Michelle Gomez, who played the Doctor’s best friend and wicked enemy, Missy, in the recent Doctor Who television series, will be returning to the role in some brand new audio adventures from Big Finish Productions made in arrangement with BBC Studios.

Throughout her time on Doctor Who, Missy – an evil incarnation in the guise of a Victorian nanny – was a delightful devil, at one point sentenced to death for terrible crimes against the universe. And now we get the chance to hear more of what she is really capable of. 

These new adventures see an unleashed Missy bringing the universe to wrack and ruin. We can’t wait for its release in February 2019!

Michelle, speaking about her return said:

“I was very excited to return to Missy’s world via the medium of audio because along the way I’ve always had a lot of fun with Missy; her voices and her rhythms. I absolutely love capturing it and distilling it down to the word on the page. I’m absolutely delighted! She’s such a ridiculously brilliant character, and hopefully that earns her that moment in the spotlight. To find myself centre stage with these Missy adventures is thrilling – I’m very grateful.”

And (whilst evading the Doctor’s clutches) Missy will encounter another enemy of her ‘boyfriend’ as she crosses paths with the Meddling Monk played by Rufus Hound.

David Richardson, producer of these adventures, said:

“Missy’s own series is just like the Time Lady herself – anarchic, funny, unpredictable and wildly imaginative. It’s absolutely glorious to have Michelle returning to the character at Big Finish, and our recording days have been filled with so much laughter. And we haven’t even met face to face yet! Michelle’s busy filming the new Sabrinaseries in Vancouver for Netflix and so we’ve been pairing studios down the line; Michelle thousands of miles away while we’re in London synched up with her. It’s been a joy to make. And just wait until you hear the collaboration of Missy and the Meddling Monk!”

Jason Haigh-Ellery, executive producer, said:

“Having Michelle Gomez return to Big Finish is wonderful – a lovely lady who was magnificent as Missy in the past couple of seasons of Doctor Who.”  

Executive Producers: Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Producer: David Richardson

Script Editor: Matt Fitton

Director: Ken Bentley

Pricing:
 

Pre-order: £23 (CD box set) / £20 (Download) from www.bigfinish.com

General Release: £35 (CD box set) / £30 (Download) from www.bigfinish.com

Big Finish online: 

Website: www.bigfinsih.com
Twitter: @BigFinish
Facebook: Facebook.com/TheBigFinish
Instagram: @BigFinishProd

[Source: Big Finish]

Doctor Who Magazine have sent DWO the cover and details for Issue 530 of DWM.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JODIE WHITTAKER, PLUS PREVIEWS OF HER FIRST TWO EPISODES – ONLY IN DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE!

DWM meets Jodie on the set of the new series: “I don’t ever forget what I’m a part of because Doctor Who’s been around much longer than I have,” she says. “But every part of this experience is to make it my own.”

Also in this issue...

CHRIS CHIBNALL
The latest update from Doctor Who’s showrunner.

WHO’S CREW
Meet the team responsible for bringing the new series to our screens.

MATT BERRY
He’s best known for his sitcom appearances, but Matt Berry is reinterpreting the Doctor Who theme for his new record. 

TARDIS EVOLUTION
Secrets of the TARDIS control room revealed!

COSPLAY
A meticulous recreation of the torn coat worn by the Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors in Twice Upon a Time and The Woman Who Fell to Earth.

THE SEVATEEM
An interview with Christian Erickson, whose new concept album is inspired by The Caves of Androzani.

THE CLOCKWISE WAR
The Twelfth Doctor’s final DWM strip adventure comes to a shattering conclusion.

THE TIME TEAM
The Time Team watches four very different episodes in an effort to discover what the First Doctor was really like.

THE FACT OF FICTION
In-depth analysis of the 2006 Tenth Doctor story School Reunion.

PLUS...
The Blogs of Doom, reviews, news, a huge prize-winning competition and much, much more!

***

A deluxe edition of this issue is also available, exclusive to WHSmith. As well as the regular edition, it includes:

SERIES 11 GUIDE featuring new interviews with Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill

DOCTOR WHO CD from Big Finish

FOUR DOUBLE-SIDED ART CARDS of the Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yasmin

A MASSIVE, DOUBLE-SIDED POSTER featuring scenes from the new series

FOUR DOCTOR WHO DOWNLOADS from Big Finish and BBC Audio

+  Doctor Who Magazine Issue #530 is on sale from Thursday 20th September, priced £5.99 (regular edition) / £9.99 (deluxe edition).
+  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]

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Una McCormack

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: August 2018

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"London, 2017. Except... it isn't. Berlin, 1961. But it isn't that either. Not really. Not in the timeline the Doctor knows. Something is very wrong.

While Ace tries to save the life of a wounded British spy, Mel and the Doctor must get to grips with the modern day socialist Republic of Mokoshia. For Mel it feels strangely familiar and 'right', which makes the Doctor feel even more uneasy.

Soon, a message from a dark and blood-soaked distant future is on its way... But the Doctor will have to act fast to stop this timeline becoming reality.

And with Ace stranded in an alternate 1961, will saving the Earth end her existence?"

They say that bad news comes in waves, but I’ve often found the reverse to also be true. 

After a few months now of plays mostly failing to land for me, Big Finish have suddenly hit a run of very strong offerings: The Barbarians And The Samurai is hands-down the best thing Andrew Smith has written for Big Finish and had me raving about it to friends; Flight into Hull! is a truly fantastic story by Joseph Lidster (I was, I’ll admit, very unsure about wanting to hear anything about the Meta-Crisis Doctor until I saw his name attached to the project, and both outings were very strong); False Coronets by Alice Cavender was a lot of fun; I’ve only dipped into Class so far but what I’ve heard I’ve liked; and then there is this, Red Planets by Una McCormack.

In a word? Superb.

Mel and the Seventh Doctor find themselves on Earth in 2017 - only not quite the Earth it should be: Mel is singing Russian anthems and recalls a history very different to that she should remember and even the Doctor can’t persuade her otherwise. Meanwhile, Ace finds herself in Berlin in the early 1960s but, again, things are all askew. Time and history are at a crucial turning point and it’s going to be up to the two groups to put things right.

“Okay,” people will say. “Parallel timelines. Done this before!” Ah, but rarely with such grace and depth and plausibility. This isn’t just spinning out an idea into a side-story, but creating a believable world. You feel you could spend an entire trilogy exploring the ins and outs of this new history and not get bored, and it is this that makes it a cut above the standard, alternative-history adventure. McCormack goes into just enough detail to make it hold tight but not enough to swamp you with detail and research.

The characters are rich, the performances strong, the different locations (the past! The present! Space!) varied enough to stand tall and carry three very different, but equally engaging storylines. The play also scores points for being true to the era in which it is set, i.e. the Seventh Doctor’s run on TV. Yes, Mel here is still the Mel of Big Finish and not the one often criminally underwritten on-screen (poor Mel, I do love her) but you can picture the BBC sets as you listen to this story and imagine them pulling it off. Credit must go to the sound design for that and also the direction by Jamie Anderson, not to mention the script editing by Guy Adams. (He was also in the driving seat for the excellent Davison trilogy which kickstarted the year, and I see he was in charge for next month’s play, too. This bodes well.)

Red Planets is helped along by sterling performances from the three leads. As long-time fans, we know the anecdotes of old: no glasses and late to the audition, a letter sent whilst working with builders, a chance encounter charming people at a party, lying about being American or lying about Australian air hostesses. We know these tales of old and that knowledge can, at times, make us take for granted how good the casting was; how perfect the fit between role and actor. This play helps us be more appreciative of that. Sophie Aldred in particular, gives us what is, for my money, one of her strongest outings as Ace, yet.

The ending of the play sets things up for stories to come and with a whopping five McCoy plays on the trot, it’s doubly nice that this one is so very good. This play, like those at the start of 2018, reminds me just how brilliant the Main Range can be. There’s an energy about Red Planets; a spring in its step and a confidence in its vision that all make for one of the most enjoyable listens I’ve had from Big Finish this year. In short, plays like this make the yearly subscription worth it.

+ Red Planets is OUT NOW, priced £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download).

+ ORDER this title on Amazon!

Doctor Who Magazine have sent DWO the cover and details for Issue 529 of DWM.

Series 11 Companions Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole write for Doctor Who Magazine! Read their Doctor Who diary in the latest issue.

Doctor Who Magazine 529 also includes:

+  Meet the writers and directors of Series 11

+  An interview with Roy Scammell, who was part of Doctor Who‘s stunt team in the 1970s

+  The life and work of Don Harper, the composer responsible for the soundtrack to 1968 epic The Invasion

+  Big Finish’s Lisa Bowerman answers questions from the TARDIS tin

+  Games company Gale Force 9 reveal the background to Time of the Daleks

+  A tribute to Alan Bennion, who played three Ice Warriors in the 1960s and 70s

+  Part Six of The Clockwise War, a new comic strip adventure featuring the Doctor and Bill

+  The Time Team watches three pseudo-historical Doctor Who stories

+  The Fact of Fiction explores the 2013 Eleventh Doctor story Hide

+  Third Doctor cosplay with Rob Lloyd

+  Previews, audio, DVD and game reviews, news, The Blogs of Doom, prize-winning competitions and much, much more!

+ PLUS a huge double-sided poster featuring the Doctor, Yasmin, Ryan and Graham.

+  Doctor Who Magazine Issue #529 is Out Now, 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]

In 2019 Big Finish will celebrate 20 years of creating Doctor Who stories on audio, and it’s doing so in style with The Legacy of Time – the biggest audio crossover event ever!

Six hour-long stories see characters from the entire history of Doctor Who crossing paths – some for the very first time – Classic and New Series Doctor Who will collide! 

Professor River Song (Alex Kingston) meets her predecessor, another time-travelling archaeologist, Professor Bernice Summerfield (Lisa Bowerman). Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) travels back in time to classic UNIT and meets the Third Doctor (voiced by Tim Treloar) and Jo Grant (Katy Manning). 

As 2019 is also the 30th anniversary year of their first appearance in Remembrance of the Daleks, the Counter-Measures team will be reunited with the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred). And the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and his companion Charlotte Pollard (India Fisher) once again meet Detective Inspector Patricia Menzies (Anna Hope) in a police procedural like no other! 

Plus we go to Gallifrey, and elsewhere we enter the Time War. Doctors will meet, and there will be Easter Eggs aplenty.

"Time is collapsing.

Incidents of temporal chaos and devastation are appearing throughout the many lives of the Doctor and his friends – fallout from one terrible disaster.

The Doctor must save history itself – and he will need all the help he can get."

1. Lies in Ruins by James Goss

2. The Split Infinitive by John Dorney

3. The Sacrifice of Jo Grant by Guy Adams

4. Episode four by Matt Fitton (to be confirmed)

5. The Avenues of Possibility by Jonny Morris

6. Collision Course by Guy Adams

The truth is revealed, and it will take more than one Doctor to save the day! 

Executive Producer and one of the founding members of Big Finish, Nicholas Briggs told us about this exciting new release:

“The Legacy of Time will probably go down in Big Finish history as our biggest, most exciting production, ever! Celebrating 20 years of Doctor Who at Big Finish, it expertly pulls together all the strands from our many and varied Doctor Who ranges. This is down to the brilliance of script editor Matt Fitton and producer David Richardson. They epitomise the creative strength, organisational expertise and leadership of the company. Quite simply, this is going to blow people’s minds! It’s got everything!” 

Big Finish Producer, David Richardson said:

“How do you celebrate 20 years of Doctor Who at Big Finish? How do you celebrate something that has meant so much to all of us who work here – the friendships, the freedom to be creative, the glory that is Doctor Who itself? That was the challenge facing myself and Matt Fitton, but once I’d had an idea for what this six-hour epic would be about (spoilers!) it was then relatively easy to start assembling the huge team of characters and actors who would take us on the journey.

The Legacy of Time is quite possibly the biggest Doctor Who story we have ever told at Big Finish. It’s been so hugely satisfying to make – I hope everyone finds it just as satisfying to listen to!”

Chairman and Executive producer of Big Finish, Jason Haigh-Ellery, said:

“In July 1999 we released The Sirens of Time. In July 2019 we're releasing The Legacy of Time. Those two decades have been so fulfilling for us at Big Finish - a chance to work with so many great and talented actors, writers, productions crews and all of our friends at the BBC. This is a celebration of it all, with lots of surprise returns and references. Think of it as one massive Doctor Who party - and everyone is invited…”

Doctor Who: The Legacy of Time will be available from www.bigfinish.com on download and, as one of the last audio producers and distributors still making CDs, released in an eight-disc CD set with a limited edition of just 4,000.  

Doctor Who: The Legacy of Time will be released in July 2019 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Big Finish’s first Doctor Who release, The Sirens of Time. 

The cast of The Legacy of Time includes:

Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy, Alex Kingston, Lisa Bowerman, Sophie Aldred, Simon Williams, Pamela Salem, Karen Gledhill, Hugh Ross, Tim Treloar, Katy Manning, Jemma Redgrave, Ingrid Oliver, India Fisher, Anna Hope, Lalla Ward and Louise Jameson…

Producer: David Richardson

Writers: James Goss, Guy Adams, John Dorney, Matt Fitton, Jonathan Morris 

Script Editor: Matt Fitton

Executive Producers: Nicholas Briggs, Jason Haigh-Ellery

Pricing:

Pre-order: £45 CD box set / £40 download from www.bigfinish.com

General release: £60 CD box set / £55 download from www.bigfinish.com

[Source: Big Finish]

Subscribers to Doctor Who Magazine, who have received their copies of Issue 529 early (due out this Thursday), have reported confirmation of the planned release of Season 19 on Blu-ray.

The release follows the recent success of the Season 12 blu-ray box-set, which featured Tom Baker's (The 4th Doctor) first 5 adventures. As with the Season 12 release, Season 19 will feature Peter Davison's (The 5th Doctor) first 7 adventures, remastered together with special features, all presented in special, limited edition packaging, in an 8-disc box-set.

The set will be released on 19th November 2018, priced £54.99, although we expect the date could be pushed back if there are any technical issues.

+ PREORDER this title from Amazon.co.uk! 

[Source: Doctor Who Magazine]

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Andrew Smith

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: July 2018

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"Answering a call from UNIT, the Doctor arrives in London to find the streets deserted, apart from looters in possession of a valuable commodity - water.

Britain is suffering an extreme and bizarre drought. The cause is suspected to be extra-terrestrial.

The discovery of a signal being transmitted into space, and of a spacecraft whose crew are desiccated corpses, provides a possible answer. But the true enemy is an old foe of the Doctor’s.

The Cybermen have been patient, setting their plans in place over a number of years. As the final stage is implemented, in the darkest hour, the Doctor must identify who among his allies he can trust."

There was a real buzz online and through fandom when it was announced that David Banks and Mark Hardy were returning to the role of Cyber Leader and Cyber Lieutenant after so many years. Given that Banks had previously said no to a return, it felt all the more exciting that it was finally happening. When I saw that they were coming back in a script written by Andrew Smith, my interest was piqued further still as Smith is always a solid pair of hands and has done some good work for Big Finish in the past.

What is the end result though? Nothing special, sadly, but it has some very nice parts.

The play starts well with the Doctor landing in a deserted London, wryly wondering if dinosaurs have returned, and stumbling upon looters. Before long, and before it really does descend into a full-blown remake of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, UNIT arrive and the Doctor is shown the plight England is enduring and is then reunited with some old friends.

Hour of the Cybermen is a follow-up, of sorts, to The Helliax Rift, a play which roundly unimpressed me. You definitely need to have listened to that first to get any sort of emotional satisfaction out of this play, even if the plot mechanics do not carry over.

Blake Harrison and Russ Bain return as Daniel Hopkins and Lewis Price respectively, and both have changed a fair bit, with Price now written as likeable and Hopkins sombre after suffering a personal tragedy. There is some justification for Hopkins, but you have to question why they’ve gone down this route with Price as it doesn’t really fit in with what we had before, at all. That said, Price’s character was utterly ludicrous in Rift, so I suppose we should be thankful.

The plight mentioned earlier is a drought, which amused me. England has been enduring a heatwave with record-breaking temperatures, so the subject matter feels one step removed from being bang on the money at present. That said, the play was released on the day the hot weather broke and rain fell in some parts of the country, so depending on where you listened to it, it’s either a reminder of what’s outside the window, or a reminder of what was only the day before.

As you would expect from the play’s title, it turns out that the Cybermen are responsible for this state of affairs and it’s with them that the play’s true success lies. Smith writes for the 80s Cybermen really well. Their dialogue rings utterly true, all pomp and bluster despite protesting they have no emotions, and on paper you could read their lines and hear their voices without a moment’s hesitation. On paper. You’d think that having the original actors back to deliver them would make that dream a reality, but in truth it doesn’t quite work. It gets close, but the modulation used for the voices is a bit… off. Not massively, not earth-shatteringly, but definitely off. 70% there and 30% missing at the best of times, nearer 60-40 at the worst. It means you are continually noticing something isn’t quite right beneath the surface, even if Banks’ performance in particular is absolutely perfect, which is a real shame.

And then there is the rest of the play. The main issue with it is that a lot of the plot revolves around a traitor and about, ooooh, ten minutes into the first episode it is very obvious who that traitor is. The fact the others are in the dark is insulting to their intelligence and the listeners’, especially with the Doctor. The traitor’s lines, and especially their performance, robs the play of any suspense whatsoever. It kills the play dead as much of it - most of it, even - is reliant upon this being a shock or dramatic talking point, but because it isn’t a shock it lacks drama, and because it lacks drama, what you’re left with is a lot of people running around and the Doctor carefully and slowly explaining his plans and how clever he is in front of the baddies to substitute for the lack of visuals. This becomes an increasing problem as the play goes along, and the final two episodes in particular suffer enormously from this to the point where those episodes’ 31-minute-long running time felt like a bit of a chore.

Hour of the Cybermen is not a write-off by any means, thanks to the performance Banks gives and Smith’s dialogue for him, but once you take the thrill of the original actors returning and a decent opening episode, you’re left with something a bit empty. Approach with caution. 

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

+ ORDER this title on Amazon!

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Chris Champman

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: June 2018

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"It's London, 1828, and the father-and-son team of Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel are masterminding a dangerous project - the digging of the Thames Tunnel. There's just one problem...

The Brunels' tunnel is haunted. Every night, a spectral blue lady walks the excavation.

Now, the 22-year-old Isambard, eager to step out of his famous father's shadow, finds himself dealing with not only the supposed supernatural, but a second unexpected guest - a colourful trespasser who calls himself 'The Doctor'.

Isambard would like to know a great deal more about this strange man and his mysterious blue box..."

After a couple of major lows for the monthly range, I was a little nervous stepping into this play. Big Finish and historicals usually make for good bedfellows, but the sour taste left by The Lure Of The Nomad especially made me a little wary. Please (I thought to myself, going in), please, not another one like that.

The first thing to note is the cover: it’s beautiful. The wider space for the play covers’ imagery is a welcome thing, finally ditching the awkward black bars, and the new logo? It looks superb here, really catching the eye and wowing the viewer. It all makes for a far, far nicer and more consistent ‘Who identity’ and level of design than we’ve had before and I can’t say I’ll be mourning the loss of the old any time soon. A very good move / insistence by whoever is in charge of branding.

Iron Bright is by Chris Chapman, rapidly becoming a regular contributor to Big Finish’s monthly outings. So far, he’s given us The Memory Bank, a very solid one-episode-long story that I have found myself returning to since the first listen (always a good sign), and The Middle, which I thought had some very strong ideas but perhaps didn’t quite do them justice: very enjoyable overall all the same, mind.

Iron Bright probably falls into the same category, but that’s not to slight it. Big Finish were canny when they released the first episode as a free download for newsletter subscribers as it’s a lot of fun: ghosts and history, the Doctor and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and Colin Baker giving one of his best performances for a while all make for thirty minutes of drama which whizz by. The second two episodes are not quite as strong though.

When people see ‘Sixth Doctor + Historical’, the go-to story is normally The Mark Of The Rani, and this has some similarities in that the historical figures are, at times, sidelined in favour of alien goings-on. I feel, though, that this story shares most of its DNA with Timelash.

Remember how H.G. Wells is treated less as a figure of historical importance and more as a substitute companion, and historical period settings are largely ditched in favour of alien landscapes? That’s how Brunel is treated here, and indeed how the middle of this story feels a lot of the time.

When we return to Earth, I felt the story picked up a bit and I perhaps wish we’d been given a straight historical, or one with greater earthly grounding. I don’t feel the Doctor’s meeting with Brunel is wasted, in the same way his meeting with George Stephenson in Rani is not, and perhaps it was a silly and false expectation on my part to think we’d be getting something more ghostly and less... well, traditional Doctor Who.

After all this, the final episode then arrives and things really kick up a gear in quality again. The pocket emptying scene in particular is wonderful (even if Baker does note in the extras that he’s apparently hiding a key prop from the story’s opening in the process: surely a job for a script editor and not the lead actor?), and I want to stress again that the story is never bad.  Far from it.

One thing Iron Bright really has going for it is a truly excellent supporting cast. There is not one flat performance in there; everyone gives a wonderful turn. It’s one of the best ensembles we’ve had, with Catherine Bailey and Imogen Church being particularly impressive, and all credit must go to John Ainsworth for sorting it out. That said, Colin Baker’s remark that Becky Wright should return as a companion made me shake a little: surely no more companions for him? Baker and McGann between them seem to be having a competition to see who can collect the most, like a Gallifreyan game of Pokémon.

(In addition, Wright’s character, Flo, really did sound like the lost child of Flip and Ellie from Jago and Litefoot crossed with some of the backstory of Gwen from The Unquiet Dead, so I’m not sure it would be the wisest move.)

By the time Iron Bright finished, it had won me round again. This doesn’t wash away the bad taste left by recent plays, but it goes a long way to helping.

One thing is utterly apparent, mind: keep an eye on Chris Chapman. I truly believe he is one or two scripts away from writing something utterly superb for Doctor Who and I cannot wait to hear it. The Middle and Iron Bright may not quite hit all the marks, but my word do they show a promise and verve that makes me very, very excited to see his name next to a play again before too long.

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Matthew J. Elliott

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: May 2018

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"For thousands of years, it has drifted through space, unimpeded, forgotten, seemingly lifeless. Now, finally, it has been discovered.

Responding to a distress call from the mysterious hulk, the Doctor and his companion, space pilot Mathew Sharpe, walk into a desperate situation. The multi-tentacled semibionic Makara were tasked with renovating the abandoned craft, but now they’ve begun murdering their employers.

The Doctor soon realises that the Makara have been programmed to kill, but by whom, and for what reason? Finding out the truth will mean uncovering a secret that threatens the entire Universe."

The following review contains massive spoilers for this play from the very start. Please read NO FURTHER if you do not want twists and character / plot developments ruined. I cannot stress enough how from the off YOU WILL BE SPOILED should you choose to read any further.

Heard the one about the spaceship that’s about to crash with a sole occupant left behind, sending out a distress signal which is picked up at the last possible minute by a man in a Police Box, who materialises on board to save the otherwise doomed pilot? What’s that? You have and it featured the Eighth Doctor? How about you listen to it featuring the Sixth Doctor for Big Finish instead.

You like the Sixth Doctor you say? Then have you heard the one where we are introduced to his new companion after he’s been travelling with them for some time? You can pick or choose Mel or Constance here. Or perhaps the one where the Sixth Doctor has a brand new companion in spin-off media? (Hello, Grant or Flip or Evelyn or Frobisher, and so on and so forth.) 

No? Then maybe the Big Finish play where we are introduced to a new companion that turns out to be solely for this tale, as they’re secretly a baddie? Again, you can pick The Fifth Traveller or this one: it’s your call.

You catch my drift, I’m sure. The Lure Of The Nomad, written by Matthew J Elliott, is Big Finish’s 238th main range release and boy does it feel like it. Uninspired and riffing off past glories, it’s difficult to imagine that anyone genuinely read the script without a feeling of déjà vu hanging around. I simply cannot believe the CD extras where they express surprise at the ending. From the moment the story was announced with tiny fanfare for the supposed new companion, and no image of said companion on the cover art, I would have had money on them either dying or turning out to be a wrong’un by the end of the play had I been able to get decent odds anywhere, so when the twist comes that Mathew Sharpe is not the man we thought he was, it was less a surprise and more a case of “Well, obviously, yes. Can we hurry this up now please?” It’s a pity but not something that shocked me, and if anything that’s the saddest part of all.

Nicholas Briggs kicks off the play by announcing with funereal gravitas that you’re listening to a Big Finish production, but he needn’t have bothered. By the time we have references to Quarks, the very first Dalek serial and a joke about carrot juice and exercise bikes riffing on Terror Of The Vervoids, I could have guessed. Later nods to Terileptils, Harry Sullivan and Stattenheim remote controls only add to this sense of it being business as usual, where characters cannot go five minutes without making a nod to past adventures and winking unsubtly at the audience.

Done well, these sorts of kisses to the past can be fine and not derail the action, but done with the sledgehammer regularity as is the case here, they are not. Indeed, the one to Harry is the worst offender. It stems after Mathew makes a reference to the boxer John L. Sullivan, which makes no sense for the character. We’ve already had much said about how far into the future he is from and so he is unfamiliar with cultural touchstones such as Monty Python’s Flying Circus, so why would he then be able to namecheck a boxer dead since 1918CE?

I know this is a minor point, but it’s symptomatic of a script littered with clumsy dialogue. The opening scene is painfully bad with its on-the-nose exposition, for example: nobody in the world speaks how the two characters here do. It’s the sort of ham-fisted “Let us set up the backstory” chatter we mocked The Space Museum for many moons ago now, and it’s sad to see we haven’t moved on yet. Elsewhere, we’ve more than the usual quota of ‘say what you see’ descriptive lines and the conclusion features a self-sacrifice so out of the blue and out of character that it’s insulting to suggest it happens for any reason other than to wrap up the plot.

(Sadly, these are familiar issues with Elliot’s writing, similar and in some cases identical to ones in his last main range play, The Silurian Candidate, and also present in Backtrack, which he wrote for The Tenth Doctor Chronicles, which makes me suggest this clumsiness of his isn’t moving anywhere any time soon.)

The Lure Of The Nomad is not a good play. There are good aspects, but good aspects do not a good play make. For what it’s worth though, these good aspects include an amusing joke about the plural of ‘octopus’ and nice performances by Matthew Holness and Anna Barry in the guest cast. The final scene is relatively underplayed and memorable, too. It’s for these reasons and these alone that it gets 2 out of 10.

Three very good main range plays followed by two of the worst in recent memory? I really hope things pick up again soon. The Lure Of The Nomad is as forgettable as it gets.

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Scott Handcock

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: April 2018

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"Daniel Hopkins thought he knew what he was letting himself in for when he joined the top-secret UNIT organisation as its latest Medical Officer.

Racing about the countryside, chasing strange lights in the sky? Check. Defending the realm against extraterrestrial incursion? Check. Frequent ear-bashings from UNIT’s UK CO, the famously no-nonsense Lt-Col Lewis Price? Check. Close encounters of the First, Second and even Third kind? Check, check, check.

But he had no idea what alien beings were really like. Until the day of the Fallen Kestrel. Until the day he met the Doctor."

The start of this year has been a joy when it comes to writing these reviews.  The main range has been well and truly riding high and each month has presented us with something funny, something well-constructed and something downright enjoyable.  It is far more fun to write a review praising something to high heavens than to write one explaining why a certain release has utterly failed to grip you.

But all good things must come to an end perhaps.

I want to state here that I have enjoyed Scott Handcock’s work elsewhere. His direction of The War Master was very strong, for example, as it was in The Worlds of Big Finish (a much underrated release) and a lot of Gallifrey. His first outing as a writer for the ‘main range’ of Big Finish plays, World Apart, was a triumph of character study and understatement. Handcock is a very capable and strong writer, producer and director, of that there is no doubt in my mind at all. It just wasn’t to be, here.

The play starts as follows: the Doctor lands on Earth, drawn there by a signal of extra-terrestrial origin. He is not alone though. UNIT are also on the scene, but this is a UNIT the likes of which the Doctor has not encountered before. Gone are Lethbridge-Stewart, Bell, Yates, Benton and the rest. In their stead is a far colder and harder military outfit headed by one Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis Price. Sometimes, it’s the lack of familiarity on your home soil that can be the biggest threat of them all…

There is a problem here. The problem is quite a big one because it goes on to undermine and underline everything that comes next. The problem is that this new version of UNIT are fully aware of who the Doctor is and his past with UNIT: and they still treat him as an alien hostile, threatening him with execution, giving him orders and acting as if he could be a traitor to the Earth and an enemy of humanity. Which makes no sense whatsoever. If they just thought he was another alien wandering around with significant intelligence, then so be it, but the Doctor? He of heroism and daring do? He who helped UNIT so often?

It doesn’t work and renders these soldiers utterly inept and stupid, thus making a huge aspect of the story just a bit… well, silly. UNIT has moved on, yes, but they know the Doctor of old and all he has done, so to try and make him out to be a threat to the planet just doesn’t wash or hang together at all.

This isn’t helped by the aforementioned Lieutenant-Colonel, who is as drab and one-note a character as the range has ever seen. There is no nuance or depth; no subtlety or, crucially, believability. He shouts, he snarls, and when the plot needs to wrap up he has a slight change of heart for no explicable reason. Everything about this character is painfully dull. It is utterly flat and this extends elsewhere sadly. The plot feels overfamiliar: aliens fall to Earth, humans experiment upon them. Aha, though! There is a twist!

Because of course there is, because you expect there to be, because nothing here feels new or exciting or fresh at all. It feels like we’ve been down this path many, many times. Misguided humans, the power of love, the Doctor poised against the authorities, a token ‘good’ character who is on the Doctor’s side against their commander’s wishes.

The same goes for the Morden Clinic and those who work there. They never convince as real people. They’re plot devices and twists. They’re there to try and make you think the story is going one way when in fact it’s going quite another: only you never believe it’s going just one way, because that sense of familiarity from the off means you never expect to be surprised.

In the end, it all makes for a rather boring play.  I don’t think I ever once failed to see what was round the corner, and even if I could not spot the specific incident about to unfold, I was certain that a twist or incident was incoming because it’s that sort of Big Finish play. The plot would be competent at least, but the UNIT element in the wider world of Doctor Who means it stumbles on that front as well. 

Across the past three releases, I’ve talked about how exciting and fresh the plays have felt; how new and interesting. This feels like a massive leap back, into predictability and stale writing; into characters poorly executed and an absence of shock. Lewis Price is the worst of them all, but he is by no means alone.

Perhaps this is just a blip; a small hiccough and no more. I hope so. Because as it is, this has been as disappointing a release from Big Finish as I think I’ve ever heard.

&E

Hold onto your butts... a massive tear in the fabric of time must have occurred as the release date, cover & track listing have finally been confirmed for the Doctor Who: Series 9 Soundtrack!

Our friends over at Silva Screen Records have been in touch with the full details, below:

Limited Edition only - includes additional booklet with Stuart Manning poster images and slipcase.

This edition will be generally available on other sites but is limited in number. The Standard Edition is the same as the Limited Edition but does not include the slipcase or additional booklet.

Premiering in September 2015, the ninth series of Doctor Who featured Peter Capaldi in the title role in his sophomore season as television’s favourite time traveller. This all encompassing four part collection features general cues on discs one and two, the complete score from the episode Heaven Sent on disc three and on disc four the Christmas Special, The Husbands Of River Song. Five time BAFTA nominee Murray Gold recently confirmed that he is stepping down from composer duties on the show after 12 years of providing some of the finest music to be heard on contemporary television. This is also the 12th Silva Screen release of his music from the 2005 revival onwards and underlines the breadth of Gold’s composing skill across over two and a half hours of music.

"It’s one of the last great morality tales out there but it also celebrates life. For that reason I think it’s a great show for kids. I couldn’t write this much music for it if I didn’t feel that way.” – Murray Gold

DISC 1

1. The One in a Thousand
2. Davros Remembers
3. Message from Missy
4. Meeting in the Square
5. Finding The Doctor
6. What Have You Done
7. Davros Approaches
8. Some Kind of Submarine
9. The Ghosts
10. The Bootstrap Paradox
11. Finding The Fisher King
12. Another Ghost Has Appeared
13. We Need to Get Back to The TARDIS
14. Directions from The Ghosts
15. Something in the Spacesuit
16. Two Days on a Longboat
17. I Am Ashildr
18. In a Way, She's a Hybrid
19. I Call Myself Me
20. They Need Us
21. The Last Thing We Need

DISC 2

1. Deep Cover
2. Just Come Inside
3. This is Not a War
4. Defending The Earth
5. The Morpheus Song
6. Saving Rigsy
7. Madam Mayor
8. Running from the Raven
9. Death is Locked In
10. Face the Raven
11. Back Home
12. The General's Regeneration
13. A Duty of Care
14. Clara's Diner

DISC 3

1. A Second Shadow
2. The Veil
3. A Fly on a Painting
4. A Change of Clothes
5. A Mechanical Maze
6. Digging a Grave
7. Tell No Lies
8. Two Events in Life
9. Waiting for the Veil
10. The Final Room
11. One Confession Away
12. Break Free
13. Same Old Day
14.The Shepherd's Boy

DISC 4

1. Carol Singers will be Criticised
2. A Dying Husband
3. The Finest Surgeon in The Galaxy
4. The Halassi Androvar
5. The Husbands of River Song
6. The TARDIS Can't Take Off
7. Time to Do it Properly
8. Harmony and Redemption
9. Hydroflax in The TARDIS
10. Whole Again at Last
11. All the Firewalls in The Galaxy
12. A Restaurant with a View
13. The Woman He Loves
14. The Singing Towers

+  The Doctor Who: Series 9 Soundtrack is released on 27th April, priced £14.99.
+  PREORDER this title from Silva Screen Records.
+  Discuss all the Doctor Who Audio releases in the DWO Forums.

[Source: Silva Screen Records]

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: David Llewellyn

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: March 2018

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"You are cordially invited to Argentia, the galaxy’s most exclusive tax haven, to attend the funeral of mining magnate Carlo Mazzini. The memorial service will be followed by music, light refreshments, and murder!

Carlo’s heirs have come to say their final goodbyes (and find out how much they’ve inherited) but when a masked killer begins picking them off one by one, Argentia goes into lock-down, closed off behind its own temporal displacement field.

Can the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric apprehend the murderer before Argentia – and everyone on board - is forever cut off from the rest of the Universe?"

Back in the dim and distant country that was September 2014, I reviewed the play Mask of Tragedy for DWO and sung the praises of Samuel West’s turn as Aristophanes in it. He nailed the comedy perfectly, and the extras showed him to be genuinely passionate about Doctor Who and infectiously enthusiastic.

Flash forward to March 2018 (present day at the time of writing) and Big Finish have just released Serpent In The Silver Mask. Who is that actor putting in a genuinely excellent comic turn with multiple characters, all of whom have a degree of humour and gravity where required injected into them? Take another bow, Samuel West! In the extras for this play, director Barnaby Edwards rightly sings West’s praises and I think it’s worth just stressing again how good he is here. Truly, you’ll not find a better guest performance in a Big Finish play across the board; this equals the very best of them, perhaps even besting his turn in I Went To A Marvellous Party.

(I’ll get a grumble out of the way now: the extras. Long-time readers of these reviews will know it’s a bugbear of mine that the extended extras for subscribers do not surface for weeks after the plays’ releases, and that’s especially irksome here when the extras we get on the CD/original download feel heavily edited. You can tell they’re curtailed, with some edits coming in almost mid-sentence, and that’s a real shame.)

What of Serpent In The Silver Mask elsewhere though?

The play starts with our heroes landing on Argentia where the Doctor is on the hunt for the materials to build a new sonic screwdriver. Before too long, they’ve had their tongues swabbed and they’ve gatecrashed a funeral, but it appears that there’s a murderer on the loose... cue a Sherlock / Christie-style romp with robots and prisons and dolls, oh my!

David Llewellyn is in the writing seat this time around and he’s clearly had the same memo as the other writers in this latest trilogy of Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan plays: listen to the DVD commentary for Earthshock and write them like that and not how the characters were on screen. It does mean you’re not going to come away from this play, or indeed any of the others in this trilogy, feeling you’ve experienced an ‘authentic’ era-accurate story. This sort of thing really bugs some fans and kills the mood for them, but for me personally it does not factor in at all when the scripts themselves are as strong as the past three have been. Are these the companions we used to watch on screen or the Fifth Doctor who saved the world in the early 1980s? Not even close at times but, crucially, does it matter at all? Mileage will vary.

For my money though, I’d say Llewellyn has crafted an exemplary script with a central mystery that genuinely surprised me. I was so sure I had worked out “whodunnit” but, pleasingly, I was wrong. I had the means but not the right antagonist: and what better treat for a fan of the genre to be close but outfoxed? I think I had as much fun trying to work it all out as the Doctor does. Indeed, the Doctor is having a lot of fun here, whether conversing with a robot or playing detective, and it’s a joy.

I’ve already celebrated West and the script, so it’s time again to heap praise on Edwards’s direction and the regulars’ performances. I want to highlight Janet Fielding here as this play gives Tegan a lot to do, but frankly Matthew Waterhouse is brilliant, Peter Davison hilarious, and Sarah Sutton making every scene count. This is an exciting time to be a fan of the Davison era. We had Jenny Colgan give us an incredibly good outing for Turlough in Gardens Of The Dead. Time In Office was my favourite main range release in 2017 by some distance, and this original trio of companions just goes from strength to strength in the main range.

Does all this praise feel repetitive to you? It would be understandable if so as I’ve done that time and again this trilogy, because this trilogy is by a leap - a bound - and a mile, the very best succession of releases in the main range we, as fans, have had the pleasure to receive for years, now.

Guy Adams’s stint as script editor for these plays has injected verve and spark in what was increasingly becoming a range of average releases, and his role in teasing out the best we’ve had for ages cannot be understated.

Three high hitters worthy of full marks? Yes, I really think these plays deserve that accolade, and that gives me more pleasure to write and share online than I can readily articulate. As the Doctor herself put it: “Oh, brilliant!"

+ ORDER this title on Amazon.co.uk!

Today, BBC Worldwide has announced that Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 12 will be released on Blu-Ray on 11th June 2018. 

For fans of Doctor Who and collectors of Classic Who seasons, the Blu-Ray has limited edition packaging with artwork by Lee Binding and has been restored and up-scaled to HD by Peter Crocker and Mark Ayres. The new release also has a wealth of new bonus content.

Russell Minton, Executive Producer at BBC Worldwide says:

"We are doing our very best at BBC Worldwide to restore and bring as many Classic Who titles out on Collector's Edition Blu-ray, and this starts with being able to confirm one of my favourites, Tom Baker's first season.  We will also endeavour to include additional archive material and exciting newly-shot features where possible."

Season 12, Tom Baker's first as the Doctor, features five stories over 20 episodes, including The Ark in Space and Genesis of the Daleks. The Doctor is accompanied in this season by Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) and was first broadcast between December 1974 and May 1975.

The new Blu-Ray release includes existing bonus material from the original DVDs as well as the brand new features below:

TOM BAKER IN CONVERSATION
A candid new one-hour interview with the Fourth Doctor.

BEHIND THE SOFA
Classic clips from Season 12, viewed by Tom Baker, Philip Hinchcliffe, Louise Jameson, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Sadie Miller.

NEW MAKING-OF DOCUMENTARIES
For The Sontaran Experiment and Revenge Of The Cybermen.

IMMERSIVE 5.1 SURROUND SOUND MIXES
For The Ark In Space and Genesis Of The Daleks.

OPTIONAL BRAND NEW UPDATED SPECIAL EFFECTS
For Revenge Of The Cybermen.

GENESIS OF THE DALEKS - OMNIBUS MOVIE VERSION
Unseen since broadcast in 1975.

THE TOM BAKER YEARS
The 1991 VHS release, on disc for the first time.

PRODUCTION ARCHIVE MATERIAL
PDF files from the BBC Archives.

+  Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 12 is released on 11th June (Blu-ray), priced £49.99.
+  PREORDER this title from Amazon.co.uk.
+  Discuss all the Doctor Who DVD releases in the DWO Forums.

[Sources: BBC Worldwide; Amazon.co.uk]

Publisher: BBC Books

Written By: Douglas Adams & James Goss

RRP: £16.99 (Hardback)

Release Date: 18th January 2018

Reviewed by: Richard Binnington

Rediscover the lost Doctor Who adventure by Douglas Adams. 

Intergalactic war? That’s just not cricket … or is it? 

The Doctor promised Romana the end of the universe, so she’s less than impressed when what she gets is a cricket match. But then the award ceremony is interrupted by eleven figures in white uniforms and peaked skull helmets, wielding bat-shaped weapons that fire lethal bolts of light into the screaming crowd. The Krikkitmen are back. 

Millions of years ago, the people of Krikkit learned they were not alone in the universe, and promptly launched a xenophobic crusade to wipe out all other life-forms. After a long and bloody conflict, the Time Lords imprisoned Krikkit within an envelope of Slow Time, a prison that could only be opened with the Wicket Gate key, a device that resembles – to human eyes, at least – an oversized set of cricket stumps…

From Earth to Gallifrey, from Bethselamin to Devalin, from Krikkit to Mareeve II to the far edge of infinity, the Doctor and Romana are tugged into a pan-galactic conga with fate as they rush to stop the Krikkitmen gaining all five pieces of the key. If they fail, the entire cosmos faces a fiery retribution that will leave nothing but ashes…

Romana thought she was having a bad day when The Doctor decided to take her to the cricket. But that was nothing when the most deadly robots in the universe turned up. The Doctor and Romana romp around the universe racing to collect all the pieces of the Wicket Gate key in order to stop the Krikkitmen freeing their home planet, Krikkit, enveloped in a slow time field by the Time Lords, after a devastating conflict. The entire universe is at stake, with the Krikkitmen aiming to destroy everything and everyone as they step up to the bat. Oh and did I mention the most incredibly dangerous weapon in the universe is rolling around looking very much like a Cricket ball from planet earth? With Time Lords, Tea and ‘regrettable acts between the swimming pool and the car park’, this adventure in time and space is magnificently crafted, which will no doubt fill you to the brim on a nostalgia hype.

The most tantalising part of the book is how evident the voice of the writer's is. I found it seamlessly Douglas Adams but with James Goss’ exceptional skill to tell the story through a combined humour and wit which permeates throughout. Whether it is detailing the quiet hobbies of Time Lords back on Gallifrey (including their favourite, ever-loving quest for a lovely cup of tea) or The Doctor checking if he's talking to the right K9 and not the one he left with Leela, who is running about on the planet somewhere.

Doctor Who And The Krikkitmen is a fantastic celebration of one of the best writers Doctor Who has ever had, and has brought his spirit back to life. It’s rooted full of mythology from the history of the series, which makes it even more enjoyable - particularly, The Doctor spending a large amount of time back in The Matrix.

Unusually, this book had its own set of ‘Special Features’ just like what we’re used to from the brilliant DVD range. Goss details how ‘The Krikkitmen’ came to be, alongside the original 32 page treatment written by Adams, which contains a version of the story with a different companion, Sarah Jane! Originally cited as ‘Jane’ within the treatment, Goss tried out a version with her and discovered that it would make more sense for Romana, as played by Lalla Ward, to feature, due to its connections with Shada. It includes these first few chapters, which is immensely interesting to see how much changed by swapping out the companion.

Overall, it's a fantastic romp in the style of, what some consider, the best era of Doctor Who. A thoroughly enjoyable read, full of attention to detail, and, quite simply, a lost classic on screen. On finishing, it left me wanting more and I immediately popped City of Death in my DVD player for a seamless experience. This addition to the range of Fourth Doctor novelisations (Shada By Gareth Roberts, City Of Death by James Goss, & The Pirate Planet by James Goss) continues to delve into the details of how magical a writer Douglas Adams was. Even the chapter titles have humorous elements to them, my favourite: Chapter 42: The Meaning of Life. If you’re in need of a new Fourth Doctor fix, get out there and read this now!

+  Doctor Who And The Krikkitmen is Out Now, priced £16.99.
+  BUY this title on Amazon.co.uk!
+  Follow Doctor Who Online (@DrWhoOnline) on Twitter.

 

Publisher: BBC Books

Written By: Cavan Scott, Jacqueline Rayner, Paul Magrs, James Goss, Peter Anghelides & Richard Dinnick

RRP: £9.99 (Hardback)

Release Date: 22nd February 2018

Reviewed by: Richard Binnington

Know your frenemy.

‘I’ve had adventures too. My whole life doesn’t revolve around you, you know.’

When she's not busy amassing armies of Cybermen, or manipulating the Doctor and his companions, Missy has plenty of time to kill (literally). In this all new collection of stories about the renegade Time Lord we all love to hate, you'll discover just some of the mad and malevolent activities Missy gets up to while she isn't distracted by the Doctor.

So please try to keep up.

Since her first appearance in the series, Missy has become one of the most anticipated and well loved characters from the Capaldi era. Piggybacking from friend to foe for The Doctor, you never know what to expect with her, and with these short stories, it continues to build that wonder. The Missy Chronicles combines a plethora of writing talent to give us more on her backstory and how she came to be the master, reborn.

This book consists of 6 short, but thrilling stories which open up the doors to various off-screen adventures. Set in the past, present and future, you don't know what to expect next from the loveable rogue. There's even the return of the Tissue Compression Eliminator in a couple of the stories, which I loved immensely.
 

Dismemberment By James Goss is a look into the psyche of Missy and how you should not cross her, or maybe you won't make it home in time for tea.
 

Lords and Masters By Cavan Scott is a wonderful parallel to say, The Key To Time, in which The Timelords have sent Missy out on a mission, much like The Doctor, but will she stick to the task, or does she have a more ruthless plan up her sleeve.
 

Teddy Sparkles Must Die! By Paul Magrs has Missy in place as a nanny to a set of children in the early 20’s. Seemingly looking out for the children, something more mysterious is in play and it involves a magical bear called Teddy Sparkles. Absolutely mad but superb.
 

The Liar, The Glitch And The Warzone By Peter Anghelides is a wonderfully written adventure featuring Missy trapped between two timezones and shows what lengths she is willing to go to in order to survive. This short really left me wanting more.
 

Girl Power! By Jacqueline Raynor is a perfect example of why we need more by Raynor in the Doctor Who Universe. Written from the perspective of Missy using the internet, this is the most experimental short story of the collection and is full of charm. If you have ever wondered what Missy, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie and Boudica in a online chat room would be like, wonder no more.
 

Alit In Underland By Richard Dinnick, was my favourite of all the stories. It returns to the events of World Enough And Time and follows Missy and The Master out on a reconnaissance task. I love the dialogue between these two and would happily read a mini-series based on the pair, alone.
 

This whole book is a triumph to the character and shows a clear example how characters from within the Doctor Who universe can stand on their own two feet. I would really enjoy getting some more off screen adventures of Missy / The Master in book form - hours of entertainment! Missy’s voice and mannerisms have been captured perfectly by all 6 writers who have grasped this complex character so easily.
 

A highly recommended read for anyone who loves the new series stories and could do with a little burst of evil in their life, every now and then. The Missy Chronicles is released just in time for International Women’s Day, so grab your copy as soon as you can. Make sure you “ say something nice…”

+  The Missy Chronicles is Out Now, priced £9.99.
+  PURCHASE this title on Amazon.co.uk!
+  Follow Doctor Who Online (@DrWhoOnline) on Twitter.

 

BBC Books / Penguin have confirmed the synopsis' and covers for the new series Doctor Who Target novelisations, due out in April.

In addition to the four, new series adventures, a fifth title, (The 4th Doctor adventure) 'City Of Death', will be released at the same time. City Of Death was one of only five stories from the original series (1963-1989), not to have been novelised for the Target book range.

Synopsis for each title are below, and the covers are in the right-hand column, with the exception of 'Twice Upon A Time' and 'City Of Death' which we will be adding very shortly. The covers for the range have been designed by Anthony Dry, in the style of Chris Achilleos, who provided the covers for the original Target range.

Audiobook releases of the titles will be released in June.

Rose
By Russell T. Davies

“Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!”

In a lair somewhere beneath central London, a malevolent alien intelligence is plotting the end of humanity. Shop window dummies that can move – and kill – are taking up key positions, ready to strike.

Rose Tyler, an ordinary Londoner, is working her shift in a department store, unaware that this is the most important day of her life. She’s about to meet the only man who understands the true nature of the threat facing Earth, a stranger who will open her eyes to all the wonder and terror of the universe – a traveller in time and space known as the Doctor.

+  Rose is released on 5th April 2018, priced £6.99.
+  PURCHASE this title on Amazon.co.uk!

The Christmas Invasion
By Jenny T. Colgan

Earth is under attack by power-hungry aliens. This is no time for the Doctor to be out of action.

When a British space probe is intercepted by a sinister alien vessel on the eve of Christmas, it marks the beginning of an audacious invasion of the Earth by the Sycorax – horrifying marauders from beyond the stars. Within hours, a third of humanity stands on the brink of death with not a single shot fired.

Our planet needs a champion – but the Doctor is not fit for service. He’s just regenerated, delirious in a new body and a dressing gown. Forced into his battered shoes is his friend, Rose Tyler, a girl from a London council estate. Will she save the world from this nightmare before Christmas – or see it destroyed?

+  The Christmas Invasion is released on 5th April 2018, priced £6.99.
+  PURCHASE this title on Amazon.co.uk!

The Day Of The Doctor
By Steven Moffat

When the entire universe is at stake, three different Doctors will unite to save it.

The Tenth Doctor is hunting shape-shifting Zygons in Elizabethan England. The Eleventh is investigating a rift in space-time in the present day. And one other – the man they used to be but never speak of – is fighting the Daleks in the darkest days of the Time War. Driven by demons and despair, this battle-scarred Doctor is set to take a devastating decision that will threaten the survival of the entire universe… a decision that not even a Time Lord can take alone.

On this day, the Doctor’s different incarnations will come together to save the Earth… to save the universe… and to save his soul.

+  The Day Of The Doctor is released on 5th April 2018, priced £6.99.
+  PURCHASE this title on Amazon.co.uk!

Twice Upon A Time
By Paul Cornell

Still reeling from his encounter with the Cybermen, the First Doctor stumbles through the bitter Antarctic wind, resisting the approaching regeneration with all his strength. But as he fights his way through the snowdrifts, he comes across the familiar shape of a blue police box, and a mysterious figure who introduces himself as the Doctor…

Thrown together at their most vulnerable moments, the two Doctors must discover why the snowflakes are suspended in the sky, why a First World War Captain has been lifted from his time stream moments before his death, and who is the mysterious Glass Woman who knows their true name. The Doctor is reunited with Bill, but is she all she seems? And can he hold out against the coming regeneration?

+  Twice Upon A Time is released on 5th April 2018, priced £6.99.
+  PURCHASE this title on Amazon.co.uk!

City Of Death
By James Goss

The key to Earth's destruction lies buried in its past.

Visiting Paris in 1979, the Doctor and Romana’s hopes for a holiday are soon shattered by armed thugs, a suave and dangerous Count, a plot to steal the Mona Lisa and a world-threatening experiment with time.

Teaming up with a British detective, the Time Lords discover that a ruthless alien plot hatched in Earth’s pre-history has reached its final stage. If Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth, cannot be stopped then the human race is history, along with all life on Earth…

+  City Of Death is released on 5th April 2018, priced £6.99.
+  PURCHASE this title on Amazon.co.uk!

[Sources: BBC Books; Amazon.co.uk]

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: James Goss

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: February 2018

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"This is a city of ghosts and no-one knows them better than Leanne. Twice a night she leads tourists to visit the most haunted sites - the Hanging Yard, the Witch Pool, the Screaming House, and, of course, the Catacombs.

Leanne’s realised the ghosts of the city are real. Something’s lurking in the Catacombs - an ancient force that has been growing in the darkness for centuries. Sabaoth is returning and they must be stopped before they devour the world. Leanne knows this, because a ghost told her."

I don't know who it was that made everyone decide the Fifth Doctor should be funny and find himself in comedies, but I suspect it was Steven Moffat. When Time Crash aired, that mix of old and new Who felt utterly new and alien. In many ways, so did the Fifth Doctor. He cracks gags here and seems a bit peeved off. He has far more in common with the Sixth Doctor than the Fifth Doctor we originally saw on our screens, but that's okay. It's not as if the Sixth Doctor we've had from Big Finish is much like the one on screen at times.

It cemented the Fifth Doctor's fate though, and his comedy efforts in audio have been on the up ever since. It feels especially ironic given John Nathan-Turrner's firm stamping out of humour during his era, but it's a welcome shift as Peter Davison has taken to it like a duck to water.

Ghost Walk is written by James Goss. Goss and Doctor Who are two things which compliment each other perfectly. His list of successes with Who and its assorted spin-offs is quite frankly alarming: City of Death and The Pirate Planet; The Art of Death and Dead Air; The Scorchies and Asking for a Friend; World Enough and Time and Mask of Tragedy. All this, and no mention of The Blood Cell or What She Does Next Will Astound You or The Sky Man. And there’s far more on top of all this. That's one hell of a hit rate!

Ghost Walk is the latest triumph for Goss: because I'm not going to play it coy and keep you in suspense until the end. This is another brilliant story by a brilliant writer.

As alluded to earlier, it's a funny play. It's also far more than just funny though; it's a play about ghosts and ordinary people being put in extraordinary circumstances, and it's one that tries to scare you.

Horror and the Fifth Doctor? Other unfamiliar bedfellows. Just as the Fifth Doctor of new is unlike the Fifth Doctor of old, so this story feels pretty alien to the original series, something remarked upon in the extras. This is completely true. Ghost Walk, with its talk of fixed points and e-mails, its time travel-heavy twists and turns, its humour, and its pre-credits teaser is straight out of the series post-2005, but you know what? That's no bad thing. This is the play that proves that so.

Last month, Kingdom of Lies kickstarted this new trilogy of Fifth Doctor plays and I mentioned there that Adric and Matthew Waterhouse were especially well suited to comedy, and that's the case here again. His comments on quantum states and Australia had me snorting, and the Fifth Doctor patiently waiting for the end of the world is beautifully observed, too. Tegan and her, at times, fractious relationship with everyone else is written for with deft skill, too, but when the drama really needs it, Janet Fielding gives us one hell of a performance. The same is true for Sarah Sutton as Nyssa. Nyssa has a far straighter role in this play than the other TARDIS companions, but it works well. It has echoes of The Curse of Peladon and Jo and the King about it, something cemented by Sacha Dhawan sounding eerily like David Troughton at times. It works though, despite the brevity of time in which to develop any relationship.

I've got this far and not mentioned Fenella Woolgar as Leanne yet, which is remarkable as she is front and centre of much of the play and carries a lot of the plot with seeming effortlessness. The support from John Banks as rival ghost walk host Louie is great as well, Goss once again showing a great ear for comedy and naturalistic relationships and patter with his dialogue.

Another thing to note is the sound design, which feels pleasingly ambitious with wide stereo swoops as people move from left to right, and some nice effects as time goes all awry later on. Barnaby Edwards' direction is perfect throughout, too. I noted last month that he really gets comedy and that assertion is only strengthened here.

I honestly don't think a foot is put wrong in Ghost Walk. I have often observed that Big Finish continually use the same writers over and over and over and over again with predictably diminishing returns, even when they're great writers. Goss seems to be immune to this though. I suspect it's because he is so busy elsewhere, too.  That palate cleansing works wonders.

Whatever the case may be, Ghost Walk is as good as they're saying and these two plays mark the most astonishing highs which the main range has reached in years, and that's not an exaggeration. For a range which felt deflated and tired, this is no small achievement. Long may it continue.

When I scored Kingdom of Lies, I was unsure whether to award it full points or not. The more you score things at the very top, the more it lessens that score, and the same with the lows. There is no hesitance here at all though. This is one of the easiest 10 out of 10s I've ever given. Sublime!

+  ORDER this CD via Amazon.co.uk!

Doctor Who Magazine have sent DWO the cover and details for Issue #522 of DWM.

PETER CAPALDI, SUSAN CALMAN AND COSPLAY IN THE NEW ISSUE OF DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE!

Issue 522 also sheds new light on the Dalek craze of the 1960s, as agent Beryl Vertue and writer Brad Ashton remember the roles they played. “The Daleks were really the beginning of the BBC handling merchandise,” says Beryl. “None of us really knew what we were doing, so one might say we invented it.”

HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS ISSUE...

BERYL VERTUE

In the 1960s Beryl Vertue was Terry Nation’s agent – now she’s Steven Moffat’s mother-in-law! Beryl discusses an association with Doctor Whothat began before the first episode was even transmitted. 

BRAD ASHTON

The comedy writer recalls his friendship with Dalek creator Terry Nation and the role he played in The Dalek Outer Space Book.

TERRY NATION'S DALEK EMPIRE

How did the Daleks become so popular in 1964? And why did they suddenly disappear three years later?

WALKING DALEKS

The BBC’s archive gives up its Dalek secrets – including details of the prototype toys that were never manufactured.

PETER CAPALDI

Previously unpublished quotes from the last four years reveal a new side to the man who played the Twelfth Doctor.

SUSAN CALMAN

Comedian, Strictly Come Dancingfavourite and now Doctor Whowriter – Susan Calman discusses her love for the Time Lord in this exclusive interview. 

EMMA FREUD

The organiser of Comic Relief’s ‘Breakfast with the Doctors’ event explains how she managed to unite seven Time Lords, two companions and a showrunner.

COSPLAY

In the first part of a new regular feature, Christel Dee presents a guide to recreating Ace’s jacket.

PUBLIC IMAGE 

A detailed survey of Doctor Who’s television ratings during the Peter Capaldi years.

NEW EARTH

This issue’s Fact of Fiction explores the 2006 story featuring the Tenth Doctor and Rose.

THE PHANTOM PIPER

Part Four of The Phantom Piper, a new comic strip adventure featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Bill.

PLUS...

The Blogs of Doom, previews, reviews, news, prize-winning competitions and your letters.

+  Doctor Who Magazine Issue #522 is out this Thursday, 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: Marcus Hearn at Doctor Who Magazine]

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: January 2018

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"On the planet Cicero Prime, the kingdom of Cardenas is divided, with the whole population forced to swear allegiance to either the effete Duke or the fiery, hard-edged Duchess. This is a situation both parties have grown tired of. What use is half a kingdom when, thanks to a carefully engineered murder, you could have it all?

Surely, neither of them would be rash enough to summon the deadly off-world assassin The Scorpion to help with their problem? And surely, this terrifying figure wouldn’t arrive wearing a long cream coat and striped trousers…?"

The 2018 main range of Doctor Who plays kicks off the year with Kingdom of Lies; an outing for the Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan. 2017 started the year running with this team with The Star Men, but will lightning strike twice? Frankly, yes.

Set in the pseudo-medieval kingdom of Cardenas, the Doctor and his friends land after a timely intervention in the TARDIS from Tegan (when it doubt, whack it and see what happens) and soon find themselves embroiled in a tangled web of assassination, marital troubles, and assumed identities.

It doesn't take long for this story to set out its credentials as a comedy and Nyssa in particular benefits well here. One minute she's simply Nyssa of Traken, the next she's the apparent assistant to the Scorpion, feared assassin and mercenary for hire. Sarah Sutton has a lot of fun with the material, and Barnaby Edwards milks it for every drop of comic potential, giving us a masterclass in how to handle this sort of material.

Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky's first Big Finish outing, The Ravelli Conspiracy, was a bit hit-and-miss, with the actors seemingly uncertain at times in their faith in the material, as evidenced in the extras where Peter Purves and Maureen O'Brien confessed they were not too sure about the script before recording it. You get the impression that wasn't the case this time around as everyone commits to the comedy with full gusto. Matthew Waterhouse is an especial revelation in this case, and I wish we'd had a bit more of Adric in here. Janet Fielding, meanwhile, observes that Tegan takes a bit of a backseat here this time. It's a pity for certain, as the relatively recent Time in Office (my favourite main range release in 2017 by far) shows just how compatible Fielding and Tegan are with comedy.

The test of any comedy really is twofold: will it stand up to repeated plays (untested, but I suspect there's enough going on here to let that be the case) and does it remain entertaining for the duration? Thankfully, Khan and Salinsky realize that having four episodes of comedy on the trot may well test listeners' patience and wear the story's premise thin, so the final episode shifts gears to become a chase of sorts where death is a very real possibility and things feel a lot more dangerous than the lighter tone before then would have you necessarily expect. It's a smart move.

I've mentioned the regular cast, but praise must also go to the guest cast here. Patsy Kensit is clearly enjoying herself, for example. I'd quite forgotten she was in it, but the second she started speaking I found myself unable to shift the song I'm Not Scared from my head: I swear her voice hasn't aged a day since she sang that. Elsewhere, Charlotte Lucas is superb as Miranda. Selfish, rude and egotistical, she is that rare hated character where you boo her not because she is inherently evil, but because she is thoroughly dislikable. She's the sort of person you'd go out of your way to avoid in the workplace, knowing she would find fault in everyone else's attitudes bar her own.

Humour is subjective of course and your mileage will vary, but for my money this is a very bold and genuinely amusing start to the year's Big Finish offerings and all praise must go to the writers, the cast (both regular and guest) and Edwards' direction. I'm fairly hesitant to give anything full marks, especially when the impact of something like this is very much weighted on the first listen. Comedies are rarely as fun the second time around; horror films lack the initial impact; thrillers are devoid of some of their thrill once the twists are there. I'm going to make an exception here though. This one's very fun indeed.

+  ORDER this CD via Amazon.co.uk!

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Writers: John Dorney, Guy Adams & Matt Fitton

RRP: £35.00 (CD) / £25.00 (Download)

Release Date: November 2017

Reviewed by: Beth Axford for Doctor Who Online

2.1 Infamy of the Zaross by John Dorney

"When Jackie Tyler takes an away day to visit her old friend Marge in Norwich, she finds her holiday immediately interrupted in the worst way possible - an alien invasion! The infamous Zaross have come to take over the Earth. Or have they? After Jackie calls in the Doctor and Rose to deal with the menace, it soon becomes clear that this is a very unusual invasion indeed. The Doctor is about to uncover one of the most heinous crimes in the history of the galaxy. And if he can't stop it an awful lot of people are going to die."

2.2 The Sword of the Chevalier by Guy Adams

"1791 and the Doctor and Rose get to meet one of the most enigmatic, thrilling and important people in history: The Chevalier d’Eon. She used to be known as a spy, but then she used to be known as a lot of things. If there’s one thing the Doctor knows it’s that identity is what you make it. Choose a life for yourself and be proud. Mind you, if the Consortium of the Obsidian Asp get their way, all lives may soon be over..."

2.3 Cold Vengeance by Matt Fitton

"The TARDIS arrives on Coldstar, a vast freezer satellite, packed with supplies to feed a colony world. But there are cracks in the ice, and something scuttles under the floors. Soon, Rose and the Doctor encounter robots, space pirates and... refuse collectors. As Coldstar's tunnels begin to melt, an even greater threat stirs within. An old enemy of the Doctor puts a plan into action - a plan for retribution. Nobody's vengeance is colder than an Ice Warrior's."

Infamy Of The Zaross

John Dorney pulls Doctor Who straight out of 2006 and brings us an absolute nostalgia fest of fun in Infamy Of The Zaross. The long-awaited return of one of the most popular duos in Doctor Who history was always going to be hard to recreate, but he hits the nail on the head perfectly. Light hearted, human and adventure galore, it's exactly the kind of story that made us fall in love with the Tenth Doctor and Rose in the first place!

As well as our beloved pair returning, Doctor Who’s best-loved mother is back to save the day with her daughter. A genius move for this story, Camille Coduri falls right back into her character with ease, bouncing off the rest of the cast brilliantly. She even gets a shining moment in space, making us fall in love with her even more.

And for what is one of the most anticipated returns in Doctor Who history, Billie Piper most certainly delivers. After some worry that she may not be able to pull off her characters iconic voice 12 years later, our minds are put to rest within just a few minutes of the episode. Her and David could have recorded this all those years ago for all we know - it fits that well. And his Doctor doesn’t disappoint either, bringing the enemy down with ease and saving the earth once more.

The story itself features one of the more…stranger alien invasions. Norwich is taken over by the villainous Zaross, and the reason why is even more disturbing. Once the plan is eventually revealed, you can’t help but wonder how such an original, exciting plot hasn’t been written into the show before. The adventure ends with a brilliant moment between Rose Tyler and some family friends, and a speech that resonates with people of all ages. The messages behind the dialogue and plot are key to this episode and is exactly how Doctor Who should be; leaving a warm, fuzzy feeling in our hearts.

Overall this story is an exact replication of the 2006 Doctor Who series we all know and love, bringing our favourite characters back to life and creating a memorable adventure for them. There’s even a reference to a certain organisation that crops up a lot in series two… you know the one we mean!

Sword Of The Chevalier

The second part of The Tenth Doctor Adventures: Volume Two kicks off in another iconic British location: Slough. In 1791. The Doctor and Rose meet The Chevalier D’Eon who according to The Doctor, was an ex-spy born male now living their life as a woman, or something. Probably. What’s important is that right now, she’s a woman. ‘She’s amazing!’ Utters Rose, and we agree. Challenging The Doctor to a sword fight, we get a brilliant sense of this historic character and what they stand for, and over the course of the story, they prove that the legends are correct.

David and Billie really come into their own with the witty humour of the script and bring our favourite characters to life with as much vigour as 2006. Their guest star Nikolas Grace absolutely nails the character of The Chevalier and fits in with our TARDIS team, perfectly. It’s fun to hear from a figure in history that many might not know about, and get a bit of a history lesson along the way! Guy Adams has got their characterization spot on as well as creating an exciting, fresh, historical adventure. The psychic paper also gets a fun feature and works against The Doctor's advantage ending in a hilarious mishap that it's hard to believe hasn’t happened before!

The threat of the episode is another fantastic idea; an alien with three heads looking to sell humans off into slavery. It’s a classic invasion plot that is enhanced by the brilliant dialogue and cast, keeping up the strong start we had with Infamy Of The Zaross. It can be hard to engage with an audio drama without visuals to keep you hooked but this story shows that with astounding actors, voicing and sound work, it can be just as exciting as a television adventure.

Overall, The Sword Of The Chevalier holds up the high standards of this terrific boxset so far. It just seems a shame that we only get three adventures! Now, I wonder what awaits next…

Cold Vengeance

Our heroes are thrown in at the cold end in the last adventure of this series, Cold vengeance. Matt Fitton rounds off the stories spectacularly with this fun space adventure, with brilliant characterisation and a tantalising plot. So, how does the Tenth Doctor fare against the Ice warriors?...

The Doctor and Rose find themselves in a giant icy space freezer carrying food for a colony world. Promising Rose a perfect ski slope, it soon becomes apparent that they’ve not quite landed where they’re supposed too. Classic Tenth Doctor. The two get some outstanding scenes in this adventure, and some moments that truly feel iconic for Rose Tyler. The pair are split up for much of the story, bringing out the best in each character as they work to save the ship. This is a massive advantage and gives some brilliant guest characters a chance to shine - most notably Lorna, who could easily be a Doctor Who companion in her own right.

As well as the perfect characterisation, the Ice Warriors get another exciting outing in an unfamiliar setting, making it all the more fun. I don’t know about you, but the whole thing makes me feel a little bit chilly inside! The hiss of their voices is enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine. They carry out their vengeance unapologetically, and for a moment it leaves you wondering just how The Doctor and Rose are going to get themselves out of this one. In fact, the resolution to the Ice Warriors brutal ways is even more simple than one could imagine, but fits perfectly with the essence of 2006 Doctor Who.

As the theme tune fades out, a warm feeling stirs. Experiencing three new episodes of 2006 era Doctor Who seemed like an impossible dream, but here we are with some of the best of the Tenth Doctor and Rose, yet. It is the minimalism of only 3 stories that makes it so special, and the hard work and effort gone into every episode shines spectacularly. Present day earth, historical England and a space ship full of ice warriors - there’s something for every fan in this boxset!

+  ORDER this CD via Amazon.co.uk!

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Writer: Chris Chapman

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: November 2017

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"It’s L/Wren Mrs Constance Clarke’s birthday - and Flip is determined to make it an anniversary to remember.

The futuristic colony of Formicia, where the pampered populace pass their days in endless leisure, seems the perfect place for a ‘Wren Party’. But all is not as it seems. Looking down from the Middle, the skyscraping tower that ascends as far as the colony ceiling, Formicia’s overseers can see that the Doctor doesn’t fit in - and it’s not just his coat that makes him conspicuous...

“The End is the Beginning,” say the propaganda-like posters all over Formicia. Because to be part of this perfect society comes at a price. And the Doctor's already in arrears."

Last time around, I joked that the Gods of co-incidence must have been smiling when Big Finish put out The Behemoth with its head-on tackling of slavery so close to Series 10. This month, we have suits that people wear and a faceless corporation exploiting humanity... ring any bells? I wonder if next month’s much-touted scare-fest spectacular will include a whole bunch of knock knock jokes?

Yes, it seems that someone at the branding department has been hitting snooze on their clock as of late, but pushing that aside, what can be made of The Middle? Thankfully a fair bit of good.

The first thing of note is how well the TARDIS crew of the Doctor, Flip and Constance is working. The two companions have never been as strong as they are here together, and the Sixth Doctor proves to be a nice foil to the excesses of them both. Chris Chapman, the play’s writer, ably uses the comedy potential of Flip and Lisa Greenwood as an actor to good effect, and also makes good use of Constance’s background as a Wren in the plot and its settings.

The script has some good, solid ideas behind it, but does perhaps suffer again from a case of the Co-incidences: the TARDIS crew just so happen to be talking about birthdays when they land on a planet where birthdays play a huge role and Constance just so happens to be approaching a plot-integral age. They then befriend a man who just so happens to be the father of another important regular character and knows a lot about the technology being used because of... reasons. It’s a bit too neat and co-incidental to be glossed over really.

Likewise, just as the story has echoes of Series 10, so too does the play have echoes of other plays surrounding it from Big Finish; the Sixth Doctor in an office block? See World Enough And Time (say, that would make a good TV story title one day...). Memories playing an integral, crucial role in proceedings? See Chapman’s own play, The Memory Box.

Indeed, The Middle feels like its roots are firmly embedded in Chapman’s first Big Finish outing, which is no bad thing as it was a very strong single-episode affair, but also means at times things feel a bit too familiar.

That’s not to take away from the good though, which include a strong guest cast (Mark Heap is especially fun) and a very sturdy opening episode: you can see why Big Finish were giving it away for free as a sampler.

Despite the air of having seen some of it before, the script still feels fresh for the most part, though I wish Colin Baker didn’t have to cry “Nooooo!” as often as he does here as it brings back nasty memories of Slipback.

These are mostly slight niggles though, as The Middle proves to be an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours, just not an overly original one. What it does do though it show Chapman as a writer worth paying attention to, and is a good case for this being one of the Sixth Doctor’s strongest TARDIS teams.

Overall, this one is far from a middling affair.

+  ORDER this CD via Amazon.co.uk!

In 1979, Shada was set to be the celebratory end to the seventeenth series of Doctor Who. Critically acclaimed writer Douglas Adams had completed the script, Tom Baker’s Doctor was at the height of his popularity, and the series had bigger audiences than ever before. But strike action at the BBC in November 1979, meant the studio scenes were never completed and the adventure was abandoned. The story became legendary among fans. 

Now, thirty-eight years on, BBC Worldwide has announced that Shada, is to finally be completed, combining the original, remastered footage, with brand new colour animation to complete the story. The animation will feature the newly-recorded voices of the original cast, including Tom Baker as the Doctor and Lalla Ward as Romana, performing the original script. Shada will be released as a digital download on Friday 24th November, and on DVD and Bluray on Monday 4th December. 

Tom Baker says:

“Shada was one of my favourite Doctor Who stories. I have many fond memories of shooting the location scenes in Cambridge, and it was disappointing not to finish the story in studio. I’m so glad that BBC Worldwide have found a way to bring fans a complete visual version.”

The new feature-length production incorporates all of the live-action scenes from 1979, together with new animated material. Shada finds the Doctor in Cambridge working alongside companion Romana and retired Time Lord, Professor Chronotis, to defeat the evil alien Skagra who is attempting to steal the secrets to the prison planet, Shada.

Shada is being produced by the team behind the highly successful and critically acclaimed animation of lost Doctor Who episode, The Power of the Daleks and lost Dad’s Army episode A Stripe For Frazer. The team have had access to nearly seven hours of raw footage from the original 1979 Shada shoot from which they are editing the new production from scratch, with all the original film negatives re-scanned in full HD and digitally remastered.

Paul Hembury, Executive Producer, BBC Worldwide says:

“Fans loved The Power of the Daleks, so we’re delighted to be able to complete and bring them another lost Doctor Who classic.”

On Saturday 2nd December there will be a special screening of Shada at BFI Southbank, London. Further information will be available from bfi.org.uk from Monday 23rd October. Tickets for BFI members will be available from Tuesday 7th November, and for the public from Tuesday 14th November.

Special Features:

-  Taken Out of Time (25' 39")
-  Now and Then (12' 45")
-  Strike, Strike, Strike! (27' 50")
-  Studio Sessions - 1979 (44' 38")
-  Dialogue Sessions (14' 16")
-  Model Filming (04' 36")
-  Deleted Scenes (01' 22")
-  Title Sequence Films (TBC)
-  Live Action Reference Footage (02' 48")
-  1979 Gallery (04' 50")
-  2017 Gallery (02' 52)

Watch the trailer for the new Shada release in the player, below:
[youtube:67qiRyJ35nw]
+  PREORDER Shada on DVD from Amazon.co.uk for £19.99.
+  PREORDER Shada on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk for £24.99.
+  Discuss all the Doctor Who DVD & Blu-ray releases in the DWO Forums.

[Source: BBC Worldwide]

'Peoples of the universe, please attend carefully' – Sir Derek Jacobi is reprising his iconic role as the Master in new Doctor Who adventures from Big Finish Productions.

Following his first unforgettable performance in the Doctor Who episode, Utopia, crafting an iconic role that thrilled viewers ten years ago, Sir Derek is once again taking on the mantle of the Master. His return will bring joy to fans, but disaster for the Doctor Who universe!

The ruthless renegade Time Lord returns in four brand new adventures made by arrangement with BBC Worldwide.

“His incarnation is very much the ‘Hannibal Lecter’ of Time Lords – intelligent, charming, but thoroughly ruthless – we had a lot of fun in studio bringing the War Master back to life,” explains producer and director Scott Handcock. “It’s been a gift of a project, and we can’t wait for listeners to hear it!”

“I didn’t expect to come back to it all these years later,” says Sir Derek, “but I was thrilled to be remembered. The plots in all these episodes have been very good indeed, very interesting, very dramatic, and beautifully written. The whole process has been a delight!”

Doctor Who: The War Master - Volume One follows the exploits of the Doctor’s arch-enemy during the course of the devastating Time War, featuring stories from acclaimed Doctor Who writers James Goss, Guy Adams and Nicholas Briggs – as well as new writing talent from Janine H. Jones.

Doctor Who: The War Master - Volume One is released December 2017, in four hour-long episodes:

Beneath the Viscoid by Nicholas Briggs

The Good Master by Janine H. Jones

The Sky Man by James Goss

The Heavenly Paradigm by Guy Adams

Writer, James Goss explains what makes this Master unique:
 

“What was exciting about this was that normally the Master loses. He puts in the hours, he works through all these elaborate plans and yet it all goes wrong. It’s not fair! What did Sir Derek do in the Time War? It’s thrilling to have helped find out.”

Writer, Guy Adams says:
 

“Once I got over the idea that giving my words to Sir Derek was rather like filling the Holy Grail with Special Brew, I allowed myself a brief cry of joy! Writing for villains is always a pleasure because a writer is roughly ninety percent more ‘stares at cat and awaits inspiration’ than ‘boils planet alive for fun’.” 

Writer, Nicholas Briggs, Writer says:

“I was lucky enough to have directed Sir Derek fourteen years ago in Deadline (one of our Doctor Who Unbound releases), so I was delighted to be able to work with him once again. The thrill for me has been just how fascinating and exhilarating it is to write a series when the leading character is a bad guy. Writing my own script and working on the others with Scott has been such a rewarding challenge. I’m really keen to do it again, and further explore exactly what the Master did get up to in the Time War.”

The cast includes Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble - Doctor Who), Mark Elstob (Number 6 - The Prisoner), Deirdre Mullins (Naomi - Man Down), Rachel Atkins (Vicky Tucker - The Archers), Jonny Green (Torchwood), Hannah Barker (Harriet Sloane - Holby City), Jake Dudman, Emily Barber (Gwendolen Fairfax - The Importance of Being Earnest), Robert Daws (Dr. Choake - Poldark), Nerys Hughes (Brenda Williams - Torchwood), Jonathan Bailey (Olly Stevens - Broadchurch) and Nicholas Briggs as the Daleks.

Listen to the official Trailer, below:

+ PREORDER The War Master - Volume 1 for £23.00 (CD Box set) / £20.00 (Download).

[Source: Big Finish]

Publisher: Amberley Books

Written By: Paul Berry

RRP: £14.99 (Paperback)

Release Date: May 2017

Reviewed by: Doctor Who Online

Review Posted: 9th June 2017

Part of being a Doctor Who fan is about collecting the merchandise associated with our favourite show; be it an action figure, a DVD, a CD, or a rare collectors piece. During the show’s rich 50+ year history, Doctor Who has created more pieces of merchandise than any other British TV programme, and the new ‘Doctor Who Memorabilia’ book by Paul Berry chronicles a surprising amount of it!

Since the show returned to our screens in 2005, the floodgates opened to a whole new wave of merchandise, but for this particular book, Berry has wisely focused on the classic series and everything right up to the 2005 series.

Split up into easy to navigate chapters, Berry kicks off with the various Doctor Who books that have been released over the years - as far back as 1964 with ‘The Dalek Book’ and as far ahed to the BBC Eighth Doctor and Past Doctor novels. It’s worth noting at this point how vibrant the pictures are (full colour of course), and it’s so good to come across a piece of merchandise that jogs a memory from your youth. Who could forget the Target books, or the annuals, and not forgetting The Doctor Who Monster Book!

+  Doctor Who Memorabilia is Out Now, priced £14.99.
+  Buy this book from Amberley Books for just £13.49!
+  Follow Amberley Books on Twitter.

First appearing on our screens over fifty years ago, Doctor Who has not only been a television phenomenon, it has spawned more merchandise than any other British TV programme in history. Literally thousands of products have been produced since the series launch in 1963, with many of these items now being collectible and highly sort after by fans of the programme.

Doctor Who has featured on virtually every conceivable product, from books and records to toys and games, breakfast cereal promotions to full-size prop replicas. The series merchandising has enjoyed many peaks and troughs from the heady days of Dalekmania in the 1960s to a drought in the early ’70s, the rise of the collectible in the ’80s to the nostalgia driven days of the ’90s and then a huge resurgence following the Doctor’s return to television in the twenty-first century.

Whether you're looking for a full-size Cyberman or a pair of Dalek slippers, a Tom Baker scarf or a pinball machine, Doctor Who has produced something for every type of collector.

Sit back and revel in nostalgia as we take a look at some of the more notable and unusual items that have been produced over the last half century.

+  Doctor Who Memorabilia is Out Now, priced £14.99!
+  BUY NOW from Amberley Books for just £13.49! 

[Source: Amberley Books]

Publisher: Amazon Media

Written By: Andrew Hastie

RRP: £9.99 (Paperback) / £2.99 (Kindle)

Release Date: January 2015

Reviewed by: Doctor Who Online

Review Posted: 12th May 2017

DWO regularly receives a wide range of products to review; some Doctor Who related and some indirectly related to the Doctor Who universe. Whilst Andrew Hastie's The Infinity Engines series isn't a Doctor Who title, we couldn't help but feel that there were several strands that connected to the whoniverse, and the first book in the series 'Anachronist' is one many who fans will love and find it hard to put down.

Anachronist is the perfect blend of History and Science Fiction with intelligent plot devices, rich characters and more time travel than you can shake a stick at. In fact, this is a story that will give any Doctor Who fan that warm, Mr Kipling-esque feeling of familiarity. The first chapter even feels like a pre-titles sequence set-up that literally launches you right into the action. There's a slight feeling of John Green in Hastie's style, and at its heart (and much like a John Green title) this is a coming of age story.

The time travel element is set up pretty quickly, and without giving to much away, Josh (the main character), quickly finds himself in the past in historical Prussia in 1944. Hastie's ability to weave in actual historical elements, whilst carving out his own unique story is seamless and refreshing, and you go to so many places and points in time that the book never tires or stagnates.

Anachronist has something for everyone, and for those of you who are a sucker for a romance, Hastie has that covered for you, too! Nothing is shoe-horned in for effect, everything has its place and a meaning and the reader genuinely cares for Josh and the people he meets along the way.

The book ends on a cliffhanger, and you will be climbing the walls desperate for a resolution. We just wish we could time travel into the future to read it!

+  Anachronist: A Time Travel Adventure is Out Now, priced £9.99 / $12.99.
+  Buy this book on Amazon!
+  Follow Infinity Engines on Twitter.

David Tennant and Billie Piper are reprising their roles of the Tenth Doctor and his companion Rose Tyler in three new Doctor Who audio dramas from Big Finish Productions in arrangement with BBC Worldwide.

David Tennant’s Doctor, portrayed on screen from December 2005 until December 2009, returned in the 50th Anniversary special The Day Of The Doctor, with Matt Smith and Sir John Hurt in 2013, and on audio for Big Finish with Catherine Tate in 2016.

Billie Piper portrayed the Doctor’s much-loved companion Rose in 2005 and 2006, returning for a number of stories in 2008. She also appeared as The Moment – which had taken Rose’s form – in The Day Of The Doctor. These new stories will be Billie’s eagerly-awaited debut for Big Finish.

Executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery says:

"Getting David and Billie back together was definitely on my bucket list – two wonderful actors who created an era of Doctor Who which is so fondly remembered and brought a different aspect of the relationship between the Doctor and his companion to the fore – love, both platonic and unrequited. It’s great to have the Tenth Doctor and Rose back again!"

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures – Volume 2, to be released in November 2017, is comprised of three thrilling hour-long full-cast audio adventures.

The set opens with Infamy Of The Zaross by John Dorney, in which an alien invasion of Earth isn’t quite what it appears to be – Camille Coduri guest stars as Jackie Tyler.

In the second adventure, Sword Of The Chevalier by Guy Adams, the Doctor and Rose arrive in Slough in 1791 and encounter Chevalier D’Eon, an enigmatic ex-spy who has lived his life as a woman. Together they must fend off alien slavers, who have come to Earth to abduct valuable humans.

Finally, in Cold Vengeance by Matt Fitton, the TARDIS arrives on Coldstar, a vast frozen food asteroid in deep space. But there is something sinister defrosting in the network of storage units… the Doctor’s old enemies the Ice Warriors! Nicholas Briggs plays Ice Lord Hasskor and Warrior Slaan.

Nicholas Briggs said:

"It was such a special time for me, working with Billie and David on the TV show, and it is such an honour to revisit it with them on audio."

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures – Volume 2 is produced by David Richardson, script edited by Matt Fitton and John Dorney, and directed by Nicholas Briggs. Executive producers are Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs.

David Richardson said:

"We were thrilled by the response to the first volume. David Tennant and Catherine Tate were on fantastic form, and it’s so exciting to reunite David with Billie Piper, playing the Doctor and Rose together again after nine years! Their time in the series transformed Doctor Who into a prime-time and international hit, and we’ve worked very hard to live up to the incredible standards of Russell T Davies."

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures Volume 2 (Limited Edition) is available now for pre-order on Download and CD. This five-disc collector's edition - limited to 5,000 copies - is available on CD in deluxe bookset packaging for a pre-release price of £35, with a download version for £25.

The three stories - Infamy of the Zaross, Sword of the Chevalier and Cold Vengeance, can be bought individually for £8.99 on Download or £10.99 on Download. These are also bundled together for £22 and £25 respectively.

Listend to the trailer in the player, below:

[Source: Big Finish]

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Writer: Matthew J. Elliott

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: March 2017

Reviewed by: Steve Bartle for Doctor Who Online

"In the Vortex, the TARDIS comes under a form of psychic attack – resulting in the abductions of first Adric, then Tegan. Following their trail, the Doctor and Nyssa arrive under the lurid skies of the planet Zaltys, whose entire population has vanished in strange circumstances. Soon, they discover that Zaltys is now the target of treasure seekers, come to scavenge this so-called Planet of the Dead…

Meanwhile, deep below the planet’s surface, Adric learns the earth-shattering reason why the people of Zaltys disappeared... and why they were wise to do so. And Tegan is, quite literally, in the dark – enduring interrogation by the mysterious Clarimonde. Any friend of the Doctor’s is Clarimonde’s enemy... because theirs is a blood feud!"

It wasn’t until reading Peter Davison's recently released autobiography that I realised he has now been doing Big Finish for over fifteen years. It puts into perspective the challenges faced by the writers of Big Finish to continually come up with new ideas while also staying true to the time the stories are set within the series original run.

Although Davison's tenure with Big Finish is lengthy it wasn’t until 2014 when the original ‘Crowded Tardis’ team of the Doctor, Adric, Tegan and Nyssa were reunited once more. In 2017 they are now well into their stride and Zaltys writer Matthew J. Elliott has managed to recapture the sense of relationships that instantly transports you right back to that weekday tea time slot from the early eighties.

All the tropes of that particular era are here and affectionately conveyed. The story opens with a protracted Tardis scene with our four protagonists. Big sister Tegan and little brother Adric are bickering away just as they always did. Tegan is still incessantly going on about getting back to Heathrow and actually goads Adric into showing off his so called superior maths skills and putting them into practice when programming a flight course to her desired destination. The chance to impress naturally appeals to Adrics constant desire to prove his worth to The Doctor, but needles s to say  this goes disastrously wrong leading to the TARDIS crew disappearing one by one. And with that we are off into the heart of the story!

This might be one of the most jam-packed stories Big Finish has ever produced, with so many disparate elements. We have fish people, a wolfman with psychic abilities, and grave robbers - to name a few. And all the while our TARDIS team are encountering these colourful characters, there's the threat of a huge space meteorite heading towards Zaltys that will mean the ultimate destruction of everyone.

Of course Elliot’s real challenge is to serve all the main characters well, a feat the TV series failed at with regularity during this period. As well as getting all their characteristics spot on, Elliott manages to give them all a decent narrative strand too. Nyssa is paired with The Doctor as she frequently was in the original run; Adric forms an uneasy alliance with the custodians of Zaltys in a very similar vein to his questionable allegiances in Four To Doomsday and State Of Decay. Additionally Tegan gets plenty of time in a ventilation shaft. What could be more appropriate than that!!

Special mention should go to Rebecca Roots' portrayal of Sable who brings a deadpan style of delivery that makes you really warm to the character and want to see her on more adventures. Phillip Franks and Niamh Cusack are also effective as the questionable villains of the story.

Elliott also writes Davison's Fifth incarnation extremely well too. I always enjoy the breathless energy that he injects into every story but here we also get the acerbic wit that we know his portrayal was capable of but never truly had the opportunity to show consistently on TV. Perhaps only in Time Crash, so many years later, did we see what his potential for humour truly was.

At certain points in the story you wonder how Elliott is going to tie all these storylines together, as it seems all the strands are running parallel and yet so separate, but manage it he does, and with aplomb. It is almost a shame we don’t get to spend more time with all the fascinating characters that he has created for our enjoyment.

However the real gem of this story for me is some of the interaction between the regulars. There are a couple of standout scenes for me; at one point Tegan questions whether Adric was happier when it was just The Doctor and him onboard the TARDIS and when one thinks back to the opening scenes of The Keeper Of Traken and Logopolis it would be hard to argue that wasn’t the case. Additionally a scene towards the end between The Doctor and Adric which, knowing Adrics ultimate fate, is extremely emotive.

Overall a great showcase for one of my favourite TARDIS teams; once again and a very ambitious story that revels in seemingly pulling together various storyline strands into a satisfying conclusion.

+  ORDER this CD via Amazon.co.uk!

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: David Llewellyn

RRP: £9.99 (CD) / £7.99 (Download)

Release Date: March 2017

Reviewed by: Dan Peters for Doctor Who Online

"Everyone’s a little worried about St Helen’s Hospital. In many ways it is a miracle of the modern NHS. It has plenty to offer its patients. The problem is that a lot of them keep dying of natural causes in the night. And no-one can find the bodies.

People are beginning to notice. Questions are being asked. And there are rumours – the strange whispering figures seen at the end of the corridors, the electrical buzzing, the screams.

Also, Rhys Williams has come to visit his mother. Brenda’s had her hip done and is looking forward to a bit of rest and regular crumble. Rhys and his mam are in for a night they’ll never forget."

Last year the double dozen Torchwood stories that Big Finish realised were met with great acclaim, with some even stating this is the best form of the spin-off yet.

Torchwood is back and we’re all ready. The new audio series starts this month with ‘Visiting Hours’, when a hospital’s dodgy menu is the least of a visitor’s worries...

It’s often the case that secondary characters get largely overshadowed in television series, even one of the calibre of Torchwood. The structure of these releases, focusing on individuals, allows for personalities and backgrounds to be effectively fleshed out. Although Rhys is more than a spare part throughout the TV episodes, it’s clear that other half Gwen wears the trousers in the relationship.

Here, the attention is pointed at Rhys (played by Kai Owen) and he’s given an opportunity to shine. It would have been easy for writer David Llewellyn to have him acting the clown, blundering his way through proceedings, but after his brushes with previous alien incursions, Rhys has learnt quite a bit. 

Torchwood, like Doctor Who, seems to flourish in circumstances where the extra-terrestrial meets the mundane. For all its spaceships, aliens and megalomaniacs bent on invasion, the ‘brand’ (especially since its reboot) is very strongly grounded. It cleverly  focuses on individuals and their everyday lives. Most of this tale is set within the walls of a Hospital. With Rhys visiting his mam, but it’s not long before things turn eerie.

The brilliant Nerys Hughes returns as (the comparatively less fanged-up) Brenda from ‘Torchwood: Something Borrowed’. She portrays the older mother vibe perfectly. Nerys and Kai have a believable ‘’mam’ and son relationship. Essentially this story is about family, exploring  how far people will go in protecting them.

Ironically, stars of ITV2’s Plebs, Karl Theobald and Ryan Sampson, play foreboding henchmen, pursuing our heroes. Uniquely, they have strong motives for their actions over and above that of their ‘employers’ After the climax of last year’s series, which brought to an end the villainous committee’s escapades, mutterings of a similarly mysterious force suggests a running plot. 

The one element of the story that for me unfortunately let it down, was that the plot’s resolution didn’t do it’s lead up justice. It felt a bit like a sonic screwdriver solution, and would have really benefited from a little more time to establish.

On the whole, this is an excellent release, which rattles along at pace. It expands the background of a much loved character, containing some heart-warming moments, against an eerie impending threat.

The writers seem to be keen to push the boundaries and dynamics further at this point in it’s audio run. Next month’s release: ’The Dollhouse’ centres itself around the institute’s branch of female fighters in LA.

+  ORDER this CD via Amazon.co.uk!

Back in November we reported on the fantastic news that Who Dares Publishing - the legendary 1980's Doctor Who publishing company, was back and kicking things off with a fantastic calendar, featuring the artwork of acclaimed Doctor Whoa artist, Andrew Skilleter. Now in February of 2017, we are thrilled to be among the first to reveal that Who Dares Publishing are releasing a new series of exclusive, limited edition, Doctor Who collectable art portfolios.

The first portfolio features the artwork of Colin Howard, and comprises of six prints featuring the artwork from The Key To Time Doctor Who VHS covers. There will be just 50 of these limited edition portfolios, all signed and numbered, and costing just £59.95!

DWO were lucky enough to get our hands on one of the portfolios, and they are of an incredibly high quality. If you're anything like us, you'll remember seeing the videos in your local W.H. Smith's, Blockbuster Video or MVC, and the artwork really popped out.

So what do you get in the portfolio? Well, it's a white hardback folio, that opens up to reveal a compartment holding all 6 of the prints. There's also an accompanying booklet with information on Colin Howard, as well as a certificate of authenticity, and, last but not least, some 'Who Dares' printed gloves to handle the artwork - a nice little touch!

These prints are screaming out to be framed, and, if this portfolio is anything to be judged by, the future looks incredibly bright for Who Dares Publishing!

+  BUY 'The Key To Time Art By Colin Howard' Portfolio from Who Dares for £59.95.

[Source: Who Dares Publishing]