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| What: | Eye of Heaven (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 6 October 2016 |
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| Rating: |   6 |
Jim Mortimore has an interesting science-fictional idea regarding the moai on Rapa Nui, but takes far too long to get to it. Instead, he has written a rather standard rollicking adventure book that goes from one brush with death to another, fight after fight, that never seems to advance the plot. All of this leaves the science-fictional idea, which is the generator of the plot, rushed through in the last 20 pages or so. Here is the book we get. The Doctor has in answer to an ad for a reason that we are never told, met a man who has been broken by his memory of an item he stole from Rapa Nui, the stealing of which caused the deaths of two friends. The Doctor on a whim decides to pay for the expedition. The bulk of the novel is taken by the sea voyage to Rapa Nui. Here, Mortimore throws every adventure novel cliché he can think of into the mix. There are dangerous thieves, cut-throat sailors, storms, water spouts, and even pirates. Leela and a character get swept off the boat and manage in some preposterous fashion to ride a whale to safety, well almost, but then Mortimore has the events after the whale dies just raced through by one character and then forgotten, as though Mortimore knew had stretched things too far. Another key problem with the novel is the manner in which the story is told. It is all in first person, but from different characters' perspectives. The one who gets the most narrative space is Leela. Mortimore's characterization of Leela makes her far too savage and superstitious, especially if the story is taking place after "The Talons of Weng Chiang." On the other hand, she knows too much, especially about all the terms of 19th-century sailing. The next problem area of the narrative is that Mortimore has broken up the chronology, so that chapters do not follow from preceding chapters but relate to much earlier or much later events. This is a needless complication. It could have worked had Mortimore taken a straighter path and concentrated on the science-fiction end of the story.
| What: | Wirrn Isle (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 5 October 2016 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
"Wirrn Isle" would have worked well for late 1980s television Doctor Who. There is nothing in it that could not have been done for TV at the time. The story itself is straightforward classic Doctor Who. The Doctor and companion arrive in a remote location populated by just a few people and the whole crew are put under immediate threat by something that could wipe out humanity. The setting is some 40 years after "The Ark in Space" and the people from Nerva are having a rough time recolonizing the planet. A family has returned Loch Lomond, now completely frozen over, to restart the outpost they had abandoned 15 years before. Then, they discover that some Wirrn actually made it to Earth and are frozen in the loch. Unfortunately, dark secrets from this family's past create a chain of events to release the Wirrn once more. The story plays out as a no nonsense thriller, with frayed nerves, high tension, daring escapes, and clever mucking about with technology, in this case transmat technology. The Doctor is here the cleverest of them all, and knows it and is not afraid of saying so. We also get to see his "big picture" morality pitted against the more immediate situational morality of the rest. The music soundtrack reminds me quite a bit of Tangerine Dream from around 1978, which increases the sense that one is listening to a story that was actually from the 1980s.
| What: | Seasons of War (Miscellaneous short stories) |
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| By: | Prunella Apter, Bristol, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 20 September 2016 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
An unofficial Doctor Who charity anthology focused on John Hurt’s War Doctor, Seasons of War presents a pleasingly engorged table of contents featuring stories from a mix of writers both known and lesser-known. I’ve been watching the project unfold for quite a while now, and was waiting for the (now delayed) paperback release to read the book until I eventually caved and bought the ebook (which you can do for whatever price you choose to pay here, going directly to charity.)
It opens, in pleasingly timey-wimey fashion, with the Epilogue – Warsmiths (by Matt Fitton). It reminded me fleetingly of the opening to Obverse’s City of the Saved Sherlock anthology, with a bleak, iconic image setting the tone for the rest of the stories to follow and, just a little bit, taking a hammer to what we might expect a Doctor story to be like.
It’s followed by I. Karn (Declan May) which does a stand-up job of handling continuity (it follows the short Night of the Doctor) and taking a further crow-bar to our image of the Doctor. Here is shown immediately forgetting the name of a dead woman and unremorsefully refusing to save an entire race. There’s setting out your stall, and then there’s this story.
By contrast, Crowsnest Past (Warren Frey) takes an abrupt detour from the grimy opening, launching the Doctor into a pretty standard Doctor story, complete with information-eating monsters and spur-of-the-moment plan. It’s pretty decent, though feels like a bit of a u-turn from the opening pages that have been so adamant about de-heroing the Doctor in this particular guise. If anything, this feels like an Eleventh Doctor story–although that doesn’t necessarily detract.
It’s followed by one of my favourite of the collection, Eight Minute War (Lee Rawlings), which tells the tale of an (unsuccesful) battle from the point of view of a footsoldier in the Doctor’s army. The minutiae of the alien worlds of Doctor Who has always been more interesting than the huge battles, and this story succeeds in the same way, showing the war-time cameraderie of training and preparation, before blasting everything apart in the final pages as the mission fails, to no concern of the Doctor. This Time War is shaping up to be truly horrific.
The Mind Robber (J.R. Southall) is another Land of Fiction story which — although functional — doesn’t manage to be as meta or clever as Land of Fiction-style stories deserve. It’s solid, and includes some powerful imagery, but I was still left feeling somewhat underwhelmed.
Following this, the first of the flash-fiction pieces that pepper the anthology, from the pen of the editor himself, throws together the War Doctor (here known as the Man in the Bandolier) with another Time Lord, the Corsair. These segments shine as small flashes of story that can revel in atmosphere and pathos without an overburdened need for plot mechanics, and this one is brilliant: the story of the Corsairs TARDIS in particular is a beautiful flight of fancy.
The Ambassador of Wolf-Rayer 134 (Kate Orman) is likewise a great piece, although I wouldn’t have expected anything less from Orman. Moffat really needs to just hire her to write an episode already. It’s followed by The Amber Room (Simon Brett and John Davies) in which a time-displaced soldier is rescued from dinosaurs by the Doctor, only to discover the Earth has vanished. I’m not the first review to point out that the soldier is absurdly accepting of all the information thrown his way (although maybe a dinosaur will do that to you) but sometimes that’s the cost in a short story of getting-the-hell-on-with-it, and this is an entertaining and adeptly-paced story.
The Celephas Gift (Andrew Smith) is probably the lengthiest piece in the anthology, which is by no means a bad thing. It has the feeling of pure vintage Doctor Who, richly textured with a neat hook to it, and manages what action-based short stories rarely achieve: the feeling of a satisfying finale.
Up next is a further Declan May flash fiction piece, The Girl With The Purple Hair I which introduces companion-for-the-book Jenny Shirt. Given how hard it is to pull together a likeable companion (I might controversially argue that RTD never managed it in an entire series with Martha) it’s pretty impressive to do so quite so successful in under two pages. Jenny Shirt forever.
It’s followed by a section of Henry V reworked by Matthew Sweet to be about the Doctor. Other reviews have not been kind to this, which is a bit unfair. It’s clever, it’s got a whole bunch of in-jokes I had to look up to understand, and even if it is a bit ephemeral amongst all the other stories here, at least its erudite ephemera.
Next up is Here Comes The Doctor by Christopher Bryant, in which the Doctor infiltrates a war hospital. The first half is a superb spiral of imagination; the opening descriptions of the hospital are some of the most evocative world-building in the collection, and if the ending (they’re really Dalek’s and they were evil all along!) is slightly less exhilarating in comparison, its partly due to the strength of the opening and partly because this particular twist occurs tangentially quite a number of times throughout the other stories – such as, sort of, in the next, Your Move (John Peel). Telling the tale of a strike against the War Computer in the company of a sure-to-be-a-villain robot, the sure-to-be-a-villain was in fact a villain. Predictable but fun.
Sonnet by Jenny Colgan does what it says on the tin; it’s brief, but packs a punch, with Shakespeare relating his view of the Doctor and his adventures. Somebody please release an anthology of Doctor Who poetry, please?
After a string of stories against an ever-encroaching backdrop of war, Disjecta Membra (Elton Townend-Jones) is something of a breather. It’s dressed up in the gloomy horror vestments, and the traditional Doctor Who reveal of ‘barely explained science was responsible for the supernatural whatnots all along’ does nothing to diminish the power of the imagery that this story employs. (Hands, cups, mirrors–that’s all I’ll say.)
IV. Loop is another of May’s short entries. In some ways this feels like a missing scene from the 50th Anniversary (actually–that’s a touch unfair, as May handles this with more subtlety and mordancy than Moffat ever would) in which a young War Doctor meets the War Doctor who is about to steal the Moment. (It’s also worth applauding that fact that none of the above is explicitly spelled out, which makes the story all the more rich.)
The Holdover (Daniel Wealands) takes the Doctor to an internment camp for refugees. Unfortunately, I found this story to be one of the few mis-fires of the anthology–rather laboured and a bit awkward in style. Thankfully, the next story, Climbing The Mountain (Lance Parkin), is an antidote. Although slight of plot, it revolves around a neat twist that, for all it might seem quite light, in some ways says more about the necessities of war than any number of annihilated planets.
The Garden (Sami Kelish) is, quite frankly, sublime (and definitely in my top three stories of the collection). Delicate and infused with pathos, it tells the story of an old woman on Gallifrey who is so absorbed by the caretaking of her garden in which all the flora of Gallifrey reside that she hasn’t even noticed there’s a Time War going on. The ending in particular is elegant and sad. Stunning story.
Sleepwalking To Paradise (Dan Barrett) chucks us straight back into the war, with no respite. This one’s all story powering forward, replete with a number of smart twists and a lucid, engaging style. It’s followed by Guerre (Alan P. Jack and Declan May), which plants the War Doctor in World War I. It’s a horror-ish tale that pairs brevity with power, relying on the innate pathos of it’s setting to add shades to the War Doctor’s character.
Then The Girl With The Purple Hair is back, continuing the sterling work of her previous introduction. It’s followed by V. Lady Leela, also by Declan May, which tells us what Leela gets up to in the Time War. It rings completely true, further demonstrating May’s capabilities of handling character.
Making Endings by Nick Mellish is another stand-out piece, although to describe to much about it would perhaps ruin it. (It put me in mind of both Patrick Ness’ More Than This and an episode of Black Mirror.) Smart and entertaining.
The Book of Dead Time (David Carrington) is especially memorable for one very specific reason: the library in a tree. Frankly, its unforgivable that I don’t own one. (If you want me to, y’know, review the story: the rest of it matches up to it’s core fantastical image. This feels like the story Neil Gaiman might have written had he been persuaded to write for Seasons of War.)
Driftwood by Simon Brett is another Dalek story, although it is my favourite here. There’s layers of reference and literary shadings that accompany this, but on the surface it’s about Azrael, a wounded Dalek that, amongst other things, now appreciates tea. Lyrical, with a great twist.
The Ingenious Gentleman (Alan Ronald) is a completely left-field oddity amongst the other stories here, although certainly memorable for that. Joining the ranks of fictional characters whom the Doctor has encountered is Don Quixote. The story is giddy and funny, but still turns on the implicit parallels between the two old men no fool’s quests.
Like any self-respecting season of Doctor Who, there’s got to be a returning companion, and in this case it’s the Brigadier in Matt Barber’s Fall. It’s hard to know what to say about this one–as a story it is, just, functional, but the fun resides in the absurdities of a nursing-home bound Brigadier rallying his geriatric army. It has its moments, but it’s really all about having fun with the Brigadier and nothing else. (Which is, of course, no bad thing…)
Always Face The Curtain With A Bow (Jon Arnold) is another oddity of the collection, but in truly spectacular form. Trapped in a time-looped prison in which another Time Lord is forced to kill him every day, this is a nasty, inventive and endlessly ingenious story. Brilliant.
It’s followed by Storage Wars (Paul Driscoll) in a pop-culture collision that absolutely should not work but completely does. Some of the prose clumsiness is completely forgiven for the ability to turn the flippant nature of reality television into something with real heart and power at the reveal of the story. (That said, although it ends with the War Doctor releasing the butterflies into the world, were we at liberty to tinker more with canon, I’d love to see that moment given to Capaldi’s Doctor as he searches for his lost home of Gallifrey.)
The Postman (John Davies) feels like a quirky French film (sorta Amelie-Kafka) portraying the various regenerations of the man whose job it is to write condolence letters to the millions dead in the Time War. The initial jolliness is a feint though: the conclusion of the story sucker-punches you into complete blackness, as the Postman delivers the news to parents before being dispatched to the battlefield in which the soldier actually dies. Timey-wimey, in the grimmest way possible.
The Thief of All Ways (Elliot Thorpe) ups the grim quotient, with the Doctor unheedingly sacrificing lives to power a weapon. This is a good story, but actually feels like it’s from an entirely different world retrofitted to star the Doctor–it’s a touch ill-fitting.
Paul Driscoll returns with a second story, The Time Lord Who Came To Tea, which again delights in the small details to paint a picture of the trickle-down effects of war on a remote homestead. There’s a whole bunch of little things that shine here, but its the Dalek Meat Traders that stick in the mind.
The Nightmare Child is another shorter piece from Declan May, proving once again that he knows his way around the English language. This piece is a gleaming assemblage of wordplay that does wonders with atmosphere.
Meals on Wheels (Paul Magrs) returns us to the every-day world, in which Jackie Tyler runs into Davros who, in this instance, is a senile old man dreaming of the Nightmare Child from his tatty tower block bedroom. In an anthology so taken with war on an interplanetary scale, Magrs’ knack of focusing on the everyday might have been out-of-place, but this story works superbly amongst the run-down.
It’s followed by the comic-book entry into the story, Time Enough For War (Simon Brett and Jim Mortimore) which I’m a little at a loss to describe. The art is superb, richly detailed and evocative, but I was at a bit of a loss to descrie what the hell was actually going on. For all that, I found I quite liked it. Just don’t ask me what it was about.
And alas, poor Jenny Shirt — she had to go. We knew her fate was sealed. Barnaby Eaton-Jones does the dirty work in Doctor Death. Given the appearance of a cloaked and scythed Death, I kept dimly expecting a Pratchett-esque quip from the Reaper, but is actually about the metaphorical implications and not at all about jokes in small caps.
The Beach (Gary Russell) is a last-hurrah straight-up Doctor story, returning us to the familiar caring Doctor, perhaps as a reminder that, despite what you might think at this point, he isn’t all bad. It’s cute, which is exactly the right note to strike at this point.
The Moments In Between returns George Mann to the War Doctor and his companion Cinder and this is a wonderful final grace note to the multi-shaded Doctor on display here, playing like a stolen moments from Engines of War. And then finally the whole piece is rounded off with another brisk gallop through the fields of language from May in his Prologue, revealing the ultimate cost to the Doctor of saving the Earth (and patching up some canon holes too, kind of.)
Which brings to me to a summary, which seems a bit of a tall order after such an extended run of stories. Frankly, the anthology is an incredible achievement; to bring together so many voices into a cohesive, balanced and above all just-plain-good anthology of this length (all for charity, I might add, so without the benefit of a pay-check to spur the poor writers on) is miraculous. In the entire run-down there were perhaps only a small handful of stories that didn’t chime with me, which given that I somewhat predisposed against grim war stories is even more of an achievement.
So, all in all, highly recommended. Especially as (have I mentioned?) it’s for charity. I await Seasons of War 2.
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 | A worthy addition to the Time War Canon |
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| What: | Seasons of War (Miscellaneous short stories) |
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| By: | Jeremy Cairncross, Exeter, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 20 September 2016 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
It started life as a project when Declan May was looking for a way to raise funds for the charity Caudwell Children and stands in a healthy tradition of charity Who anthologies such as Missing Pieces, Perfect Timing, Walking In Eternity and Shelf Life (and plenty of others are available). These collections have the strengths of being Doctor Who, one of the strongest storytelling formats devised in the twentieth century, whilst being able to take the character to place you wouldn’t be able to go on television.
This collection is the answer to the question of what the Doctor did in the Time War, an exploration of the mythology Russell T Davies created via the character Steven Moffat invented to bear that weight. As he appeared only three times in the series proper (and two of those were mere cameos) there’s plenty of fertile territory to be explored in a way that there perhaps isn’t for other, more thoroughly explored incarnations. And also, with the nature of this incarnation there are tales you can’t really tell with the other, more compassionate Doctors. This is a collection that goes to some very dark places… but even with the travails of war as a keynote this story maintains a wide variety of tones, from such traditional fare as Andrew Smith’s The Celephas Gift or John Peel’s Your Move to more radical fare such as Elton Townend-Jones’ Disjecta Membra or Daniel Wealands’ The Holdover that look to stretch what can be done in Doctor Who.
Even if you might find some stories weaker than others this is a collection that adds up to more than the sum of its individual stories, sequenced to build an idea of how the character of this Doctor developed during the war. After a striking epilogue from Matt Fitton opens the collection and sets the tone we go back to the immediate aftermath of the regeneration and an indication of how this man is no longer the Doctor but a ruthless warrior. And he needs to be a warrior to cope with terrible events such as those depicted in Lee Rawlings’ sublime The Eight-Minute War and the aforementioned The Holdover. The latter challenges the likes of Lawrence Miles’ Interference and the novels of Daniel O’Mahoney and Jim Mortimore as the darkest places Doctor Who has gone in any format.
That’s not to say that this book is simply strong on darkness and the events of the war. Many of the highlights come in stories which don’t necessarily deal directly with the war – The Amber Room from Simon Brett and John Davies, Gardening by Sami Kelish, Making Endings by Nick Mellish and The Book of Dead Time by David Carrington are all fine examples of slightly more oblique takes on wartime. And these are scattered purposefully throughout the book so the tone doesn’t get unbearably dark and hopeless. Every story here feels as if it’s been selected for a good reason – strong central ideas, memorable images and fine prose, all sequenced to present them in the strongest possible light. I’ve not mentioned half the stories I’d love to, that deserve mentioning – strong contributions from Kate Orman and Paul Magrs mix with promising up-and-coming writers such as Brett, Davies, Dan Barratt, Paul Driscoll and Christopher Bryant. This is one of the most powerful, strongest Doctor Who short story collections, one without a weak link which constitutes something of a minor miracle over more than 40 stories and nearly 400 pages. It ends on a cliffhanger, promising further collections and on this evidence that’s very welcome.
| What: | Signs and Wonders (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 16 September 2016 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
"Signs and Wonders" follows the pattern of Big Finish and recent Doctor Who of ending a long story arc with big, dramatic, over-the-top grandiosity that is really, really huge. Such endings rarely meet expectations, and this story is one that does not meet expectations. What goes wrong here is that the story is quite visual, relying on seeing monsters and crowds, and a host of other things. Matt Fitton has chosen to convey all this in the laziest way possible, through long, dull speeches. We get quite a bit of characters by themselves describing to themselves what they are doing, another matter of lazy writing. Another problematic area is the content of the story itself. All this stuff with elder gods that have undefined immense "powers" and "energy" is just a screen for slipping magic into the story. Thus, we get Hector/Hex taking the Harry Potter role in this story, bumbling through magic powers and a mysterious (to him) past. We get 4 different types of quasi-immortal superbeings. We get a Liverpool that seems to be about 3 streets big given how characters just magically find each other when the story needs them to meet, even though they were blocks apart or in entirely different parts of the city just a scene or two earlier. It is not as if the story is irredeemable. It is good that Big Finish has given Hex a calm and graceful exit from life on the TARDIS, one that suits his character. The story manages to tie up a number of loose ends. For that, at least, one can listen without totally cringing.
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| A staggeringly good set.... |
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| What: | The Second Doctor: Volume One (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Monday 12 September 2016 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
This is the second doctor's era almost to a tee. It boasts some exceptionally good stories. It has the ever present superb rendition of Patrick Troughton by the brilliant Frazer Hines! And it boasts the wonderful Elliot Chapman who does great service to the late Mike Craze in that Ben is brought to life very well again for audio A real decent tribute to Mike, who was a brilliant companion. And together with the three other companions of the Second Doctor's run, Anneke, Debbie and Wendy, this makes for a truly awesome set!
The first story is the Mouthless Dead. This story boasts one of the creepiest ever scores for a big finish production. It really freaked me and I'm a 30 year old. And the backstory is really decent and involved around the mystery of the Unknown Soldier just after the tragic World War 1. This story is brilliantly paced and superbly acted by Frazer, Anneke and Elliot. It possesses a creepiness that BFP don't tend to d all that often. And yet again, the sound scenes are very very believable and superbly done. This is a brilliant bringing to life of a fantastic black and white era.
The Story of Extinction is a surprising and yet touching story in that it features some loving sparring between Debbie and Frazer that really put a lump in the throat of this listener. Its poignant and very well told again. And the villains are interesting too. The fact that Jamie is learning to read really comes to a lovely apex in the great last scene. Frazer and Debbie definitely help me remember yet again why the second doctor era is my favourite in the shows history!
The Integral is another very good and creepy story. And that it actually has a fight between Jamie and Zoe means that Wendy and Frazer get some terrific moments when they try to assert their views as correct. And the aliens here are very interesting, and the overall feel of the story too is that its a base under siege tale, but in reverse for once! This tale works splendidly well and is help yet again by brilliant sound design.
The Edge, for me, just speaks volumes of why Frazer has always been my favourite companion. And the ides that he has to save the Doctor and Zoe too this time is neat and brilliant. That it is his loyalty and bravery that really saves the day is just nostalgic brilliance to the helm. And yet again the sound design is superb. And that this story ends with a lovely scene where the Doctor admits he is very proud of Jamie is touching and memorable and not undeserved in the slightest.
James Robert McCrimmon was the best ever companion the series has ever made. His character was intensely likeable, and his loyalty to the Doctor was unwavering, despite some tests along the way. And for me, this set from Big Finish illuminates Frazer in particular to the full. Which is no more than Frazer truly deserves. He shall forever be my favourite companion and this set of companion chronicles is the perfect way to celebrate his wonderful character!
This set boasts all and every ingredient of the era its based on!
| What: | We Are the Daleks (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 8 September 2016 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
"We Are the Daleks" has everything that was right about 1987 Doctor Who and everything that was wrong about it. First, to the parts that were right. In 1987, there was a concerted effort to make Doctor Who different from what it had previously been with Davison and C. Baker. So, it was less action/adventure oriented and more concept oriented. "We Are the Daleks," certainly has the concept down, with the Daleks this time trying conquest by international (intergalactic if you like) corporate takeover rather than military strategy. At least at first. There was also a concerted attempt to make Doctor Who more "contemporary." In "We Are the Daleks" this is done by having the Daleks introduce a computer game far in advance of those from 1987, thus linking the 1987 setting to 2015 lifestyles. In 1987, there was also an effort to make the dialogue quicker. Again, this script follows that formula well.
Now onto the parts that were wrong. One oft noted problem in 1987 Doctor Who was that scripts were often split personalities, and it was unclear just what effect the writers were aiming for. Often, this resulted in scripts that were partly satirical, but usually only in the beginning before settling into more standard Doctor Who mode. "We Are the Daleks" has the same problem. It begins with some lively satire of Thatcherite economics, including a very Thatcherite politician in Celia Dunthorpe. However, by part three the script has moved on to standard Dalek fair, with space battles and bombast, all satire forgotten apart from the aforementioned Celia Dunthorpe, whose allegiance to the Daleks is meant to serve as social commentary that Thatcherism was just inches away from Nazism. She becomes out of place as a satirical character in what has become a desperate mission war story. Another problem of 1987 Doctor Who was quite a bit of shoddy plotting, so that it seemed that things happened by convenience rather than by necessity. So, for instance, in this story the "alembic field" is remarkably discretionary, affecting only those it needs to affect at the time to keep the script moving. The writer provides weak excuses for this phenomenon - it doesn't work in this room though it works everywhere else, it doesn't work on Time Lords, it doesn't work on people already sympathetic to Dalek thinking (then why does it amplify Dalek psychology in Daleks, driving them to self-destruction?).
So, like 1987 Doctor Who, "We Are the Daleks" is a decidedly mixed experience.
| What: | The Apocalypse Mirror (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 3 September 2016 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
"The Apocalypse Mirror" is an all-out attempt to recreate 1968 Dr. Who. It has the usual elements. The Doctor and crew stumble into a dangerous situation about which they know virtually nothing. They manage to insinuate themselves into the society and in a way "take over" the situation. There are several tangential plot complications. Things are stitched up, more or less, at the end, and the TARDIS crew slip away quietly. Frazer Hines carries most of the weight on this one. Wendy Padbury reads Zoe's dialogue only. Hines has really gotten into recreating Doctor 2, with all the pauses, throat clearing, and other verbal gimmicks. At times it really is uncanny how accurate the recreation is. What does not work for me in this story is that it is needlessly complicated. It has a time fracture trick with overlapping realities, robotic carrion birds, and a hurtling asteroid just to create a feeling that everything is working to a countdown. The asteroid does not work well because except for raising the tension, it has no function in the plot, and feels very much like an afterthought. So, for all the good things the script takes from 1968 Who, it takes some of the bad as well.
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| Interesting though not Spectacular |
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| What: | The Mind's Eye (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 27 August 2016 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
"The Mind's Eye" is one of those "what is real?" shows. The TARDIS crew are seemingly split up on different worlds in different realities, but is that what is really going on? There is a secret military research installation, a scientist with questionable morality, and animals that go berserk only at night. Colin Brake has decided mostly just to throw these things together to create "problems." We also get some improbable noble sacrifices at the end. The story plays along pretty well, and the acting is all very good. This is a short 3-parter, with each part being rather short, so filling the 4th part is an extra story, "Mission of the Viyrans," by Nicholas Briggs, as a kind of introduction to his new bunch of aliens. This is another "what is real?" story focusing mainly on Peri and taking place after Erimem has already left the TARDIS, so preparing listeners for "The Bride of Peladon." It functions well as a set-up piece, though not quite as well as an independent story.
| What: | The Bride of Peladon (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 26 August 2016 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
The Bride of Peladon is one of those Big Finish stories that goes for all-out nostalgia, bringing together all the main elements of the two televised Peladon stories and adding a bit of Pyramids of Mars to it. So we get medieval political intrigue involving an alliance between Earth and Peladon, this time through a pending marriage. We get the main character types from the previous stories - an Ice Warrior ambassador, an Arcturan, Alpha Centauri (admirably voiced by Jane Goddard), Aggedor, a king's champion, a dodgy off-world mining expert, some stalwart miners, and so on. All of this is designed to propel the fan into flights of ecstasy, probably. It does, however, seem like a bit of a rehash, enough so that characters seemingly allude to the fact. One aspect that worried me was the question of where all the people were. If there is to be a royal wedding, what is going on with all the guests? If there is a big enough explosion to rock the mighty citadel, then why are the only ones on the scene the royals and VIPs? Surely, there would be emergency services of some kind, at least all the numerous subordinates who must live and work in the castle just to keep it running. So, where are they? The story does have its good points. The characters are deep enough to be convincing. Peri is especially active and quite determined, much more the way she should have been written in the televised program. Erimem's departure from the TARDIS crew makes emotional sense, and has already been prepared for in previous stories. It's a pleasant enough listen.
| What: | Match of the Day (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 26 August 2016 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
I have liked the Chris Boucher Doctor Who books I have read until this one. The premise is that the Doctor and Leela land on a world on which half the population is devoted in some way or another to death-match dueling contests. Leela accidentally gets mistaken for a challenger and the Doctor has to become her agent and try to keep her clear of getting into trouble. All this is happening against a background involving a fighter named Keefer who escapes an assassination attempt and then goes looking for his would-be killer. Boucher here has attempted a kind of parody of sports by accepting the exaggeration that fans only want to see athletes hurt each other and then making an entire world based on that concept. Thus, there are elaborate rules that no one fully understands, players and agents, training schools, and so on. One funny bit involves a trial that drags on for ages while the tribunal watch instant replay from nearly every angle over and over again. There were a few things that for me were fundamentally wrong with this novel. The first is that clearly on this planet the people understand that there are off-worlders, so why don't The Doctor and Leela simply say that they are and so avoid all the mess they get themselves into? The second is that the plot takes far too long to identify the key problem to be solved. Why was Keefer attacked? What has it to do with the Court of Attack? Is the Doctor supposed to change this weirdly unethical society? And so on. Because the main problem is not identified, the main characters seem to be getting nowhere for most of the novel. After 200 pages, the reader still has no idea where this is going or that any of the three principals - The Doctor, Leela, and Keefer - are anywhere near to identifying who is manipulating events and why. The third problem for me is that for the first time Boucher succumbs to the trap of writing the Fourth Doctor in a novel. He is too scatter-brained and uncertain. It is alright for him to be a little scatter-brained and uncertain, but in this novel that is his principal mental state. Boucher manages to keep the pace moving, and writes Leela well, but I really could not find this novel to be structured enough.
| What: | Terror of the Sontarans (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 24 August 2016 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
We might call this Fear of the Sontarans given the way the supposed terror runs. The story itself seems to be made specifically to recall 1987 with a half serious - half sendup story, and a music soundtrack that hearkens to Keff McCulloch in many places. The basics are these. The Doctor and Mel arrive on a planetary research station in answer to a distress beacon. There, they find the station mostly empty except for four prisoners who were not part of the base's crew and their only surviving jailer, a Sontaran driven mad by something. Then, a force of Sontarans arrive to secure the base, but it turns out that whatever is haunting this base is far more terrifying than any bunch of blustery Sontarans. The script has some very dodgy ideas about absorbing life forms to create a new life form. Hmmm..., where have we heard that one before? Maybe in ten or so at least Big Finish productions. The Doctor/Mel combination works well in this story, as if the pair had been travelling together for some time. Overall, it is a story with some hits and some misses.
| What: | The Curse of Davros (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 24 August 2016 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Without giving away the twist to this story, I will say only that both Colin Baker and Terry Molloy have to do some extra acting in this one, and both carry it off admirably well. We get a new a new companion in an old character, Flip from "The Crimes of Thomas Brewster." That makes the Who universe a very small place given the outrageous odds against her meeting the Doctor again in the way that it happens. A coincidence of this magnitude should not go unnoticed. Flip is a bit too South London to me, more a walking set of regional stereotypes than an actual character. The part of the story that revolves around the battle of Waterloo is the part that does not hang together all that well. Davros' rationale for going there and his intimate knowledge of this bit of human history just do not make sense. Davros is an alien. What is his concern for old Earth battles? Dalek time travel in this one is far too easy. The introduction of Daleks and Dalek technology into a well-established historical event cannot be brushed aside with a "don't say anything about this." So, the premise for parts 1 and 2 is very interesting and has many possibilities, but the story is let down by what happens in parts 3 and 4.
| What: | The Hypothetical Gentleman (IDW graphic novels) |
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| By: | Andrew Perez, Zephyrhills , United States |
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| Date: | Friday 19 August 2016 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
isbn-13: 978-1613777190
| What: | Son of the Dragon (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 15 August 2016 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Continuing in the Doctor Who meets... vein of stories for Doctor 5, this time we get Doctor Who meets Dracula. It's a good thing that writer Steve Lyons got this assignment because in the hands of a lesser writer it could have gone horribly wrong. Lyons approached this as a pure historical, thus avoiding the need to explain all the clichés associated with the fictional Dracula. Indeed, he brings them up every now and again just to dismiss them. That leaves the historical Dracula to deal with. That in itself is a tough assignment because little about the real Vlad the Impaler has survived. However, that leaves Lyons with plenty of room for inserting the Doctor and crew into events. Lyons manages to accomplish here what was missing from The Council of Nicaea, which is that given her background and upbringing, Erimem completely understands what a tyrant does and why he does it. In many ways, Vlad is closer in worldview to Erimem than Peri is, and Lyons does a good job of bringing this out in the story. The main problem with the story is scale. Lyons works best as a writer in the novel genre, where he can work to the limits of his expansive imagination. Limited to about five main characters and five subordinates and tight selection of settings, Lyons and the Big Finish crew just cannot bring to the production the epic sweep it needs. We end up with one character representing the entire peasant point of view, a major person in the details of the events, Sultan Mehmet III, merely described rather than portrayed, and some improbable communications and contacts between characters. It's a worthy, but flawed, effort.
| What: | Just War (Bernice Summerfield audios) |
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| By: | Alexander Amos King-Grey, Campbell Town, Tasmania, Australia |
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| Date: | Thursday 21 July 2016 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Okay, maybe I am being a little harsh on this audio because it's one of Big Finish's first audio, but the lack of music and sound effects really makes this audio a slog fest. I nearly fell asleep listening to this audio, I was only saved by the marvellous characters...
All the characters are brilliant and it's nice to here Maggie Stable playing a foster-mother for Berny, she a superb actress. Bernice is great and Jason is alright. The German characters are brilliant, especially Mark Gatiss's vicious and vile General.
Plot wasn't overly great either, some stuff about a UFO crash-landing, which never gets mentioned again.
I saw this in a shop an grabbed it because I hadn't found any other Big Finish's in Tasmania, so I took the chance and bought it off the shelf. It might even be rare, since it was released in 1999.
Saw a listing of the book which this is based on on Ebay, going for $40, it might be better than this audio.
A pretty much straight forward novelisation of the story. One of my very favourite 5th Doctor story's.
| What: | Masters of Earth (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 13 June 2016 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
The writing team of Wright and Scott are back with another story of plot and counter plot involving different factions, with the Doctor and the newly returned Peri caught in the middle of it all. The scene starts in Scotland one year before Doctor 1 defeats the Daleks in "The Dalek Invasion of Earth." This time it is Peri, older and more self-confident, who gets the pair in trouble when her moral outrage gets the better of her. Before you know it, there is a capture, an escape, and then a mad chase to the Orkneys. The story has very much the sense of the middle portion of "The Daleks' Masterplan," and even includes the Varga plants. The spirit of Terry Nation is all over this script. This could have been handled poorly, with just one danger following another. Wright and Scott have cleverly made these narrow escapes part of a coherent plot. Nothing is quite what it seems and motives are suitably murky. It's an engaging adventure.
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| The Last Outing for Romana I |
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| What: | The Final Phase (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 13 June 2016 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
The season closer, part 2, shifts focus from Proxima Major to Cuthbert's orbiting platform. We get the revelation of what both Cuthbert and the Daleks are up to. The majority of the story is of the base-under-siege variety, with a strong role for K-9. Romana realizes that perhaps life with the Doctor is more interesting than life on Gallifrey. The story ties up most the loose ends, with one left deliberately hanging. The 1978 feeling remains, so much so that one can easily picture all the action in the manner that it would have been taped in 1978. It is a fitting finish, though not a particularly original story.
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| Romana's First Encounter with the Daleks |
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| What: | The Dalek Contract (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 13 June 2016 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Big Finish keeps that 1978 vibe going for the big finish of the (sadly) only season with Romana I. "The Dalek Contract" finds our heroes chasing after the results of their encounters with the Laan. They find a planet barely surviving oppression from Cuthbert, the self-made northerner of dubious morality, who is using the Daleks as a security force. Of course, the Doctor knows this makes no sense and something else must be going on. Big Finish has done everything they could to recreate the 1978 feeling. The soundtrack harkens to Dudley Simpson in many ways. The story has the half-the-series-budget sweep of the season finales from the late 70s. This episode suffers a bit from being just part 1. Also, the restrictions of storytelling to keep it in spirit close off many possibilities. Fans will probably go nuts for this precisely because it is so exactly 1978 in everything except for the stereophonic sound design.
