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.
