Respond to All Calls: Planet of the End

"We quietly rewrote our contract with death."

Writer: Timothy X Atack

Format: Audio

Released: August 2021

Series: Ninth Doctor Adventures 2.03

Featuring: Ninth Doctor

Synopsis

The Doctor arrives on a mausoleum world for sightseeing and light pedantry, correcting its planetary records. The resident AI has other ideas.

Deep within a tomb, something stirs. Occasus is the last resting place of a species far too dangerous to exist. And the Doctor is its way back.

Verdict

Planet of the End was an outstanding audio to conclude the Respond to All Calls second series of Ninth Doctor Adventures from Big Finish! This was undoubtedly the best story in the range thus far and I had a really good feeling right from the off. The Incorporation intrigued me immediately and their talk of Gallifrey being destroyed along with the Daleks being gone was excellent and really established the timeline of where these events were placed. Their plan to damage on bodies and monetise the burned energy was brilliant and I really loved just how dark this adventure was. It felt right for the Ninth Doctor at this early stage in a world not too long after the Time War. The idea of the Doctor's body offering most given its regenerative abilities was terrific and his arrival coming as forecast was a good use of the distress call he responded to, as is the title of this anthology series. The Unaffiliated was a great concept with it being home to the burial grounds of the most signifiant species in the universe. I'm not entirely sure who defined their significance, but the fact there were over 14,000 gave an idea of the scale of the place! The Doctor meeting up with the AI who he would later dub as Fred was fun and I loved their relationship throughout the story. It developing a personality was also a really nice touch and I love how by the end of the adventure Fred was granted life as wished. The Doctor seeing some Sontarans in a bad way was a great image and the introduction of Sacristan Hinge was really well done. He was a pompous villain and that worked wonderfully. He didn't want Fred to have any personality and he knew of the Doctor as his reaction to finding out that he'd turned up spoke volumes. His description of the Time Lord and referencing the likes of Telos and Exxilon as sacred sites he had destroyed was fantastic. I enjoyed that continuity. The lure of the mystery grave sight and who or what might be inside was a superb trap for the Doctor as he just couldn't resist with his curiosity. The idea of the Incorporation being able to inhibit the Doctor's regeneration was outstanding and hearing those regenerative effects was marvellous. The pyramids that were breathing actually being the Incorporation's bodies within was brilliant and I liked how their mind was in the gold, and they'd taken the Doctor there now too, away from his body. That was fun and the description of how he'd grown an image and long hair painted quite the picture! The scale of the story with the Doctor lasting nearly a century there was incredible. The Incorporation needing regenerative species like the Doctor to bring them back from the dead was sublime, and I thought the Doctor hallucinating and seeing himself was a really fun conversation. The whole idea of the Incorporation viewing the Doctor as a business was incredible and I loved that their plan was for no more pro bono! They were majority shareholders of his body now which was so much fun. That's my work lingo! But the Doctor had duped them with fixed payments and used binary of his eyes over such a long time to appeal to Fred to build him the reverser and get him out, then using a rabbit of all things to trap the Incarnation for good! It really was excellent. The line of the TARDIS door getting squeaky was also so clever with the timing. Overall, a magnificent audio!

Rating: 10/10