Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Alan Barnes

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: June 2019

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"A space-time summons brings the TARDIS to the strangest place Mags has yet visited. A haven for the freakiest freaks and the weirdest weirdoes: Camden Lock, London, in the early 1990s.

But there's a reason why former TARDIS traveller Ace has brought the old gang back together. She’s on a mission to rescue an alien being, held prisoner in a massive mansion…

A mission that can’t possibly go wrong. Can it? "

An Alien Werewolf in London is the final story in this trilogy of stories featuring Mags, this time with Ace along for the ride. Believe it or not, that’s about all I can say without straying further into spoiler territory, so brief is the CD blurb. Keeping that in mind, what follows will contain spoilers so you may want to just skip ahead to the score without context or read this after listening.

With that in mind, let’s carry on. Werewolf is a slightly weird release; on the one hand, there is much to praise: it’s a decent enough plot, using time travel and double-bluffing rather well and the title is an amusing enough pun. In short, it’s an entertaining enough play that doesn’t feel like it has ever outstayed its welcome, despite episodes running over the 30 minute marker. The continual pop cultural references don’t really work, mind, not feeling true to the era, and the music utterly swamps everything, relying on only a couple of cues over and over again, an issue I had last month, too. The direction feels a bit off, too, with notable pauses between lines at times that kills the flow dead.

Enemy-wise, we’re back in one of Doctor Who’s favourite territories: vampires. Okay, so they don’t like to be called vampires, but we all know what they are. I suppose there was a certain inevitability about vampires and werewolves coming together in the end, but it’s done fairly well here.

Sadly though, the issue that has plagued this trilogy since the start is here again: just who is Mags beyond “I’m a werewolf and I’d rather not be”? I still don’t know, three plays and a television story in.

I mentioned in previous reviews for this trilogy that Mags was essentially a well-acted plot point back in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, and though the plot point has changed now (from “I am trapped and secretly a werewolf” to “I am a werewolf and I feel trapped”), I do not know her character. She wants a cure and feels like an outsider because she changes but, again, that’s not really a great deal to go on. That’s the sketchy, one-sentence pitch to potential writers.

Alan Barnes, the play’s writer and the outgoing script editor for most of the main range, says that bringing back Mags was always on his “to do” list, but I’m still unsure just why he was. On paper, a werewolf looking for a cure could be fun, but it strikes me as fuel for a spin-off comic book series instead of a great idea for an ongoing companion.

Nothing in this trilogy had persuaded me otherwise. Jessica Martin puts in her best performance as Mags by a mile here in this play, and we end not with a conclusion but a potential continuation of the storyline, only I’m not sure ‘continuation’ is the right word. We haven’t moved anywhere. We end up how we started, only with Mags in the TARDIS instead of on a planet.

In the end, I just feel torn. The opening and closing plays of the trilogy are enjoyable enough; enough to ensure this one gets a healthy score out of 10, despite my niggles with the direction and music, but that one word keeps coming back to me: why?

Why bring Mags back? Just who is this trilogy for: what is the audience Big Finish are aiming for? I’m utterly baffled.

Mags, we hardly knew thee. I’m not sure any of the writers really did, either.

+ An Alien Werewolf In London is OUT NOW, priced £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download).

+ ORDER this title on Amazon!

To celebrate the return of Doctor Who in early 2020, BBC Books will publish Star Tales; a unique collection of name-dropping historical adventures inspired by Jodie Whittaker’s first series as the Doctor.

The Doctor is many things – curious, funny, brave, protective of her friends... and a shameless name-dropper. While she and her companions battled aliens and travelled across the universe, the Doctor hinted at a host of previous, untold adventures with the great and the good: we discovered she got her sunglasses from Pythagoras (or was it Audrey Hepburn?); lent a mobile phone to Elvis; had an encounter with Amelia Earhart where she discovered that a pencil-thin spider web can stop a plane; had a 'wet weekend' with Harry Houdini, learning how to escape from chains underwater; and more.

In this collection of new stories, Star Tales takes you on a rip-roaring ride through history, from 500BC to the swinging 60s, going deeper into the Doctor's notorious name-dropping and revealing the truth behind these anecdotes.

The book will feature 6 brand new stories, detailing the Doctor's untold adventures with famous figures in history - Audrey Hepburn, Elvis Presley, Harry Houdini, Amelia Earhart, Albert Einstein and Pythagoras, written by Steve Cole, Jenny T Colgan, Jo Cotterill, Paul Magrs, Trevor Baxendale and Mike Tucker.

For those who can’t wait until 5th December, two chapters will be available for download as e-shorts a month prior to publication. 

+  Doctor Who: Star Tales is released on 5th December 2019, priced £12.99.
+  PREORDER this title at Amazon.co.uk!
 

[Source: Penguin Random House]

BBC Studios continues to offer Doctor Who fans the opportunity to build their own home archive on Blu-ray. The first jam-packed release for Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor, Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 23, debuts on Monday 23rd September.

In 1985, Doctor Who was taken off the air for an 18 month hiatus. When it returned, it was with an ambitious fourteen-episode adventure, The Trial of a Time Lord. The epic story saw the Doctor on trial for his life, with the court examining his adventures with companion Peri (Nicola Bryant) and looking to his future escapades with new companion Melanie (Bonnie Langford).

This season saw the return of popular villain Sil, along with the Master, the towering robot Drathro and the plant-based Vervoid monsters. With the Inquisitor (Lynda Bellingham) overseeing the proceedings, it was the Valeyard (Michael Jayston) who proved the greatest threat, hiding his own sinister motives for wanting the Doctor’s downfall.

With all episodes newly remastered from the best available sources, this Blu-ray box set also contains extensive and exclusive special features which include:

+ Extended edits - of all fourteen episodes
+ Terror of the Vervoids - four-part standalone edition with updated Fx
+ Immersive 5.1 surround sound & isolated scores - on all 14 broadcast episodes
+ Behind the Sofa - new episodes with Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Bonnie Langford, Mark Strickson, Frazer Hines and Matthew Waterhouse
+ The Writers’ Room - Eric Saward, Philip Martin, Christopher H Bidmead & Waly K Daly discuss the ‘Lost’ Season 23
+ The Doctor Who Cookbook Revisited - brave cast members tackle their original recipes from the 1980s official cookbook
+ The Doctor’s Table - join Colin Baker and friends for dinner
+ In Conversation - Matthew Sweet chats to companion Bonnie Langford
+ Unseen studio footage
+ Rare archive treats
+ Convention footage
+ Blu-ray trailer
+ HD photo galleries
+ Scripts, costume designs & more in the PDF Archive

The six-disc box set also includes hours of extensive special features previously released on DVD.

View the announcement trailer for the box-set in the player, below:
[youtube:f-hWKv9ExtY]
Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 23 stars Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Bonnie Langford with Michael Jayston and Lynda Bellingham. Guest appearances include Anthony Ainley, Nalbil Shaban, Joan Sims, Christopher Ryan, Michael Craig, Honor Blackman, Tony Selby and Geoffrey Hughes.

+ PREORDER this title from Amazon.co.uk for just £38.99 (RRP: £56.16)!

[Source: BBC Studios]

Character Options is delighted to announce a new series of exclusive Doctor Who toys that will be available later this summer from local B&M stores (UK variety retailer). Full details of the product line-up (with images) will be revealed in the coming weeks but here’s a small taster of what will be available.

Fans of the Doctor’s Sonic Screwdrivers will be able to get their hands on a heritage set of three popular incarnations. The new blister-pack series will include electronic versions, inspired by the 50th anniversary episode, of the Tenth, Eleventh and War Doctor’s sonics.

For action figure fans, Character Options presents a set of three unique Doctor & Dalek Twin Packs, inspired by the Doctor Who audio series from Big Finish. This includes a brand new take on the Eighth Doctor, plus the Dalek Interrogator Prime, as featured in Big Finish audio book story In the Garden of Death. The two additional Doctor and Daleks sets to be released from this range will feature the Seventh and War Doctors respectively.

This year there will be not one, but two new TARDIS & Doctor sets released, each with a completely new take on both the Doctor and the blue box, inspired by adventures spanning the 1970s and 1980s. 

To complete the summer line-up there are three brand new collector sets with a range of three figures in each, inspired by the Classic adventures of the Second, Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors.  

Al Dewar, Creative Director at Character Options commented:

“We are delighted to announce this first taster of what’s to come from our B&M stores Doctor Who toy range. To reveal the visuals of these brand new products, we plan to do a full unveiling live, which will take place ‘unboxing style’ on Character Options’ own Youtube channel in July; details of the time and date will be announced."

[Source: Character Options]

Publisher: Spaceboy Books LLC

Written By: M. Drewery

RRP: £10.68 (Paperback) / £2.14 (Kindle)

Reviewed by: Sebastian J. Brook

Review Posted: 5th June 2019

We're not usually fans of apocalyptic stories; they're not exactly light reading and the running theme tends to feel a little worn by the time you've reached the (literal) end. That wasn't the case for M. Drewery's 'Stolen Futures', however - in fact, never have we read a story within this genre that had so much heart and soul.

"Callum Tasker isn’t special. He isn’t a genius, or a star athlete. He’s not unique. But he, along with 257 other ordinary kids from around the globe, has been assigned to a spaceship that will flee an alien attack on the Earth. Callum will leave everything behind; his family, his friends, his country, to give humanity a new beginning on a new home world."

The opening chapter throws you right into the action, but balanced with all this action is a tender and heart-breaking story of a boy being ripped from his family. Every scene is painted with such rich colour through description and emotion, that you feel a connection to Callum very early on. It is genuine, lump-in-throat reading, before you are hurtled off into a rip-roaring adventure that doesn't stop for one minute. At its heart, this story is about growing up, making important decisions and, of course, saving humankind!

Together with a continuous switch-up in the narrative, as well as some intelligent use of the author's sci/tech knowledge, Stolen Futures never fails to keep your attention. Just when you think you need to put the book down to continue with your real life tasks, it pulls you back in and makes you want to keep reading.

It is clear that the author is a science fiction fan, and whilst there are moments that will have you thinking of scenes from some of your favourites like Star Wars or even Doctor Who, make no mistake that this is very much its own thing - it's dripping in confidence and drive.

We don't want to spoil the ending, but what we can say is that the future looks very bright more more stories in the Stolen Futures universe (or should that be multiverse)? :)

M. Drewery has crafted a thoroughly fantastic story that is screaming out for a movie or tv series! Cannot wait to see what's next from this author!

+  Stolen Futures is Out Now!
+  Buy this book from Amazon.co.uk!
+  Follow M. Drewery on Twitter.

BBC Studios is pleased to announce that The Faceless Ones will be the next animated Doctor Who release, filling a gap in missing content. Following the success of The Power Of The Daleks, Shada and The Macra Terror, The Faceless Ones will be released on DVD, Blu-Ray and as an exclusive steelbook next year. Pre-order is available now from Amazon.

The Faceless Ones is the mostly missing eighth serial of the fourth season in Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from April-May 1967. Starring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, the story concerns a race of identity-stealing aliens known as the Chameleons. 

Only two of the six episodes are held in the BBC film archives with snippets of footage and still images existing from the other four. Off-air recordings of the soundtrack also still exist, making the animation of a complete serial possible once again.

The six new animated episodes are being made in full colour and high definition and will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2020. The DVD/Blu-ray release will also include surviving archive material from the original 1967 production.

Check out the announcement trailer in the player, below:
[youtube:tAMAxBFJBvE]
+ PREORDER this title on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk! 

[Source: BBC Studios]