Get ready for some dimensionally transcendental meditation! Qualified hypnotherapist - and former TARDIS traveller - Nicola Bryant will be hosting a ‘Quantum Hypnosis’ session via Zoom on the evening of June 18th at 7pm.

Lie back and let Nicola - who played companion Peri opposite Colin Baker’s Doctor - help you to exchange stress for relaxation, as she takes you on a mental voyage to create resilience and a deep sense of peace. The session will last for approximately one hour. You will need somewhere quiet and relaxing where you can lie down to fully participate. 

Nicola is putting on this unique wellness event to raise money for ‘Dogs on the Street’ and ‘Chimney Farm Rescue’ - two charities close to her heart, dedicated to helping vulnerable canines and their owners. 

Tickets cost £10 and can be purchased from: https://www.outsavvy.com/event/4650/quantum-hypnotherapy-with-nicola-bryant-tickets

[Source: Richard Unwin]

Doctor Who Magazine have sent DWO the cover and details for Issue 552 of DWM.

THE FIRST DOCTOR’S GREATEST ADVENTURES – CHOSEN BY THE READERS OF DWM!

Thirty-two First Doctor stories battled for the top spot in our epic Twitter contest. Which is the fans’ favourite? 

Issue 552 also includes:

•  Series 11 writers Pete McTighe, Vinay Patel and Joy Wilkinson interview each other.
•  Mark Gatiss answers questions from the TARDIS tin.
•  Time and Space Visualiser presents a rare William Hartnell interview, conducted during rehearsals for The Sensorites in 1964.
•  50 brilliant things about Doctor Who – not including Doctor Who!
•  A tribute to Doctor Who writer Pip Baker.
•  A previously unpublished interview with Pip and Jane Baker.
•  The Fact of Fiction explores Parts Nine to Twelve of 1986’s The Trial of a Time Lord.
•  More of DWM’s recommended lockdown viewing, with a guide to stories available on DVD and streaming services.
•  A look at Race Against Time, a game book in the 1986 Make Your Own Adventure with Doctor Who series.
•  A review of The Maze of Doom, the latest Doctor Who book by David Solomons.
•  The final part of The Piggybackers, a new comic-strip adventure featuring the Thirteenth Doctor and her friends.
•  Big Finish previews and reviews, news, prize-winning competitions, The Blogs of Doom and much more!

+  Doctor Who Magazine Issue #552 is out Thursday 28th May, priced £5.99.
+  SUBSCRIBE to Doctor Who Magazine, digitally from just £2.69 a month!
+  Check Out The DWO Guide to Doctor Who Magazine!

[Source: Doctor Who Magazine]

Commencing January 2022, Big Finish will relaunch its regular Doctor Who release schedule as a series of dedicated ranges for each of the first twelve incarnations of the Doctor.  

For more than two decades, Big Finish has been producing brand new Doctor Who audio adventures starring the actors who originated the role on TV; Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, David Tennant and John Hurt.  

In recent years, many new ranges have been introduced to the release schedule, incorporating all of the Doctors’ eras from 1963 to 2017. As the company looks to the future, a revised schedule will see a number of new range additions.  

Senior Producer David Richardson said:

“There are so many exciting new directions ahead. Where did the First Doctor and Dodo go next after leaving the planet of The Savages? What happened to the Second Doctor after The War Games? What new adventures await the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith? What happened on the Seventh Doctor’s Last Day? The adventures are only just beginning...” 

The original Big Finish audio drama range – now called the Monthly Adventures – represents a continuous, unbroken run of new Doctor Who audio adventures, one every month, since 1999. This range, of late featuring adventures for the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors, will end with release number 275. Thereafter, there will be a regular rotation of releases, with each Doctor starring in their own box sets of adventures throughout the year.  

Big Finish chairman and executive producer, Jason Haigh-Ellery said:

“One comment we hear more often from new listeners is that they find it hard to know where to begin with our back catalogue of Doctor Who adventures. This change to our release schedule will make it easier for people to start. With a range for each Doctor, there will be a natural ‘stepping on point’ for fans.”  

Creative director and executive producer, Nicholas Briggs, added:

“As well as making our ranges much less confusing for Big Finish beginners, these changes will allow us more exciting new possibilities and creative freedom.  

By freeing the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors from the constrictions of the Monthly Adventures schedule, and giving them their own distinct ranges, we will be able to introduce more surprising cast combinations, different story lengths, and more story arcs.” 

Big Finish listeners keen to complete their collection of Monthly Adventures should read the following:  

-  A 3-release CD / download subscription will be available, starting from #271, #272 or #273, which should enable the majority of subscribers to extend their subscription to the end of the range. Three-release subscriptions are priced at £32.50 for collector’s edition CDs and £27.50 for downloads. 

-  Any existing subscribers who find themselves unable to purchase #274 or #275 via a combination of the 12/6/3-release options should contact sales@bigfinish.com, who will be able to process their orders offline. 

+  Discuss all the Big Finish releases in the DWO Forums.

[Source: Big Finish]

A new feature for the DWO News page we are thrilled to now include relevant book recommendations from new authors we have discovered. These will include themes that are similar or concurrent with those in Doctor Who and which we think would be of interest to our many readers.

We're pleased to kick off our first recommendation with 'The Loop' by Ben Oliver. Below are the book details, synopsis and purchasing information:

Publisher: Chicken House
Released: 2nd April 2020
Price: £7.99
Ages: 14+ 

CONTROL. ALTER. DELETE.

Luka Kane will die in the Loop, a prison under the control of artificial intelligence. Delays to his execution are granted if Luka submits to medical experiments. Escape is

made impossible by a detonator sewn into his heart.

Trailer:



About the author:

Ben Oliver began writing creatively at age seven, and was promptly placed into the lowest reading and writing group at school. Frustrated by his lack of immediate success, Ben chose to step down from the world of writing. A mere twenty-five years later, and now a high school English teacher, Ben’s first novel The Loop is scheduled to be published in 2020.

+  BUY this title on Amazon!

Do you have a book recommendation that you'd like us to cover? Perhaps you are an author that would love to be featured? Get in touch by emailing the DWO News team at: news@drwho-online.co.uk.

+  Follow @benjamin0liver on Twitter!
+  Follow @DrWhoOnline on Twitter! 

[Source: Doctor Who Online]

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Darren Jones

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: April 2020

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"Violently ejected from the Space-Time Vortex, the TARDIS crash lands on the remote planet of Cygia-Rema, a mountainous world ruled by the bird-like Vultriss. Their newly-crowned Queen Skye is expecting first contact with alien ambassadors – Ice Warriors - and the sudden arrival of the Doctor, Flip and Mrs Constance Clarke causes confusion.

However, Skye is no ordinary ruler, she is the Fabled One gifted with the deadly power of ‘The Cry’. The queen who will enable the Vultriss to fly once again – at any cost.

But as the Doctor investigates why the TARDIS crashed, he discovers that the Vultriss are hiding a deadly secret. An ancient legacy that if left unchecked will plunge half the galaxy into an eternal living end."

WARNING: The following review contains spoilers. You have been warned!

I’ll get the awkward part out of the way now: this is not going to be a positive review. I wish it were. I always find it hard to write a review like this about something like an audio play: some people probably find it easy to do so, but I struggle. The hours that must have been put in by the writer, the director, the actors, the sound designer, the musician. Good intentions run deep in most art, and certainly here nobody has gone out of their way to create something unenjoyable. Also, what one person finds unenjoyable another will delight in, and that’s how it should be: reviews will only ever be subjective. Sadly though, this play failed to land for me in every single way.

We open with a rousing political speech given, promising a population of bird people that good times are ahead. Soon after, we join the TARDIS crew as they sail through the vortex while the Doctor is having a bit of trouble with the controls: so far, so traditional. A callback to Static reminds you how long it has been since this particular TARDIS crew (the Doctor, Flip and Constance Clarke) graced our ears, and it is undoubtedly nice to hear them back as they’ve proven to be a successful team. In fact, I would say that Flip and Constance are far better together than they ever were apart, and perhaps this is one of the play’s problems as they’re separated for much of the play. We lack their spark as they play second-fiddle to a series of uninspiring supporting characters.

Indeed, all the writing and dialogue feels uninspired. At best, it’s gracelessly functional and gets the job done; at worst, it’s overwritten and steeped in cliché. The dialogue is perhaps the greatest offender of the lot with dozens of examples of say-what-you-see writing, which is incredibly grating and unrealistic. I get that you need to paint a picture without visual aids, but it doesn’t work when someone with perfectly fine eyesight tells someone else with equally good eyesight exactly what they can both see, from the position of birds in the sky to rocks that are jutting to the size of places or the design of props. It’s audio exposition at its very worst. Perhaps, like the overall plot, it’s trying to ape a certain style, but to me it felt tired, with twists and turns in the plot flat and predictable.  I’m not sure how that is possible in a play about bird people, political intrigue and Ice Warriors, but here we are.

‘Flat’ also sums up the direction and sound design. This is unusual given how Big Finish usually excel in these matters, but in the opening episode especially it all sounded very studio-bound and lacked sparkle. Early on, the TARDIS crew is attacked by birds and we are told they are attacking from above but there is no indication of this in the sound, just loud squawking with the bare minimum of shift in the stereo field. Again, maybe it’s a feel they are going for: to make this feel televisual in its static soundscape and writing, but it’s a huge miss for me.

From start to finish I found myself clockwatching, wishing the next scene would hurry up and get here. It’s not a nice experience to be listening to a play because you have to, knowing full well that if you did not you’d have given up a long while ago and instead listened to something actually enjoyable instead.

It is tired, boring, overlong (bar the opener, every episode clocks in at over half an hour in length) and obvious, with lacklustre sound design and flat performances from many of the guest cast. I could not in any good conscience recommend this play to anyone. I am sure Cry of the Vultriss will have its fans but for me personally, listening to it made for one of the least enjoyable experiences I have had with Big Finish for quite a while.

+ Cry Of The Vultriss is OUT NOW, priced £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download).

+ ORDER this title on Amazon!