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