Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Robert Valentine

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: March 2021

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"The Universe is in a state of crisis, facing destruction from the results of a strange spatio-temporal event. And the Doctor is involved in three different incarnations - each caught up in a deadly adventure, scattered across time and space.

The whole of creation is threatened - and someone is hunting the Doctor. The three incarnations of the Doctor must join together to confront their implacable pursuer - but in doing so will they unleash a still greater threat?"

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

I remember the launch of Big Finish Production’s Doctor Who plays vividly, listening to Talking ‘Bout My Regeneration while playing Super Mario 64 and being pretty intrigued as I died yet again in the bloody sinking sand. I was treated to The Sirens of Time on CD by my dad and copied it to an audio cassette to listen to in the car while being driven up to Coventry for Battlefield 3, a Doctor Who convention I attended with an old school friend. I couldn’t resist sneaking a quick listen the night before though, just a couple of scenes with Peter Davison. It all felt so exciting: new Who, at last!

It was years later that I had money of my own to spend and I eagerly jumped into the Big Finish fray. Paul McGann became one of my very favourite actors to play the role; writers such as Jacqueline Rayner and Robert Shearman blew me away; Dalek Empire was incredible; and companions like Evelyn and Charley intrigued me. Of course, for every high there were lows that hit rock bottom hard, as anyone who’s endured Dreamtime can attest to. Broadly speaking though, it all felt very fresh and exciting, bursting full of energy and new ideas and monsters and concepts.

Let’s be fair, Big Finish was never going to keep that momentum up, especially not 275 releases into its monthly range, but even so, it’s curious to see how Big Finish has changed with time. Gone is the newness that once was, replaced by releases crammed with old enemies or planets or characters. Gone is the sense of special brevity, replaced by spin-off series all over the place. Gone is the wide pool of writers, increasingly narrowed down to the same people time and again. Frankly, gone is a lot of the magic that made Big Finish so brilliant.

Here we are then with The End of the Beginning, the final play in the monthly range; a play which tries to claw back some of the range’s past glories and does, in part, succeed in doing so.

Robert Valentine has written a play here consciously structured in part like Sirens was all those years ago: a sole Doctor in parts One to Three and then all of them united at the end. Valentine previously wrote The Lovecraft Invasion for the monthly range (very good until they added in some ‘damage control’ scenes, which rank up there with the worst thing Big Finish have ever done to kill a release dead) and so he undoubtedly feels like a slightly odd shout for the man to handle the final outing, though at the same time it’s rather nice that a less familiar voice is handling it. It makes it that bit more unexpected, and of course outside of the inner reaches of fandom Nicholas Briggs wasn’t a huge name when he launched the range with the first play all those years ago. No, Valentine is a fine choice to be ending things with.

We begin with the Fifth Doctor and Turlough in the desert, with what was probably my favourite episode of the bunch. Peter Davison and Mark Strickson give it their all and the guest characters are sketched out well.  Next up it’s time for the Sixth Doctor and Constance Clarke. I wonder if Flip was originally meant to be along for the ride but then they couldn’t secure her for one reason or another? Either way, she is rendered out for the count in a coma and instead our heroes are joined by Calypso Jonze from Valentine’s aforementioned The Lovecraft Invasion. I’m mixed on this. When reviewing that play, I said that I wouldn’t mind seeing Calypso back but I fear I was wrong with that assertion. Here, Calypso felt tired and done; the joke and character beats worn thin. Also, for a release winding up a range of 275 plays, chucking in a character that’s only been in one play and expecting everyone to keep up feels a bit strange and maybe a bit self-indulgent on Valentine’s part. Perhaps it was always the intention to have her in and Flip out but it sticks out for me, and not in an especially good way.

After this, we’re onto the Eighth Doctor and Charley in an adventure set in 1999 (see what they did there?) Do you remember the days when the Eighth Doctor was in the monthly range of plays and not relegated to box sets only? It’s been a while. Big Finish + Vampires mostly makes me think of the Seventh Doctor and the Forge, though I suppose Vampire Science worked well for the Eighth Doctor and this episode is certainly enjoyable enough, largely as India Fisher is, as always, brilliant. Paul McGann meanwhile sounds a bit like he’s stuck in a submarine, his microphone quality feeling decidedly sub-par compared to everybody else’s.  There’s a rather touching scene at the end though between him and Tim Faulkner’s character Highgate, which works really well. Two small performances in a big world that winds up being utterly touching. Ah McGann, there’s a reason you and Fisher were two of my favourites.

Throughout these episodes, we’ve had mysterious artefacts slowly being collected, a teacher from the Doctor’s past, Gostak, popping in, and a sinister character, Vakrass, last of the Death Lords of Keffa, making appearances. Things are all tied up in the final episode and, oh lordy lou, if the twist with Vakrass isn’t one of the best things Big Finish have given us in bloody ages then I don’t know what is. Genuinely, I laughed and felt utterly surprised and there, just for a moment, I was flung back to the very early days.

Gostak of course turns out to not be the wise teacher the Doctors remember but his evil plan (something to do with time), its unravelling (something to do with trickery) and its eventual disposal (something to do with… something) are pretty forgettable.  It’s been 72 hours and I’m genuinely drawing a blank, despite remembering other plot points really clearly.  I’m not sure it needs to be otherwise though, as the highlight here is meant to be the Doctors all joining forces. Valentine handles this well enough, though the companions feel like spare parts. Sylvester McCoy jumps into the fray here briefly, too, and I mean briefly. The play would have been far better served to neither mention his name in the cast list or feature his image on the CD cover, as it simultaneously raises your expectations for him to be in it in a substantial role (he isn’t) and ruins what would have been a rather nice surprise cameo.

We end things with some nod-nod-wink dialogue that has bypassed subtlety completely, being less about the Doctor going off on more adventures and more about Big Finish’s ranges continuing. Colin Baker gets the final word, which is amusingly apt, and that’s that.

How does it fare as a play? It’s okay. Not the best, far from the worst. It gets by though, and everyone seems game. How does it fare as an end to the range? Less well. It’s in a weird halfway house between being a celebration and nothing out of the ordinary. That’s entirely Big Finish’s own fault though. They’ve played around increasingly with multi-Doctor outings to the point where it’s just not special anymore. There is nothing about the various Doctors uniting here that feels celebratory or special. It just feels like more of the same from Big Finish... and that’s a crying shame. It shouldn’t be the case; it should feel special. But it doesn’t, at all.

Maybe that’s in The End of the Beginning’s favour? Maybe by robbing it of an air of being special, it means there’s less pressure to feel the weight of importance and more time to just take it for what it is. Maybe. The jury remains out.

What The End of the Beginning is, is an enjoyable enough way to kill a couple of hours with a couple of nice moments, one brilliantly unexpected character beat, and some questionable elements which totally fail to land. I’ll take it.

While a good title, The End of the Beginning does not really sum up Big Finish: that beginning died a long time ago; things are very different now. In many ways the monthly range is unrecognisable to what it once was, and so it’s set to shift again. What will the future hold? We’ll know before too long.  It won’t be me reviewing it; I’m hanging my hat up here and letting someone else get on with the business of listening to all things Big Finish from now on. I wish them luck though, and hope beyond hope that, a teensy bit of that past magic rears its head once again. Now that would be something worth celebrating.

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

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** This was Nick's final review for us at Doctor Who Online and we'd like to take this opportunity to thank him for all his many years of content for us. Nick joined DWO on 23rd September 2013 for his first review for 'Fanfare For The Commen Men', and has provided reviews every month without fail.

He will be sorely missed by us all at DWO, and we would like to wish him well in his future projects. Please do take a minute to check out Nick's blog here!

- Seb 

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Gemma Arrowsmith & Katharine Armitage

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: September 2020

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

The Flying Dutchman by Gemma Arrowsmith

"The Doctor, Ace and Hex find themselves on a seemingly deserted boat in the middle of the ocean. Eventually locating the crew, they discover that the men have been in hiding to avoid the attack of the legendary ghost ship The Flying Dutchman that they’ve recently glimpsed approaching through the fog. But ghosts don’t exist. Do they?"

Displaced by Katharine Armitage

"The Doctor, Ace and Hex arrive inside a mystery. An ordinary house where something extraordinary is happening. There are no occupants, the doors are sealed, and someone - or something - is attempting to communicate. And when the TARDIS locks them out, Ace and Hex suspect the Doctor of his usual tricks.

But the truth is even more disturbing..."

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

Perhaps more than anything else, this sudden showing of shorter plays (one 4x4 release and four two-parters in a row, with another two 4x4 releases up next) shows off the schedule disruption which Big Finish have endured thanks to Coronavirus. It's an unexpected upheaval just before the main range is completely changed, but not necessarily a bad one as these shorter, punchier plays sometimes yield good results. What about here though? 

The Flying Dutchman
By Gemma Arrowsmith

We kick things off with The Flying Dutchman, the main range debut for Gemma Arrowsmith whose play for The Paternoster Gang, Spring-Heeled Jack, impressed me. The Doctor, Ace and Hex land on a seemingly abandoned ship but soon discover its crew in hiding, avoiding a ghostly apparition: the Flying Dutchman has been sighted and no-one is safe… or are they?

First up, the regular cast. There's a lovely bit near the start where the Doctor is guessing the century they are in. Hex points out that he only knows because the date is printed elsewhere and the Doctor shuffles off, a bit embarrassed, as Ace tells Hex not to be a killjoy and that the Doctor just enjoys showing off. It's a really nice piece of character work that showcases the regulars well, with McCoy in particular being in good form.

Philip Olivier notes in the extras that Hex doesn't do all that much in this play, and that's certainly true. He's made out to be seasick and you don't get too much else from him, though Olivier puts in a game performance as ever.

This play is really Ace's, with her forming a bond with a cabin boy with a secret (a secret you'll guess fairly quickly, to be honest). It's here that things fall apart though, as you soon discover that this is less an episode of Doctor Who and more an episode of Scooby-Doo, complete with sailors doing their best "Arrrrgh me hearties!", ghosts that are just men with special powder on them, and some extremely simplistic "girls are great!" vibes: a very good message to be made, but made here with little subtlety, if any.

It's all a bit too twee in the end. By the time we had Archie able to hold their own in a sword fight against old sailors despite only being taught swordfighting a few minutes ago, I think I'd given up looking for depth.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, mind. Who is good at dipping into different genres and styles, and if young children's comic book yarn is what was sought, this definitely ticks some of those boxes. I did rather like Ace and Hex desperately looking for an alien or ghostly cause of everything occurring, as if they were aware they're not in a usual Doctor Who adventure and they're trying to rationalise things. Ace seemingly knowing what the Flying Dutchman is one moment and not in the next just to let the Doctor explain it to the audience however smacks of sloppiness.

This is a hard one to grade. On the one hand, it does what it sets out to do very well, so it's unfair really to criticise it for that. On the other, I think its goal has been achieved better elsewhere at times. If you like the simple approach, add another number to the score below. If you don't, then there is at least Sylvester McCoy on top form, rather nice cover art for the release, and the sense that the guest cast, especially Nigel Fairs, are having a lot of fun.

Displaced
By Katharine Armitage

The second and final play here marks the Big Finish debut of Katharine Armitage. On the evidence here, she will surely be back before too long.

The Doctor, Ace and Hex land in an abandoned house which seems to be trapping its occupants inside. With only an automated home help along the lines of Siri and Alexa to aid them, they most solve the mystery of what happened to the family here: something alien? Something human? A bit of both?

Armitage has a really good grasp on all the regulars, writing Hex especially well and using his background as a nurse from 2020, and his relationship with Ace, to full effect, even if a bit with a badge near the start smells strongly of "this will be a plot point in the future", which it is.

Ace and Hex are both a bit fed up with the Doctor and challenge him, something the extras tries to paint as unusual but which feels pretty par for the course nowadays from Big Finish and Who in general. However, it works well here and is used for genuinely sound plot reasons instead of feeling like the done thing. There is a sense of true, solid character and plot work here that sometimes rings hollow elsewhere. Or to put it more simply, Armitage is a better writer than some in the Doctor Who fold.

The ending is grounded and somewhere between downbeat and refreshingly true. I felt perhaps the exposition made it falter a little and run out of steam, but I'd take that over something rushed or out of the blue. The Doctor awkwardly trying to convey how much he values his companions is rather sweet, as is the awkwardness of Hex and Ace avoiding their feelings for one another.

Displaced may not be perfect but it's a cut above a lot of Big Finish’s latter day output and I'm hoping Armitage comes back before too long. Until then, this play is well worth your time.

+ The Flying Dutchman / Displaced is OUT NOW, priced £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download).

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Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Helen Goldwyn

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: March 2020

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"London, 1945. Winston Churchill campaigns for re-election. His new strategic adviser assures him that Britain has a bright future under his continued leadership. It’s a vote he can’t possibly lose. But the Doctor knows that he must.

The Monk is meddling, altering history for his own selfish ends. With spies and aliens in the mix, Winston realises victory may not be so simple. But at least he can trust his old friend... can’t he?"

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

Big Finish: We Love Stories.  ‘And Vardans and Churchill’ could be the postscript to their tagline, and so it is that the former Prime Minister has crossed over to the monthly range at last in this play by Helen Goldwyn. He’s not come alone though, as the Monk is there for good measure, too, in his Rufus Hound incarnation.

The year is 1945, Churchill is campaigning for the election (an election he is going to lose, or so history states), and the Monk is up to his usual shenanigans, trying to stop this being the case for reasons that are never really stated.  He just likes stirring the pot. The Doctor, meanwhile, is on hand to try and stop this happening, knowing that in doing so he is risking his friendship with Churchill.  Plus, there are other aliens afoot.

There is a lot going on in Subterfuge and it’s to Goldwyn’s credit that it never feels cluttered or weighed down by its baggage. There is some genuine mystery and tension in her script, and she really shows the darker side to the Monk. For all his jokes and humour, there is a sadistic and nasty aspect to the character; a man willing to sacrifice many just to see what happens. That side is briefly glimpsed here and it’s all the better for it, making the Monk seem more of a threat than has arguably ever been the case before.

It’s perhaps trickier territory with Churchill. He is what is nowadays termed a ‘problematic figure’, which is shorthand for “had good bits and awful bits”, like so many people. (I’m aware I’m over-simplifying things here.) It has made some fans very uneasy about the Doctor’s relationship with him though, with even Steven Moffat stepping in to defend it in a recent issue of Doctor Who Magazine. That slight unease is not going to vanish here, and the Doctor refusing to come down firmly on one side of the fence with his politics and Churchill at that time is bound to wind up fans across the political spectrum: which probably shows that Goldwyn has done a good job of balancing things as best she can. Some will wish she had come down harder on one side though, and I must admit having the Doctor not outright praise and defend the welfare state felt a bit uncomfortable: surely he’d be in favour? But I think Goldwyn is smarter than I by purposely not saying a word, and perhaps that’s more my political leanings showing.

Eggshell treading aside, it’s a strong script bolstered by strong performances. Hound feels increasingly at home in the role of the Monk, and I especially liked Mimi Ndiweni as Alicia, feeling she captured that sense of slight distance at all going on around her that the character needs. At first it may seem a little too distant and perhaps wooden, but that’s not the case at all as later scenes show. It’s a very carefully chosen and curated performance.

Goldwyn is on a roll at the moment, with this and the rather wonderful Mother Tongue in the third Gallifrey: Time War box set. A lesser writer would have made an absolute mess of all the elements in this play: bring back the Monk, bring back Churchill, throw in aliens, set it in a pivotal political moment in Earth’s history. That Subterfuge is anything but is a triumph in itself.

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

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Amazon.co.uk have confirmed that the upcoming Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 26 set (due out on 23rd December) has been delayed until 20th January 2020.

In an email to customers who have preordered the title, the company stated: 

Unfortunately, the release date for the item(s) listed below was changed by the supplier, and we need to provide you with a new estimated delivery date based on the new release date:

"Doctor Who - The Collection - Season 26 [Blu-ray] [2020]"

Estimated arrival date: January 20 2020

One of our aims is to provide a convenient and efficient service but in this case, we've fallen short. Please accept our sincere apologies.

The news didn't come as a surprise to many fans owing to the fact that previous releases in the collection series have all faced delays. That being said, the general consensus from fans is that, due to the fantastic quality of the sets, they are happy to wait a little longer for the release. On the plus side, we all have something to look forward to, to help get rid of the January blues!

+ PREORDER this title from Amazon.co.uk for just £39.99 (RRP: £56.16)!

[Source: Amazon.co.uk]

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Mark Morris

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: September 2018

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"The Doctor, Ace and Mel are caught in a forever night. After crossing the threshold, a strange world awaits them.

An army of tortured souls. A lift that leads to an alien landscape. An alien warlord, left for dead, and willing to do anything to prolong his life… it’s all in a day’s work for the Doctor.

But when his companions become victims of the desperate and powerful Arkallax, the Doctor will have to do battle in a psychic environment where he must make a choice. Save his companions… or himself."

When I’m writing these reviews, I try to avoid other people’s. You don’t want to have your ‘voice’ accidentally imitate someone else’s viewpoint and articulation, and you certainly don’t want to start framing your arguments with somebody else’s words, albeit accidentally.

It’s been hard, though, to avoid everyone’s praise for this play and while it did not land for me in the same way Red Planets did, last month, it’s easy to see why it’s getting plenty of nods in the right direction.

The story starts with a battle in space, but before too long, things have been dragged down to Earth with a real bump: an abandoned estate, zombie-esque humans shuffling and moaning that they’re hungry, Northern accents aplenty and a lift that does not go where it should be going, all get thrown into the mix alongside an alien that takes over both the body and vernacular of a local resident, a young couple trapped as the monsters make their way across the land, and, of course, the Doctor, Ace and Mel. Sylvester McCoy especially sounds like he’s enjoying this one, though the extras reveal that Bonnie Langford and Sophie Aldred are in what is termed a “playful” mood during the recording session, which is a lot of fun to listen to.

(As in the norm nowadays, no extended extras were available to listen to upon release or across the days following, which is a real shame but Big Finish don’t appear to be changing this any time soon, sadly. It’s doubly painful this month as The Dalek Occupation Of Winter came out with a set of extended extras simultaneously, the day after The Dispossessed was released. Ah well.)

The opening couple of episodes of the play are very strong, with a nice sense of menace and that wonderfully Doctor Who thing of merging the mundane with the fantastical: a block of flats being attacked by an alien menace. Actually, that sounds a lot like Attack the Block, doesn’t it? Perhaps Jodie Whittaker has been having a word.

Mark Morris has constructed a good setting and nice characters here. None of them entirely likeable and all of them people you root for. That’s so bloody hard to pull off, and I am in awe with how easy he makes it look here. (I also appreciated the return of his running gag about how much sugar the Seventh Doctor takes in his tea.)

It was near the ending that for me things started to feel less spectacular, though never bad or dull. Spoilers will follow, so look away now if you wish to not be ruined…

… still reading? Okay, spoilers begin.

In the end, the big bad is another psychic foe (or rather, a foe with psychic abilities) and though Morris has a neat and novel spin on it, it does rather boil down to the Doctor ensnaring a villain in their own trap and lots of shouting about possession and minds and battling with mental powers.  It just feels beyond over-familiar from Big Finish now to be falling back on this once again and it rather flattens the second half of the play.

I’m also not entirely comfortable with the brain tumour subplot. I understand that Morris is trying to make a point here about how diseases in the past once thought incurable can now be corrected with little fuss, but it comes off as a little trite to have one of our lead supporting characters cured of his with a nod and a lot of laughing about how silly it is to be worrying about them. I wonder if something like terminal cancer would be dealt with which such flippancy? It just felt in rather poor taste for me, though I appreciate the point that was being made.

The Dispossessed ends with Mel going rogue and leading the Doctor, Ace and the TARDIS to the lair of none other than Dogbolter himself, which could be a lot of fun. It’s not the return of Frobisher comic book fans, but it’s close and I’ll take it. The only downside is that this means Guy Adams will be absent from script editing duties. On the strength of his efforts this year, that’s a crying shame and I hope it is not too long before he is persuaded to return to the role.

This does not diminish the good though so let us be grateful for another solid script in this run of Doctor / Mel / Ace adventures. Here's hoping more comes our way soon.

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

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Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Writer: Matthew J. Elliott

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: September 2017

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"The year is 2085, and planet Earth remains on the edge of a nuclear precipice. At any moment, either of two vast rival power blocs, to the West and the East, might unleash a torrent of missiles, bringing about the terrible certainty of Mutual Assured Destruction.

But there is another way - or so Professor Ruth Drexler believes. Hence her secret mission deep in Eastern bloc territory, to uncover a hidden city, never before glimpsed by human eyes: the Parliament of the Silurians, the lizard people who ruled the Earth before humankind.

There, she’ll encounter a time-travelling Doctor, who knows the Silurians well. A Doctor on a secret mission of his own."

Once a year, as part of Big Finish's main/monthly range (the name of which seems to differ depending on who you ask), two plays are released at the same time. I always feel a bit sorry for these plays as one inevitably ends up overshadowing the other for various reasons. It may be that one of them is that year's "4x1" release, or the end of an ongoing arc. Here, this month, a standalone by a highly popular writer with a very interesting premise... and this play.

Pity The Silurian Candidate.

The premise is very simple: The Doctor is clearly up to something but not letting on to either Ace or Mel, which worries the former and intrigues the latter. Ace has seen him like this before and knows that it rarely ends well; Mel is not used to this darker persona and is uncertain as to what should be expected. The good ship TARDIS lands on Earth in the future, where a party of two others have also arrived complete with an army of robot guards, and they are there to seek out the same goal: Silurians.

Only the play is not just about all this. Oh no.  It’s also very much a full-blown sequel to Warriors of the Deep and, as the admittedly very good title suggests, a nod and wink to The Manchurian Candidate, complete with dinosaurs, a dodgy French accent from Nicholas Briggs, and an Australian politician that is in no way meant to be a parody of Donald Trump. (Nope. Definitely not. Nuh-huh. Move along.)

The play is very much a story of two halves, with the first rather slow and the second not quite breakneck with its speed but far quicker in comparison, as the stakes grow higher and necessity to act heightens.  There are some good gags in there throughout (the one concerning the Doctor and broken toasters genuinely made me laugh aloud) and a few nice moments of reflection upon the nature of this incarnation of The Doctor.

But...

But as with Matthew J. Elliott’s earlier main range play, Zaltys, there are moments that fail to land as well (though thankfully none as bad as the start of that play mentioning vampires and then vampires co-incidentally turning up) and whole parts where people conveniently spell out the plot to let you catch up, speaking in a way that you only ever get in plays or stories with a relatively small cast. There is a fair whack of “let me say what I see”-style dialogue to compensate for the audio medium, too, which never helps matters, and neither Ace nor Mel feel entirely in character.  Indeed, Ace seems positively grumpy and angry and distrusting of The Doctor throughout, and the CD extras have Sophie Aldred unsure where in Ace’s timeline this play is set, which is slightly concerning as you would think someone would say so the writing and performance can be adjusted. When your lead actors are unsure, something is not right.

(To maintain the usual gripe, once again no extended extras were present with the play upon release, nor had they surfaced a fortnight afterwards.)

It’s not all bad though. As The Silurian Candidate moves along, so too does it improve, and I want to quickly highlight the musical score from Howard Carter which is the best any play has had for a long while now. Points must go to the Silurian voices, too, which are dead ringers for the Pertwee era tones, and it was genuinely interesting to hear Briggs’s rationalization for using these ones as opposed to the Davison-era tones (and I agree with his reasoning) and his efforts to get them just right.  I have an image of him hunched over his ring modulator for over an hour tweaking and speaking in a bid to nail it, which is rather endearing.

In the end, The Silurian Candidate is overall fairly average Doctor Who fare with some moments that elevate it beyond, and music and voice artistry which give it a shine it would otherwise lack.  It does not make for an especially triumphant ending to this latest run of Seventh Doctor/Ace/Mel plays, but it’s not a write-off either, nor is it Who by numbers by any stretch. There are enough glimmers of light in there to merit attention and make me curious to see what Elliott comes up with next, but enough bumps in the road to exercise caution, too.

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Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Writer: Eddie Robson

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: August 2017

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

"The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Ace and Mel to a recently reopened shipyard in Merseyside. It's 1991, the hardest of times - but now they're shipbuilding once again, thanks to the yard's new owners, the Dark Alloy Corporation. A miracle of job creation - but is it too good to be true?

While the Doctor and Ace go in search of an alien assassin at loose in the yard, Stuart Dale, discoverer of the near-magical Dark Alloy material, has an extraordinary proposition to make to his old college friend, Mel.

But who is the Corporation’s mysterious client? Who does she really represent? And what's the secret of the Blood Furnace? Seeking answers, the Doctor and friends are about to find themselves in very deep water…"

After last month's play proved a surprisingly lacking affair despite the ingredients being so promising (great writer plus great TARDIS crew), I was a little hesitant to embark upon this play as it had the same set-up: very good writer (Eddie Robson this time) and the same crew as before. Would lightning strike twice and not in a good way?

Thankfully not. Whilst not perfect, The Blood Furnace is a highly entertaining play and a good way to spend a couple of hours.

The TARDIS lands in Liverpool, 1991, where ships are being built and Stuart Dale, an old flame of Mel's, heads up the operations. Someone has been murdered though and The Doctor suspects more than just humanity is involved, suspicions which very quickly are proven right.  Who is the mysterious manager? Why does Mel's ex- keep getting nosebleeds? And why are computers a no-go thing?

Off the bat, this one is a lot of fun but with a nice edge of realism in it.  Liverpool proves to be a very effective setting as even now Doctor Who struggles much of the time to give us locations that aren't extremely Southern (or Welsh). The colour Liverpudlian accents give proceedings is to the benefit of the tale and makes the script and story all the more notable and, I suspect, memorable because of it, even if nearly all of the cast aren't actually from Liverpool as revealed in the CD extras. (Speaking of which, there are no extended extras for subscribers in tandem with the play's download this month.  Seeing as that's one of the perks for subscribing to the range, this feels a pretty poor show, especially when the gap between the play being released and the extended extras available seems to vary on a whim from no time at all to an entire month or more.)

As is typical of Robson's work, the characters' dialogue flows easily and feels natural, and the whole play has a real heart to it. People don't just die, they die with consequences be it leaving a family behind or a grieving co-worker. This feels very in keeping with the McCoy era and grounds the play whilst giving characters some nice shading. There is an especially lovely moment of this in the final episode where a phone call needs to be made and it's amazingly awkward and painful to listen to, which only adds to the sense of truth across the four episodes.

The regulars all get a fair crack of the whip. Indeed, the rapport between them in Part One almost makes me long for an episode one day where it's just the three of them being terribly happy.

Across the play, the Doctor gets to be at once the smartest man in the room and the most fun; Ace enjoys some computer game fun (which features the best music of the play: authentic, catchy and perfectly suited to the beat-'em-up coin guzzling arcade machines of the period); and Mel catches up on the past whilst looking to the future.

I wonder if every second play in a Mel/Ace/Doctor trilogy will feature Mel being a bit loved up or if it's merely co-incidence? An ex-boyfriend here, a love interest before. Maybe we'll see her future baby next time around.

When the final episode comes and alien plans are revealed and, inevitably, unravelled, some of the momentum is lost but Julie Graham is clearly having fun and relishing the theatrics.  It's by no means bad (it's not, it's good); it's just perhaps a bit more reliant on action and descriptive dialogue of the "Look at those thousands of things that tower above us by eight feet!" ilk, but this is only notable really as it doesn't fall into the trap before then and is handled pretty well.

All in all there is a sense throughout The Blood Furnace that people are enjoying themselves, and this is a solid play in a range that has for a while now felt a little out of steam. More of this calibre is welcomed.

+  ORDER this CD via Amazon.co.uk!

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Mike Maddox and Alan Barnes

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: 30th September 2012

Reviewed by: Matthew Davis for Doctor Who Online

Review Posted: 6th October 2012

Arriving in a strange and Hellish landscape, Ace, Hex, Sally and Lysandra have come to rescue the man who unwittingly threw them all together in the first place; The Doctor.

But the rescue will not be easy.

Ancient warriors misplaced out of time are lying dead in rivers of blood and from out of the mists emerge horrifyingly familiar vampire-like creatures. The threads are coming together and the Doctor’s companions come to realise that he has been playing a game; a rematch with an evil from the dawn of time. The past and future will come to haunt them as they become pawns in the endless games of Gods and monsters. 

The pieces are set, the Elder Gods are gathering to bear witness as the Doctor and Fenric prepare to play the contest again. But this time winning may be just the same as losing.

Gods and Monsters is a very difficult play to review. Like Black And White before it, there are so many twists and turns that it would be very easy to spoil your enjoyment. 

It requires not only a great deal of knowledge of the character of Hex but of past stories involving The Forge and The Curse of Fenric. A newcomer to Big Finish may find all this to be quite daunting but rest assured such knowledge is essential to your full enjoyment as this play packs a really emotional and shocking payoff.

Gods And Monsters, the conclusion of this year’s Seventh Doctor range and the final culmination of the many plot threads that have been littered throughout the last few years beginning as far back as Project: Twilight. It seems near impossible that Big Finish could have planned all of this so many years ahead but what they have done is taken everything that has come before, added a few twists and made it all make sense. The play however is not completely perfect, and it’s need to wrap everything up as logically and tightly as possible harms it a little.

Gods And Monsters has many factors that make it a worthwhile recommendation, and the brilliant cast is one of them. Sylvester McCoy, having played a rather reduced role in the previous releases, is back and his performance is spectacular. The master manipulator is completely out of his depth as he begins to see the control of events swept completely away from him. It is a great turning of the tables on this most Machiavellian of Doctors and it will be fascinating to see if Big Finish develops this in future releases.

Ace and Hex are both brought brilliantly to life by Sophie Aldred and Phillip Olivier. The character of Hex is one of the great creations of the Big Finish range and here Olivier proves just what a great contribution he has made to bringing the character to life. 

Maggie O’Neill and Amy Pemberton, having established themselves rather strongly amongst the TARDIS team in Black and White, continue their development throughout Gods And Monsters and are given an excellent scene in which to showcase their talents and the characters relationship to one another.

It was always going to be difficult to recast Fenric, especially in the shadow of Dinsdale Landen, but in John Standing, the Elder God has found a wonderfully chilling new persona. 

It would be easy to just do a retread of The Curse of Fenric, particularly with the inclusion of the Haemovores but Maddox and Barnes play enough with your familiarity of that story to present something new and just as twisted. 

With so many different characters and locations, sometimes in completely different universes and time zones, Gods And Monsters does feel at times a little rushed. The story feels like it needs more room to breathe or at least one more episode to allow all the threads to have equal momentum, but judging by the rather shocking ending it seems the story is far from over.

Mike Maddox and Alan Barnes have created a very worthy rematch with the titular God, as well as a satisfying conclusion to this story arc with the tantalising tease of more shocks to come.

DWO have been sent the first glimpse of Sylvester McCoy (The 7th Doctor) as 'Radagast the Brown' in the upcoming The Hobbit movie.

The image (pictured-right), comes from The Hobbit 2013 Calendar, and features McCoy as the brown wizard.

Below is the official synopsis for the movie:

The Hobbit follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakensheild. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever … Gollum.

Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

+  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is in cinemas from 14th December 2012.

[Source: Paul Lockwood]

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Matt Fitton

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: 31st August 2012

Reviewed by: Matthew Davis for Doctor Who Online

Review Posted: 27th August 2012

Ace and Hex have just suffered severe mental and psychical torture. Caught in one of The Doctor’s schemes they just barely survived the wrath of Elder Gods. Finally escaping into a now black coloured TARDIS they discover that they are not alone. Inside is former Forge operative Lysandra Astrides and soldier Sally Morgan. 

Both of these women have encountered The Doctor and now claim to have been travelling with him for some months. Confused and seemingly thrown together by design, all of them will have to get past their mutual distrust of one another in the search for The Doctor. By a twist of fate the travellers are separated, arriving in the past and future of one man whose story and name will pass into legend as will the name of the monster he vanquishes. Does the true story about Beowulf and Grendel have any clues to The Doctor’s whereabouts and will the missing Time Lord’s carefully laid plans fall apart at the seams?

Black and White is a story that requires prior knowledge of the last couple of years of Seventh Doctor stories. It is here that the various plot threads that have been littered throughout finally begin to come together. Through the use of flashbacks Matt Fitton does an admirable job of reminding us of all these little clues for anyone coming to this fresh. Your enjoyment of the play however will be increased with an awareness of what has gone on before. 

Black and White is a difficult story to review as a more in-depth examination would give away far too much. In keeping with Doctor Who Online’s spoiler-free policy I will not go into too much detail about what happens except to address some key points.

The Black and White TARDIS plot thread is finally given clarity which reveals some rather fascinating revelations about past adventures and the nature of the TARDIS is general. We get hints as to where this trilogy is heading and it is all strongly linked to adventures gone by. Listening to Black and White makes you want to re-listen to all of the last few Seventh Doctor plays just to see how long this whole plotline has been gestating. 

Not all the answers are given here though as I’m sure all will be fully revealed in the final play of the trilogy Gods and Monsters. Black and White certainly ramps up the excitement for that particular release.

In amongst the revelations is the story of Beowulf and the reality of the how the legend came to be. The difficulty with Black and White is to make room for the lead plot exposition but allow its other story to develop and breathe and it is a credit to Matt Fitton that it does. This story about the reality of the legend of Beowulf could easily have been an adventure in its own right, but as will become clear when you listen carefully; it is linked to the bigger plot going on. Black and White is very entertaining and moves along at a cracking pace thanks to excellent direction by Ken Bentley.

The performances from the main cast are fantastic. It is a real joy to hear Maggie O’Neill and Amy Pemberton as their characters from previous stories Project: Destiny and House of Blue Fire now interacting with our familiar TARDIS crew. Philip Olivier and Sophie Aldred work alongside these new team members really well and there is enough distrust and suspicion to keep the character dynamic always interesting. 

The supporting cast is very strong too - the highlight being Stuart Milligan as Garundel, a character who sounds like a camp and bitchy Billy Crystal. Milligan gives a very funny and memorable performance and it certainly does put a unique twist on the Beowulf legend. 

While not always perfect, Black and White is an entertaining and shocking second chapter which sets up a very promising conclusion to this already fascinating trilogy. 

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Jonathan Morris

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: 31st July 2012

Reviewed by: Matthew Davis for Doctor Who Online

Review Posted: 22nd August 2012

Albert and Peggy Marsden are certainly a very ordinary elderly couple. Living in the North of England in the late 1980s, they go about their day to day business as political upheaval in the East threatens to spill over into Nuclear War.

Albert, following the Government issued leaflet “Protect and Survive” is busy making the preparations to their countryside home should the very worst come to pass. Peggy is expecting their grown up son to be home at any minute, but they are about to get a visit from two very different people. A girl called Ace and a boy called Hex have arrived out of the blue in a strangely white coloured Police Box. 

Taken in by the couple, Ace and Hex begin to see things are very wrong. History is not following its proper course and if that wasn’t bad enough The Doctor has gone missing. Then as the bombs begin to drop on England both companions realise The Doctor will not be there to save them this time.

One of the greatest fears of the 1980s was the potential of any nation armed with nuclear weapons to launch them towards any country it declared an enemy. Nuclear attack was the ultimate in Cold War paranoia and even now it lingers in the memories of those who grew up in that era.

Protect and Survive, the first release in the new series for The Seventh Doctor addresses these fears in an incredibly disturbing way.

Jonathan Morris has clearly drawn on many sources of inspiration for Protect and Survive. Morris uses actual advice issued by the Government to the populace in the event of a nuclear attack. This is given out in a cold and clipped British dialect by the Marsden’s radio. This object not only creates a great deal of tension, but becomes a very important plot device later in the story. This littering of historical details gives the play a disturbing feel of authenticity and for anyone who has ever watched the BBC’s thoroughly bleak Threads it will certainly conjure up many frightening memories.

The first episode is incredibly well written and does an astounding job of balancing human drama amidst the science fiction and apocalyptic elements of the plot. Sophie Aldred and Philip Olivier are absolutely brilliant throughout this story but particularly so in this episode. Without The Doctor they are the ones we turn to for familiarity in this incredibly horrifying world. We really get to see what makes Ace and Hex work so well as companions.

The rest of the cast is superb with Peggy and Albert brilliantly played by Ian Hogg and Elizabeth Bennett. Their characterisation very strongly put you in mind of the Bloggses from Raymond Briggs' heartbreaking Where the Wind Blows, quite clearly another source of inspiration for this story. As the characters of Peggy and Albert dramatically change with the development of the plot, the impact is given great gravitas by both actors’ great performances.

These stories were mostly recorded whilst Sylvester McCoy was in New Zealand filming for The Hobbit but The Doctor’s slight absence does not lessen his impact on the story. The Doctor comes in at several key moments and McCoy is of course brilliant, but this is more of a story about Ace and Hex. For all The Doctor’s scheming and planning, this time they definitely do not have him around to explain what is going on. They are left in the frightening position of having to figure it all out for themselves.

There are plot threads here which have been developing throughout the last few Seventh Doctor releases. The most intriguing is appearances of the black and white TARDIS. In McCoy’s solo he has a black TARDIS adventures and a White one whilst travelling with Ace and Hex. With a very surprise ending to this story it looks like this trilogy certainly promises to answer these questions.

Protect and Survive does somewhat lose some of its momentum as the plot verges away from the Nuclear story into one that has hints of interplanetary consequences, but it cannot be denied that this is a very strong opening to what promises to be a new dramatic trilogy for The Seventh Doctor.

2|Entertain have sent DWO the cover and details for the Doctor Who DVD Box-set release of Ace Adventures.

Dragonfire

Featuring: The 7th Doctor

On the planet Svartos, the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Mel unexpectedly encounter an old friend – Sabalom Glitz. Joined by Ace, a teenage waitress with a love for explosives, the group ventures off to find the fabled Dragonfire treasure. 

Special Features:

•  Commentary

•  Deleted / extended scenes

•  Trivia subtitles

•  Video & audio restoration

•  Coming Soon Trailer

•  Radio Times Billings (PDF)

•  Making-of documentary

•  Photo gallery

•  Danny Bang - documentary

•  The Doctor's Strange Love - documentary

The Happiness Patrol

Featuring: The 7th Doctor

On the planet Terra Alpha, the population constantly displays happy smiles. Anyone feeling remotely glum disappears. Quickly. Having heard disturbing rumours, the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace arrive to topple the entire regime.

Special Features:

•  Commentary

•  "Ace" wishes Blue Peter Happy Birthday (archive clip)

•  Isolated score

•  Deleted / extended scenes

•  Trivia subtitles

•  Video & audio restoration

•  Coming Soon Trailer

•  Radio Times Billings (PDF)

•  Making-of documentary

•  Photo gallery

•  Politics In Doctor Who - documentary

+  Ace Adventures is released on 7th May 2012, priced £30.63.

+  Compare Prices for this product on CompareTheDalek.com.

[Source: 2|Entertain]

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Andrew Cartmel

RRP: £14.99

Release Date: 31st May 2011

Reviewed by: Matthew Davis for Doctor Who Online

Review Posted: 2nd June 2011

The Seventh Doctor is regarded as the most manipulative or Machiavellian of all the Doctor’s incarnations and that was the responsibility of Andrew Cartmel, who was script editor during Doctor Who’s last three seasons before it went off the air in 1989. So with the unproduced season 27 forming the basis of this latest series of Lost Stories, it is only right that Cartmel should be involved. Unfortunately, Crime of the Century isn’t as strong a story as you would hope from the man credited with laying down the legendary “Cartmel Masterplan”.

Our story begins in 1989 with Raine Creevy, daughter of cheeky chappie Marcus Creevy from the previous story Thin Ice. Raine is not only charming but an expert safecracker and Cat burglar. One night while trying to rob from a safe at a very fashionable house party in London, she finds something or rather someone inside it she hadn’t counted on; a strange little man from her distant past.

Meanwhile Ace has found herself in the remote Soviet republic of Kafiristan, where the local tribesmen are engaged in a rebellion against the Russian army. There she finds an old enemy and stories of demons hiding in the mountains.

It isn’t long before Raine and Ace find themselves knee deep in the Doctor’s mysterious plans which seem to have something to do with a high security vault on the Scottish border.

One of the strongest elements of this audio is the performances, particularly from Beth Chalmers as Raine. She is sassy, confident and a wonderful contrast to Ace, played superbly as always by Sophie Aldred. Sylvester McCoy, in an at times reduced role for the Doctor is particularly mysterious and the supporting cast all excel.

What lets this audio down somewhat is that it is not sure what tone it should be. The first three episodes contain some incredibly bleak and dark moments and then shifts rather suddenly into a baffling mix of absurd comedy, mostly from the story’s alien menace the Metatraxi. The questionably comic scene where the Doctor fixes their translators seems ill placed in a story which is laced with death.

The Doctor is once again back to his Machiavellian ways, effortlessly moving the people around him to achieve his aim, but throughout I found myself asking why? There doesn’t seem to be any real sense of peril in this story, more a series of often infuriatingly cryptic events which lead us to the climactic scene in the high security vault where the Doctor finally gets what he is after. There are some great moments. Raine’s introduction as a character is brilliantly achieved. Her first meeting with Ace and their subsequent sizing up of one another promises that sparks will fly in future stories.

Crime of the Century suffers by trying to be a loose sequel to Thin Ice, mostly in a couple of recurring characters and the Soviet connection.

Although the continuity is nice, I would’ve preferred a cleaner break from the previous story. Possessing a really good musical score and sound design, there are moments to enjoy in Crime of the Century and Cartmel does succeed in creating a believable and strong new companion for the Seventh Doctor, but overall I was hoping for just a little bit more.

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Marc Platt

RRP: £14.99

Release Date: 30th April 2011

Reviewed by: Matthew Davis for Doctor Who Online

Review Posted: 10th May 2011

When the closing credits of Survival rolled in 1989, no one watching knew that Doctor Who would not return for a good long while. Production on what would have been season 27 had been suspended leaving potential future storylines for the Seventh Doctor and Ace in limbo.

After the very successful first Lost Stories season featuring the Sixth Doctor, Big Finish have brought to life the missing Season 27, giving us an incredibly fascinating insight into where the show would have gone if it had not been taken off the air.

The first of these stories is Thin Ice, known popularly as Ice Time in fan lore. 

It is Russia in 1967. The Cold War is raging and the Russians are hoping to gain an advantage with the retro engineering of captured Alien Technology but not just any alien tech. This is the ancient horde of a Martian war lord and his devoted followers want it back. Meanwhile the Doctor and Ace arrive and in the midst of getting entangled in the various powers wanting this technological prize, Ace begins to suspect that the Doctor once again knows more than he is letting on.

It is no secret that the returning monsters in this story are the Ice Warriors, who have become something of a favourite recurring foe in the recent audios. But that isn’t a bad thing, due to the vocal mastery of Nicholas Briggs who brings real, dare I say it, humanity to the reptilian warriors.

The appropriately named Hhessh is a fantastic character, speaking one line in particular that had this reviewer stifling laughter on public transport. Various supporting Ice Warriors as well as a number of key supporting parts are played very well by veteran Nigel Lambert.

Sylvester McCoy is in fine form, accurately recreating the rather secretive seventh Doctor from his time on the show and Sophie Aldred slips back into a younger Ace with such ease that is completely believable. The supporting characters are equally well drawn with special mention going to Ricky Groves who makes a convincing Harry Palmer/James Bond turn as Markus Creevy. Beth Chalmers, who will have a greater part to play in the upcoming season, is brilliant in a play in which everyone has a moment to shine.

Writer Marc Platt has done something quite remarkable with Thin Ice, in that he creates the feel of a McCoy era television story on audio so convincingly you can see it in your head... most of the time. However little touches such as the biker gang with Ice Warrior helmets recall the Cyber Henchmen from Silver Nemesis; visual ideas so baffling they could only work on television, which is one of the weaker points of the audio in that a lot of visual ideas fall a bit flat in the audio medium.

All in all, Thin Ice is a rather fun and exciting way to kick off this season of Lost Stories, with some rather unexpectedly dark moments and little hints of the stories to come. If Season 27 had seen the light of day on television, this story would’ve given Doctor Who a strong direction in the nineties.