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| What: | Heritage (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 21 December 2021 |
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| Rating: |   7 |
With "Heritage," Dale Smith tries to write Doctor Who as Literature, with a capital L. The novel is counter Doctor Who, choosing "counter" over "anti" because the writer is clearly not against Doctor Who, but rather has chosen to write a narrative against type. Here we get Doctor 7 and Ace both running against type in a way. In a normal Doctor 7 and Ace story, if it runs according to the TV series, The Doctor and Ace would arrive somewhere with The Doctor already planning how to save the world, bringing an eager Ace along for the ride without telling her what the plan is. She will just have to find out on her own and thus grow up a little. In this novel, The Doctor has been dragging around Ace for a while, but has no plan greater than just to look around and visit old friends. He's depressed, silent, and morose. He constantly insists that he cannot and should not get involved, and if it looks like he's going to get involved, then he should just turn around and leave for the next scheduled visit. Ace in this one is still a sort of stereotypical teenager, except here, instead of pleading with the "parent" - "Pleeease tell me what's going on" and making a big, emotional scene, she is a bundle of internalized anger, constantly grumbling and second-guessing herself in the belief that maybe she is being pushed out and forced to learn to deal with problems on her own. Thus, she spends almost all the novel claiming that this Doctor is not the "real" Doctor, and that if he's not going to save the world, then she is, maybe, perhaps not, no, definitely she is. Smith writes the novel mostly as a sequence of internal monologues. We are looking in on the conversations characters have with themselves, in their own heads. The plot for the novel reminds me of the alternative westerns of the 1980s and 1990s, in which everyone hates everyone else, the landscape is all dust and heat, and buried secrets drive everyone to be scared and self-loathing. The plot, as such, has The Doctor bring Ace to the planet Heritage, where he wants to visit his friends the Heyworths. Heritage town is a former mining town, now barely getting along, with a strong "we don't like strangers" vibe. They keep getting told that the Heyworths moved. The Doctor wants to go, even though he strongly suspects the locals are not telling him the truth about the Heyworths, and Ace senses that there's something wrong, definitely a monster vibe going on, and she must set it right. Smith then sets out to undermine numerous Doctor Who tropes: the monsters are not what you think they are, the Doctor does not resolve conflicts through the force of his actions but through the force of his stare, the problem is limited to this one little town and threatens neither this world nor the universe, and so on. The one trope remaining is the mad scientist villain. Smith should get credit for trying something different, even if he does not quite pull it off.
| What: | Cold Vengeance (Tenth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 13 December 2021 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Cold Vengeance is an Ice Warriors story. Pretty much, that tells one all one needs to know. Doctor 10 and Rose land on a cold storage facility the size of a moon. Ice Warriors have awoken, vowing revenge. The base is under siege. The one-hour time limitation for the story means that motives and development are sacrificed for pace. There is the urge to keep the story going fast at all costs. We also get two false endings, just to keep the tension ratcheted high for the duration. Doctor 10 and Rose are a good pairing, as usual. This one would have easily fit as a middle-of-the-season episode on TV.
| What: | Muse of Fire (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 13 December 2021 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
This is a nice surprise - a Paul Magrs script that does not use the word "benighted" even once. While this script does have much of the Magrs whimsicality about it, he manages to keep the story fairly under control. This time out, Magrs has decided to rehabilitate the image of his own alternate Time Lord, Iris Wildthyme. The setting is 1920s Paris, at the height of modernist revolution in the arts, when nearly every important European and American artist lived in or around Paris. Iris seems to be involved in a scheme to rewrite history by removing famous artists from Paris when they are supposed to be there. Of course, The Doctor cannot stand a time meddler who is not himself, so vows to "defeat" her. By the beginning of Part 3, the audience should be clued into what The Doctor is not clued into. There is some fun to be had taking the mickey out of modernism. The story is fairly entertaining without being too taxing on the listener's credulity.
| What: | Brave New Town (Eighth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 13 December 2021 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Brave New Town has an interesting idea to work with. In this series, Big Finish seem to have taken Doctor Who back to the days where there is a mystery to solve, and the answer is not quite what the audience might think. I like my Doctor Who this way for the most part. What drags down Brave New Town is the length restriction, which forces a very quick ending that leaves behind too many questions.
| What: | Max Warp (Eighth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 13 December 2021 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
I have to say that I really dislike the new mashup Doctor Who theme for this series. I much prefer the previous Doctor 8 theme. That aside, Max Warp is a fun ride, a parody of Top Gear as it was in the early 2000s. Much of this will be lost on subsequent generations who do not know who is being parodied and are perhaps unaware of Top Gear, which was a much bigger program in audience share when this episode was written than it is now. Graeme Garden is excellent as the overbearing lead presenter.
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 | The Main Concept Needs Work |
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| What: | Dead London (Eighth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 13 December 2021 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Dead London has an interesting mystery to begin with, as The Doctor and Lucie get separated by time. The explanation for all this at the end does not make all that much sense. The problem is that if all this is a mental landscape, that the characters are in another character's mind, then how is it a physical manifestation as well? How come the transported humans have to remain in this landscape while The Doctor and Lucie can just escape? How did the TARDIS get in here in the first place? There are plenty more unanswered questions.
| What: | Citadel of Dreams (Telos novellas) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 6 December 2021 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
The Telos novellas were pitched as a way to take Doctor Who into areas that were not allowable in the ordinary publishing media. David Stone's contribution, the second in the series, really takes this idea and runs with it. Those expecting a standard Doctor Who adventure will be alarmed by what is in this book. In essence, Stone has written a story almost entirely using internal monologue, nearly stream of consciousness, from the perspective of one character, mostly. There are some bits in which we get Ace's thoughts. Thus, because they are not the central point of view, The Doctor and Ace only occasionally appear, and do not become important until late in the story. They also appear as otherworldly beings, distant and aloof. The story itself involves the decay of a city that seems to be a mishmash of different versions of itself in time. The story jumps back and forth across two "zones," with occasional dips into other ones. Thus, it is all quite a bit confusing at first, before gradually coalescing. It is a valiant, though flawed, effort in writing Doctor Who differently.
| What: | Blood on Santa's Claw (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 29 November 2021 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
This is a Christmas story somewhat closer to New Who tone and style than Classic Who. We start kind of in medias res, with Peri having picked up a boyfriend. The Doctor is not too keen on the lad, and who can blame him? Joe is rather a timid and uninteresting guy, not at all the type who deserves Peri. So, the story goes rather domestic, with questions of how this trio is going to work out. The first story has them visit a planetoid in which majority religions get to dominate other religions. However, "religion" now qualifies as belief in almost anything, and so here we get the Shakespeare worshipers lording it over the Wind in the Willows worshipers. It's somewhat daft. Next, the TARDIS crew are investigating an outfit that creates robot designer children. Again, we start in the middle, with events that happened before not dramatized but merely referred to. As part of the investigation, Peri gets to experience life with children, which rather gets her maternal instincts into high gear. The third story finds the crew arriving at what seems to be a perpetual Christmas party. However, things are not what they seem. To avoid spoilers, I won't describe story four, but suffice to say that all four are neatly rolled into one. Writer Nev Fountain seems prone to insert humor when pathos is required. The whole thing, like the New Who Christmas specials, is entertaining without being too taxing.
| What: | Relative Dementias (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 23 November 2021 |
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| Rating: | 5 |
This novel reads like a piece of fan fiction. The writer has pulled out a few formula plot bits typical of Doctor Who and added some timey-wimey to make it seem clever. The plot involves Doctor 7 and Ace going to retrieve some of The Doctor's mail on Earth. He gets a card from a UNIT scientific advisor who seems to be a replacement Liz Shaw about some strange goings on at an Alzheimer's clinic in Scotland. So, they head to Dumfries, where indeed strange things are happening at Graystairs. The plot then proceeds through Ace getting chased in a spaceship, getting chased on an island, and getting chased in the forest. After all this running around, she and the reader are little wiser about what is going on than they were before all the running around happened. We also get over-emotional Ace, who is alternately petulant and mad at The Doctor, then his most loyal supporter. Ace is not the only character who goes through these oppositional mood swings that happen when the plot seems to be slowing down, thus giving it an artificial kick start. Additionally, there is one heck of a lot of sneaking in and out of Graystairs, the most unguarded base for alien incursion there has ever been. Really, the book seems to have been written on the A.E. van Vogt plan of jamming in some plot twist every 2000 words and never mind if the twist makes little sense. And, to top it all off, we get a whole new set of UNIT characters with no mention of any of the old ones. But these UNIT characters are soppy and emotional, which is what Michalowski seems to think is needed for "realism." Therefore, the reader is awarded with a long diatribe against The Doctor along the old saw that whenever he shows up, people die, so therefore it must all be his fault. It is sort of like blaming the ambulance crew, because after all when they show up people often die. It amazes me that so few can see how ridiculous this blame The Doctor thinking really is. So, ultimately, the novel is just not competently written.
Big Finish brought back Lucie Miller, but since she's dead, they had to create stories that fit within the already finished series. So, we get four stories that occur right after the end of Human Resources. There is a general story arc, important only in story 1 and story 4. In other respects, each of these is a standalone episode, each having a different writer. Story 1 is The Dalek Trap by Nicholas Briggs. This one finds some Daleks, a couple of lost space travellers, The Doctor and Lucie, trapped just inside the event horizon of a black hole, slowly losing their memories and coming under the influence of "The Darkness." This all has something to do with something The Doctor did long ago. The story is mostly a Lucie story, re-establishing the character and justifying her as a worthy companion. Story 2 is The Revolution Game. It's a mixture of Roller Ball and Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Word for World is Forest." This is the story meant to be both fun and serious. Story 3 is the least effective in my view. The House on the Edge of Chaos is a kind of haunted house in outer space, with extreme Downton Abbey overtones. Story 4 brings it back together. Island of the Fendahl returns us to "Image of the Fendahl," sort of. Alan Barnes has decided to write it as a full-on no hiding it pastiche of "The Wicker Man." Are there any islands off the coast of the main British isle that still contain an obnoxious inbred populace devoted to sacrificial pagan rituals? If so, why does the British government not do something about it? The story does close the circuit on the series. This collection does what it says on the box - it gives us adventures of Lucie Miller. Those who love Lucie Miller will probably love this collection. I find that the one-hour format for stories can still be quite limiting in terms of characterization and thematic development.
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| Decent Ideas, but Too Short |
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| What: | Black Thursday / Power Game (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 2 November 2021 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Here we have one of the 2 for 1 series, 2 stories in 1 package. The stories are very Kamelion focused, and so what happens is not too surprising. The first story, "Black Thursday" is a historical set in a Welsh coal mining town in 1902. Involvement in a mining accident causes the emotions of a recent widow to overwhelm Kamelion's programming. The TARDIS crew must track him down before he does serious damage. This tone of Kamelion being a liability carries into story 2, a science-fiction romp in which an alien is using a fake television game show to recruit unwilling humans to her dirty work. The TARDIS crew have gone off in 1980s Liverpool to track down Kamelion, who has wandered off. Is there a relationship to this TV game show? Again, the story is entertaining, though it gets a little too far-fetched toward the end. Both stories, to my mind, would probably have been better as 4-parters.
| What: | Human Resources: Part 2 (Eighth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 2 November 2021 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Part 2 of "Human Resources" finds our heroes now out to face the Cybermen. It follows the pattern of Cybermen stories, conquer and convert. So, while this is going on, we still have the resolution of the Lucie story to work out. Why was she so interesting to our recruiter for the aliens? Why did the Time Lords take her out of time? Just how involved is the Head Hunter in all this? The details are nicely worked out. The main story is just a little predictable, once it becomes a Cyberman story. Still, the totality of "Human Resources" makes for good Doctor Who.
| What: | Human Resources: Part 1 (Eighth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 2 November 2021 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
As the season finale, "Human Resources" works very well. Big Finish has brought Paul McGann back to playing The Doctor as The Doctor, without so much of the ennui and anguish that was typical of the Charlie and C'rizz days. In part 1, Lucie gets taken back to the job was interviewing for when she was snatched out of time. However, something is not quite right about the setup. The Doctor extracts a promise from the High Council of Gallifrey to fix his TARDIS and in return, he will track her down. It turns out, she was a pawn in the constant rangling between the High Council and the CIA. But, is there more to it than that? Of course there is. Part 1 works very well as the setup for Part 2.
| What: | The Beautiful People (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 1 November 2021 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
"The Beautiful People" would have sat very well in Doctor Who 1979. It's slightly satirical, joke-filled, and not too taxing on the brain cells. That said, the story plays out fairly well, following the logic of an evil genius who takes dieting to the extreme. Lala Ward is a very good reader, keeping the pace going and not overdoing the impressions. Fans of the Graham Williams / Douglas Adams variety of Doctor Who will like this one.
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| A mystery in the bloodline |
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| What: | Tomb Ship (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Jared Star, Portsmouth, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 27 October 2021 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This episode didn't enamor me as much as I thought it would at first, but it takes up until the ending for the listener to fully appreciate this one. This is an adventure, through and through!
This Indiana Jones-styled adventure in space did not disappoint when the final credits rolled, but it did take a bit of work to get there. I couldn't tell some of the characters apart and the audio mixing had a few issues, but those are minor on the whole. The biggest issue this story faced was the fact that it was too visual. Not only with the setting, but the whole idea of tomb-styled booby traps doesn't work the best in audio. On paper it's great, and the scriptwriters did their best with it, but it slowed down the pace a little too much during some places. However, as you get further along into the story, you realize that you are there less for the traps, and more for the twists. Said twists aren't on a "World Enough & Time" level, but they infused an interesting bit of drama that I was keen to hear play out.
The biggest draw for this episode is the ending. It took me until the final 10 minutes to realize that all I had listened to beforehand was buildup. The climax of the story was expertly acted, The sound design was immaculate, and the music was phenomenal. It had an intensity to it that too few monthly stories attempt. Like I said at the beginning, this is an adventure, through and through. As the cast grew and shrank, motives learned, and loved ones lost, you really get a sense of how much had happened in the past 2 hours. Other audios may feel like standstills or like not much happens (looking at you, "Scavenger"), but this story kept moving and everything culminated into a stellar ending!
Side note: For context, there is a character in this episode that was originally introduced in the previous story "Moonflesh." It's not critical to know who she is, but that is where she is from. This is technically her trilogy, though, she doesn't appear until very late into the story.
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| Great, just needed to be more confident |
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| What: | Tales from New Earth (Miscellaneous audio dramas) |
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| By: | Jared Star, Portsmouth, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 27 October 2021 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Great set, just needed more confidence in itself
This set did a really great job at expanding the world of New Earth. Both inside New New York and beyond. It really takes a great approach to expand upon the different religions and species that were introduced in episodes like “New Earth” and “Gridlock.” It has more of a Companion Chronicles approach to its production (partly narrative, partly acted). Being a fan of that series, it was easy to slip into that format. Plus, having a series set in a Doctor Who location, but without the Doctor, himself is a cool idea. Until the Doctor actually popped in, that is.
I was invested in seeing the inexperienced Devon grow over the four-hour box set and really come into his own, but unfortunately, the Doctor won’t let him. When the Doctor comes in, he completely takes center stage and Devon is stuck in the role of secondary companion (as the second main character of the episode usually does more than him). I even forgot Devon was there at some points when Tennant’s incarnation took over. You can tell 10 was just thrown in because Big Finish was worried the box set wouldn’t sell. But honestly, it doesn’t need him there for any of the episodes, much less two of them.
My favorite from the box set is the last story, “The Cats of New Cairo.” It really invested me in the world-building and the hierarchy of cats. Plus, it felt like a properly epic conclusion. It was exciting hearing the main villain shout to all the underlings, and even though you can’t see anything, you get a very clear picture of how screwed the world is going to be! There are some places of patchwork in the episode and the denouement is rushed, but that doesn’t detract from the episode much. The rest of the audio definitely makes up for it.
Now, I will give a few notices. If you are sensitive to PC stuff, you’ll be fine with this set. The main character is gay, but he’s an actual character and not used as a political concept. He’s written very maturely.
For those that swing the other way, I will put out a trigger warning. This set deals in the “bury your gays” trope. It’s not just there to be there, it does have a narrative purpose as fuel for Devon’s character, but it is still there and something the entire box set is kinda reliant on. This one might be worth a skip if that bothers you.
All in all, this is not a “blow your socks off” story, but it is a lot better and deeper than what people who haven’t listened to it give it credit for. The characters are fun, the stories are consistent, and it’s easy to re-listen to. I recommend trying this one if you see it on a sale sometime.
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| Overall, strong run, but a few nitpicks |
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| What: | The Weeping Angels of Mons (Titan graphic novels) |
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| By: | Jared Star, Portsmouth, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 27 October 2021 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
My review will be of each of the stories separately...
1) THE WEEPING ANGELS OF MONS: Many believe that the Weeping Angels will never reach the menace they first had during “Blink,” but this story takes a remarkable stab at it!
The DW comics universe gives us this beautiful, gritty, and fantastically drawn WWII story with aliens. Seriously, the art style is great here. The hard lines add a gritty feeling that is contrasted by both previous releases and future ones too. It helps tell the story and is stand-out. This is my favorite visual representation of WWII.
There isn’t a large and complex story filled with multiple plot twists in this comic. It’s a straight action-adventure piece with some horror elements. We are in WWII, here are your characters, there are Weeping Angels, go!
Everything felt even, the characters were nice, and the way that this story utilized the Angels was unexpectedly clever. I was literally sitting there thinking; “Okay. This is bad. How are they going to get out of this one?” And then something unexpected, but completely logical happened and it got me strangely excited. I literally started whooping and cheering in my room. That shows how powerful and intense these comics can be.
The only downside to this comic is David Tennent’s exuberance being exaggerated again. He feels like Matt Smith more than he does David Tennent here, as most Doctor Who media outside the TV show tends to do (Yes, that includes Big Finish, which is why “Death and the Queen” is poor. Check out my old review on it).
Overall, if you are looking for a place to start the DW comics, or are a little iffy about 10’s adventures, I would give you this as my recommendation! Volumes one and two are great and this is my favorite comic story yet! Excited to see what happens in the third installment!
9/10
2) ECHO: You ever heard of Technobabble?
Following up the mature, gritty, and long "The Weeping Angels of Mons" (which was pretty fantastic), we have this rushed little mess of an otherwise neat premise. Essentially, Gabby goes back to Earth to visit her family and the duo uncover a strange phenomenon where people can't stop screaming. It's a neat idea that could have made for an intriguing read, but the previous story didn't leave the artists enough pages to flesh it out correctly.
The alien explanation behind everything is in-your-face and turns what could've been a slowly building mystery into a non-stop action piece. During the action, the Doctor reams lines and lines of random technobabble to explain what the aliens are, the weapons they are using, and what their plan is. It's basically a Wikipedia page, but with one or two more explosions than your average encyclopedia. Then, the duo travels to one location and magically fix everything with the wave of the sonic screwdriver... I usually like the sonic screwdriver, but the comics are more and more just using it as a scapegoat.
Although, this isn't a total trainwreck. The art here is stunning. It really shows off the team's capabilities after going from a gritty and bleak warzone to a sprawling cityscape featuring glowing alien whales. The visual of peoples' screams being stolen from their bodies was unsettling and very well handled. The tone is constructed perfectly through the visuals, but the script doesn't match it. The action, while rushed, was kind of fun too. Plus, Gabby was on top form here. I really like her character. In just a few stories she seems so capable of being in the Doctor's world for the long run.
All in all, the only real downside to this story is that there wasn't enough of it.
7/10
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| A cinematic audio drama? HECK YES!! |
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| What: | The Middle (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Jared Star, Portsmouth, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 27 October 2021 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
Can I call an Audio Drama cinematic? That doesn’t matter because I will definitely use that word to describe this one. The setting is novel for Doctor Who and there really isn’t anything like it in New Who, Classic Who, or even the audios before and after this. It’s set in a sprawling, colorful, and beautiful futuristic city and it stays in that elegance for the entirety of the audio. Not once does it have characters run down gloomy corridors, or explore the slums. It keeps the beautiful, cinematic feel all the way to the end.
This is a story that takes a weird concept and runs with it. Initially, it seems like a basic euthanasia plot, but then a striking twist happens concerning “the end” that took me by surprise. I won’t spoil it, but it did feel a bit absurd upon first listening. Yet, over time they take this laughable concept and add just enough seriousness to it that I actually believed it. The cliffhanger of part 3 is what made me enjoy the concept of the end much more than I had previously.
This is the first episode I’ve heard with Flip or Constance and the fact that they are broken up gave me a great idea of what they were like without one overtaking another. I love these kinds of stories that seed companions or even the Doctor into the normal, everyday life of the world they are on and have each work on the inside. My only problem is that I wish this concept was pushed further.
As is surprisingly frequent with Big Finish, the ending was poor. The last 10 minutes or so were tacked on, messy, and took away from the original plot rather than create a great ending for it. It wasn't the worst ending, but it did end up being a bit of an annoyance really. That being said, this is still a sensational audio drama that puts you in the mindset of one of the most beautiful cinematic landscapes you can imagine!
| What: | Resolution (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Jared Star, Portsmouth, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 27 October 2021 |
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| Rating: | 2 |
Here we are promised to have a sprawling, earth-shaking epic, but most of the run-time has the companions and the Doctor being stuck in the TARDIS, while Ryan berates his father.
The tone was all over the place. From boring soap opera to boring “sci-fi.” It did, however, have an excellent beginning. The Dalek loose in the sewer was creepy and well implemented, and the idea of it taking over human bodies was genius. I seriously loved that bit, and wanted that to be the whole episode. Sadly, that’s not the case. What does happen instead is the Dalek leaves the sewers and tries to rebuild its casing on an earth junkyard. This sends us into a boring new plot.
I literally laughed out loud when the junkyard Dalek was on screen because it looks stupid. Also, I want to point out that there is no way that a Dalek could build a new, fully functioning, missile-loaded battle tank in less than an hour in an abandoned shed. Plus, I think it’s absurd that it was blown up by a bomb fashioned out of a microwave at the end. It is so tacky and last minute.
This episode was also played for laughs most of the time but in a very forced manner. Specifically, the one-liner told about drunk people on New Year. I also hated how the show completely got rid of UNIT in the stupidest joke possible. The entirety of series 11 tries too hard to be too new and “relatable.” Most of the damage this series has done is irreparable. UNIT cannot come back now (or at least it can’t in a way that doesn’t feel like “Uh oh, we screwed up. Put them back in, put them back in the show!”)
Honestly, there is so much wrong with this and series 11 as a whole, I cannot describe it all here. So, I will instead talk about what could have made this episode good: Having everyone stay in the sewer and split up. One by one everyone is taken over by the Dalek as it tries to learn more about the Doctor. Making this a slow-burning horror story would have been the best way to go, especially since that is how it starts (only for it to take a hard shift in tone that lasts the rest of this snooze-fest).
So to sum up, stupid overpowered Dalek that’s blown up by a microwave, and people on New Year having their WiFi shut down for a little while as the high stakes...
At least it looks pretty.
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| This is a beautiful piece of work |
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| What: | Arrangements for War (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Jared Star, Portsmouth, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 27 October 2021 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
It's a Doctor Who episode that takes you on a roller-coaster of emotions in the 2 hours it presents you. It's a story that involves itself with the world it created instead of trying to blindly chase a plot. I always love stories that focus on characters and takes their time with them. Having the Doctor and friends live in an alien world instead of solving things in one visit.
The story doesn't try to pander to audiences with unnecessary action. It really wants you to care about what the characters are feeling. Evelyn especially, as she goes through the wringer with this one. It is an emotional experience worth purchasing. I found it surprisingly easy to re-listen as well. It's certainly one to save when you want to feel and not just be led down dingy corridors with a monster trailing the titular heroes.
If I had to make a criticism, the majority of the final act does play out exactly like a Shakespearean tragedy. If you are a fan of those then you will love this, if you aren't, you might find it a bit corny. However, it doesn't detract from the rest of the audio and the denouement is so poetic and subtle. It's a nice break from the intense action intense emotion episodes that try too hard to make you cry.
The revelations with Evelyn in this story are also extraordinary and unexpected (at least to me). I won't spoil it, but it is well delivered and well-acted. Which is exactly how I would sum up this gorgeous audio, well delivered and well-acted.
