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| What: | Time Reef (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 17 July 2015 |
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| Rating: |   6 |
The people at Big Finish really liked Thomas Brewster far more than I did. This attempt to rewrite the Adric character ended up not working well for me. He ended up being rather one-dimensional. "Time Reef" is really two stories, the three part story just mentioned, and another called "Perfect World." The first is by Marc Platt, the second by Jonathan Morris. "Time Reef" involves a space-ship of Greek heroes stranded on a growing reef of space coral created by a stolen part of the TARDIS, stolen, of course, by Brewster, pretending to be the Doctor in the bargain. A second ship is stranded, containing only a haughty and arrogant woman from a kind of space ancient Egypt civilization. There are space-time rooks as well. The whole concept is rather strained and does not really survive much thinking about. The Doctor has to battle two recalcitrant personalities, the stubborn hero-captain who has to have battle and sacrifices no matter what, and the cowardly Brewster who can say only, "I didn't do nuthin'" indicating full well that it is all his fault. There are some humorous lines. Nyssa comes out looking fairly self-sufficient. "Perfect World" is another playing with perceptions story in which Brewster has once again mucked things up, this time with good intentions, by sending a wish through a time fissure, all unknowingly, for a young woman he has met to have a better life. This call reaches some existential time-space plumbers to come "do the job," allowing the Doctor to make many stirring speeches about how life is better with all the mistakes in it. Like "Time Reef," it is mildly amusing.
| What: | Touched by an Angel (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Robert Quinn, Chester, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Sunday 12 July 2015 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
This is simply the best Doctor Who Novel that's ever been written. Many thanks to the author, Jonathan Morris, for writing such a magnificent story and an unforgettable journey! :)
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 | Old Time Serial Adventure |
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| What: | Island of Death (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 7 July 2015 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Barry Letts knows his characters and knows his navy stuff. That is for sure. The story itself is somewhat light and simple. A bunch of insect aliens are posing as leaders of a Hare Krishna style cult. Jeremy Fitzoliver has joined the cult. The Doctor, Sarah, and Brigadier have to save him and the world from being sucked dry. The story moves along at a good pace, but there really is not enough of it there for a novel. So, Letts employs multiple delaying tactics to keep the Doctor and crew away from confronting the aliens for quite some time. The confrontation itself is typical of Letts, with the Doctor trying desperately to talk down the aliens from their nasty ways. There is some fun to be had with the Brigadier and some hallucinogenic mist. Because of all the delaying chapters, the whole reads like a novelization of an old movie serial from the 1940s.
| What: | Return to the Web Planet (Big Finish subscriber bonuses) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 21 June 2015 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
The bonus audios have generally been awful, but this one isn't. The Doctor and Nyssa are drawn to Vortis, from "The Web Planet" in 1965. It is now hundreds of years after The Doctor helped save Vortis, and it is a much different planet. Now, lush and green as it had been before, Vortis seems an ideal world for a holiday. But always, trouble lurks.
The temptation to make a jungle planet the setting for an Adam and Eve story is very tempting, and the temptation is taken here, the apple has been bitten, and we plunge into the beginnings of a whole new species, to mix metaphors and allusions. The story itself is fairly interesting, presenting our heroes and their new Menoptera friends with an intriguing problem to solve - what is making the Zarbi change their behavior? It would have been a temptation also to bring back the Animus from the first story. Thankfully, the new threat is not the same as the old. The main idea behind this new threat - what it is and how it works - does not fully pass the believability test.
All in all, "Return to the Web Planet" is an entertaining story with the right mix of humor and danger. Its central idea does not really work out on the grounds of science or logic. However, a listener will not be just wasting time listening to this adventure.
| What: | City of Death (BBC prestige novels) |
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| By: | Trevor Smith, Nottingham, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Sunday 21 June 2015 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I'll admit, having loved Gareth Roberts novelisation of 'Shada' I was bitterly disappointed when he dropped out of writing this book. Nobody writes 4th Doctor & Romana 2 like Gareth Roberts, so James Goss had a big task in hand writing the novelisation of this, one of the most beloved of all televised Who story's but all my worries were unfounded as Goss passes the test with flying colours. Not only does he get the 'feel' of COD but with added source material (all explained in notes at the end of the nove by the author) he expands on an already wonderful story and is able to give lots of background to the characters and the story. All in all a wonderful book that I ripped through in two days. Highly recommended.
| What: | Dancing the Code (Missing Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Harry Ross Gorman, Bromborough, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Wednesday 17 June 2015 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
A good unit story but I thought it was a bit hard to follow and had too many characters.
| What: | Island of Death (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Trevor Smith, Nottingham, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 12 June 2015 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Have to agree with the other reviewers. Not a bad novel but nothing particularly great either.
As you would expect, Barry Letts gets the third Doctor, Sarah Jane and the Brig spot on but the story just never kicks on and the aliens were frankly dull. 6/10
| What: | Scream of the Shalka (Miscellaneous TV spin-offs) |
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| By: | Harry Ross Gorman, Bromborough, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Wednesday 20 May 2015 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Not many people talk about this one but its amazing. The only bad thing about the series coming back was the fact that Richard E. Grants doctor never got his time to shine. The 50th anniversary was the perfect opportunity to bring back this doctor and make him cannon. A must watch for any doctor who fan.
| What: | Lost in Time (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Harry Ross Gorman, Bromborough, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Wednesday 20 May 2015 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
This is a great set but because of its age it includes episodes of stories that have now been released on dvd by themselves and doesn't include episodes like the underwater menace and galaxy 4 and certain clips that have know been found. Fortunately the galaxy 4 episode has been released but the underwater menace episode hasn't!
| What: | Bloodtide (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Harry Ross Gorman, Bromborough, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 19 May 2015 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
If your sad about how the Silurians were ruined in the new series. Listen to this. The chemistry between the Doctor and Evelyn is brilliant and Charles Darwin is a brilliant character.
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| Great for a first attempt. |
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| What: | The Sirens of Time (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Harry Ross Gorman, Bromborough, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 19 May 2015 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
This is a good multi-doctor story but I find the varying locations confusing. The most enjoyable part is when all the doctors meet up. Overall it is an enjoyable story.
| What: | Illegal Alien (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Harry Ross Gorman, Bromborough, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 19 May 2015 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This is a brilliant book with great characters especially for a first novel. It is a terrible shame that this never made it to television as originally intended but the fact that its book only does give it better effects and locations! The only problem is that the cover on my version has the wrong cyberman on it but it isn't described too much in detail in the book so its not that much of a deal.
| What: | Last of the Gaderene (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 9 May 2015 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Mark Gatiss has homage down pat in this book. "Last of the Gaderene" is pure 3rd Doctor. The story is about alien invasion by stealth. A tiny village becomes the focus of the invasion. The Doctor reluctantly investigates. Then UNIT arrive. There's a monster that is mostly immune to bullets. Jo does the opposite of what she is told. The Doctor gets to play with a new toy, a Spitfire this time. Oh, and the Master is in there as well. I can see why many readers rate this very highly, since it hits all their hotspots. I found it less satisfying for the same reason. Also, there are several bits of clumsy writing. It is fun to sink into the nostalgia, but given the possibilities of the novel format, this reader wanted just a bit more.
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| Doctor Who by the Numbers |
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| What: | The Silver Turk (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 3 May 2015 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
"The Silver Turk" gives Mary Shelley her first outing as the Doctor's companion. As such, it is always going to be a bit of a "companion piece," in that much of the narrative is meant to introduce audiences to the new character. This character cannot be overwhelmed by the story, so like other such pieces - Rose, Smith and Jones, for instance - the plot is mostly Doctor Who by the numbers. All the elements of a typical Doctor Who story are in place. We get a historical location, some not overwhelmingly dangerous baddies, enough contrary motivations to move along the plot, the Doctor making self-righteous pronouncements about how much the world is in danger, and the new companion stepping in at the last minute after having second thoughts about this Tardis travel stuff to save the day. It is all entertaining enough and moves along at the right speed. Thankfully, Marc Platt did not go for his usual bizarrely complicated "is this reality" kind of plot.
| What: | Phantoms of the Deep (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 25 April 2015 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Set in the bottom of the Mariana trench, "Phantoms of the Deep" has the Doctor, K9, and Romana picked up by an exploration vehicle deep under water, which in turn is picked up by an alien vessel that has created an artificial environment at the bottom of the ocean and is now sifting through species giving them extra intelligence and waiting for the right sort of intelligence to enhance and thus convert to save a dying (or dead) race. It does have the feel of 1978. Romana is a little bit more active in this one than in the TV series. Still, there are too many bits of plot by convenience, not the least of which is two, count them two, self-sacrifices so that our heroes don't have to die.
"Crime of the Century" was to be part of the 1990 series that got cancelled, introducing the new companion Raine and setting up the departure of Ace. The original writer was likely to be Ben Aaronovitch. The audio version is taken on completely by Andrew Cartmel, who has taken the few kernels of ideas he and Aaronovitch worked on and turned out the script he might like to have done, given the time and money. Thus, "Crime of the Century" has a very large scope, going from England to central Asia and then to Scotland, splitting the Doctor and Ace for 2 1/2 episodes, and including some party-goers, a downtrodden crime boss, some Russian soldiers, a central Asian sword-fighting prince, a race of mercenary beetles, some killer robots, and mysterious alien technology. It's the kind of throw-everything-into-the-bucket-and-shake story that spreads out its ideas too thinly. There are plenty of fun bits, and Ace comes through as a strong character in this one, much more confident than in the TV series. There is a part of the story that is a bit disturbing, at least to me. It is that the Doctor is more manipulative than I have encountered in any other story. This Doctor concocts an elaborate plan but gets other people to act the plan in very dangerous circumstances, while he himself never actually steps in. He simply says, "you do it," and they do it. This is a bit different from the TV series, where the Doctor manipulated Ace to face her fears, in essence to grow up, as in "Ghost Light" and "Curse of Fenric," or when the Doctor tried to manipulate Ace out of danger, as in "Remembrance of the Daleks" and "Battlefield." Putting others into dangers that he himself won't face just seems ethically contrary to the Doctor as we know the character. So, credit goes to Cartmel for using the radio medium to its full potential. The story would have broken the budget to produce for TV. However, some problematic areas reduce the overall quality.
| What: | Moonflesh (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 25 April 2015 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
"Moonflesh" begins like a closet mystery. There is a pompous upper class jerk who has invited some other pompous upper class jerks for a get-together at his house. In this case, it is to do some sport hunting in 1911, with imported exotic animals as the game. Pompous jerk has a fainthearted daughter. Pompous jerk number 2 is a business owner. He has a wally for a son. Pompous jerk 1 has a Sioux manservant to say the usually vaguely spiritual things. There is also a lesbian feminist determined to do everything a man can do. This seems a fine enough setup for the closet mystery. But that mystery lasts one episode. The "moonflesh" gets released and the story turns into base under siege. All this might be fine, but the way it is dealt with is something else. We have an alien on the run. The alien police arrive to take it away, but they are just trackers, not the actual authorities. This seems placed simply to provide a needless plot twist to keep the otherwise weak story going. Then, there is the "ghost dance" sequence in which the Doctor and the Sioux somehow recreate a ghost dance, which is supposed to induce a meditative state, but here the Doctor and the Sioux go through harrowing encounters with Sioux gods while in the meditative state. It is pretty silly and not at all meditative. To be fair, the actors all give their best efforts and the sound design is very good.
| What: | The Demons of Red Lodge (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 25 April 2015 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
This is another of the anthology series, with four individual stories of one part each. As can be expected with such things, the results are very up and down. First up is "The Demons of Red Lodge" by Jason Arnopp. This is a witches of the 1600s story, except the witches are alien body snatchers. The compression of the story means that things are rather obvious and ideas that should develop do not. Next up is a story from newcomer Rick Briggs, winner of a contest for the opportunity. His story, "The Entropy Composition" is the worst of the bunch. This is a very Paul Magrs kind of story, taking potshots at past pop culture and getting facts wrong to do so (psychedelic rock and progressive rock are not the same thing, and 1968 was just the earliest days of progressive rock, when there was not even such a term). It is also needlessly jokey with large parts of the story designed to be setups for the jokes. "Doing Time" by William Gallagher is the best of the bunch. This story has the Doctor in prison, Nyssa trying to get into prison to rescue him and failing (she just can't be bad no matter how hard she tries), and an intriguing concept of a time barrier to keep the prisoners in. This story is one of the two that feels comfortable at the 20-minute length. The villain, however, is a rather stock character and not very convincing. The last story is "Special Features," which contains the interesting idea of taking place entirely while recording DVD extras commentary. The story also ties back to the first of the four. It is an interesting idea that can work only in the limited time format.
| What: | The Oseidon Adventure (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 16 April 2015 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
This story wraps up the first series of 4th Doctor adventures. As usual, the production team tries to make it feel much bigger than it actually is. The truth is, it feels like a small cast, too small for what the story is intending. The story itself is a classic case of double-bluff. The Master has been working for the Kraals. Or has he? Is he really playing them for suckers to get something else? The script has typical Alan Barnes aspects, such as several impostors and some misplaced jokiness. The performances overall are good, though. Tom Baker has really come back strong. Louise Jameson is thoroughly convincing. And Geoffrey Beevers makes an excellent Master. The story clips along at a great pace. It is entertaining, if nothing else.
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| Perhaps Dicks' Best Novel |
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| What: | Catastrophea (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 5 April 2015 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
"Catastrophea" starts in a disappointingly routine way, but once the Doctor and Jo are on planet, the plot picks up marvelously and just races through to a generally satisfying end. Of course, pace is one of Dicks' strengths. A reader does not realize just how far along he/she has gotten until the reader looks at the page number and sees the advancement. The story itself presents the Doctor with an insoluble problem. The plot itself raises issues that are central to Dicks' concerns - colonialism, political unrest, environmentalism, and international (or interplanetary in this case) politics. We might think of this novel as a bit like what would happen if Joseph Conrad wrote for Doctor Who. Catastrophea is a planet in trouble. Basically a jungle world, humans have set up a rough colony that runs by more or less enslaving the local population, a species of humanoids that act much like elephants - large, strong, placid, pliable, but occasionally going berserk. The corporation that runs the colony has been overly exploitative, leaving a fractured system of local landlords in control. The planet is also home to the only source of a highly addictive illegal drug. The situation has attracted numerous young do-gooders who have no clue about how to organize and actually get any reforms done. Earth authorities have now sent the military and a representative to clean up the situation, but they are not having much success. And, to top it off, the colony is under blockade by a group of glory-seeking Draconians. This is just the basic situation. Add to this that the People, the natives, are not what they seem, and that a looming catastrophe to them means potential destruction of everyone, and you have a truly complicated problem any solution to which will not benefit everyone equally. There is no one person, not even the Doctor, who could make all of it turn out right. Some of the weaknesses are that the smugglers are fairly clichd, providing a handy plot complication but otherwise inessential; the running joke about Rik's bar gets tiresome; and the Draconians probably should have had a stronger presence in the plot. These problems aside, "Catastrophea" is a good read with the right amount of ethical ambiguity in the right places and a realistic outlook on political problems.
