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| What: | The Doomwood Curse (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 13 December 2017 |
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| Rating: |   8 |
The Doctor and Charley head to the library to return an overdue book, an over-the-top 19th-century historical Romance that Charley (Edwardian, or that should be Georgian, adventuress) simply adores. They end up charring the book while Charley thwarts some fact-obsessed aliens in their mission to burn books that contain "bad facts." On their way to retrieving another first edition to replace the charred one, they end up in the late 18th century where reality seems to be changing to fit the rules of the damaged book, with Charley the center of it all. It is an intriguing ploy to get Doctor 6, Mr. Overthetop, into a genre in which he can really go over the top and not seem out of place. The story is quite amusing and performed very well, with plenty of literary allusions. Some listeners might be put off that it does not seem to "go" anywhere, but it still is a fun ride.
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 | How to Recycle a Character |
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| What: | The Condemned (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 13 December 2017 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Big Finish decided to finish Charlotte Pollard, then decided not to. The answer? Stick her with a different Doctor. And which Doctor might be furthest away from Doctor 8? Doctor 6, of course. So, stranded in the distant future and believing the Doctor dead, Charley thinks she gets a reprieve when the TARDIS turns up in answer to her distress call. However, it's not her Doctor whose TARDIS she runs into. Unable to tell this Doctor who she is (laws of time and all that), she lies, poorly, that she has amnesia. Doctor 6 becomes quite interested in this conundrum of a young lady, and takes her along hoping to figure her out. Their first stop is Manchester in 2008. There, they stumble across a murder in condemned block of flats, but, of course, nothing is quite what it seems. Charley gets kidnapped, and the Doctor pairs up with a sarcastic police officer, DI Patricia Menzies. Aliens are hiding themselves as humans. Why? And why was one murdered? The story itself is somewhat standard Doctor Who fare with a rather preposterous explanation.
The audio version of the infamous stage play The Ultimate Adventure works well for what it is supposed to do. The play was created in 1989. It's primary audience was family. This meant that the play had to work for the under-teens. The plot, then, is rather simple. There are some bits where The Doctor must make horrible noises to "talk" to alien species. He gets two "nice" human companions and furry little one who makes only cooing noises. Plus, there are some musical numbers, some set pieces, and some rather more than usually personalized Daleks. To make the play work in audio format, much of the scene description is transferred to dialogue, so that far too often some character is mysteriously describing the action. It's a nice bit of Doctor Who memorabilia, but not really all that good in audio form. Perhaps the play on stage was more entertaining.
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| Turns out There Was a Trilogy |
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| What: | Assassin in the Limelight (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 1 December 2017 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Until one gets to Assassin in the Limelight, one is unlikely to realize that Robert Ross had been writing a trilogy. Here, he brings his previous two adventures together for a final (almost) summation. We get the return of Dr. Robert Knox, as he calls himself, from Medicinal Purposes, and the unnamed blue ball of energy monster from Pier Pressure. Listening to the previous two stories, the audience is unlikely to see that a trilogy had been brewing, but Assassin makes it so. This time, Knox has established his traveling historical horror show at Ford's Theater and the assassination of President Lincoln. Knox, now posing as Oscar Wilde, is up to something, but we are not sure exactly what. The story itself plays out like a 19th-century American melodrama, with a dishonored army major, a femme fatale, a crooked policeman, a dishonest theater owner (sort of), a devious actor (John Wilkes Boothe) and a lovely heroine. There are, of course, a couple of dodgy American accents, since not all the actors are American or Canadian. Of the three Ross stories that make up the trilogy, this is the best, being the most coherent.
| What: | 100 (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 1 December 2017 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Another in the Big Finish series of releases that are made up from four loosely connected, but mostly independent, stories. Since each lasts about 25 minutes, the stories are clever, quick, and mild. First is 100BC by Jacqueline Rayner. Here, Evelyn and the Doctor disagree over whether they should meddle in history, in particular in whether they should affect the birth of Julius Caesar. In My Own Private Wolfgang, Robert Shearman has concocted a typical closed-world tale, which he rather likes to do, involving the fate of Mozart, here played with gusto by John Sessions. Joseph Lidster's Bedtime Story is the weakest of the set, involving an alien wreaking revenge on an unsuspecting family. Last is the 100 Days of the Doctor, typical fan-feed fare from Paul Cornell. The Doctor is infected by an assassination virus and must visit locations where different incarnations exist to find out how to stop it. This is basically a two-hander with the characters describing events rather than interacting with others. It's all entertaining and not too demanding.
| What: | Earthshock (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Sofia Fox, Hale, United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 30 November 2017 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
I have this story on "The Cybermen" DVD as a special feature and what a story and a heart-breaking companion death (Won't give out the name, Spoliers!) Great story!
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| Great story for departing 11th Doctor |
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| What: | The Time of the Doctor (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Sofia Fox, Hale, United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 30 November 2017 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
By far, the most heart-breaking for me as Smith was my first Doctor, but nevertheless it was a great story...not the best but great
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| Great story for departing 10th Doctor |
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| What: | The End of Time (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Sofia Fox, Hale, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 29 November 2017 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
I loved the story. The way entropy was portrayed wasn't as prominent as in Season 18 but ok. I didn't like that line wher 10 says he doesn't want a new incarnation In his tardis
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| The Early Years...for DVD! |
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| What: | The Beginning (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Sofia Fox, Hale, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 29 November 2017 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I love this boxset...I am heading to get the US Re-Release but at the moment it's fine. Although I thought the Marco Polo 30 min recon was too short. I watched the Loose Cannon (post-2003) recons after that one it was still ok! Excellent! (too bad the US didn't get individual for Stories 2 and 3 and the re-release is a all-in-one...)
| What: | The Daleks (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Sofia Fox, Hale, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 29 November 2017 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
I have most of the episodes except for the Series 7 and 8 Episodes and Genesis of the Daleks, but this was a budget release and not well restored. It came with The Daleks and a 10th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver toy but that broke. Don't get it, just get Series 1-8 Box Sets and Genesis of the Daleks DVD.
| What: | The Cybermen (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Sofia Fox, Hale, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 29 November 2017 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
I have most of the episodes except for the Series 8 Finale and Earthshock, but this was a budget release and not well restored. It came with The Daleks and a 10th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver toy but that broke. Don't get it, just get Series 2-8 Box Sets and Earthshock DVD.
| What: | Black Orchid (Target novelisations) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 24 November 2017 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Terence Dudley's novelization of his own teleplay is actually better than the original episode. This episode was a two-parter that felt truncated at two parts. The novel format allows Dudley to fill in some gaps and add some depth to the character. The story itself is a typical 1920s mystery/adventure, with The Doctor mistaken for a Cricket player, taken to a stately mansion in the countryside and becoming the chief suspect in a murder. Yet, something's not right at Cranleigh Hall. Add to this a bit double-trouble when Nyssa and the current Lord Cranleigh's fiancée are nearly identical, one South American native with a deformed lip, a masquerade ball, and one get all the elements typical of the genre. In this, Dudley has perhaps gone a bit overboard. There are some clumsy bits of foreshadowing of the "little did he know that in the very near future he would be in deep trouble" variety. It's light and fun and not much else.
Saward's novelization of his own script generally meets the requirements set by the Target novelizations. It is not too difficult, so pre-teens can read it and not get lost. It preserves most of the televised episode. It has novelistic characteristics enough so that a reader does not feel that he/she is simply reading a reformatted script. It's not too demanding and bit more of a novel than the typical Terrance Dicks novelization.
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| Doctor Who Meets The Invisible Man |
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| What: | Last of the Colophon (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 18 November 2017 |
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| Rating: | 5 |
With the Doctor 4 series, Big Finish have aimed for recreating the spirit of 1970s Doctor Who. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. It depends upon which aspects of that era one wants to emphasize. With Last of the Colophon, Jonathan Morris has chosen to go with the Doctor Who reworkings of classic science fiction for emphasis. In this case, the remake is of H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man. This could work reasonably well in audio because it is easier to give the sense of invisibility. The trouble with Last of the Colophon is that Morris sticks too closely to Wells' concepts and the changes he makes add little to what Wells had already done. Basically, invisibility turns an ordinarily nice guy into a power-mad lunatic. In this story the lunatic, played superbly by Gareth Thomas, is all we get. So, even the main lesson is somewhat lost. Another aspect a little worrying is Doctor 4's rather cavalier attitude toward death. As people through the story die, he just does not seem to care. And he rather quickly runs to the solution of killing the villain, again with no particular remorse. Some strong script editing could have hammered out these problems and provided a more coherent and entertaining story.
| What: | Tomb of Valdemar (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 5 November 2017 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Simon Messingham is definitely one of the more interesting writers of Doctor Who novels. It's the ambition that sets him apart from so many of the others. Tomb of Valdemar is probably his most ambitious Who novel, and for that reason alone most reactions seem to be either love it or hate it. My own feeling is that in this novel Messingham has tried to do too many things and probably should have taken more time than the publishers no doubt gave him to work it all out.
On the level of plot, at least for the main story, there is not really that much unusual. The Doctor and Romana are on their way to track down part 2 of the Key to Time, but get sidetracked by an anomaly onto a deadly planet where a mad cult leader is trying to resurrect an ancient superbeing known as Valdemar. The Doctor is quickly convinced that there is no such thing as Valdemar, but instead there is an ancient gateway or access to some "higher dimensions" that, if let loose, would rewrite the physics of the cosmos. To add to the troubles, the cult leader Neville is an upper-class fugitive from a new workers' revolution, and the ruthlessly dedicated Hopkins, a kind of witch-finder general, is on Neville's trail.
The ambitious part of the novel is the manner of the telling. This is a frame-tale novel in which the main plot is told by someone telling it to someone else. In this case, an old woman identifying herself as one of the chief figures of the adventure, the novelist Pelham, is telling this story to a group of barbarian fur traders on a far away planet. But, she is really telling it to just one fur trader, Ponch, who seems strangely affected by the whole thing. About three quarters of the way through the tale, the old woman dies, and Ponch leaves his life behind to discover the source of his meaningless existence and complete the tale in his own imagination. There are several discussions along the way of this frame tale about the power of storytelling to change people's perceptions, which it seemingly has done for Ponch, who never looks at his world in quite the same way.
One thing that may disturb the reader while going through the story is the level of detail that storyteller Pelham seems to know. There are far too many details that Pelham could not possibly know, especially details about Gallifrey and about what Romana in particular is thinking at any given moment. However, Messingham manages to resolve this problem at the end.
What keeps this novel from meeting its ambition is mainly the difference in quality between the frame story and the inner tale. So, while the attempt seems to be not only to validate the value of storytelling, but also to validate the value of Doctor Who as a storytelling mechanism, an explanation for why so many people keep reading and watching, this message gets undercut by the rather ordinary plot of the inner tale, the only one that the Doctor is actually in. A better Doctor Who story with more direct referentiality to the frame tale would have made the novel's structure more effective in getting across this key message.
Some stray observations: 1) Messingham writes a very good version of Doctor 4, a feat that few other novelists were able to master; 2) As I've said elsewhere, Messingham is very good at writing interior monologue, and quite good at portraying the mental states of deeply disturbed people; 3) The character Redfearn from straight out of two-bit American Westerns has no business being in this novel; 4) There is too much focus on mental powers that can destroy the universe; 5) The villains Neville and Hopkins are too much stock characters, baddies of little particular interest.
So, high marks for the ambition, but some demerits for lack of imagination in some core parts of the novel.
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| Good in Places, Awful in Others |
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| What: | Divided Loyalties (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 5 November 2017 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Many readers really dislike this book. I was not quite that put off by it. The book is basically in three parts. Part 1 is the set up, where Doctor 5 and his first crew get caught up in a situation involving a planet being guarded by a space station on which no one in the crew really cares. Russell spends quite a bit of time getting into characters' heads, showing us what he thinks the TARDIS crew really think of each other, and most of it is not nice. The Celestial Toymaker is hanging about, but his exact relationship to what else is happening is somewhat elusive. At this point, the novel is fairly straightforward Doctor Who fair with a few of Russell's typical revisionist tendencies. Part 2 is a long flashback to the Doctor's time at the academy on Gallifrey, meant to explain how he became familiar with the Toymaker who shows up in The Celestial Toymaker first Doctor episode. The Gallifrey sequence is probably the weakest part of the novel, mostly because here Russell lets loose his penchant for feeding red meat to the fans. Thus, we find out that pretty much all of the various rogue Time Lords the Doctor later encounters - The Master, The Rani, The Meddling Monk, Drax, and so on - not only went to the same school (no surprise there as we have only ever heard of one academy on Gallifrey), but were all part of the same collection of misfits who hung out together and got into trouble together. They were all friends of some kind. This is really wholly unnecessary other than to save Russell the trouble of having to invent new characters. All of this slowly leads up to The Doctor's first encounter with The Toymaker. Part 3 returns the reader to the "present" and a showdown between The Doctor and The Toymaker. So, the novel is really dragged down by Russell's desire to throw into his story as many Doctor Who references as he can, not just to prior Doctor Who TV episodes, but also to prior Doctor Who novels and to his own Doctor Who novels and dramas. Had Russell bypassed all of that and stuck to the story, "Divided Loyalties" would have been a much better book than it is.
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| Doctor Six Gets a True Regeneration |
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One of the big gaps in Doctor Who lore is the account of exactly how Doctor Six becomes Doctor Seven. Big Finish decided to make that story, complete the transition, fill the gap. They decided to do this in the style they have used more and more often since about 2013 - a box set of 1 hour stories loosely connected. The advantage of this method is not to overtax any one writer with trying to produce the big spectacular. If anyone remembers "Zagreus" and "The Next Life," then he/she will know just how large a disaster that can become as the writer loses control of the story. The rationale for this set is to visit four different moments in Doctor Six history as constructed by Big Finish. So, each story includes a different companion, and the stories do not themselves happen in strictly chronological order. Sadly, the death of Maggie Stables made using Evelyn out of the question. However, we get Doctor Six with Constance (his newest companion in Big Finish terms), Charley, Flip, and Mel. That makes three entirely Big Finish companions. The story arc is intriguingly different because it follows not Doctor Six's development, but The Valeyard's development. The listener goes through the series witnessing The Valeyard slowly put together the means by which he will take over The Doctor's life. Part 1, "The End of the Line," is a murderer on a train story with the twist that the train is part of a multidimensional instability. It is quite creepy and quite inventive. Part 2, "The Red House," is a bit more standard Doctor Who fare, with Doctor Six and Charley arriving on the planet of werewolves, or is it the wolves that turn into humans? There is a dodgy scientific experiment going on and a cold, callous mad scientist who suddenly goes all sympathetic and caring. This story, to my mind, is the weakest of the set. Part 3, "Stage Fright," connects Doctor Six and Flip with Jago and Litefoot. The Valeyard has commissioned Jago's theatre for private dramatic recreations of The Doctor's "deaths." We see that as The Valeyard grows in power, he starts taking increasing amounts of story space. Part 4, "The Brink of Death," begins right off with The Valeyard succeeding. He has inserted himself in The Doctor's place so that even Mel does not know it has happened. Doctor Six is down to six minutes (significance in the number?) to save himself from being erased from existence. His solution is self-sacrifice for the greater good, which fits perfectly with Doctor Six as portrayed in Big Finish stories.
There are a couple of quibbles on my part. One is that "The Brink of Death" involves a magical form of radiation lethal to Time Lords but only mildly uncomfortable to humans. That is simply not how radiation works. In "End of the Line" there is a bit about multiverse versions of oneself leading to "the dark side" taking over and converting nice people into homicidal maniacs. It just doesn't ring true. Mel does not get nearly enough to do in "The Brink of Death."
The performances are generally outstanding. Michael Jayston really relishes his role as The Valeyard. Some Big Finish regulars, such as Anthony Howell, Lisa Bowerman, and Robbie Stevens turn in top rate performances. Generally, we can say that Big Finish took a Big Risk that succeeded very well.
| What: | The Third Doctor Adventures (Third Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 18 October 2017 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
This excellent bit of nostalgia gets nearly everything right. We get two stories very much in the manner of 1972 Doctor Who that also do not simply retread plots from that era. "Prisoners of the Lake" is an Earth-bound story following the "Quatermass and the Pit" style, with the discovery of an alien artifact leading to potential Earth annihilation. This time, the artifact is deep under a lake. There are some interesting ideas, such as a stone-based technology run by magnetism, an extension of the idea of ferro-magnetic tape. The story includes a typical cast of characters - corrupt project director, dedicated scientists, aggressive aliens, and so on. "The Havoc of Empires" is a space-bound story, also typical of 1972-3 stories such as the "Peladon" adventures and "The Mutants." The Doctor, Jo, and Mike Yates arrive via TARDIS on a space station that is the site of delicate interplanetary negotiations. Someone, though, does not want this plan to succeed. Jo gets an especially strong role here when she takes command by pretending to be the lead security investigator. She gets to take positive action without always consulting The Doctor.
The standout element of this collection has to be Tim Treloar's impersonation of Jon Pertwee's Doctor. At times, it is so exactly right that you would swear it really was Pertwee saying those lines. Treloar sounds more like Pertwee than Katy Manning and Richard Franklin sound like their younger selves. The one drawback for me is that Big Finish still wants to run past Doctor stories with narration. I still find the narration, even though this set does not have much of it, gets in the way. Despite that, these stories are superb testaments to the quality of early 70s Doctor Who.
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| Very creative wih great voice acting |
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| What: | Sword of Orion (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Jared Harr, St. Marys, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 16 October 2017 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
This was a very creative twist on the show as it introduced androids in a modern styled fight for rights. With the episode also containing Cybermen at one of their most deadly. The cybermen were written so well in this story that it feels like Kit Pedler wrote it! Plus this story is not without an incredible plot twist. I was stunned by the end!
| What: | The Black Hole (The Early Adventures audio dramas) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 6 October 2017 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
The Early Adventures series is kind of halfway between Companion Chronicles and New Adventures. They have a narrator to provide links and description, but for all practical purposes are full-cast dramas. Some may like the narrative links. I think they get in the way. This time around, David Warner provides the narrative without playing a part in the drama. This allows Frazer Hines a chance to concentrate on playing Jamie and the Doctor. This time Victoria is along. Deborah Watling does her best to pitch the voice higher, but still can't get that girl sound she had in 1967. The story itself is written as if it were produced for TV at the time. Computers in space, for instance, are large metal boxes that use tape. The story itself involves our travellers accidentally arriving in a space station, where strange things are happening with time. It turns out that somebody is creating an artificial black hole, and The Doctor suspects "his people" are involved. Simon Guerrier has a tricky brief here, trying to fit the story to 1967 while also slotting it into Who sequence. This means that somehow all the many references to Time Lords and so on will have to be erased. The science of black holes is seriously wrong in this story. There is some playing around with time. It's entertaining, but flawed in key areas.
