The Zygon Isolation

"You should always trust the Doctor's advice."

Writer: Peter Harness
Format: Webcast
Released: 10 May 2020
Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Osgood

Synopsis

Osgood is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: The Zygon Isolation
Time: May 10, 2020 06:30 PM London

Verdict

The Zygon Isolation was a terrific little lead in to the #TruthOrConsequences watch-along of The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion. I was very disappointed to have missed this viewing as I fully intended on being a part of it, but it just totally slipped my mind on a busy Sunday evening and when I remembered, it was already too late which is a big shame. I haven't watched a Twelfth Doctor story out of broadcast order yet so even though I still remembered this one pretty well, I was looking forward to that dynamic. However, it wasn't to be and I now just have to hope for a future re-watch featuring Peter Capaldi's incarnation of the Doctor. I'm sure it will happen! Anyway, I thought this served as a wonderful little introduction to that watch-along and it was absolutely brilliant in representing the current state of society. I am no stranger to Zoom calls given my job in finance as a research analyst so it's either been video calls on that or audios on Skype. It all looked very familiar which was definitely a bonus for the story. It wasn't long at all which worked and I was hugely impressed with the filming in having both the human and Zygon version of Osgood talking in perfectly flowing conversation. I can't imagine that would have been easy for Ingrid Oliver to have performed and would surely have taken more than a single take, but it was admirable to have her basically talking to herself. That was a lot of fun. I thought the Doctor's involvement from afar was fantastic and I liked that Osgood now knows that the Doctor is female. Having Osgood return in a future episode with the Thirteenth Doctor would be wonderful as I think the chemistry between the pair would be spectacular. The conversation between the two Osgoods was entertaining and I liked that they too were also experiencing lockdown, presumably because of the coronavirus as well. The Doctor getting a message in about how she was listening in on the conversation was great and exactly what you'd expect, especially when she interrupted the claim that she was listening in, to confirm that she wasn't which actually confirmed that she was. Good humour. It was intriguing to have the Osgood in the top video chat to reveal that she was in fact the Zygon version, but of course that actually means very little in the grand scheme of things with all that went on in the Twelfth Doctor's era. I really did love her phone cover being that of the Twelfth Doctor though! I do wonder how that incarnation would approve of his face being used in that way. He does have a soft spot for Osgood though so it may just about pass. The way the story led into watching The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion with the use of BBC iPlayer was terrific and whilst I wasn't too thrilled about The Day of the Doctor recap being included, its use as a way to keep action going and interest for the closing credits was decent. The humour that came with Osgood taking a little too long to confirm whether she had a TV license or not was excellent as well! Overall, I thought this was an impressive little webcast and I am delighted to say I am now all caught up on #DoctorWhoLockdown bonus stories to go along with the watch-alongs! It's been a thrilling ride, and I look forward to #VolcanoDay.

Rating: 8/10

The Shadow in the Mirror

"I won't say sorry."

Writer: Paul Cornell

Format: Webcast

Released: 24 April 2020

Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor

Synopsis

Someone wants to get out. Someone thinks they should...

Verdict

The Shadow in the Mirror was a very good end to the Shadow trilogy of lockdown adventures to go alongside the watch-along of Human Nature/The Family of Blood! It was a very entertaining little five minutes that had some good animations to go alongside the audio. I thought it was great and actually quite refreshing to have Lor Wilson returning to her role as Daughter of Mine to tell the tale! I very much enjoyed the continuity from and reference to The Shadow Passes with the time the Doctor spent essentially in lockdown for around three weeks allowing her time to reflect and realise what kind of person she was now. It wasn't somebody who trapped little girls in mirrors. The Doctor was here to amend her ways which was very intriguing. This one definitely appeared to be set after Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children with the Doctor being unsure on everything bar one thing when it came to doctors and she didn't even seem to flinch when this mysterious and yet doubly referenced red-headed Doctor was mentioned. I have no idea if there ever has been an alternative incarnation of the Doctor that was red-headed, but I'd just hope it is a little joke about the Doctor's continued desire to be ginger. Would he/she finally get the wish in the final incarnation? That would be a nice and somewhat humorous thought. Daughter of Mine continuing to refuse to say she was sorry was a little surprising as it seems I definitely got the wrong feeling on her sentiments in Shadow of a Doubt. The arrival of the Thirteenth Doctor was terrific and I liked that she was coming through on her wish from the aforementioned short story that kicked off this little trilogy. Daughter of Mine seemed to have a sickness that needed curing and even when the Doctor coming to visit wasn't a rare occurrence, even if this particular incarnation had never visited before, she still asked to get out despite knowing what it was that would get her released. She had been to every mirror in the universe and scared so many children which was an interesting development as she seemed to be gloating to the Doctor of what she had achieved despite her entrapment. Despite that, the Doctor was contemplating letting her out and she would even be able to resume her life from the point it was suspended. That would be a huge win for Daughter of Mine! The Doctor's talk of mercy and it setting aside fairness was very good and I loved that she just wanted to be kind. She carried through on her wish to rethink things and smashed the mirror into a million pieces and reached out her hand to let Daughter of Mine out. She didn't accept the offering of the hand, but happily stepped out and took her freedom. I thought it was a good development in having the Doctor take her back to her own planet and I'd love for a story exploring that location and the species on it! I'd love to see them in their natural form more fully and wondering around. That would be quite something. I thought it was brilliant to have Daughter of Mine being furious at the power the Doctor held over her despite finally freeing her and taking her home. Of course, she had put her there in the first place so that anger is definitely understandable. Overall, I thought this was an impressive little story with some very good imagery and a fine performance from Lors Wilson reprising her role for the first time in thirteen years! A fantastic little bonus.

Rating: 8/10

Shadow of a Doubt

"One night in the mirror appeared a little girl with a balloon."

Writer: Paul Cornell

Format: Audio

Released: 24 April 2020

Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Bernice

Synopsis

Someone has found something on an alien world...

Verdict

Shadow of a Doubt was a very good little audio story! This serves as an intriguing middle piece in what has turned out to be a Shadow Trilogy of lockdown adventures to coincide with the watch-along of Human Nature/The Family of Blood. That two-part story is a sensational tale and is probably my favourite Tenth Doctor adventure and I was disappointed at being unable to take part in the Tweet-along. However, I don't quite feel that I am missing out as now I am catching up on the bonus release stories to go with it which is just wonderful. I love the idea of the Thirteenth Doctor feeling guilty for what she did to Daughter of Mine at the end of the second episode by trapping her in every mirror. Having a full story, even if it was barely three minutes, with Bernice Summerfield tying in with a Tenth Doctor tale was very intriguing and I liked how characters and plot threads from different eras can be meshed together. It's a lot of fun! Bernice being on Andromeda and finding an old Earth mirror was very good and I just loved how she had been having a conversation with the strange girl within it. If I saw a young girl with a red balloon in the mirror, I think I'd start questioning my sanity rather than start speaking to her! The details of the conversation recalled by Bernice were very interesting though! She seemed to think she was being hunted which was strange given that she is literally trapped in a mirror. Daughter of Mine was always asking Bernice, who seemed to have come and gone for conversations on numerous occasions, if she was the Doctor. That wasn't exactly a shocking thought given the knowledge the Family of Blood had on the Time Lords so they were surely aware of their regenerative abilities. The talk of how 'she', presumably meaning the Thirteenth Doctor, had kept visiting was good and I liked how she was acting on her guilt we learned of in The Shadow Passes. There were apparently further visits from the likes of the Twelfth and Seventh Doctors which is intriguing, especially for the latter incarnation as he hadn't yet trapped her! There were also a number of unknown incarnations apparently visiting, a window into the future perhaps? Or after The Timeless Children, the past? I really liked the idea of Daughter of Mine continuously being asked if she was sorry for her actions. She was being punished which I think was important to remember. It was always the same question and all she had to do was say she was sorry. That seemed like an easy way out of the mirror, but she claimed she was incapable of apologising. Bernice wasn't sure if that was the case though which was a good thought to ponder. As the daughter of the family, was she perhaps just going along with the wishes of her parents and older sibling? Was she really evil? It's something we haven't really stopped and thought about. I liked the ambiguity of the ending with Bernice not letting her out and leaving the mirror back where it was on Andromeda as the place where the Doctor could find her again. It set things up quite nicely for the final instalment in this makeshift trilogy and I very much look forward to seeing how things play out! Overall, a terrific little audio that actually did an awful lot in just three minutes or so. Very impressive!

Rating: 8/10

The Shadow Passes

"I get a different perspective on what I've done."

Writer: Paul Cornell

Format: Short Story

Released: 15 April 2020

Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis

A new short story by Paul Cornell.

Verdict

The Shadow Passes was a decent little story to keep us Doctor Who fans going during lockdown, something that doesn't seem like being lifted anytime soon. At least, it doesn't here in Wales. I'm not really sure what they're playing at over the border but I am glad to be Welsh and back living in my homeland! I enjoyed this story and whilst it was a little childish and playful with the mentions of bottoms, it was largely good and a very good allegory for the current lockdown situation with all that's going on during this coronavirus outbreak. The setting of Calapia was an intriguing one as almost immediately after arriving, the fam were in danger. That's not an unusual occurrence, but the source of the danger was very much just a natural phenomenon. I think that's a big positive of these little short stories in that you can bring some normality to the Doctor's travels in the TARDIS with her companions. It doesn't all have to be fighting monsters and defeating aliens. Here, they'd arrived amidst an event that only happens every sixty-four years with the Death Moon passing over the planet. I think we should have learned a little more about it and what it could do rather than just accepting danger from the name, but it was very good to have the Doctor and her friends locked up below ground without any choice in the matter. They'd come to accept their situation pretty quickly and their efforts in playing board games was great. I am sure a number of families and households must be playing them more than ever now – I know I have been playing a few games with my girlfriend including Doctor Who Trivial Pursuit – so it was good to see something similar here. The writing of the Thirteenth Doctor was brilliant by Paul Cornell and I loved how he wrote her attempting to play board games. She was kind of out of place in being the Doctor and that worked so well. I really enjoyed that. I liked that the story was told from the perspective of Yaz as she's my favourite companion of the three alongside the Thirteenth Doctor, but with that it left very little for Ryan and Graham to do. Their game of Who Am I? was all they had to do really. That was a bit of fun with Yaz being the Doctor. I was surprised that it sparked such a deep conversation between her and the Doctor about how despite all she can, the Doctor always seems to put herself down. I think that's just modesty, but she seemed to attribute it to a bit more than that. With all the revelations recently revealed in Fugitive of the Judoon and The Timeless Children, the Doctor had a lot going on and that was clear. Her discussion about regeneration and changing personality as well as getting a new body was excellent and I loved how she thought that she needed to become someone new as a way of dealign with all of the memories. But then came an intriguing reference to Human Nature/The Family of Blood with how she once trapped a girl in the mirror. She says that isn't who she is now in this incarnation which is interesting as I'm not entirely sure that was even resemblant of the Tenth Doctor's personality. However, with this coming over a week before the watch-along of the above Tenth Doctor story, I think there has been some good planning gone on by Cornell. This seems to have just set things up for what might be to come. Overall, a decent adventure!

Rating: 7/10

Sven and the Scarf

"Seven years in space!"

Writer: Andrew Ireland
Format: Webcast
Released: 30 April 2020
Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Sven

Synopsis

There's been a new arrival at Henry van Statten's museum...

Introducing alien researcher Sven, Adam Mitchell's predecessor at GeoComTex. Sven will feature in the forthcoming Dalek Target novelisation.

Verdict

Sven and the Scarf was a terrific little webcast adventure! This one served as a lovely prologue to Dalek to go along with the #TheMetaltron watch-along of what is, in my opinion, the best Ninth Doctor episode. It brings the Daleks back to the modern era in a sublime way and having all of the destruction with a singular Dalek makes the finale of Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways all the more impactful when there are literally hundreds of thousands of them. This webcast adventure took us back to the day that the Dalek was first brought to Van Statten's museum and I really do wish there could somehow be further stories within that setting. It's honestly so good and full of potential. Something like an episode in The Diary of River Song or even a second Jenny series would work absolutely perfectly. Here we were introduced to Sven who seems an intriguing character being placed as the predecessor to Adam Mitchell who would of course go on to be a very short-lived companion alongside Rose Tyler. I am very excited for the Target novelisation of this episode as anything more for the Ninth Doctor is something I am eager for and even though this won't exactly be new, it is an extension and something different which will be fantastic. I am looking forward to reading what role Sven has in the novelisation and how it ties in with the events we saw in the episode itself. The idea of having the famed scarf of the Fourth Doctor as a museum piece was magnificent and the dissection that occurred was very humorous, if not a little silly. But this is lockdown and it's all about having some fun which was definitely the case with this bonus story. There were numerous references to stories from the Fourth Doctor era which were really quite hilarious. The mocking of The Ark in Space with the bubble wrap referencing the Wirrn was a little sad, might the Doctor have now come into contact with some of the deadly wrap seen in Kerblam!? I'd like to think so. The reference to Terror of the Zygons and the part of a Zygon that was very possibly just pizza was terrific. I really liked the brief moment of "Eldrad Must Live!" which was a lovely throwback to The Hand of Fear and I also thought the use of the wires and the semi-recreation of that famed moment in Genesis of the Daleks was a good image, but slight overkill. Just how would these wires have got ingrained in the Fourth Doctor's scarf? Of course, there is something to be said about suspending belief for these lockdown stories and I fully appreciate that. My absolute favourite moment came when the cactus-like fragment was picked out of the scarf, even if for continuity purposes it was the incorrect scarf, and we had the reference to Meglos. However, it was the pun that followed about it nearly being a "mega-loss" that had me literally laughing out loud. I absolutely loved that. Really great moment and props to the writer for the comedy there. Sven initially suspecting that a green jelly baby might be an alien life form was quite funny and the moment he realised that it was in fact just a sweet was great. I thought the image of all of the different specimens in one little container and labelled was good and I was very impressed with the way this was filmed from Sven's point of view. That's quite a unique perspective which worked very well. Overall, this was a lot of fun even if it was slightly silly. That was just part of the appeal.

Rating: 8/10

The Raincloud Man

"Sometimes the stakes are just too high."

Writer: Eddie Robson
Format: Audio
Released: December 2008
Series: Main Range 116

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Charley

Synopsis

Having just defeated the Krotons, the Sixth Doctor is treating Charley to a hearty English breakfast, when an intriguing mystery suddenly presents itself. And to solve it, they must plunge back into the criminal underbelly of Manchester, where an old friend is up to her neck in alien trouble.

But what seemed like a mere mystery ends up being a life or death struggle at the centre of an interplanetary war in which the stakes are so high, the Doctor or Charley must gamble and lose their identity. And throughout, the lone figure of the Raincloud Man may hold the key to success or failure.

Verdict

The Raincloud Man was a somewhat decent audio adventure, but it was sadly comfortably the worst story of the Sixth Doctor and Charley's run together. I was glad to see DI Menzies return after an impressive debut in The Condemned and going back to her along with the Manchester setting was really good continuity in the era. It was great to be back with the Sixth Doctor and Charley and whilst the mystery surrounding their out of sync relationship really came into fruition at the story's conclusion, I found it intriguing that Kelsa knew immediately that Charley was essentially a walking paradox. That came very suddenly and I was excited for where the adventure might go from there, but then he ended up dying and things petered out from there in a big way. If it wasn't for the familiarity of Menzies and her relationship with both the Doctor and Charley, I really don't think this would have scored as high as it did. This one had good elements, but on the whole it was largely a mixed bag at best which was a real shame and it didn't quite meet the high standards set with this pairing. The whole premise of the story centring on tracking down where a coin from 2012 came from was a bit shoddy and just didn't end up being that exciting. Finding out that Carmen was actually a time travelling gambler who had a thing for casinos was very intriguing, but then it turned out that she didn't even know that was who or what she was! I didn't like that revelation much at all and I think it would have been much better if she was scheming. It would have suited the concept so much better in my opinion. Brooks was a semi-decent character but when it came to the war between the Tabbalac and the Cyrox, I just didn't care. That's a bit harsh and callous, but I wasn't a fan of the actors and there just wasn't enough background information to get me fully invested. Lish did turn out to be a good character though and he was clearly the standout of the guest cast. The casino turning out to actually be hopping around was fun, but again it didn't have the same impact with Carmen not having her memory. Lish being the one who knew all about Kesla's death was good, with the moment that Charley was arrested being terrific. That brought a very new dynamic to her relationship with Menzies. The idea behind the Raincloud Man felt a bit flat to me though considering it was the story's title. It was intriguing for there to be a possibility of increasing bad luck for punters, but it came too late for me. Ideally, I would have preferred a more centred focus on the casino and using time travel to con punters. That would have worked so much better in my opinion. The best moment of the audio came towards the end with Charley having to put her memories of her relationship with the Doctor on the line in a game of what was essentially Top Trumps between the Doctor and Brooks. Why they were valued wasn't really told which was a shame, but her having to toy with giving those up and not tell the Doctor the truth of her past and his future was excellent. The scene in the TARDIS to close with the Doctor telling Charley that he doesn't believe her anymore and the weirdness of what was going on with her was why Menzies was rejected as a fellow companion. I can't wait to see where things go from here, but for now this wasn't the greatest audio.

Rating: 6/10

The Mutation of Time

"I think it's about time that some people remembered that these journeys of mine are for the purpose of scientific discovery!"

Writer: John Peel
Format: Novel
Released: October 1989
Series: Target 142

Featuring: First Doctor, Steven, Sara

Synopsis

The Daleks' Masterplan is well under way. With the Time Destructor, the most deadly machine ever devised, they will conquer the Universe. Only one person stands in their way – the Doctor. For he has stolen the precious Taranium core which is vital to activate the machine.

Travelling through Time and Space, the Doctor and his companions are forever on the move in case the Daleks track them down.

But after several months, to their horror, the TARDIS indicates that they are being followed...

Verdict

The Mutation of Time was an excellent continuation of Mission to the Unknown to conclude the novelisations of The Daleks' Masterplan! The story so epic it required two books and it's clear to see why. This one felt a little different its predecessor and I was very much a fan of it having a feeling of being separate and almost like a sequel. I don't think it would have been beneficial to just start where things left off without any explanation. Here, we had an interlude chapter with Sara in her room and suffering from bad dreams where she was constantly reminded of killing her brother Bret Vyon. She was a troubled character and I liked how avenging her brother's death was driving her forward. The Doctor was terrific in this one and the personality of the first incarnation was captured so well! He was incredibly flippant during some passages and I was laughing out loud when he told both Steven and Sara that he just needed one thing of them and that was to shut up. Magnificent. No other Doctor would have got away with that. I was a little surprised that close to a third of the book was devoted to The Feast of Steven, but it was such an intriguing read full of fun and humour. It's not exactly how you'd expect a Dalek novelisation to begin with the title that it had (a great one at that). Mavic Chen was good as the lead villain alongside the Daleks, but despite how good the story was I do think there was one too many instances of certain death on the cards only for Chen to pipe up and provide a rational explanation as to why someone needed to stay alive. I liked the idea and Chen playing with the Daleks and trying to flaunt his own authority, but I do question whether the Daleks would have been as patient as they were. The Black Dalek and Red Dalek were fantastic and I liked the continuation of the Dalek hierarchy. The ending of the book with regards to them and the Dalek Prime was brilliant. It left things open for what was to come with the Second Doctor. The Monk's return was terrific and I loved the continuation from The Time Meddler and the explanation as to how he managed to fix his TARDIS. The comedy that came with his fiendish methods to get revenge was marvellous and the reaction he had when confronted by a Dalek was excellent. The Doctor continuing to mess about with his old friend was tremendous and I loved how he made use of the Monk's lack of locking his TARDIS door to get the directional unit required to get back to Kembel. The Doctor having to give up the tarnaium core was a shocking moment, but I was even more surprised to find that he was the one who activated the Time Destructor! The constant jumping around setting was fun, if not perhaps a tad too reminiscent of The Chase, but encountering different locals was magnificent. There was always so much going on whilst having on overarching story going on in the background. Mavic Chen's insanity coming into full fruition was wonderful and it was really good to see how he was unable to realise the Daleks were never going to see him on equal terms. Chen's reaction when he was locked in with the other delegates was very good. Even then he still wanted to bring them the Doctor and his companions! Sara's desire for Chen to die was a brilliant thread throughout the book and when the Spar blew up, she seemed so relieved after the Doctor had battled to keep him alive to unite Earth against the Daleks. When that failed, using the Daleks' weapon against them was the only way to defeat them. The consequences were dire for Sara. That passage was extraordinary and full of emotion as the struggle for the Doctor and Sara to get back to the TARDIS through the winds of the Time Destructor ensued in devastating detail. Sara's death was detailed suddenly and very heartfelt with Steven and the Doctor looking on in the TARDIS with despair at what had happened. It was a devastating end to an epic story!

Rating: 9/10

Mission to the Unknown

"He's the ultimate power in the Solar System. What's he doing here on Kembel, with the Daleks?"

Writer: John Peel
Format: Novel
Released: September 1989
Series: Target 141

Featuring: First Doctor, Steven, Katarina, Sara

Synopsis

Stranded in the jungles of Kembel, the most hostile planet in the Galaxy, Space Security agent Marc Cory has stumbled across the most deadly plot ever hatched – the Daleks are about to invade and destroy the Universe. Cory has to get a warning back to Earth before it's too late – but the Daleks find him first.

Months later the Doctor and his companions arrive on Kembel and find Cory's message. But it may already be too late for Earth – the Daleks' Masterplan has already begun...

Verdict

Mission to the Unknown was an excellent novelisation of the televised episode along with the first half of the epic The Daleks' Master Plan! I was really impressed with this one and I have been looking forward to reading it ever since picking it up on eBay around Christmas 2018. It's taken longer than I would have expected to get around to it, but it's such an epic and even for a Target novel it's lengthy at 174 pages – and we're only halfway through! I thought it worked well picking up where The Myth Makers left off with Katarina coming aboard the TARDIS and Steven not in the best shape. From there we transitioned into the events of Mission to the Unknown for a couple of chapters in which the story of Marc Cory was told fantastically. I think this episode/novel may be the only story that I now have three blog entries for with all of them being different variations. Quite the feat for a standalone missing episode that the Doctor isn't even in! I really enjoyed John Peel's writing and the suddenness of the numerous deaths that occur in this book was striking. Cory doesn't wait around when it comes to killing off his fellows infected by the Varga plants and the way that Katarina's death was handled was brilliant and full of emotional, but I was stunned that it didn't even close a chapter! That was quite extraordinary. Her time as companion is obviously short-lived but for the 100 or so pages that she's around here, I think she's tremendous. Her devotion to the Doctor is lovely to see and her efforts to make sense of everything she isn't able to comprehend is terrific. Bret's annoyance at that trait of hers seemed unfair, but of course he didn't know she was from Troy until late on. He was a very good character and I really liked how determined he was to get the message back to Earth regarding the Daleks and their plans to destroy the planet. His reaction when discovering that Mavic Chen was in league with them was fantastic and was everything required to show how deadly and shocking this alliance was. The remaining members and their roles as leaders of other galaxies didn't seem as important as the Daleks and Mavic Chen which is the rightful focus. I love the idea of a Guardian of the Solar System and human development going so far that planetary government and order was now required. That fitted in well with the AD 4000 setting and it was intriguing for Steven to be in a position of role reversal with Sara compared to his relationship with Vicki. His technological knowledge was far in advance of hers, but now Sara was showcasing much greater technological expertise which was a fun dynamic. The death of Bret was so quick but the development of Sara from that point on was terrific. She was a heartless killer when we meet her but 70-odd pages later and she's a new companion! The moment she reveals that Bret was her brother is an extraordinary development. I liked how Peel explored the hierarchy of the Daleks and mentioning the Black Dalek being second in command to the Dalek Prime was really interesting. The connections with The Chase was also wonderful Target continuity in finding out that their time machine in that adventure was powered by taranium. The Doctor's kidnapping of the taranium core that the Daleks required for their Time Destructor was very humorous and served as the basis for much of the novelisation. The tense relationship between the Daleks and Mavic Chen was excellent and I really loved how this book ended with the Doctor giving the Daleks a fake core. That almost served to 'complete' the story for any readers who might not have been able to get ahold of the second part of the story and the next Target novelisation which I thought was a great thing to do. It gives a sense of satisfaction and completeness whilst also outlining that there is more to come. It also was written in a way that opened up so much room for more adventures with Sara as companion. Overall, a sublime novelisation!

Rating: 10/10

The Bleeding Heart

"I hoped that I deserved peace, just this once."

Writer: Cavan Scott

Format: Audio

Released: May 2017

Series: Ninth Doctor Chronicles 1.01

Featuring: Ninth Doctor

Synopsis

Galen is a place where people come to heal. The renowned 'planet of peace' seems the ideal venue for talks between two warring races. But when death disrupts the diplomacy, Cosmic Nine news reporter Adriana Jarsdel uncovers a different story. Luckily, someone is there to help. A battle-weary veteran from another war. The Doctor has come to Galen – but is he looking for peace, or something else entirely?

Verdict

The Bleeding Heart was a decent start to the Ninth Doctor Chronicles audios from Big Finish! Ever since these were announced three years ago (which I couldn't quite believe the timeframe when I looked back on some post-listening research), I have been wanting to get these because the Ninth Doctor is probably the hardest incarnation to come by when it comes to range of stories. I am unsure whether Christopher Eccleston would ever reprise the role of the Ninth Doctor for Big Finish, but the chronicles are a good way of filling in some gaps and adding to his era. This is an intriguing start because it is chronologically placed before Rose, a section in the Doctor's chronology that has the dangers of becoming too full if there are many more stories there, and the Doctor was at a crucial point in life. It was clear that things were not far removed from the Time War for the Doctor as the very mention of war had him worried which was intriguing in of itself. I loved the continuity from The Day of the Doctor with the sonic screwdriver having a red light rather than the traditional blue we would associate with this incarnation of the Doctor. He wasn't suffering from any post-regeneration effects or trauma, and I think that is a story that is begging to be done. I'm quite amazed it hasn't occurred yet! There's so much potential there. This story was a solid opener to a boxset that doesn't follow one after the other in a traditional Big Finish way which is very good as I can split my Ninth Doctor content around which I'm delighted about. His relationship with Adriana was great and she was a very likeable character. Her seeing into the Doctor's future was good and I loved the revelation that she was psychic. The Doctor attempting to use the psychic paper on her took on a whole new meaning when that revelation occurred. Even before that, she was a very likeable character. The Horajian sentence for murder was an incredibly disturbing passage during the audio and finding out that if one was found guilty of murder, then the punishment involved the public death of their family members! That is absolutely brutal and I just can't imagine that in fruition. A horrible thought. The Administrator's desire to heal was good and I liked the concept of a planet of peace. It makes perfect sense as the location the Doctor wanted to go to so soon after the Time War, but I loved that his reason for coming was because he thought it was too good to be true. That fitted the Ninth Doctor very well in my opinion. Finding out that the story did indeed have Time War connections was a great development and I really liked the concept of the Compassionate. Around it, it was impossible to feel hatred and one could only feel empathy. The Doctor believed that the Daleks trapped it in a pocket universe for obvious reasons, but Adriana revealed that it was actually the Time Lords, and specifically Rassilon, that put it there because they feared the Daleks weaponising it. That was good and I loved that there was some Time Lord mythology in a Ninth Doctor adventure as that is quite a rarity! The Free were decent elements of the story too, but in my opinion there should have been more focus on the Compassionate. Their role in freeing it and providing a way out was good, but it ultimately came down to the Doctor's presence. I think it would have been better to play on the Time War with events being hot on its heals, but this still turned out to be a good little audio story!

Rating: 7/10

Pompadour

"I am prone to loneliness."

Writer: Steven Moffat

Format: Webcast

Released: 6 May 2020

Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Madame de Pompadour

Synopsis

Versailles is silent now. 

Madame de Pompadour yearns to see the Doctor's face again...

Verdict

Pompadour was a very decent little webcast story to serve as an extension of The Girl in the Fireplace and a bonus treat to alongside the #Clockdown watch-along! I was delighted to be able to take part in this tweet-along (don't let the blog entry date fool you!) and getting to watch (or is it listen?) this little gem was really good. Now, I really am going to try and avoid criticising the tale because it's just wonderful that we are getting more and more content during this unprecedented time, especially from eras of yesteryear. It can't have been easy for Steven Moffat to delve back into his scrip some fourteen years ago and revisit everything that came with it, especially considering the sheer volume of episodes he wrote once he took over as show runner! But back he came and added yet another emotional component to the complicated love story between the Doctor and Madame de Pompadour. Essentially, the whole video was simply a new letter from Pompadour to the Doctor as she neared the end of her life and continued to wait for the Doctor to arrive. She wanted to see the stars and travel with the Doctor, but none of it was coming. He was too late which was heartbreaking, and now we get some additional thoughts of Pompadour here. She is longing for the Doctor as French society develops and Versailles gets very quiet. It was clear that Pompadour didn't do well without others around, but how could they ever compare to the Doctor? What man could go on a spaceship through her fireplace and have been coming back and forth since her childhood? It really wasn't much of a contest. I thought the format of this story was pretty good with the direction focusing on Versailles and its emptiness. That was quite powerful and helped sell just how much Pompadour was longing for the Doctor to arrive and whisk her away to the stars. It's a heartbreaking story really given that she would die at just 43 years old. It was also good to show flashbacks to The Girl in the Fireplace and the video-tape format for some of the cuts was almost reminiscent of Sleep No More. It worked well for what it was. I fully appreciate that there must have been so much planning and preparation to go into this production for which I am eternally grateful, but I do think it was a tad short. It didn't quite compare to the likes of Rory's Story or The Raggedy Doctor by Amelia Pond from these lockdown treats for some reason, but it was still terrific to get more content! Sophia Myles seemed to have effortlessly stepped back into the role of Madame de Pompadour some 14 years after playing the role and her voice didn't seem to have changed at all. It remained as sophisticated and elegant as the televised episode in which she appeared and she almost just sounded slightly sad throughout. Who could blame her for that? Steven Moffat likes to keep girls waiting doesn't he! It seems the Eleventh Doctor didn't learn his lesson for Amy after all that went on here. But alas, Pompadour seems to have been going on waiting and waiting and the Doctor never came. Heartbreaking. Overall, a good little story!

Rating: 7/10

The Girl in the Fireplace

"I'm the Lord of Time, and I'm here to fix the clock."

Writer: Steven Moffat

Format: TV

Broadcast: 6 May 2006

Series: 2.04

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Rose, Mickey

Synopsis

Madame de Pompadour finds the court at Versailles under attack from sinister clockwork killers. Her only hope of salvation lies with the man who has haunted her dreams since childhood – a mysterious stranger known only as the Doctor.

Verdict

The Girl in the Fireplace was a phenomenal episode to go alongside the #Clockdown tweet-along organised by the wonderful Emily Cook. I am delighted to have finally taken part in one and it was a great deal of fun reading the tweets of Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies (an unexpected surprise!) regarding the episode and some of the behind the scenes. It really was a great deal of fun seeing the pair interact and it was a very informative exchange. I had no idea that this episode, or rather the one written by Steven Moffat for Series 2, was due to open the series! I really do think that would have changed the whole dynamic of the episode if it was David Tennant's first series opener as the Tenth Doctor post regeneration. Instead, he's settled into the role here and is able to show off himself and also have quite the love story. The entire premise of the episode is phenomenal from start to finish and just so poignant. The pace is incredible and watching this one for the first time in five years was really strange because it didn't feel that long at all! I have of course watched the episode a stupendous amount of times during my childhood and it has always been a favourite of mine. One thing that is a little sad with my growing up is that I can see just how aged this episode is now and the Twitter discussion regarding the horse scene where the Doctor explodes through the mirror was extraordinary! It turned out to be the most expensive shot to date in Doctor Who and even involved getting rid of an entire other set! Steven Moffat wanted to keep it in that much, along with Russell T Davies which was terrific. It is a good scene, but you can't half see that it's all CGI! Just the idea of the Doctor riding a horse was excellent though. This was one of David Tennant's best performances as the Tenth Doctor in my opinion as he got to show a lot of different feelings. From being drunk to falling in love. He showcased everything. I found it interesting to find that Moffat initially resisted the idea of writing Mickey into his script, but then ended up loving writing for him! It's a terrific start to his brief stint as companion in the TARDIS and I really liked how annoyed Rose was that he was there. She wanted to show him the ropes though and make it clear that she was the pro at this. My girlfriend is absolutely obsessed with Rose Tyler, much to my lack of comprehension, and it didn't take her long at all (literally 3 seconds) to proclaim her love for the companion. Ugh. She doesn't have a lot to do in this episode though and is very much overshadowed by Madame de Pompadour. Sophia Myles is brilliant in the role and she's such an enthralling character. She plays the Doctor so well and doesn't seem too effected by the truth about the Doctor's world of the spaceship. Her fate at the end is devastating, but thanks to the brilliance of the lockdown watch-alongs, we have new Madame de Pompadour material! Check out tomorrow's blog. The Clockwork Droids are also fantastic in this one and their look is just sublime. I loved Moffat's tweet about how the monsters were defeated a full ten minutes before the episode's end. I really liked that. Overall, a sublime episode and so much fun for the tweet-along. 

Rating: 10/10

Farewell, Sarah Jane

"The street's very quiet without her."

Writer: Russell T Davies
Format: Webcast
Released: 19 April 2020
Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Jo, Rani, Luke, Clyde

Synopsis

To mark the anniversary of the passing of Elisabeth Sladen, who played the Doctor's friend Sarah Jane Smith. In a new video, Sarah Jane Smith's closest friends come together to say "Farewell, Sarah Jane".

Verdict

Farewell, Sarah Jane was an absolutely wonderful little story. It was full of emotion and just a perfect way to send off Sarah Jane Smith. I can imagine this was a pretty tough story for Russell T Davies to write amidst a global pandemic where people are losing their lives with such frequency, but nearly a decade on from her passing (which in itself is scarcely believable), this adventure takes place during the in-universe funeral of Sarah Jane Smith. It's such a shame that Lis Sladen died so early on, but this is a fitting way to finally get closure on the Sarah Jane Adventures. I thought the format was terrific in having Jacob Dudman narrate before some wonderful videos of Jo Grant (I refuse to call her Jones despite it being correct!), Gita, Ace and then of course Luke, Clyde and Rani. It was just lovely to see all of the characters back in the role to say goodbye to the series titular character. She really was one of a kind. I am glad that there was a semblance of humour in the story with Katy Manning just being her mad self reprising the role of Jo briefly. The cut to the vase smashing was hilarious! Gita was also full of comedy during the televised series, but it was nice to see some emotion from her and you just know for sure that it was very real. Lis Sladen was such a loved person, that's no secret, and I have to admit I found myself getting rather emotional as I watched on. Gemma was also listening in and whilst she isn't the biggest Sarah Jane Smith fan, that didn't at all matter. This was just a story of celebration. The narration also detailing a number of other Doctor Who characters present at the funeral was fitting of the woman Sarah Jane Smith was in that she had touched so many lives of those who had travelled with the Doctor. I'd love to know when, or if, she had encountered the likes of Dodo, Ian and Barbara or Nyssa and Tegan! Or if the word of Sarah Jane had just got around and meant so much. I find it interesting that Nyssa was there given the way and location of her departure from the TARDIS in Terminus! I also loved finding out that Martha and Mickey now have a child, although I'm not struck on the name August! It was nice of them both to be there though. Jo explaining why the Doctor wasn't at the funeral was good and I can imagine he would be devastated to learn of his passing. We saw the reaction of the Eleventh Doctor when he found out the Brigadier had passed so I think the death of his beloved Sarah might crush him. Rani getting the final words on Sarah Jane was quite beautiful and I loved the idea of her not believing that she had really died. Right at the end, the Doctor had come for her and they were off in the TARDIS again having adventures forever. That was a really wonderful thought and something I would definitely like to believe. We had Captain Jack saluting Sarah Jane, Sky even showing up briefly and Maria and her dad attending via video link. It was all lovely. The attempt of the Trickster to defeat Sarah Jane even in death was excellent and I loved the idea of friends coming banding together to put riddance to that threat and practically kill off the Trickster for good! That was an unexpected development. Overall, just a quite wonderful celebration of Sarah Jane Smith. A fitting farewell.

Rating: 10/10

The Terror of the Umpty Ums

"Hate is just fear out loud."

Writer: Steven Moffat
Format: Short Story
Released: 7 April 2020
Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor

Synopsis

A new short story by Steven Moffat.

Verdict

The Terror of the Umpty Ums was another great little short story! This one was quite a bit longer than the other short stories I have managed to blog thus far and it was just quite surreal to have a new adventure from Steven Moffat! It was a very good read and I love that we now have a Thirteenth Doctor tale from the show runner of the two previous eras of Doctor Who. It's quite barmy really and doesn't quite seem right. It's a little bit like Russell T Davies getting to write for the Eleventh Doctor with Death of the Doctor. It's just a lot of fun. To be fair, Moffat does a pretty darn good job of capturing the personality of Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor. I was really impressed with the characterisation here. The story was a lot of fun and mostly just interaction between the Doctor and Karpagnon. Apparently he was a Deathborg 400 and the Doctor's comment about there potentially being 399 before him not boding well was very humorous. Would things really have gone right four-hundredth time lucky? I have my reservations. However, they are unnecessary as it turned out that he wasn't a Deathborg at all, but just an ordinary young boy in a very surprising twist. He had been toying with himself for much of the adventure about how the Doctor could be inside his head and infiltrated his interior defences successfully, but he knew all about her and how she was the most feared warrior in the cosmos. That was something the Doctor wasn't awfully too keen on being known as, but she wasn't in a mood for arguments. She had Dr Petrie's life to save. She was able to do so relatively easy as demonstrated on a vast number of occasions throughout the adventure, the Doctor was able to get Karpagnon to do just about anything she wanted. The Deathborg was very annoyed about this, but not as annoyed as the moment came when he realised the Doctor wasn't talking to him through an earpiece. She was inside his head all along. But how could she be? Well, because she was a character in a television show called Doctor Who of course. Again, the similar theme to Press Play here playing on the fact that the Doctor is a fictional character was excellent and something I really didn't see coming. It didn't have much of an emotional attachment to the revelation which was a slight shame, but it was still a great revelation. The suggestion that she can't be referred to as Doctor Who on TV was a lot of fun and something Steven Moffat had previously incorporated into the televised series with World Enough and Time. The development that the terrifying Umpty Ums actually referred to the Doctor Who theme music was superb and something I really didn't see coming. Prior to reading, the title of this story had very much intrigued me, but I wasn't expecting it to mean what it did! Personally, my viewpoint of the title music is more along the lines of 'dum-de-dum, dum-de-dum...', but the idea of the whoooo shift being the Doctor's arrival to come in and save the day was magnificent. I really loved that. There were a lot of trademark comments from the Doctor here about being brave, never be cowardly and that we're all stories in the end which were great. I also really liked the Doctor's analogy of what fear and hate are to each other. Overall, a terrific little short story!

Rating: 8/10

The Simple Things

"Surely it's Hammers because of the Ham?"

Writer: Joy Wilkinson

Format: Short Story

Released: 22 April 2020

Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis

A new short story by Joy Wilkinson.

Verdict

The Simple Things was another great little short story to keep Doctor Who fans busy during this unprecedented lockdown! I particularly liked the theme of this one centring on football as I am huge fan of the association game and I'm also hugely familiar with the sport during the time that was visited by the TARDIS fam during this adventure. I have done two dissertations on association football and rugby's competition in South Wales between 1900 and 1950, and comparisons with England and the state of the footballing codes in that country were inevitable. Research meant I knew a lot of the working class game even if I only started my argument from the twentieth century onwards. In saying that, I was able to do an independent research study for a module during my Master's degree and I did it on press and physical space regarding association football in late-Victorian Wales, so that included the year that was visited here. Graham initially wanting to go to 1964 and train with the West Ham team that won the club's first ever FA Cup was a delightful thought and I think if I was ever offered the chance to go anywhere and anywhen, my answer would undoubtedly be football related. I think it would come down to either the 2005 or 2019 Champions League final, or the EURO 2016 Quarter Final where Wales beat Belgium. Anyway, given Graham's age, his desire to return to the '60s and his footballing heroes was wonderful. In typical TARDIS fashion, things went slightly wrong though and with Graham being quite vague in his instructions, the fam were in 1896. They were in the right place, but they were on the day of the Charity Cup final during West Ham's first season when they were known as Thames Ironworks FC. I thought that was a great little twist and an excellent use of late-nineteenth century football teams. The era was captured really well in what football was like during this period and the fact that players would have to go to work prior to playing in a match, regardless of it being a cup final! Graham's reaction to the whole situation was good and I liked how he realised that what he was getting was still fantastic. He got to train with his club's first ever trophy-winning team! They had to play in the factory because of a lack of space which just made me happy in regards to my essay of last year. The Draconian involvement in the story was an unexpected development and whilst it probably didn't fit all that well, it was nice to meet members of the species that really were not evil. They were just out for a business. The references to Frontier in Space were very good and I liked the Doctor playing on the fact she was made a Noble of Draconia at the end of that serial. That seemed to carry a lot of weight without things being questioned. Yaz was very humorous in this story with her lack of football knowledge and her suggestion of where West Ham's nickname came from was just wonderful. She really did apply logic which just made it all the sweeter. Ryan didn't offer anything of note which was a bit of a shame, but as a whole this was just a nice feel good story. The ending seemed a tad anti-climactic, but it did what it set out to do in having Graham enjoy a kick about with West Ham's trophy winning players! Overall, a great little adventure.

Rating: 8/10

Press Play

"I want to leave you with some memories of our time together."

Writer: Pete McTighe

Format: Short Story

Released: 1 April 2020

Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Susan

Synopsis

A new short story by Pete McTighe.

Verdict

Press Play was a sensational short story! I absolutely adored this one from start to finish. If anyone needs any kind of idea on how to write a short story, then this was it! It honestly might be my favourite short story of all time. It was honestly that good. It probably only took about three minutes to read, but it was just outstanding. I felt a connection to the story which is hard to do in such a short format, but the moment that the Doctor saw that it was Susan who had left a message was magnificent. I could almost see the look on the Doctor's head in my imagination. It was so powerful. Imagine the reunion between them now if it were to occur! I somehow don't think it would work if the Doctor was referred to as grandmother though. The Doctor initially having a conversation and somewhat sassy argument with the TARDIS regarding being left a message was a lot of fun. Any interaction between the Doctor and the TARDIS is a positive in my books so it's no surprise that The Doctor's Wife ranks as one of my all time favourite episodes. I thought we might be going down a similar route here, but then it took off in a whole new direction and seemed to canonise BritBox and BBC iPlayer! Was perhaps what we saw in Remembrance of the Daleks with Doctor Who seemingly seconds away from occurring on television in front of the Seventh Doctor an entry into Susan's recording system? How it would get from the TARDIS to BBC Archives I'm not so sure, but that's a lot of fun to think about! Susan adding a memory bank that was recording for a day when the Doctor might be sad was a tremendous idea and if anyone could add something to the TARDIS systems, it was definitely the Doctor's granddaughter. She is a Time Lord after all! Susan creating a whole system of operations for the Doctor to be able to view her own past adventures is just incredible. It is very close to breaking the fourth wall and going beyond containing things within Doctor Who itself, but when comic strip adventures exist out there like The Fourth Wall, it's not that uncommon. The explanation that the TARDIS missed a few of the early journeys and encounters as explanations for the missing serials and episodes from the BBC Archives was tremendous, and just the idea of the Thirteenth Doctor being in control of the whole Doctor Who archive and being able to view her past encounters like Genesis of the Daleks or Timelash, weirdly referred to as The Timelash in the story, is just extraordinary. It just shouldn't be able to happen, and yet this adventure has actually provided a very rational explanation as to how it is possible. Imagine the Doctor just getting bored one day and chucking on her outing in Four to Doomsday or In the Forest of the Night! The ideas and stories are endless. Presumably, they include the audios, comic strips, books etc so the library must be absolutely endless. I'd honestly give anything to have everything in one place like that! With the Doctor doing some essential TARDIS maintenance that meant no humans on board, without the fam she would now be able to go back and look on at some past encounters. That's a lovely thought. Overall, a tremendously good short story!

Rating: 10/10

Things She Thought While Falling

"The train below was insisting on getting even closer."

Writer: Chris Chibnall

Format: Short Story

Released: 25 March 2020

Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor

Synopsis

Hello! We're living through some strange times right now.

With people staying home, and families stuck together, I thought maybe a few little presents from Doctor Who might help. Something to read, together or alone. New treats, from the people who make Doctor Who.

To start us off, I've written a few words about what went through the Thirteenth Doctor's head, immediately after she regenerated and was thrown out her TARDIS.

Stay safe.

Chris x

Verdict

Things She Thought While Falling was a lovely little short story! Well, as Chris Chibnall puts it himself, a very short story. It was a really good tale of what was going through the head of the Doctor after regenerating at the end of Twice Upon a Time. She had initially said 'Brilliant!', but then she was thrown out of her TARDIS and was falling to Earth after seeing her TARDIS dematerialise and go who knows where. Well, we've all seen The Ghost Monument by now so we know exactly where, but that's besides the point. I like the idea of encountering the Doctor mid-fall and post-regeneration. It must have been quite the experience for her with all of that going on so quickly after meeting her own first incarnation! It was quite the whirlwind. Chibnall writes the Doctor very well as I would expect with him being the show runner, and it's nice that even this early on there are noticeable traits of Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor there. The little line where the Doctor refers to herself as a man was excellent as it isn't until she's on the train in The Woman Who Fell to Earth that she realises her gender has switched to female. She is of course proud of that, but at this point she is none the wiser. That was so simple but a lot of fun. This little story actually turns out to be the first chronological story of the Thirteenth Doctor era, assuming any logical person counts the previous Christmas special as the last in the Twelfth Doctor's run and exclusively that. I never imagined it being possible that there could be a Thirteenth Doctor story set before her first episode! But Doctor Who keeps on doing the seemingly impossible. I mean, there are quite a few Ninth Doctor stories set prior to Rose now which is just stupendous in its own right! Anyway, back to the falling and I really liked the interaction between the Doctor and herself. Yep, that's right! Regeneration does some crazy things and falling from your TARDIS must be quite lonely, but the Doctor was keen to not only interact with her own brain, but have a full on argument. I really liked the references to regeneration and as the Doctor was preparing herself to land on, or rather through, the train, she was able to recall the events of The Christmas Invasion and The End of Time where serious injuries were quickly healed. I thought that was a quite brilliant explanation of how she was quite okay when she popped up on the train in The Woman Who Fell to Earth and aided Yaz, Ryan and Graham. She already guessed she was in South Yorkshire, and now she had new friends. This was short and simple, but a really good lockdown treat. I mean, we must have only got a snippet of the Doctor's entire thoughts while falling as apparently she can have 3,007 thoughts inside three seconds. And she counts them! The debate she had with herself questioning whether the very thought of counting made it 3,008 was magnificent. I loved that. The inclusion of the Doctor's quick fact about Fintleborxtug was also perfect characterisation, but I didn't find the explanation of the way the planet was named all that amusing. Regardless, this was a really good little treat! A terrific short story to kick off the Thirteenth Doctor's run. 

Rating: 8/10

The Piggybackers Part 3

"She's my teacher, and she's a witch!"

Writer: Scott Gray
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 30 April 2020
Printed in: DWM 551

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis

Miss Harcourt continues to lead a school trip with a twist. She's on an evil mission, but the ends to the means remain unknown. The Cuban Missile Crisis looms large, and Graham is being interrogated. What is so bad about the piggybacker label he is given?

Verdict

The Piggybackers was a decent continuation of the comic strip story from within the pages of Doctor Who Magazine. This issue itself looks set to be real barn burner of an edition despite the Coronoavirus lockdown and it seems to have provided something that looks quite spectacular! The idea of Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies having an interview is great in its own right, but the prospect of the pair of them interviewing each other is sublime. I really can't wait to read what they have to say – and ask! – about each other's eras and I'm sure it'll be a really good interview. I mean, after a brief flick through it takes up 10 pages which is very lengthy for DWM so it must be good. Also in the issue I am looking forward to an extended Production Notes from Chris Chibnall and I imagine he'll be talking about the new watch-alongs as there can't really be a huge deal to report regarding the current direction of the show. An update on Revolution of the Daleks, perhaps? Regardless, I always look forward to reading what he has to say. The feature on the lockdown watch-alongs looks really intriguing and the closer I get to the rewatch of The Girl in the Fireplace, the more disappointed I am that I haven't taken part in the previous televised episodes. I still need to catch up on the bonus content, but I'll get there! The Apocrypha feature is something I'm loving and I've never heard of the story that it discusses this month so I look forward to that. Public Image having a roundup of Series 12 will be intriguing as it has performed very well for a drama, but perhaps not so well compared with Doctor Who's past. Perspective is a big thing with ratings now. Jacqueline Rayner returning with a Doctor Feelgood section discussing some of the more enjoyable serials and episodes will be fantastic as she's hugely entertaining and I'm also very excited for The Caves of Androzani getting The Fact of Fiction treatment with it being one of the greatest ever Doctor Who adventures. All in all, it looks to be a top issue! Now, I'm not so sure this comic strip is going to end up being a top one. I'm not sure what it is, but there is something missing. My instinct tells me that it's having Miss Harcourt in the role of the villain because to me, despite her obviously having powers from the beyond, it just isn't enticing or interesting having an elderly woman as the enemy. I'm not all that bothered about what she's done to the school and I didn't much care about the look into her past and how she was told that this would be her last semester as a teacher. I'm more interested in what's going on with Graham and what exactly a Piggybacker is. It must be important if it's the story's title! The cliffhanger wasn't great with the emergence of a gargoyle-like creature on top of Harcourt revealing her power, but it wasn't familiar to me so it didn't have the desired impact. Yaz didn't have much to do in this one which was a shame, but her saving of the Doctor and Endicott from the school trip on legs was a lot of fun. Tommy's interaction with Endicott was also good. I did enjoy the characterisation of Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor, but I think it's about time somebody new had a go at writing her comic strips. Whilst good, they seem stale and repetitive in feeling which is a shame. Overall, still a somewhat decent continuation though!

Dr Who and the Hell Planet

"They turned to move on and found themselves facing a creature out of a nightmare."

Writer: Terrance Dicks
Format: Short Story
Released: 31 December 1976
Printed in: The Daily Mirror

Featuring: Fourth Doctor

Synopsis

Varek, Torr and Sarna arrive on a planet that is ravaged by savage beasts. Giant creatures roam the land, but they are in desperate need of recommending a planet to colonise. As they get more noticed by the locals, the Doctor steps in to ensure they can make it home. But this is no planet to be colonised. This is Hell.

Verdict

Dr Who and the Hell Planet was a decent little story that was wonderfully reprinted in the pages of last month's edition of Doctor Who Magazine! That issue celebrated the famed Season 14 of the show and it's fair to say that it was a very good one! I really enjoyed looking at the Diary of Season 14 feature and seeing everything that was going on around the broadcast of the series during that year. I had no idea that there was a bit of a gap between the broadcasts of The Deadly Assassin and The Face of Evil, but it makes a lot of sense when you think about given the arrival of Leela as companion and all that went on with Sarah Jane's hasty departure and the Doctor's return to Gallifrey where he did battle with the Master. During that brief gap between stories, there was a little text story printed in The Daily Mirror which is a bit barmy! I'd love for there to be modern Doctor Who stories popping up in the newspapers and I might actually purchase my first ever one if that were the case. Alas, 44 years later and this one is popping back up in Doctor Who Magazine which is a real treat to go alongside the Season 14 content. It fits in perfectly and whilst it is a pretty short adventure, even as far as short stories go, it's brilliant to be able to experience it for the first time. If it wasn't reprinted here, I just don't know if I would have ever come across it! I realise that it is still pretty much impossible to be able to blog everything Doctor Who there has ever been, but I am darn going to try and get as much done as possible and this is another ticked off a stupendously long list. It's an intriguing little adventure and with the length, I honestly wasn't expecting the adventure to start with characters other than the Doctor! Varek, Torr and Sarna made a good little trio of characters and it turned out that they were a survey team for their home planet which was in need of new planets to colonise. Naturally, I figured they were from Earth given their description and the basis from which we as humans view stories like this. Why wouldn't they have been Mankind? They were quite scared of the locals which from the imagery accompanying the story were of course dinosaurs. In Doctor Who though, surely dinosaurs or creatures resembling them were not contained to Earth. I mean we had them in 1970s Central London and even on a spaceship in the likes of Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Dinosaurs On a Spaceship, but the revelation at the end of this story being that the setting was in fact Earth was terrific. I really didn't see that coming. Even in a story as short as this one, Terrance Dicks still managed to come up with a shocking twist. He's a great writer and it's always nice to be able to read something new of his, from my perspective of course. The Doctor dealt with the dinosaurs in a very simple way, but I did feel that the characterisation was a little off for this story. The idea of him just testing the planet and getting his equipment from the TARDIS didn't quite seem to fit the Fourth Doctor for me. I can't imagine Tom Baker's incarnation just sitting around doing tests! What I did like about the Doctor travelling alone here though was that it tied in brilliantly with the continuity of the time as in the most recent broadcast story, he was in fact alone which is a very rare instance. Overall, a pretty simple but entertaining story that made for a nostalgic read.

Rating: 7/10

Daughter of the Gods

"My name is Katarina and I am already dead."

Writer: David K. Barnes
Format: Audio
Released: November 2019
Series: Early Adventures 6.02

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe, First Doctor, Steven, Katarina

Synopsis

When Zoe reattaches an old piece of equipment to the TARDIS console, she, Jamie and the Doctor are very lucky to avoid a collision.

But the place they find themselves may be even more dangerous – because there they encounter another Doctor, a space pilot named Steven... and a young woman called Katarina who really shouldn't be there...

Verdict

Daughter of the Gods was a terrific Early Adventures audio story! It's the first Big Finish audio I've been able to blog in over a month and it is a story that I have been wanting to listen to ever since it came out. It really does seem that there isn't anything Big Finish cannot pull off as here we get the return of Katarina! That was a major selling point for me along with the First and Second Doctors meeting in the earliest of multi-Doctor stories and it definitely wasn't a let down. I really liked the format of the story with the first part mainly featuring the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe and then the second primarily being with the First Doctor, Steven and Katarina. I was very surprised to find that the latter trio had actually been on Urbinia for three months and it was nice to know that, even if it ended up being an alternative timeline, Katarina experienced some sort of life with the Doctor and Steven. She was played well by Ajjaz Awad with her character probably being the companion you can most get away with recasting given her limited stay on the TARDIS. The focus of her character was great and I really enjoyed the continuity to The Daleks' Master Plan. It was brilliant to explore the possibility that the Doctor never got involved in the events of those stories which led to The Daleks roaming the universe with the Time Destructor on their hands. That beggars belief just thinking about! Mixing the companions together as the story went on worked wonderfully well and the way Jamie and Katarina hit it off was terrific. I really enjoyed their relationship and it was nice to hear them both comparing notes on how they met the Doctor. They had disagreements on whether he was a deity though! Her constant referring to the TARDIS as a temple was also magnificent and playing on her beliefs that she was dead, given that she actually should be dead, was excellent. The relationship between Steven and Zoe was less enticing, but having the former with the Second Doctor was really good. Frazer Hines does an incredible job of bringing the Second Doctor back to life and that was no different here. His reaction to finding out that Katarina was still around was very powerful and hearing him talk of the loss he felt for her was brilliant. I thought the meeting between the First and Second Doctor was good, but it could have probably been a tad better and more meaningful. It was still very enjoyable but I think with the First Doctor's personality, it ought to have been something similar to what we saw with the Second and Third Doctors in The Three Doctors. I suppose it is hard without the original actors, but it was still great and just fantastic to have the first two incarnations meet. I'm a sucker for a multi-Doctor adventure! The presence of the Daleks was enough to provide a threat without them doing an awful lot for the most part and that worked well as they weren't needed to do more. The focus on the evacuation was really good and with all of the companions there along with two Doctors meeting, the plot was simple and that's how it should have been. One moment of the adventure that I loved was Katarina completely understanding the concept of regeneration and the Doctor changing face as she saw him as a god and they took many faces. I thought that was outstanding. I was a little surprised that the Time Destructor was actually used, but the Doctors were able to revert things back to normal and the little reenactments we got of The Daleks' Master Plan's opening stages was wonderful. It was also nice for the Second Doctor at the end to get to say an anecdote about Katarina and that she'll never be forgotten. There were numerous references to The Myth Makers which was great, but that was a very good way to finish. Overall, a fine audio!

Rating: 9/10

The Raggedy Doctor by Amelia Pond

"My best friend is the raggedy Doctor."

Writer: Steven Moffat

Format: Webcast

Released: 3 April 2020

Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Amy

Synopsis

Amelia Pond tells a story some time after she is left waiting in her garden by the Eleventh Doctor. She narrates some pages from her diary dealing with the hopes of the Doctor's return, her friend Mels and her future husband Rory...

Verdict

The Raggedy Doctor by Amelia Pond was a tremendous little webcast to go alongside the #FishCustard watch-along of The Eleventh Hour! It's really great that this watch-along occurred on the story's tenth anniversary, but saying that alone just makes me feel incredibly old! And I'm only 23. Where does the time go? It really does beggar belief that it's been a whole decade since the Eleventh Doctor's full debut. Anyway, onto the story at hand and it was a wonderful three minutes or so. The format was sublime with the animation and writings and I loved that we got to hear Caitlin Blackwood again reprising her role as Amelia Pond. She is obviously ten years older now from when she appeared on screen as the younger version of Amy who would go on to become the companion, but she told the story so well and settled back into her character's role in such a lovely way. I was really impressed with the performance and it was just tremendous to hear her again. It was clear that she was playing Amelia as slightly older with the mentions of Mels and playing hide and seek with Rory which we would see recounted on screen in Let's Kill Hitler amongst other episodes. The continuity was good and everything that was written in the book just felt real. It was clear just how much Amelia liked Rory without potentially realising it. I'm not even sure if it's a case of her not wanting to admit it, I genuinely don't think she knows how much she loves Rory. Even at this early stage. She doesn't even call him a friend. She has 27 of them, but of course Rory is a lot more than a friend. That's such a clear and good distinction which is so simple but says so much in subtlety. It's quite sad though that for Rory he gets left hiding when Amelia and Mels forget about him in games of hide and seek or blind man's buff. But still he persisted with hanging out with them. He's such a nice guy. I have to say, the illustrations were absolutely brilliant and the fact that all of this was produced whilst in lockdown with such a quick turnaround is sublime. Emily Cook is doing a stellar job organising all of these watch-alongs it has to be said. I'm loving going through these additives to the mass gatherings and I haven't actually joined in with a televised one yet! That will be changing very soon though. The drawings of Rory blindfolded and of the Eleventh Doctor eating fish fingers and custard were tremendous and whilst they were so good and accurate, they also felt like they were drawn by Amelia herself. As if that wasn't enough, the desk setting in which the diary that was being recounted was placed upon was just marvellous. The framed picture of Amelia and a coloured in drawing of the TARDIS. Wow, it was just so so good. I really did love and much like other mini-stories to go alongside the watch-alongs, it all felt very poignant. Amelia calling the raggedy Doctor her best friend was touching and it's incredible to think how much of an impact he made on her life in such a short space of time. Overall, a quite wonderful little story. 

Rating: 10/10

Rory's Story

"I was killed by a Silurian and stopped existing completely."

Writer: Neil Gaiman

Format: Short Story

Released: 11 April 2020

Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Rory

Synopsis

It's 1946. Eight years after he was sent back in time by the Weeping Angels, Rory Williams is dictating his biography...

Verdict

Rory's Story was a tremendous little adventure to go alongside the #BiggerOnTheInside watch-along of The Doctor's Wife. Neil Gaiman is a marvellous writer and I loved the way this was written as a sort of lead in for that episode whilst being a little tale in its now right. It was only two minutes long which might go down as the shortest thing I have ever blogged, but it was just pure magic from start to finish! You can obviously see through Arthur Darvill just looking a little older that this is eight years on from the events of The Angels Take Manhattan and both he and Amy getting stuck in the past. With them being sent to 1938, they wouldn't have long before they got to experience living through the Second World War which was a brilliant inclusion. That's something I had never considered when it came to the two companions living happily together in the past, although I have always thought the Doctor's inability to get to them makes no logical sense whatsoever. Could they not just meet up say in the middle of 1938 in another American location? Would it really be so difficult for Amy and Rory to jump on a train to meet the Doctor in an alternative location where there wasn't so much time distortion around a place like New York City? Anyway, I'm going off track here as that's an argument for another day and time. Rory telling the tale as an extract in the biography he was writing to his child was lovely and I found it quite humorous when he told the life story of his and Amy's relationship. It was uncanny, that's for sure! Killed by a Silurian and not existing at all. Then guarding his wife in the Pandorica as a Roman solider after returning to existence as an Auton. Oh, and then something with a mermaid! That must have been rather intriguing and I'd love for that tale to be told at some point. I somehow doubt it will be though. I'm expecting a bit too much there. The mention of the Doctor actually then being their son's brother-in-law is magnificent and just so barmy for all of the right reasons. It really does show just how much timey-wimey nonsense was occurring during the Moffat era with the Eleventh Doctor. And I absolutely mean nonsense as a compliment. Rory just reeling off the timeline of events was wonderful. This little video undoubtedly put a smile on my face and I loved that we had a little sound cameo from Amy off camera. It made it so believable. The Doctor's Wife is one of my favourite episodes ever, so Rory calling its chapter in his biography 'I'm the Pretty One' was wonderful. I really did enjoy that and it led me to reminisce fondly on what is a superb episode. I'm saddened to have missed the watch-along, but this was all I needed for a bit of cheering up during lockdown! It was a format that worked so well given the current circumstances and was also a fantastic way to introduce the episode itself. Overall, a fantastic story! The best two minutes anyone could ask for really. 

Rating: 9/10