan delegate and Leela and K-9 are sent along as Romana’s eyes and ears.
Leela is sent in undercover as an exotic dancer. We get bits of the summit and various bits of gossip that help flesh out some of the non-Gallifreyan temporal powers. Everybody gets at least a little to do. However, this is very much very much Leela’s story.It isn’t long before she finds the body of one of the other dancers and is arrested for the murder. Then, while in her cell, time resets itself. What follows is essentially a Doctor Who meets Groundhog Day as Leela and K-9, and later Romana, work to discover who is looping time in an effort to ensure that the summit is successful without any negative events. And, each time the summit loops, a different problem occurs.A good use of time when the series is all about the Time Lords. It’s not a horrible story. In fact it’s rather good. It doesn’t really drag, and the acting, writing and effects are done well. It’s just not my favorite. Rating: 7/10

 

 

 

1.3 The Inquiry
Written by: Justin Richards TTV Episode: 451
My Thoughts: So, as the title implies, we have the Inquiry. With Darkel (Lynda Bellingham), the Inquisitor from the Trail of a Time Lord presiding, we investigate whether the Gryben incident with the Timonic Fusion Device was handled properly and whether Romana did the right thing. We also delve into Project: Alpha, of which Narvin and Braxiatel were a part of, and whether it actually created a Timonic Fusion Device or if such a device is purely hypothetical.
Whereas Weapon of Choice was an action thriller and Square One was a Timey-Wimey murder mystery of sorts, The Inquiry is a trial, and very much a political story. It is revealed that Project: Alpha did build a Timonic Fusion Device and was on its way to detonating the device before it was halted by Narvin. It was then dismantled and destroyed. Or was it?
Both Narvin and Romana delve into the Matrix for information on Project: Alpha, at the same time. Narvin quickly pulls out but not before discovering a data bomb which K-9 then activates by accident. This causes a bit of panic as the data bomb could potentially destroy the Matrix. The data bomb seems to indicate that there was an explosion in the vortex, but that can’t be as the device never actually went off. However, using the information from the Matrix, they find the device from Gryben and prepare to retrieve it.
The device is recovered having been guarded by Servitor Robots that had gone missing during the last story. Back in the Capitol, Narvin and Torvald track the artron imprint attached to the data bomb. Narvin goes to Romana with their findings and she in turn prepares to meet with mystery individual to get some answers. Leela meanwhile, enters the archives in hopes of finding out the fate of Andred and ends up finding it missing, though Torvald seems to be involved somehow.
The answers about the data bomb are well done. I won’t spoil the rest. It’s good, go listen to it. It helps make Underworld a little more relevant in that story’s background, tying it in to Gallifrey. The ending is superb as everyone something to sink their teeth into. Romana especially gets to shout and be forceful and it sounds brilliant.
After the relatively self-contained Square One, here we get back into season arc and into the political drama of Gallifrey. All of our leads get things to do and time to shine. Romana is a nice standout here as she throws around her presidential weight in the climax. The Timonic Fusion Device plot is mostly wrapped up, though there are a few lingering threads. The mystery over what happened to Andred is still a major plot-point to be expanded upon and wrapped up in a future installment. The Inquiry was fun and keeps you invested as did Weapon of Choice, whereas Square One left a little bored in places, this didn’t. Really looking forward to the next installment. Rating: 10/10

 

 

1.4 A Blind Eye
Written by: Alan Barnes TTV Episode: 451
My Thoughts: So, we find oursleves on a train in Europe in September 1939 as Romana meets with Arkadian (the arms dealer from Weapon of Choice) who wants to make a deal. Arkadian wants free reign for a couple hours to work out some plot involving Nazi sympathizer Cecilia ‘Sissy’ Pollard (played by India Fisher), the sister of Eighth Doctor companion Charley Pollard, in exchange for information on the Timonic Fusion Device.
It seems that everyone is on the train. Romana and Leela who are guarding Sissy, and Narvin and Torvald who are tracking time disturbances. As they all meet and run into each other, another train, or rather the same train, approaches from behind and crashes with the train we’re on. But it doesn’t crash, there’s not a trainwreck, at least in the traditional sense. Instead, the train is existing in two different times.
The joys of this are the characters, and that’s not to say that the plot isn’t good, it is. That said, the interactions between the leads are very good, and the guest cast does well too. Arkadian is a joy and Sissy Pollard is so different from Charley. Where Charley is brave and adventurous, Sissy is a fascist who doesn’t see anything wrong with racism or eugenics while still being very prim and proper.
While Romana and Narvin attempt to understand things, Leela and Sissy (ina separate timeline (or some such) run into Erich, Sissy’s boyfriend. Erich isn’t a Nazi, instead he’s a Time Lord, a member of the CIA. In short, Torvald. There’s also a shape-shifter disguised as an old woman who wishes to collect Sissy as a souvenir. We do get the answers as to what happened to Andred, and it’s very well done. Romana once again gets to show her teeth. Again, everyone gets something to do both the main and guest casts. Erich’s plot revolves around the whole Charley paradox and is resolved nicely. The Gryben incident is wrapped up, but with no true proof because of the events of the conclusion of this story.
An enjoyable story that wraps up the season. It’s a solid story that doesn’t really drag and is enjoyable all while wrapping up some of the plot threads that have been hanging around all season. Rating: 8.5/10
My thoughts on the season as a whole? I’ve made it clear that I really like the Gallifrey series. Sure there are episodes that aren’t my favorites, but you get that with any series. I’m really enjoying Gallifrey, its serialized nature though means that you can’t skip around. All the main characters are great, well-acted and well-written. Romana, Leela, K-9 (both of them), Narvin, Brax, Torvald. And it’s really funny in places without being written as comedy. It all stems from the characters.
A strong opening season, Series 1 hit the ground running, grabbed you by the shirt collar and dragged you along. And the great thing, at least for me, is that I wanted to keep going. Series 2 and 3 are also really good. If you like politics and/or the characters of Romana, Leela and K-9, then you should definitely listen to Gallifrey.
So, that’s my assessment of Gallifrey Series 1. At some point, I’ll have another Series listened to, and can supply another guide for those interested in dipping their toes into Big Finish. Again, this is not a fast process so the next installment might be a while. Happy travels,
Jamie.