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 | A Really Excellent Sampler |
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| What: | Re:Collections (Short Trips short story collections) |
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| By: | Graham Pilato, Washington D.C., United States |
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| Date: | Friday 11 October 2019 |
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| Rating: |   9 |
I have to preface this short review with the information that I did not in fact read every other book before it. I don't know if I agree that these are indeed the best individual stories from every other collection before it. But I can say that these are daring, wonderfully written, and oh so good. This is a best of far more than it is a guide to leading one back through the other books. The whole point appears to be a celebration of the great Who short fiction represented by the series. But the thing is that each anthology was an intentionally themed set. Some were more successful than others. And some were just messes. But yes, I have only read about a third of the oh, so many Short Trips anthologies. When BBC Books and before them, Virgin, were putting out short Who fiction, the collections were just about annual. These Big Finish collections came out quarterly, I believe. And in the end, as far as I can tell, this collection is really the cream of the crop -- by definition -- but not by structure: the only theme is the reductionist approach of each editor picking their favorite story from their own collections. I appreciated each intro that they wrote for each story. But the thrill of A Universe of Terrors or the sentiment and anticipation of Farewells, just to name a couple, really make for a complete experience with those books. Even when one or two stories may disappoint, the anthologies as a whole tend to be lovely experiences. IS this the best ever Doctor Who short fiction anthology? Um... maybe. The BBC's Short Trips and Side Steps from 2000 was perhaps the best ever. Or the recent Twelve Angels Weeping -- also amazing. I have yet to know. But this collection is certainly drawing me back into Who short fiction after years away from it.
| What: | Resurrection of the Daleks (BBC prestige novels) |
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| By: | The Keeper of Traken, Canberra , Australia |
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| Date: | Wednesday 9 October 2019 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
This book is terrible. Eric Saward tries to be Douglas Adams in one of the darkest, most violent Doctor Who stories ever. This is very jarring to read, and makes the book very hard to read. Thankfully, the book is quite short, and doesn’t take to long to get through. Despite this, the book is absolutely terrible.
| What: | Seasons of Fear (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 3 October 2019 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
"Seasons of Fear" is an interesting time-oriented story that gets us to travel to three different periods of England's history - Roman Britain, Saxon rule, and Age of Manners. The story concerns a man named Sebastian Grael, who tells the Doctor that Grael has killed him and is just creating a pocket timeline for the Doctor so Grael can gloat. This gets The Doctor onto Grael's trail through history, where Grael is trying to obtain immortality from his "masters." The story is interesting, and the chase through time premise works nicely. I think it would have been better if the writers were not forced to include elements for the season story-arc concocted for this collection of Doctor 8 adventures. These are rather awkward, and the one scene at the end is just gratuitous and silly.
| What: | Embrace the Darkness (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 3 October 2019 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Nick Briggs delivers another of his many base under siege stories. This one takes place mostly within a scientific base on a planet orbiting a sun that has mysteriously gone totally dark. The technicians are trying to start up artificial suns, when the whole base goes haywire and something takes away their eyes. The story belongs to the early phase of Big Finish in which the writers are foregrounding the sound medium in a highly self-conscious way. And what better way to do that than to have most of the characters most of the time either unable to see or groping around in darkness? The story also highlights the developing character of Doctor 8, a mix of Doctor 4's sense of wonder and tendency to be talking to himself even when talking to others, and Doctor 6 with his over-wrought sense of responsibility and a tendency toward grand-gesture self-sacrifice. The story has a few too many implausibilities for me, too many bits of magic dressed up in scientific garb.
| What: | The Chimes of Midnight (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 3 October 2019 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Robert Shearman delivers another of his closed environment, warped reality tales. The Doctor and Charlie arrive at a mansion, Christmas Eve, 1906, in which the same scullery maid gets repeatedly murdered. Everyone acts weirdly, and we keep looping through the same two hours with variations. It's definitely spooky and odd. This one is not as quite as compelling and disturbing as "The Holy Terror." The explanation also does not make as much sense. It is still a compelling listen.
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| Not Quite What It's Supposed to Be |
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| What: | Blue Box (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 21 September 2019 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
The title is right away misleading. Readers are likely to think that "blue box" refers to the TARDIS, but that device is nowhere to be seen in this book. Instead, "blue box" refers to a signal switching device used in telecommunications. That is the kind of bait and switch that Kate Orman is up to throughout this book. Orman has decided on a novel approach by making the book seem not to be a novel. Instead, the book we read is "written by" an Australian independent journalist reporting on events, publishing a non-fiction book about a great computer crime caper. We are supposedly reading that book. So, a blue box that is not the blue box we thought, and a novel that is not quite a novel. There are several other turns of this kind. The story places Doctor 6 and Peri in the Washington, D.C., area in 1982 or thereabouts. Doctor 6 is contacted to track down some alien technology (though our narrator believes throughout the book that it is secret Russian tech) that has gotten lost and is now in the hands of computer mastermind Sarah Swan. Our computer mastermind is not much of villain, being mostly just petty, lonely, and vindictive. The internet is only in its infancy, but Swan uses it and the telecommunications network to make hell out of the lives of people she doesn't like by doing things like planting rumors, changing their utility bills to astronomical figures, and so on. She's a towering figure of terror to the hacks and phreaks, but entirely unknown to the rest of the world. The plot has our heroes mainly hiding from Swan in motels, driving long distances in rented cars, breaking into computer systems, and generally reacting to Swan as if she is far more powerful than she really is. Through most of the novel, there is little sense of any actual danger, and I kept wondering as I read why The Doctor and crew were going to such extraordinary lengths to avoid this woman. Another problematic spot for me was in the novel pretending to be non-fiction premise. This is done regularly enough, and mostly done wrong. The problem is that the resulting book is still too much novel and not enough non-fiction. There are long passages of dialogue, which is novelistic, but not at all in the manner of independent reporting. Whole scenes are described in great detail when there is no way that the reporter-narrator had access to that information. I don't, however, want to give the impression that this novel is all that bad. The writing is crisp, and it is generally well paced. Orman does not stray beyond the bounds she has set for herself in the plot and format. She does a good job of making seemingly insignificant details have a surprising significance. Generally, the book is entertaining despite its flaws.
| What: | An Earthly Child (Big Finish subscriber bonuses) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 16 September 2019 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
It is now a couple of decades since the Dalek invasion of Earth was defeated, and Susan Campbell, a legend in a recovering Britain, is struggling to keep things together. Her husband is dead, her son Alex is leaning toward radical politics in university, there is a rising tide of populist anti-alien sentiment, and she can't admit to anyone, not even her son, that she is an alien herself. Desperate to see the Earth recover faster, Susan secretly contacts some aliens who promise aid. But are their motives altruistic? Doctor 8 drops in to have a snoop around her life, and ends up trying to clean up some of this mess. This is a reasonably entertaining drama.
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| Another Collection of Shorts |
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| What: | The Company of Friends (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 9 September 2019 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
This collection has audio adventures of Doctor 8 with companions he hasn't had audio adventures with: Benny, Izzy, Fitz. Plus, we get introduced to a new travelling companion, Mary Shelley. As with the other anthology audios, the stories are quick and mostly amusing. There is no time for depth. This collection does not really have a linking idea, unlike the ones for the other Doctors.
| What: | The Two Doctors (Target novelisations) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 16 August 2019 |
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| Rating: | 4 |
Robert Holmes is one of the most beloved of classic series script writers. His scripts are best, though, when he does not take to trying to lecture the audience through the story. Sadly, "The Two Doctors" is one of the lecture episodes. His novelization of it only intensifies this aspect. The lesson here is "don't eat meat," a lesson that gets pounded into every scene, just about. Thus, the story is lost in ham-fisted allegory. The novelization clears up a couple of things. One is that Androgums are supposed to be great hulking monsters, much bigger and stronger than what we got in the TV episode. There is a bit more of Botcherby's background. The restaurant name is different, and there is no joke at the expense of "thick" Americans who cannot pronounce Spanish names. Still, the fundamental flaw of the story remains.
| What: | Industrial Evolution (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 12 August 2019 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
The final story for Brewster and Evelyn with Doctor 6. In the latter case, we don't get the kind of closure we would like, the actual story of Evelyn leaving The Doctor. Maggie Stables' death meant that it could not happen. This does feel like the end for Brewster, though. Doctor 6 is fed up with Brewster, but still has some heart, so takes him to industrial Lancashire in the 19th century, where he might fit in and make a new start for himself. Of course, it cannot be left at that. Some strange things are happening in this copper mine. Machines are making themselves and making grotesque machine/human hybrids. All in all, this is a fairly standard Doctor Who story.
| What: | Project: Nirvana (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 12 August 2019 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Yet another Doctor 7 meets ancient menace from the dark times. The manner of its telling is a bit different, being a Companion Chronicles entry where the companions are just side characters from a pair of earlier stories. It is nice to have a Forge story that doesn't devolve into a family drama. Still, these Cthulhu type dark times critters are getting just a little bit tiring. There is really not much a writer can do with them that Lovecraft hadn't already done.
| What: | House of Blue Fire (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 12 August 2019 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
House of Blue Fire is a bipolar story in a way. It starts as a spooky, haunted house story with heavy amounts of "nothing is real" thrown in. Parts 3 & 4, though, switch to a conventional Doctor vs. alien story. Both are old hat for Big Finish. There are just too many messing with the mind and plastic reality stories where the fact that nothing is real is the central core for this one to gain much novelty. It proceeds pretty much like all the others. Then, we get Doctor 7 vs. ancient menace from the dark times that feeds off fear, which, again, is old hat, tattered and used up.
| What: | The Abandoned (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 7 August 2019 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
This is one of those mad world anything can happen stories because - imagination. The problem is that if there are no rules and reality changes all the time, then there is really nothing for the listener to hang on to. There is no drama for the characters because they have no clear goals. Some people might say that a story like this is great because it pushes boundaries. It really does not, though. When half of The Doctor's dialogue is "shhh" and he waffles on about a Point of Stillness that cannot be described, drawn, referred to, or thought about without any explanation as to why, then we can be sure that there really is not much of a story here.
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| 6th Doctor in a 3rd Doctor Adventure |
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| What: | Players (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 2 August 2019 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Having escaped death by slogging through some alien sewers, Doctor 6 promises Peri some hi-class relaxation. Aiming for London 1899, they arrive in South Africa 1899 just in time to save the life of a young, ambitious failed politician and war correspondent named Winston Churchill, and then get captured and sent to prison by the Boers. Somebody, however, is deliberately trying to kill Churchill himself, and this sets the Doctor to thinking about a time in his second incarnation when he again (before?) had to save Churchill from some strange people who might be time travellers of some sort. Using this memory as a jumping off point, The Doctor takes Peri to London 1936, where events are ramping up for the abdication crisis. Here, again, they meet some strange characters out to get Churchill. Dicks does a great job of inserting The Doctor and Peri into history, sticking closely to the known facts where he has to and being somewhat looser when can be. His story allows Doctor 6 to live the high life, a situation that might more comfortably have suited Doctor 3. The dialogue between Doctor 6 and Peri is spot on, giving the reader some insight into why Peri would continue travelling with the Doctor (hint: despite her protestations, she rather likes it). Dicks also has very little sympathy for Wallis Simpson, the cause of the king's abdication, and portrays her as fully a Nazi sympathizer and collaborator. As usual for a Terrance Dicks book, this is an enjoyable read, not too deep, and only a bit improbable in places.
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| Harry sullivans war was a lot better. |
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This book was ok but it was a lot longer than it needed to be be. I think you could have reduced this book from 221 pages to probably 130-140. I just don't get why it was so long. There were bits were I was just praying for it to get to the point.
To be honest after reading this I can see why they stopped doing these.
| What: | The Architects of History (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 23 July 2019 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
I find Steve Lyons to be a better novelist than script writer. The novel form works for him because he can give his ideas room to breathe. In this audio drama, though, too many things happen too quickly, making much of the story a rather standard base under siege tale. That is too bad, because it could have been much more. The idea is that Klein, having successfully stolen the Doctor's TARDIS, has gotten exactly what she wanted. She is able to nip back in time, re-write history, prevent disasters, and allow the glorious 1000 year Reich to be real. But, there is something niggling at the back of her mind, something is just not quite right about it all. So, it's off to the moonbase in 2044 (exactly a century after her little adventure at Colditz) to interview the prisoner, aka The Doctor, one more time. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't know which Doctor from which time line this is. That is a brilliant setup. The possibilities for following the story of Klein's repeated attempts to undo her mistakes while the web of time becomes undone strand by strand would have been such a great story. Instead, Lyons has opted for plan B, which is that one of the alternate Doctors has made a desperate plan to use the Selacians (one of Lyons' creations from his novels) to attack the moonbase using time technology that the Doctor gave them, so that the Doctor can decommission Klein's TARDIS and remove Klein from time. Unfortunately, this Doctor can only guess at what the other Doctor had planned, so things go very wrong indeed. As base under siege stories go, it's not bad. It's just that Lyons left behind the more interesting story to pursue this one.
| What: | Survival of the Fittest (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 23 July 2019 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Doctor 7 has now encumbered himself with Klein. He tries to show her the wonders of the universe, to get her out of her limited view of the Reich as the pinnacle of everything. Part 1 is Klein telling her story, so we get the rundown of how she got to Colditz castle. Then, it's on to the main story. This one is really quite good. It is pretty much straight science fiction, which is unusual for Doctor Who yet works well. The Doctor and Klein encounter a species of intelligent giant insects, a kind of cross between termites and bees. This colony, however, has been devastated by human opportunists, using poison. The situation turns the tables on Klein, who, to her surprise, finds herself defending the weak against the strong. Tracey Childs pulls this off brilliantly. The story provides a great way for the listener to explore the life and culture of this insect race, and Jonathan Clements shows some guts in allowing the story to slow down so that the listener gets the full effect of this culture, which is what is needed to make Klein's self-revelations convincing.
| What: | The Collection: Season 10 (The Collection Blu-ray box sets) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Saturday 20 July 2019 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Yes, there is a considerable improvement in picture and sound quality. Honestly the colour of the show has never looked more wonderful and rich. Yes, this may not be quite as awesome as the sublime Spearhead from Space Blu Ray release, but considering studio camera work is renowned for being hard to produce in HD it doesn't half look stunning still. In fact if anything its all the studio scenes that look the most clear and beautiful in these sets strangely. Not a blip at all. It just thoroughly enhances your enjoyment of the stories of Season 10. And this season was a really strong one, story wise too and brilliant to see them get a loving restoration. Honestly these stories have never ever looked so beautiful. And the bucketload of extras you receive is superb.
The Three Doctors was a wonderful tenth birthday special story that succeeded in brilliantly bringing back Pat and William together with Jon for a very memorable and enjoyable romp together with Doctor Who brilliant villain Stephen Thorne!
Carnival of Monsters was one of Robert Holmes classiest and most imaginative stories of all and the Drashigs were superbly realised. I don't even give a toss about how sometimes the bad CSO lets the show down because it was a budgeted show and it was always awesome no matter how wonky the effects were!
Frontier in Space is brilliant space opera, the show's finest ever stab at that type of story in my opinion. Some superb model work shots and the Draconians and Ogrons are fabulous monsters and aliens indeed. And the poignant last performance of Roger Delgado is just so bittersweet but wonderful.
Planet of the Daleks is Terry Nation's greatest hits presented in a wonderful comic strip styling. Love all the characters and the daleks are back in force and the Ice Volcano is a well realised and brilliant idea.
The Green Death is a lovely and extremely strong goodbye to one of the best companions ever in the show. It also has powerhouse performances and the Giant Maggots are sublimely realised and look so damn realistic. And Jo's goodbye is very moving and touchingly done indeed.
It is an absolute joy to watch the Behind the Sofa segments with Katy Manning, Richie Franklin and John Levene because they exude love for the show and this just totally hooks you and you just love watching these brilliant new extras. Behind the Sofa is an awesome conceptual thing that I just love most, and never more so than when sitting watching Katy, John and Rich wax lyrical on how much they love the show!
All the other rare archive stuff too is amazing. Its wonderful seeing Jon on old news reports and the new feature length documentary of the Third Doctor era maybe just could have had a few more clips from the series as this one for once just felt a tad boring, and nothing anyone said in the documentary was anything I hadn't heard on countless documentaries before. But the Panopticon snippets are totally brilliant!
Keeping up with the Joneses though is my favourite extra of all. Its lovely watching Stewart Bevan and Katy revisit all the people and locations from the The Green Death. Katy seems so sweet and bubbly that the joy she exudes is infectious indeed. Its a delightful little drama and worth buying the set for this alone, let alone all the wonderful other titbits and excerpts from the archives!
The Season Ten Blu Ray set is an unequivocal success story. Its such a tribute to the people who made this season for television back in 1973. I think Jon Pertwee would have been proud of this set himself. Oh how I miss that oh so awesome moral James Bond-esque Doctor so much to this day!
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| The Worst of 6's First Season |
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| What: | The Mark of the Rani (Target novelisations) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 16 July 2019 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
Judging by what they wrote and how they wrote for Doctor Who, Pip and Jane Baker viewed the program as a children's show. Everything is pitched to the 10-year-old. The original brief for The Mark of the Rani was to give The Master a companion, like The Doctor has a companion. Instead, the Bakers opted to create their own rogue Time Lord and then spend the rest of the story never missing an opportunity to say how great she is while belittling the other two Time Lords in the story. In their novelization, there is far too much obvious foreshadowing of the "little did he know that" variety, and quite a bit of ham-fisted exposition, even if it all comes in small doses. Even at only 135 pages, this was tough to read.
| What: | A Thousand Tiny Wings (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 13 July 2019 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
This story is a kind of closet drama (with a few outdoor scenes) with political philosophy thrown in. Set in an isolated farmhouse in Kenya during the Mau Mau Uprising (mid 1950s), the story is designed to test the contentions between democracy and fascism, with colonialism as the test case. A small group of women are isolated, hiding from the Kenyans who are seeking freedom from British colonial rule through violent overthrow. Mrs. O'Donnel, the grand matron, is an old-time colonialist with a German husband and fascist ideas, who believes that the natives need the strong hand of European guidance. The other women are primarily scared and precious. And then there is Dr. Elizabeth Klein, who has come to Africa after hiding out in South America so she can test a theory and try to get her world back (listen to Colditz for the back story). Then, The Doctor just appears. This leads to much back and forth between Klein and The Doctor about the relative strength of their values. Add to this a strange alien presence and one gets an odd story for Doctor Who. It's the first of a trilogy, so we wait to see how The Doctor and Klein fair as a TARDIS team, so to speak.
