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Reviews for Afterlife

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Afterlife takes us to a whole new place

By:Clive T Wright, St Lawrence, United Kingdom
Date:Tuesday 21 January 2014
Rating:   10

I don't want to give too much away, so whilst this is a great story, the real strength is development of the whole cast. Hex has perhaps had the most challenging personal journey in the Tardis of any companion. A complex family life, falling in love, rejection, sacrifice and death.

Afterlife brings us more twists and brings back a great companion with a new dimension, but in doing so challenges Ace and the Doctors relationship. We see Aces vulnerability and the Doctors dark side.

A great story, get it now.



Compelling

By:David Layton, Los Angeles, United States
Date:Saturday 9 July 2022
Rating:   8

It is rare for Doctor Who stories to focus intensely on interpersonal matters and be successful at it. After all, Doctor Who is about the big stuff, the adventure, the universe. "Afterlife" is that rare exception. Convinced that Hex is dead, Ace confronts The Doctor and his seeming nonchalance regarding that fact. She cannot accept that The Doctor will not allow himself to take the human perspective on losing a loved one. Ace forces The Doctor to act like a person, for once, and treat Hex's death the way a human would. The end of Part 2, however, returns us to more familiar Doctor Who territory, with more than a hint that Doctor Who is not done with Hex just yet. His doppelganger, a Liverpool gangster night-club owner named Hector Thomas, is running around town, a man who seemingly appeared from nowhere just one year ago. This forces Ace's subconscious emotion to the surface - she just cannot let go of Hex. Part 1 is an excellent two-hander between Ace and The Doctor, played very well by Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy. Aldred holds back on much of the emotionality that she usually gives to Ace. Underneath is a churning anger she dare not release. McCoy is brilliant in conveying The Doctor's perplexity, his inability to understand human emotions and even to understand his own. In this circumstance, The Doctor is truly out of his depth. This interaction is wisely kept to one episode, and in episode 2 the story broadens out to shift seamlessly into the Doctor Who way of things. Monsters are on the loose, something's not right with reality, and The Doctor must return to the world he belongs to. Philip Olivier really shines in his Liverpool gangster mode. The main thing that takes away from this story a bit for me is that we are still tied to the whole "Elder Gods" line. I also get a feeling that things in this story are just a little too Liverpool, that Big Finish is trying too hard to be regional. Those small matters aside, this one is well worth a listen.



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