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 | The Strange Case of the Doc and the Nuns |
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| What: | The Cloisters of Terror (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Sunday 3 March 2019 |
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| Rating: |  10 |
Johnny Morris is always one of my favourite Big Finish writers. The fact that he is reliably enjoyable in his story telling. And the little or bigger ways he includes the themes of time within his stories is always bound to make them very interesting in the least. And the Cloisters of Terror is no exception.
The team of the Doctor and Leela is also working amazingly for Big Finish. Tom and Louise make a brilliant and wonderful team. They are so strong and just drive the story on no matter what the story may be. Add to this the creepy atmosphere of a lady's college haunted by the ghost of Nuns and you have the perfect Ghostly story for late night listenings.
The addition of Liz Shaw's mother too is great, and its wonderful how Rowena Cooper brings the character to life. I really hope that we hear more from her character in the future. And its also brilliantly hearing Claudia Grant be a character in her pre Susan days from An Adventure in Space and Time. Its great hearing the Doctor cope with being the only man in the story for once, a nice spin on The Deadly Assassin!
And the Doctor gets to give a nice small, yet relevant epitaph for the woman who gives her life so the rest of the ensemble can escape the impending doom brought about this time by an ancient spaceship...this story is eerie, creepy, and the nearly all female cast is lovely to hear. I think I am correct in saying this is the only Fourth Doctor story ever where the Doc's the only male on the block!!
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| A great surprise from a great villain |
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| What: | Wave of Destruction (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Sunday 3 March 2019 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
When we have the return of classic villains, the story has to be new and fresh and not recycle any of the elements from the first story that features the villains. And Justin Richards has done that with the return of the...well youll have to listen to this story to find out!
Its great to see a female getting one of the villain parts and playing it so well too. And the ever present wit and charm of the bantering between the Doctor and Romana is as ever brilliant to listen to. And yet again its good that K9 gets to be more than just the background computer again!
The most bland thing about this story is the tepid title, but dont fret. The story itself is very very entertaining indeed!! Big Finish always make some great new ideas for when they chose to resurrect old villains. They never just retread the same old ground. And thats so awesome!!
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| Legacy of Timey Wimey Business |
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| What: | Legacy of Death (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Sunday 3 March 2019 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Johnny Morris is a better writer than Steven Moffat. Because all of his timey wimey story efforts are always still understandable. Whereas Steven's are mostly unfathomable and lamentable. And also Johnny has the Fourth Doctor totally worked out and gets his character spot on every time.
The Paradox Planet also begins a great great tale for K9. This is great to see the metal mutt get his hour in the lime light. The added brilliance of Simon Rouse and Tom Chadbon also just adds to the great feel of this excellent story. Its a very interesting concept of a planet at war with itself in different time zones!
What I also hugely enjoyed was the pertinent dwelling on the conservation of endangered species, a stance which I agree with and take very seriously indeed. This could easily have been made an Earth story for our species here so many of them are rare and almost extinct and we need to wake up.
In many ways this story resembles Festival of Death, Johnny's first ever Doctor Who book which is still one of his finest ever! In that time is used so interestingly and the characters are all totally real feeling. The standard of actors Big Finish get cannot be denied. This story feels more like the end of season style story! It is yet again another success for Johnny Morris.
The second half of the story builds up to a riveting and great conclusion. K9 has never been used so well before either. John Leeson must have had a ball with this story! Johnny always seems to love to use the theme of time in his stories, and its so incredible he always finds new ways of using time within so many of his stories. He is one of the most reliable Big Finish writers. This story is suitably sublime in every respect.
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| As ever, Johnny Timey Wimey business!! |
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| What: | The Paradox Planet (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Sunday 3 March 2019 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Johnny Morris is a better writer than Steven Moffat. Because all of his timey wimey story efforts are always still understandable. Whereas Steven's are mostly unfathomable and lamentable. And also Johnny has the Fourth Doctor totally worked out and gets his character spot on every time.
The Paradox Planet also begins a great great tale for K9. This is great to see the metal mutt get his hour in the lime light. The added brilliance of Simon Rouse and Tom Chadbon also just adds to the great feel of this excellent story. Its a very interesting concept of a planet at war with itself in different time zones!
What I also hugely enjoyed was the pertinent dwelling on the conservation of endangered species, a stance which I agree with and take very seriously indeed. This could easily have been made an Earth story for our species here so many of them are rare and almost extinct and we need to wake up.
In many ways this story resembles Festival of Death, Johnny's first ever Doctor Who book which is still one of his finest ever! In that time is used so interestingly and the characters are all totally real feeling. The standard of actors Big Finish get cannot be denied. This story feels more like the end of season style story! It is yet again another success for Johnny Morris.
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| The Lightest story ever for Tom Baker |
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| What: | The Gallery of Ghouls (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Sunday 3 March 2019 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Sometimes Big Finish have huge and epic rides for the Doctor and his friends, and sometimes we do need a story that just lets us ease off and relax a little. And for me The Gallery Of Ghouls is just that kind of story!
This is nothing openly epic and huge. But what it is is a very very enjoyable breather episode. The characters are all light and some are amusing and pretty diverting, not least of all Tom's Doctor himself who seems openly playful and brilliant in this little gem of a tale.
And its always so great hearing Celia Imrie, an actress Ive always greatly liked. And her character Madame Tissot is wonderfully funny in the best of ways. And the plot here is very easy to follow and so is gratefully received by me. I don't mind big epic stories, but sometimes convolution is a bad thing that ruins some story efforts as they try to be too clever, which is what good stories don't need.
The banter between Romana and the Doctor is as sparkling as it was in season seventeen of the TV show! Its always marvellous to hear these two brilliant characters sparring together! Nickolas Grace as Goole too is very well played. The creepiness of waxworks is nicely played too, there are some great sound moments where the usual Big Finish attention to audio sound is quite wonderful. This is the kind of story to enjoy with a cup of tea and some crumpets in the afternoon with your feet up on a cushion!
The cleverness of Alan Barnes is he can weave stories that take place in unusual places for Doctor Who. I cant believe they have never thought of a wax works for a TV episode. But The Gallery of Ghouls satisfies on every level, including the level of this is one to listen to just for plain old fashioned enjoyment and not pulse pounding draining thrill ride, though they are good for when youre in the mood!! But for those who just want to take it easy, then this is definitely a story you should enjoy. I most certainly do!!
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| A superb return of Del Boy From Space!!! |
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| What: | The Trouble with Drax (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Saturday 2 March 2019 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
It is only very sad that Barry Jackson couldn't have been here to reprise the role of Drax, the wonderful interspacial Del Boy from Gallifrey! I imagine he would have relished the chance to appear in this corking good fun story from the ever reliable John Dorney. Drax is well and truly given his full potential in this wonderfully bonkers instalment of the Fourth Doctor adventures. We don't get these comedic feasts very often from the guys at Big Finish.
In the stead of Barry we instead get the brilliant Ray Brooks, John Challis and even Hugh Fraser as differing incarnations of Drax. Honestly how John gets his head round including all these many different types of Drax into one hour story and actually makes it a roaring success has to be applauded. In fact I think this is the single most funny story since Bang Bang a Boom! I was craving a bit of a laugh fest for years and at last we get one here!
You do have to concentrate though or youll miss some jewels along the way. Its great that Romana and K9 get to have some decent and cool dialogue too. And the Doctor is brilliant as he initially doesnt seem to notice he is being taken for a ride by the dippy Drax! Tom Baker can always be relied upon to liven up the preceedings too!!! The banter between the Doctor and the Drax's is highly entertaining indeed. I dont know how youd classify this story. Maybe a spacial Only Fools and Horses is a good description!!!! It has all the elements of a great ripping space comedy!!
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| Into the bowels of the Alien Planet |
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| What: | Subterranea (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Saturday 2 March 2019 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I love the sound scenes that Big Finish always do so beautifully well. They don't half bring the stories to amazingly realistic sounding life. And where the script calls for the Doctor and Romana going underground in a huge drill machine, then you have to come to expect big industrial sounding effects. And yes, again you get it with this story from the ever reliable Johnny Morris.
Tom and Lalla are of course as amazing as ever. And the Silex are a very interesting and mean looking and sounding villain. The other characters here are all as usual superbly well rounded and acted and characterised. Johnny has a way of writing the Fourth Doctor that makes you feel he knows this incarnation of the Doctor inside out. And the banter between Romana and he are as usual one of the most winning elements of this story, as always used to be the case in the classic era period.
I really enjoyed the epic quality to this short little marvel of a story. Its all a bit industrial steam punk with heavy threat from massive machine eating creatures! The Silex definitely deserve a return escapade on the strength of this. Big Finish have done it again. The Last Year Era of Tom's tenure remains alive and well with this amazing company....
| What: | The Thief Who Stole Time (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 27 February 2019 |
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| Rating: |  7 |
Marc Platt loves the alternate reality kind of story. Part 2 of the season ender turns the adventure story of part 1 into the alternate reality story. What is the secret of this planet that Sartia is so desperate to uncover? It has something to do with the Time Lords of the distant past sealing off a time anomaly. Here, we get the full-blown "Sartia is Romana's The Master" treatment. In pursuing this line, Platt drops the ball a bit on some of the more interesting features set up in "The Skin of the Sleek." It's good entertainment, nonetheless.
| What: | The Skin of the Sleek (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 27 February 2019 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This is the first part of the 2-part season finale. As the setup segment it works quite well. The Doctor and Romana II arrive on an ocean world in which the ocean is sort of like soft jello. The planet has one population, a village of fisher folk who all have that West Country accent that is apparently required for fishing people. There is also an off-world crew making a documentary. The major form of life on the planet is a type of electric eel, the largest of which is worshiped as a goddess and used to power the village. Surprisingly, in the crew of documentary makers is an old school mate of Romana's, Sartia, who pretends to be chums, but secretly loathes Romana, or Mana as she calls her. The Doctor has his suspicions about Sartia from first sight. The story moves at a good pace and has plenty of interesting elements to make one want to get to the next segment.
| What: | Shadow Planet / World Apart (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 27 February 2019 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Part of the 2-short series, this set has Doctor 7, Ace, and Hex in two thematically related adventures. Created after Big Finish had let Hex go off into legend, these stories would fit into the Hex sequence early on, as Hex is still learning about life aboard the TARDIS. "Shadow Planet" has the crew travel to world set up as a kind of pretentious spa in which people apparently have their Jungian shadow selves temporarily removed so the people can discover their true selves. The process has something to do with the planet itself, which turns out to be a single living entity (Gaia hypothesis, anyone?). The spa director is overtaxing the planet's resources to maximize profits. Now the planet is fighting back. "World Apart" is the more interesting of the two stories. The TARDIS gets pulled onto a kind of Flying Dutchman world that exists outside normal time, but puts into existence in some random place every 1000 years or so. The Doctor and the TARDIS disappear, leaving Hex and Ace on their own in a crash course in survival while The Doctor tries to get back to rescue them. There is a big confrontation at the end where Hex and The Doctor just do not see eye to eye about ethics. The story is interesting in part because it is just the three characters, although Ace gets the most attention. The situation allows us to explore the Ace-Hex dynamic more minutely than occurred in the main run.
The second collection of classic Doctors of old Who meeting monsters of New Who does not quite meet up with the promise of the premise. Doctors 4,5,6, & 8 confront the Vashta Narada, the Racnoss, the Carrionites, and the Vashta Narada again. Each Doctor flies solo. Each story is one hour, uninterrupted. "Night of the Vashta Narada" has Doctor 4 arriving on Fun World, a planet-sized amusement park that has yet to be opened. The owner, a rapacious American capitalist (which seems to be the standard for how to portray Americans in British entertainment these days) has hired some mercenaries to destroy some killers so she can get the park opened and start making some serious moolah. The Doctor attempts to rescue everyone despite everyone's wish not to be rescued. Next is "Empire of the Racnoss" in which Doctor 5 tries his honest and earnest best to save the Racnoss from obliteration by the Time Lords, but he fails to account for the Racnoss' vengeful and rapacious nature. In the end, The Doctor seems to pick up a new companion. Third in the set is "The Carrionite Curse," in which Doctor 6 encounters some witches in 1980s northern England. Of course, The Doctor doesn't believe in witches, but these ladies certainly do seem like witches. Last is "Day of the Vashta Narada," in which Doctor 8, now mired in his attempts to save everyone he can from the Time War, responds to a distress call from a research station where some of the Vashta Narada from Fun World are being weaponized for the benefit of the Time Lords. There's a Jurassic Park moment when one of the employees sabotages the lab while trying to steal the weaponized microbes to sell on his own, dinosaurs, sorry Vashta Narada, are let loose, and The Doctor, Cardinal Olistra come to collect the mighty mites for the Time Lords, the staff of the lab, and Olistra's body guards find themselves trapped in a fight for survival, avoiding being eaten by the dinosaurs, sorry Vashta Narada. If there is a theme that runs through this set, it is "nobody survives." Well, a few do, but nobody The Doctor actually cares about. The overall production is up to the usual Big Finish high standards for sound. The let down is that this set of stories is fairly routine.
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| Sorely Lacking any significant VAM |
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This set seems to be lacking any real value added material. When the new series came out the boxed sets seemed to have been stuffed with hours upon hours of commentaries that were fun to listen to. This set just seems thrown together by the BBC and they are not showing any real effort to the fans. Sure there are a few commentaries, but it is very anemic in content.
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| A great return for an underrated Villain |
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| What: | The Movellan Grave (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Wednesday 13 February 2019 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I really love Andrew Smith's stories for Big Finish. He knows how to entertain me every single time. And his return for the Movellans is extremely strong. I really like the fact that he explains away the rather convenient defect of the first Movellans within the story! And what I also like is he greatly expands on Destiny of the Daleks and here the Movellans at last are more of a force to reckoned with than in their previous outing! I love the fact that Tom and Lalla both work so well together as the Doc and Romana. They have a great chemistry and are a hugely enjoyable doubtle act as they always were on screen. And the support guest artists are all brilliant in this story too. This story is everything good decent Doctor Who needs to be. I just love Big Finish. Everytime they bring back old villains, they always find something new and interesting for them to be or do within the story, and every sequel is justifiably cool and brilliant. This great two parter is no exception at all. First class!
| What: | Vortex Ice / Cortex Fire (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 12 February 2019 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Part of the 2 Short Stories series, we get Doctor 6 and Flip retreading much ground already covered in Doctor Who. "Vortex Ice" is a time paradox story involving a cyborg killer (ala Alien) and a scientific investigation into strange energies emerging from an abandoned salt mine in Mexico. The story is mostly another exercise in the "you can't change what you know will happen" lesson, this time for Flip. "Cortex Fire" is wholly unrelated. In this one, The Doctor and Flip visit a planet that is itself the central cortex for the society. The cortex has developed a kind of brain disease called The Urge, and starts turning citizens into electro-fire generating killers. The story is an exercise in the "psychopathy is caused by evil forces from the dark dimensions that invade people's minds" line.
| What: | Time in Office (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 12 February 2019 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This story is played for laughs mostly. The Doctor is recalled to Gallifrey to take the office of President, which he had abandoned at the end The Five Doctors. There's a new cadré in charge, and quite a bit of controversy over whether The Doctor should become president. The story itself is made of four set pieces of The Doctor's short time in office, in which The Doctor is is challenged by various threats that turn out not to be very threatening. Tegan gets a big head when she gets named official ambassador from Earth. Leela gets her first outing with Doctor 5. The whole story is a well executed lark.
| What: | The Lady of Mercia (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 12 February 2019 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Imagine, a Paul Magrs script that doesn't suck. In this case, Magrs eschews his usual pointless whimsy and instead focuses on the story. This is a historical/time travel tale involving an academic conference and a rogue time machine linked to dark ages Britain. Tegan gets transported back in time to meet the Queen of Mercia and has to pretend to be her daughter for the sake of the local politics. The real daughter, a bloodthirsty warrior princess, gets transported to a Yorkshire university in 1983, where she causes quite a bit of mayhem. The star of the show is Tegan, who comes through really strong here, a no nonsense, grab the sword by the hilt kind of woman that we should have seen in the TV series. Plus, she has an amazing hidden talent - a killer North English accent. Turlough gets short shrift in this story, being mostly just self-centered and snarky. It's a fun story, but not much more.
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| Saward Can't Rescue This One |
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| What: | The Twin Dilemma (Target novelisations) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 3 February 2019 |
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| Rating: | 4 |
Eric Saward's novelization of Anthony Steven's script for the TV serial is quite different from most Target novelizations that just reproduce the script with a few sentences of filler to make it seem like a novel. Saward tries hard to rescue a dreadful script, but just cannot do it. The problem is that the main story makes little sense and has more holes than a golf course. Saward tries to knock some sense into the story by adding quite a bit of back story, particularly at the beginning. He also removes large sections of the dialogue, replacing either with different lines or with brief paraphrases of what was said. And to give it some pizazz, he throws in a few "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" sidebars about goofy scientists being destroyed by their own inventions in absurd ways. The problem is that Saward is still stuck with the story as broadcast, and no matter how much explanation he adds for motivations, it just does not hang together.
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| Mostly great except now the Pting exist. |
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All episodes were 5/5 except
Opener, The woman who fell to earth 4/5
4th Ep, Arachinids in the UK 4/5 (because spiders)
2nd ep, The Ghost Monument 1/5
5th ep, The Tsuranga Conundrum 1/5
The most developed companion is Graham. Ryan and Yaz are great too though.
Love Jodie's performance as the Doctor. Shame others don't think so.
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| Mr Baker, I love you Sir! |
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| What: | Scratchman (BBC prestige novels) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 31 January 2019 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
When I heard that Tom Baker's long lengendary story Scratchman was going to be coming out in prose, I was filled with a mixture of elation and joy and wonder. I had heard of this story for ages but had thought that anything to do with it would never come to be. I only knew that I would have loved to have seen or read how it would have gone! And now wonderfully the BBC have had some good sense and allowed Mr Baker (together with the talented Mr James Goss) to weave mr Baker's and the late Mr Marter's film script into a workable piece of fiction. When I say workable, I mean absolutely splendid in the extreme.
What immediately excites you is that this is a rare story indeed, in that it is the Doctor narrating. Tom's wonderful Doctor has seldom been as colourful as he is in this wonderful bonkers novel. There is such amazing prose in this book. I love how easy it is to read and delight in. And then there is the matter of the story content. I have heard lots of people say that this story was rubbish and we're relieved it never saw the light of day. Sorry, But I have to disagree in the most vehement way possible.
Not only is Tom's grasp of his Doctor incredible (no brainer really!) but also his grasp of Sarah and Harry. I really appreciate the banter this brilliant trio share within the book. Its totally true to the characters of all three and holds me totally captivated. Its a wonderful fannote to the memories of Lis Sladen and Ian Marter that Tom writes them so lovingly. And he actually gives them a thoroughly decent amount of stuff to do! And the other characters in the story too are all wonderfully diverse and inspired.
The Scratchman himself is a truly fiendish creation, and his scheme as mad as a box of frogs. But I absolutely adore how Tom brings him so alive on the page as well. And I hear the voice of Vincent Price as the Scratchman, as he is whom would have been asked to play him had the film of seen the light of day! The wonderful cameos by some Doctor Who greats too is very well handled by Tom. So that they may not be in it long, but you truly feel their presences! And Tom's writing of these returnees is flawless.
This story would have fitted so well into the Philip Hinchcliffe/ Bob Holmes years of the show. Im only lamenting that the Scratchman was never instead given to the BBC to make into a Tom Baker adventure. But I am so thrilled and chilled now to be able to see Tom's vivid and brilliant prose leap off the page at me. Tom has woven some superb horror and gothic elements into his story too. Its a hugely enjoyable romp and one I shall definitely be re-reading all the time. I would love it if Big Finish could do one more novel adaptation and have this story be on audio. That would be incredible.
The fact that it is the Doctor himself who wrote this story could have been little more than a novelty. But instead, Tom has cemented himself, for me, in the annals of the best Doctor Who writers. Why? Because his story is multilayered, rich in vivid imagery and some gruesome moments along the way. And the fact that he actually manages to write about his Doctor without tipping over into over indulgence has to be applauded. His Doctor gets some superb moments, and yet so do Harry and Sarah and every character. This is a hugely exciting and delightful story.
One heck of a novel. Tom Baker, you are the Fourth Doctor. Oh if only someone would have realised your imagination could be harnassed in more Dr Who novels and stories. Scratchman is utterly enthralling and I for one would recomment this to all lovers of Tom Baker and Doctor Who. This fan is so amazed to be able to lose himself in such a well thought out and gripping adventure with the Fourth Doctor and Sarah and Harry.
Even that the fact that I dont know where this story would tie in with TV adventures is irrelevant as the Novel is just totally flawless and I do hope Mr Baker does well from this story. He deserves to. Scratchman is no more and no less than a superb Doctor Who yarn indeed!
| What: | The Time Vampire (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 29 January 2019 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
This story becomes the end of a trilogy that we did not really know was going to be a trilogy. Leela lies dying, seemingly, and recalls an adventure with The Doctor. Or, is the adventure happening now? There is quite a bit of Heinlein style "nearly every character is really the same character" playing with time. Louise Jameson does a pretty good Tom Baker impression, getting the cadences and quirks of his performance with great accuracy. John Leeson gets a nice turn, playing both K-9 and another character, and doing so with great gusto. This story is fun and confusing in turns.
