Ravagers: Sphere of Freedom

"Immersive reality games are great!"

Writer: Nicholas Briggs

Format: Audio

Released: May 2021

Series: Ninth Doctor Adventures 1.01

Featuring: Ninth Doctor

Synopsis

On the Sphere of Freedom, the Doctor is about to shut down an evil Immersive Games business empire. He's assisted by a valiant galley chef called Nova. But his plan spectacularly fails... And who exactly is Audrey?

Verdict

Sphere of Freedom was a very good audio adventure to kick off the Ravagers boxset that kickstarts the long awaited audio series of the Ninth Doctor! It was so good to hear Christopher Eccleston reprise the role of the Doctor for Big Finish on audio and it's just so good to be getting new content! I am so glad that he was able to be convinced to return to the role and this one certainly felt new and unique for his Doctor, given that there was no Rose Tyler as companion. For the Ninth Doctor, these events took place prior to Rose which is something I'm not massively in agreement with, but for it to be the way that we get more adventures with this incarnation then I'm willing to ignore it. I thought the theme of Immersive Reality was very good and quite different to everything we got with this Doctor on screen. The very fact that most of the setting wasn't on Earth was different too and I like that we will get to explore the Ninth Doctor away from Earth. Although there was no Rose, we did have Nova in that companion role and it appears that she is here to stay for at least the remainder of the boxset. Her being a chef was a nice sense of normality, although the fact she wasn't paid for her job and just got some food credits and access to the low-end games screamed slavery, and that was something that the Doctor didn't agree with. I thought jumping around different times of the audio was an intriguing move and having the Doctor tell a story to Audrey and revert back to Nova was decent, although I think that format works better with visuals. Audrey made for a mysterious villain and I liked how she had feigned  being an old woman, but that deception didn't work on the Doctor which was terrific. It was a very impressive audio for the Ninth Doctor who was in his element when it came to bypassing security and translating Latin of the Roman soldiers. That element seemed to disappear quickly, but the image of a legion thrust nearly two millennia into the future was brutal. Farraday and Halloran were fun characters and the Doctor disagreeing with the military way was really good to hear and true to character. The use of a time eddy, or rather billions of them, in the story was interesting and I liked how time was used to help enhance an immersive game that only the very richest had access to. Who cared that time was being ripped apart along with the fabric of reality when there was money to be made? Talk about high rollers! That took things to a different level. I quite enjoyed the pace of the episode and there was a good mix of action and dialogue. The Sphere of Freedom name is quite ironic given that it was anything but that, and Audrey revealing herself as the CEO was a fun moment even if the Doctor was far from surprised. I liked the danger of Nova being swallowed up by a time eddy, as well as Farraday, and the Doctor was determined to get the former back. He had made a promise and he was going to keep it. Except now the TARDIS had been swallowed by an eddy and he was inside, with Audrey able to show him the true extent of the Ravagers that seemingly inhabited the collapse of a star going nova. Not even the TARDIS could escape it, so how could they live in that habitat? The Doctor was next on the menu in what was a very good cliffhanger to lead us into the next adventure of the series. Overall, a very solid first episode and it was brilliant to have new Ninth Doctor material from Christopher Eccleston himself! 

Rating: 8/10