Son of the Dragon

"Behold, my people, the bride of Dracula!"

Writer: Steve Lyons
Format: Audio
Released: September 2007
Series: Main Range 99

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Peri, Erimem

Synopsis

I am Prince Vlad III - son of Vlad the Great, and sovereign and ruler of Ungro-Walachia and the duchies of Amlas and Fagaras.

BUt since my father's murder, I have had another name.

I am Dracula.

Verdict

Son of the Dragon was a great audio adventure! I've come to the last of the two-digit releases and I'm finally getting somewhere but I realise that I still have a considerable way to go before coming close to catching up. I was really looking forward to this story beforehand because of the TARDIS team and I liked how they were once again involved in an adventure that was a pure historical. That theme certainly works well with Erimem but I was also a little surprised to hear that it was teased that she would depart the TARDIS once again. Is that a hint for the future, perhaps? Adding her alongside the Fifth Doctor and Peri made for a terrific trio and I liked the contrasting experiences each of them went through during the story. Peter Davison gave an assured performance as the Fifth Doctor and I think he's definitely more bubbly and happy alongside Peri and Erimem rather than the likes of Tegan or Adric. The 1462 setting was fantastic and I liked how, rather than being all about vampires, this story took us back in time to meet the real man himself. Vlad the Impaler as he was also known, so he was probably more sinister than the vampire! Given how much horror he provided, I was quite surprised to see that Erimem became infatuated with him. She was initially quite courageous and offered a large sacrifice by offering herself to become Dracula's wife in return for the Doctor and Peri's safety. The way she grew to like him was surprising but I liked how the Doctor told Peri that had she come from this time, she may not think he was so bad. His line about viewing history in its context was something I loved and that's probably because I have just attained a History degree! The way Erimem revealed she wanted to depart the TARDIS was quite surprising and I was actually shocked she wouldn't want to say goodbye to the Doctor in person. Peri was taken aback as well. Radu was a tremendous character and I really enjoyed his relationship with the Doctor throughout the audio. His role as Dracula's brother also made the title a little more meaningful and ambiguous which I thought was very clever. The accounts of Dracula's wife and the tension that came with Erimem perhaps suffering her fate in the river was very good. The cliffhangers throughout were of a very high standard which was pleasing but I wasn't sure why each part had a little pre-titles scene. The ending was well-paced and quite emotional which was good and I thought it was well done as a whole. Overall, a very good story!

Rating: 8/10

Babblesphere

"The computer chips had turned the inhabitants into mindless drones."

Writer: Jonathan Morris
Format: Audio
Released: April 2013
Series: Destiny of the Doctor 04

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana II

Synopsis

The violent, volcanic world of Hephastos is home to a colony of composers, painters, authors and poets, all striving to create the greatest works of art the universe has ever seen. But in pursuit of their goal, artistic collaboration has been taken a stage too far...

When the Doctor and Romana arrive, they discover the colonists have neglected their well-being and their once beautiful habitat, which has now succumbed to decay, and they are enslaved to the Babble network which occupies their every waking moment. Every thought, however trivial or insignificant, is shared with everyone else and privacy is now a crime.

The colonists are being killed and the Doctor and Romana begin to suspect that a malevolent intelligence is at work. With time running out, the two time travellers race to discover the truth before they too are absorbed into the endless trivia of the Babblesphere...

Verdict

Babblesphere was yet another very good audio adventure in the Destiny of the Doctor series. Four stories in and the consistent standard has happily remained. I'm loving the range in style and setting of these stories but I think that was to be expected as each Doctor is so different and they definitely have their own eras. This time it was the turn of the Fourth Doctor and I was delighted to hear that Lalla Ward was performing the story. Romana's second incarnation is probably my all-time favourite companion so that was a real bonus. She performed it terrifically and also gave a decent impression of Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor which was certainly beneficial to the story. The setting was an intriguing one and I thought the concept of the Babble was very good and probably, now listening in 2018, right at home with current society and I honestly wouldn't be too surprised to see something like it in society in the future. The population seems inundated with the useless musings of others so the Babble network seems like it would work well for humanity at its current state. I couldn't quite grasp how gossip had become so sought after - is it really worth it? The idea of privacy being illegal was quite horrifying and that's where the line had to be drawn for me. That gave the Doctor and Romana something to question and I thought their relationship was superb. It was brilliantly captured from the era which was just marvellous. The banter over them both having left their respective sonic screwdrivers in the TARDIS was magnificent. Aurelius was a good character and I did like his role in the story but, for the guest actor, I thought he was actually quite limited in appearance which was a little surprising. Not that he was really needed of course. The Prolocutor was another interesting element of the story and the way it served as the main enemy was really good. The method of the Doctor and Romana to overfeed its mind was excellent and I loved all the mentions of the likes of Zagreus, Rassilon and the Shakri to name a few. The Power of Three getting referenced in a Fourth Doctor story is the beauty of an audio story. There really are no limitations and that's why they work well. The pace of the story was good and I thought the general idea was great and neatly played out. The cameo appearance of the Eleventh Doctor was a highlight and I really did like the Fourth Doctor's reaction to his appearance, even if it was a little dissimilar to when he saw this future self in The Roots of Evil. Overall though, another great audio story!

Rating: 8/10

Attack of the Cybermen

"Of all the enemies he had faced, he knew that he despised them most. Even more than the hated Daleks."

Writer: Eric Saward
Format: Novel
Released: April 1989
Series: Target 138

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis

A diamond raid in modern-dsy London... a secret base hidden deep in the heart of the city's sewer system... a cold and desolate planet light years from Earth... and a daring plan to alter the entire course of interplanetary history...

On twentieth-century Earth it appears that the Doctor's old enemy, Lytton, has allied himself with the ruthless Cybermen. The Cybermen have devised a scheme which, if successful, could completely destroy the web of time and bring the human race to its knees.

When the Cyber-planet of Mondas was destroyed in 1986 the Cybermen were forced to retreat to the planet Telos. Now they have journeyed back in time to prevent the destruction of their home world. And for Mondas to survive, the Earth must die...

Verdict

Attack of the Cybermen was a terrific novelisation of what is an excellent serial. It probably ranks as my favourite Sixth Doctor story on television and it also happens to have been my first experience of Colin Baker as the Doctor. It's safe to say that I loved it so I was very excited for it to be my first Target novelisation featuring the Doctor in his sixth incarnation. It's surely a first that the same story acts as my first experience of a Doctor on both TV and in novelisation. I have of course read a novel with the Sixth Doctor but there's something different about the novelisations and I was very impressed with how well the likeness of the televised Sixth Doctor was captured on the page. Peri was written well too and their relationship was great throughout the book. She was somewhat struggling to come to terms with his latest regeneration but I loved how by the novel's conclusion, she saw him as an improvement. That was very well done. I thought the opening chapter was fantastic with Charlie, Joe and Lytton joining up and meeting with Russell in the sewers as they planned to get rich by robbing the diamond exchange. Well, that's what Lytton had told them anyway. He was as sinister in prose as he was on TV and I liked the references to Resurrection of the Daleks, especially with the Doctor realising that leaving him on Earth didn't bode well. He was only two years late. Charlie was a real highlight of the novel and I liked how a lot of it was written through his perspective. The prospect of dying on Telos with £2 million worth of diamonds was all because of a rainy day in his mind. You could certainly appreciate him more in the book than was the case on television. I thought the Cybermen were excellent and I love the prospect of them looking to change the events of The Tenth Planet and prevent Mondas from being destroyed. It's a wonderful idea and the explanation of the effects it would have on the Web of Time here were brilliant. The Cryons were good but the only qualm I have about this novel, and the reason it doesn't get full marks, is because I felt the last few chapters were a tad rushed. I definitely think the story could have been fleshed out further and that would have made for an even more exciting conclusion. Even so, it was still fantastic and I liked the reaction of the Doctor in discovering that the Cyber Controller had not been destroyed during the events of The Tomb of the Cybermen. The violence in this adventure was written well and it made the Cybermen look really strong with the description of their chop attack fracturing spinal chords. The moments where the TARDIS' chameleon circuit was somewhat working were funny and I liked how the Doctor's disappointment was evident. The death of `Lytton was quite a shocking moment and I loved how Peri stormed out of the TARDIS to bring the Doctor back and tell him that there was nothing he could. She reminded him he wasn't at fault but this Doctor showed compassion despite his erratic personality and she admired that. Overall, an excellent novelisation!

Rating: 9/10

Breakfast at Tyranny's Part 2

"My consciousness is switching between bodies."

Writer: Nick Abadzis
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 24th May 2018
Printed in: DWC: Tales from the TARDIS 22

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Gabby, Cindy

Synopsis

L

Life has become very strange for the Doctor, Cindy, Gabby, and Noobis. Suddenly everything about their worlds was wrong – in ways both subtle and terrifying. Did Gabby really leave the Doctor and grow old as a waitress in NYC? Has the Doctor secretly been made of plastic all along? With the help of her ‘dog’, Noobis, Cindy was the first to realize that they were trapped in a dream world. Now she must race against time to extract her friends from a waking nightmare!

Verdict

Breakfast at Tyranny's concluded in decent style wit this very good second and final part. It was quite different to what I was expecting and that was good as I loved the follow on from the cliffhanger of the first part. The Doctor seemed to have become something similar to an Auton with his sonic screwdriver being inside of his hand and the way its fingers detached to reveal the device was exactly like the plastic Nestenes that he has battled on so many occasions. I loved the idea of the Doctor being in a TARDIS showroom and the prospect of him getting to pick and choose exactly what kind of TARDIS and what instruments he wanted was terrific. He genuinely seemed excited which was lovely to see. Of course, we knew something wasn't quite right as Gabby and Cindy were the ones showing him around so it was obviously some kind of illusion and that would be further confirmed by the fact that the Doctor's actions were having an effect on more than one place. Well, what he thought to be different places but it was all actually the same place. It wasn't as confusing as I'm making it sound and it actually worked out very nicely. The wraith hounds had disappeared but were replaced by something more sinister but keener to conceal their identity. They were exploiting the Doctor, Gabby, Cindy and Anubis but Cindy wasn't as vital to them in the loop. That allowed her a pivotal position when it came to the resolution as she could call upon the telepathic powers of both Anubis and the Doctor to help break everyone free. The images of duplicate bodies surrounding the trapped and suspended real one was actually quite gruesome but I was really intrigued to see so many of the Doctor's past faces in the attire of the Tenth Doctor. It just didn't look right at all and made for quite the picture! Cindy's comment about recognising the faces from the TARDIS art gallery was also very interesting - the Doctor doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would sit for a portrait. The mystery behind the identity of Boris was good and I hope that there's some elaboration in the future. The conclusion was full of action and well-paced and we quickly returned to the Circle of Transcendence. The red knock-off of the TARDIS was really bad and the Doctor wasn't a fan at all. The creature wasn't of this universe which was intriguing as Dorothy and the Doctor were almost finished plugging the gaps before it broke through and attacked. The cliffhanger with it taking Cindy as it was defeated was unexpected and sets things up for quite an adventure. A trip to a different universe, perhaps? Overall, a very good story!

Rating: 8/10

Vengeance of the Stones

"We came here in peace. They are the aggressors." 

Writer: Andrew Smith
Format: Audio
Released: March 2013
Series: Destiny of the Doctor 03

Featuring: Third Doctor, Brigadier

Synopsis

Two RAF fighter jets are on a training flight over North East Scotland when one of them is plucked from the air and promptly disappears. UNIT are called in, and the Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart are soon on the scene. They enlist the help of a local military officer - a young lieutenant by the name of Mike Yates.

The Doctor discovers a link to the recumbent stone circles that are plentiful in this part of Scotland. The stones are thousands of years old, and are soon revealed to hold a terrible secret. Then Mike Yates disappears, abducted by an alien race that has a grievance with humanity. Their intention is to harness the power of the stones in order to take their revenge. For the Doctor and the Brigadier, the race is now on to save their new friend Mike and the entire planet Earth.

Verdict

Vengeance of the Stones was yet another very good audio adventure from the Destiny of the Doctor series. It's slightly making me regret that I didn't listen to these stories each month as part of the lead up to the 50th Anniversary celebrations because they really are terrific! This time it was the turn of the Third Doctor to take centre stage and I was quite surprised to see that Richard Franklin was the lead performer. I had expected it to be Katy Manning but it was a pleasant surprise it has to be said because it gave us a very much unexpected look into how Mike Yates came to join UNIT which I thought was just magnificent. I really was a big fan of the chronological placement in the era of the Third Doctor. That era was neatly presented in this audio with the writing of both the Third Doctor and the Brigadier nicely done and I also enjoyed that Bessie got an appearance. Yates was rather impressed with the nifty old car. The title intrigued me before I listened to the audio as I was questioning whether stones could actually take vengeance. Were we getting some sentient rocks? Thankfully that wasn't the case and the connection with the stones and vengeance was very decent. Garlin was an excellent villain and the fact that the Armidians, his race from Tharos, had landed on Earth four millennia ago meant they had been present for some time! The Scottish setting was superb and I really did like how they made a story out of all the circular stones present in the region. It was well done and I'm sure fans who are resident there would have enjoyed it a lot. The little flashback to the way the Armidians were greeted by the robust cave-like version of humanity 4,000 years prior was intriguing and it set things up for the current situation nicely as the four out of ten Armidians who survived the onslaught had to go into hiding through suspended animation. The Doctor tried to reason with Garlin as you would expect but he failed to realise that humanity had evolved and still wanted his revenge. He was using the Tharon stone to gain immense power and wanted to use it to kill every human on Earth. Quite the maniacal villain! The similarity to Doctor Who and the Silurians with the Brigadier going against the Doctor's wish when he wanted to broker a peace was good but not quite on the same scale as that adventure. Mike Yates was brilliant throughout and his role in the story was terrific. Even when he went missing! The Doctor was prone to that as well though but once the threat was averted, I'm sure his failure to save Garlin wouldn't have sat well with him. Overall, a great audio adventure!

Rating: 8/10

The Tragical History Tour Part 2

"We've been on the road... passing through one war-torn decade after another."

Writer: Alex Paknadel
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 24th May 2018
Printed in: DWC: Tales from the TARDIS 22

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Alice

Synopsis

The Scream has returned! Not that the TARDIS gang can remember of course... The Doctor, Alice, the Sapling and the Kushaks are on the path back to 1968 where all this decade-hopping business began. Will they be able to prevent a catastrophic time turbulence, or will planet Earth be doomed to endure the pressures of other decades forever?

Verdict

The Tragical History Tour concluded in excellent style with this terrific second and final part of the story. Sadly once again this comic strip has suffered as a result of the horrific publication schedule from the BBC with Doctor Who Comic only coming out every quarter but after a re-read of part one to refresh my mind, I was very happy with what followed! I was initially a little disappointed that nothing much was expanded upon when it came to the cliffhanger of part one with the return of the Scream but that's probably being saved for a later and more epic date. I'm sure I'll read all about it in a graphic novel. However, Alice knew that something was off when she ran back into her flat for the photo of her with her mum so that was good. I have to say that this story has certainly been one of the very best in terms of the characterisation for the Eleventh Doctor with Matt Smith's likeness being wonderfully captured on the page. It really was impressive and it definitely made the story easier to read. The Sapling continues to be intriguing but I'm not sure he should be a long-term member of the TARDIS. Whilst the idea of a being that was born out of the Doctor and Alice is good, it seems a little similar to ARC and I just think the pair should travel in the TARDIS by themselves for a little while. They haven't really had a chance since After Life to travel as a pair and that really is something I'd like to see for an extended time. The bus tour through the decades back to 1968 was really good and I liked how Alice wasn't too thrilled with everything that was happening on its journey. The struggles in 1985 were quite humorous and I just find the idea of people of a certain year defending it very fascinating. The continued concept of space becoming time was superb and I loved the banter between the Doctor and Alice when it came to discussing who or what was behind the Earth-slinky happenings. Salmon-pink wasn't a bad guess from the Doctor and you could just tell he was delighted when he saw the Wayfarer. 1968 being bordered off by a giant wall simply to have a giant party that wouldn't stop was quite unexpected but I was a fan. It was just different and wacky and that's what the sixties were like. They were taking time from their own future to make their party last longer. Crazy. Twiggy playing a huge role in the story's resolution was good but I was, perhaps unfairly, hoping that he didn't make it out alive. He did though and seems set to stay so I'm willing to keep an open mind for now. Overall, a terrific conclusion to a great story!

Rating: 9/10

Frozen Time

"The human race will be frozen out of existence."

Writer: Nicholas Briggs
Format: Audio
Released: August 2007
Series: Main Range 98

Featuring: Seventh Doctor

Synopsis

In 1929, Lord Barset's expedition to the Antarctic is lost without trace. Or so it seems...

Nearly a century later, his grandson funds a much-publicised return to the icy wastes. His mission: to discover what happened to the original expedition. But what he finds instead is an enigma - a battered London police box frozen in ice millennia old.

But something else lies in wait in this awful place, something from an era before humankind set foot on the continent's cold soil. A menace frozen in time.

Until now.

Verdict

Frozen Time was an excellent audio adventure and certainly one of the best Main Range stories in a considerable number of releases. That's probably because it was an actual four-part adventure but less about my critics surrounding the recent formats of stories. I thought this story really was fantastic from start to finish and the Doctor getting deiced following millions of years in frozen captivity was quite a way to start a story. Well, that followed the discovery of the TARDIS which must have been quite a sight in 2012. I thought Lord Barset was a very good character and his determination to discover just what it was that his grandfather's exhibition had found was terrific. The references to 'lizard men', which I'm going to assume referred to Silurians, were intriguing but the slow reveal of the Ice Warriors really was majestic. Arakssor was a superb villain and I loved how horrified he was by the prospect of his race being cowards under the guidance of Geldar. The flashback scenes to the distant past with the Doctor on Mars when the war criminals broke out of their cell were great and I liked how we heard the Doctor begin to drown. It was quite a shocking moment but obviously we knew he was okay. But how? He had put himself into a coma to prevent drowning which was quite a sacrifice but it did at least save him a regeneration. This audio really delighted me because it had the Ice Warriors back to their classic best. The reference to The Ice Warriors from the Doctor was great and I liked here how these Martians featured were war criminals and that meant they were evil. They wanted the Ice Warriors to rule the galaxy and would do whatever they could to make it happen. The 2012 setting worked very well and I thought it was very clever to tie in global warming to an Ice Warrior story. Their obvious weakness is heat and with the planet warming all the time and gases causing it trouble, the Ice Warriors set their plan into motion and that involved eradicating the planet of its heat. That would obviously prove disastrous for humanity and with, based on the Doctor's calculations, temperatures set to decrease to -32 C, mankind would be frozen out of existence. I thought that was a tremendous threat. Genevieve was a wonderful character and her relationship with the Doctor was a highlight of the whole story. She was great. The cliffhangers were very good and I also thought Sylvester McCoy was good with the Seventh Doctor once again travelling alone. The conclusion was well paced and the expected use of heat to see off the Ice Warriors was nicely done. Overall, a fantastic audio!

Rating: 9/10

Beneath the Waves Part 3

"It's trapped down there, a prisoner in its own ship."

Writer: George Mann
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 24th May 2018
Printed in: DWC: Tales from the TARDIS 22

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Hattie

Synopsis

As Hattie ventures into the depths below to save the Doctor, she discovers a trapped creature who has been buried in the ocean for millions of years. Can the Doctor and Hattie play one last jam to set the creature free? But will that cause destruction that they're not aware about?

Verdict

Beneath the Waves concluded in good style with this decent third and final part of the story. Sadly, it has taken far too long to complete this story (I believe I started it in November last year!) and I think my days of collecting Doctor Who Comic could be coming to a close as three months is just far too long to wait between parts. I think I will now move to the graphic novels from Titan as they seem much easier to keep up with. This was a very good story though and I was quite surprised with the direction of this concluding part. It wasn't quite what I expected following the excellent cliffhanger to part two but that's not to say it wasn't good - that's far from the case! I really like Hattie and I do enjoy her being a lite-companion if you will. Her determination to go after the Doctor beneath the waves was brilliant and I liked seeing how the Doctor aided her. The Shamblers had surprisingly let the Doctor go of their seaweed grasp but we did finally get to meet their master. It wasn't an all-evil being or a psychopath. It was simply an alien in distress who had just been trying to communicate with humanity this whole time. Its ship had crash-landed during hypersleep and the being inside had been dormant ever since. I liked that premise and I also really enjoyed how the erosion of the cliff-face was the reason for it being woken up now. The Doctor was unlike humanity when it came to his mind and whilst the being was trying to communicate with mankind through distorted images, the Doctor understood exactly what was going on and what was needed. I have to mention once again how good the artwork is for this comic series and I continue to be highly impressed. It really is outstanding. I thought the characterisation of Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor was very good throughout and I really have liked how he's enjoyed spending time with Hattie. It's obvious he likes her which is intriguing for this incarnation. The resolution to freeing the dormant spaceship was a bit of a mixed bag for my liking as I'm not sure the power of music could really free a spaceship which had been trapped for millions of years. I did like though the scenes with no text as they were actually quite powerful and said a lot despite their being no words. Overall, a decent conclusion to what has been a very good comic strip adventure!

Rating: 8/10

Shadow of Death

"One touch and we age to death."

Writer: Simon Guerrier
Format: Audio
Released: February 2013
Series: Destiny of the Doctor 02

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe

Synopsis

Following an emergency landing, the TARDIS arrives on a remote world orbiting a peculiar star - a pulsar which exerts an enormous gravitational force, strong enough to warp time.

On further exploration the Doctor and his friends, Jamie and Zoe, discover a human outpost on the planet surface, inhabited by scientists who are there to study an ancient city. The city is apparently abandoned, but the scientists are at a loss to explain what happened to its sophisticated alien architects.

The Doctor discovers that something dark, silent and deadly is also present on the world - and it is slowly closing in on the human intruders...

Verdict

Shadow of Death was another great little audio as part of the Destiny of the Doctor series. This time it was the turn of the Second Doctor and I was delighted to see that Frazier Hines was the narrator. His companion of Jamie is terrific in his own right but his impression of Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor is absolutely phenomenal and anytime I've done a story that he narrates, it really does just feel like Troughton is performing the story. Hines really is that good and it was no different here. Judging from the CD cover (I hadn't read the synopsis), I was quite surprised to hear that Zoe was also featuring but I liked how it was set shortly after her arrival in The Wheel in Space which was neatly referenced. Jamie was toiling over his age as he had lost track of time since joining the TARDIS with The Highlanders also getting a nice mention and I found it quite humorous how he was nearly convinced that he was 1,000 years old. The TARDIS getting subjected to an outside force seems quite rare during this era of Doctor Who so that was refreshing and it was also quite strange to get a pre-titles scene for a Second Doctor adventure. Sophie's emergence into the story was good just when the Doctor claimed that they weren't in danger. The ancient city setting was really but what struck me as the highlight of this audio was the way it played with time. The Doctor's analogy of a plane with a puncture travelling through time instead of air was excellent and with time passing at different levels either side of the fissure, there was obvious danger. The shadow was intriguing and I liked how Jamie deducted early on that it was the reason for the lack of life on the planet despite their being no signs of how it would have been eradicated. These beings were later known as the Quiet Ones and the Doctor soon discovered that was actually an apt name for them which was good as the truth about them was revealed. I really enjoyed how he received a message from a future incarnation and one thing I love about regeneration is that the Doctor still recognises his handwriting despite his hands changing. The Doctor taking the risk by going on the other side of the puncture was testament to his character and once he finally resolved things, his revealing to Jamie and Zoe that things for him took a few years was quite a shock. They were stunned by this as it had only been minutes for them. Overall, a terrific little audio and this series really does seem to be something very good indeed.

Rating: 8/10

Divided Loyalties

"For however powerful one might consider oneself to be, there is always something superior."

Writer: Gary Russell
Format: Novel
Released: October 1999
Series: PDA 26

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, First Doctor

Synopsis

There are some evils in the universe that need to be fought. And others that need redeeming...

Many years ago the Doctor, a student at the Academy on Gallifrey, lost a friend to the mysterious and malevolent force known as the Celestial Toymaker. Now, in his fifth incarnation, the Doctor receives a telepathic call from his long-lost classmate, begging for help.

As he sets out to rescue his friend and exact revenge, the Doctor's companions become increasingly involved. Adric, determined to justify his place aboard the TARDIS, opts to face the Toymaker's game challenges while Nyssa, angered by the Doctor's actions, finds herself excluded by the people she thought her friends. And what is the connection between the Toymaker and the planet Dymok, whose comatose inhabitants find a new saviour in the shape of Tegan Jovanka?

Verdict

Divided Loyalties was a great novel and a very good book to hopefully kick off a summer full of reading. Doing more Doctor Who books has been an aim of mine for some time now and I really enjoyed this unique story. It saw the return of the Celestial Toymaker and it also took us to the Academy on Gallifrey with a young First Doctor. I have to say, the mix in tales that this book brought together was brave and it pretty much paid off. The TARDIS team of the Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan is always one full of tension and their relationships were really tested during this book. I thought the author was actually a little unfair on Adric and whilst I'm far from being his biggest fan, I did feel that he was targeted a bit for being a child and throwing tantrums which, in my opinion, is a little exaggerated, especially by the time this novel was placed. The references to The Visitation were good and I liked how Tegan was still desperate to get home and live out her dream as an air hostess. Their relationship was quite strained at it was quite shocking to read in some instances. I thought Nyssa had a great novel and I liked how it was mentioned how she was perhaps underestimated in the TARDIS. She was brilliant and the way the Doctor admired her scientific knowledge was wonderful. The dreamscape scenes on Traken were fantastic and I really did enjoy the torment she suffered with wanting the Master separated from her father. The Doctor had stated that wasn't possible but now that the Celestial Toymaker had picked him out to separate him from Rallon. This novel really did change a lot about the Celestial Toymaker and a lengthy chunk of the novel being devoted to the younger First Doctor on Gallifrey was a real shock but a pleasant surprise. Seeing how he fared in the Academy and that he was in the esteemed Deca was interesting and I loved seeing how adventurous he was at such an early age. He stole a Type-18 TARDIS and encountered the Toymaker which I thought was superb and I liked even more that he lost Rallon and Millennia. His travels didn't start well and he was severely punished by the Time Lords but the fact that he did eventually rise to the rank of Time Lord and travelled the universe was testament to our beloved character. This story changed the way I can look at The Celestial Toymaker now as the Toymaker wasn't wholly himself and had joined with Rallon so he was dealing with a battle from within with a Time Lord which was intriguing. The Little Boy II ship was fantastic and I really thought the characters there were very good. Oakwood and Dieter stood out and the fate of the latter was quite sad. The revelation at the end of the book that members of the Deca actually included the Rani, the Master and the Monk was quite a shock and it certainly put a smile on my face. I thought the characterisation of the Fifth Doctor was very good with Peter Davison's likeness well captured on the page and I was also impressed with how well this book fitted into the era of Season 19. The Celestial Toymaker was written pretty well too and I liked the games that he devised but I did feel that there could have been more time devoted to them rather than the dreams. The resolution came a little quick but was good and it was nice to see the TARDIS play a role. The story actually went some way to bringing the TARDIS crew closer together once the Doctor was willing to sacrifice himself for their safety. I also loved that this novel set things up for The Nightmare Fair as far as the Toymaker was concerned. That was a nice little bonus. Overall., this was a fantastic little read!

Rating: 8/10

The Vanity Box

"Let the years roll back and back and back..."

Writer: Paul Magrs
Format: Audio
Released: July 2007
Series: Main Range 97b

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Mel

Synopsis

A strange beauty parlour has opened its doors for business in a dowdy Salford terrace circa 1965. Monsieur Coiffure is the talk of the street with his fabulous make-overs. When the Doctor arrives, however, he knows at once that there's been some unnatural titivation going on.

Verdict

The Vanity Box was another decent little story but in what seems to be a common theme with the Main Range of late, I felt that it suffered by only being a one-part story. Twenty-six minutes just isn't quite enough to get the higher level of ratings sadly but I'm quite relieved that there is only one more of these formatted stories left during this current point of the series. It just hasn't quite worked for me and whilst I can understand the desire for a slight niggle for the format to keep things fresh, four-part stories is the formula that works best for Doctor Who and I really don't think that needs to be meddled with. This story seemed to continue right where The Wishing Beast left off which I thought made sense but I have to say I didn't expect it to feature the same enemy! The one-part stories on recent releases have been completely independent of their three-part counterpart but this one was a sequel and a prequel to the main story of the release which was quite interesting. I did like the connections but the prospect of the Doctor and Mel immediately encountering the Wishing Beast seemed a little unlikely. However, The Ark shows us that the TARDIS can land absolutely anywhere so that doesn't come into effect when deciding my rating for the audio. The setting of Salford in 1965 was just a common British setting and I really liked that. There are far too many stories set in London so this was a refreshing change. The gossiping between Nesta and Winnie was quite humorous at times and I loved their conversation about the TARDIS having arrived. The talk of the town was the latest goings-on in Monsieur Coiffure's salon and women in the area were becoming twenty years younger. It was something more than a makeover and with talk of things being strange there, the Doctor couldn't help but comically go undercover. I thought Colin Baker's take on impersonating an older woman was delightful and it really showed the fun side of the Sixth Doctor. The way that he found out he was encountering the Wishing Beast again was decent and I did like that the creature hadn't met the Doctor yet. The way the flight path of the TARDIS was used for the Wishing Beast to go and haunt the Applewhite sisters was good and I did like that the Doctor's age caused the Beast pain and confusion. The vanity box was soon rendered obsolete and Coiffure wouldn't have much luck in reinvigorating the looks of the local population. Overall, a decent story but just a little short.

Rating: 7/10

The Wishing Beast

"She will ask for her dearest wish."

Writer: Paul Magrs
Format: Audio
Released: July 2007
Series: Main Range 97

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Mel

Synopsis

What can it mean when the Doctor and Mel are drawn to an asteroid by a message from the strange, elderly Applewhite sisters? The travellers are promised that they will receive their dearest wishes when they enter the frozen forests of this benighted shard of a world.

But the ghosts that haunt this place are desperate to warn the Doctor about the sisters' promises. Only the ghosts know the true nature of the legendary Wishing Beast.

Verdict

The Wishing Beast was a decent audio adventure but one that sadly seemed like it was going to be superb and whimpered a little towards the end. I think this was another example of the problematic format that is plaguing the Main Range at my current point of listening as I'm just not a fan of the three-part and one-part stories forming one release. It just doesn't quite work and it's a real shame. I was delighted to hear Mel alongside the Sixth Doctor as that's a pairing that I think is very underrated and we didn't get to see much of them at all with only The Trial of a Time Lord featuring them on television. They have a great relationship and I think Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford have terrific chemistry together so they were a real highlight of this adventure. I was left a little disappointed with my rating for this story mostly because I thought part one was so good. Everything was set up wonderfully and I was hugely interested in the story but the following parts weren't all that great in my opinion. I liked the mystery surrounding the Applewhite sisters and how they could help one get their most desired wish. The concept of a wish is always intriguing and a good basis for a story and I did think it worked well here but things just got a little out of hand when it came to the Wishing Beast, who the sisters had to actually remind themselves was no beast, not to them at least, devouring souls that had already been devoured. I can appreciate that this audio was quite fantasy-like but that just seemed a little far-fetched for my liking. I liked that the sisters were more interested in the travels of Mel rather than the Doctor and I thought his reaction to that was very good. He shared a good relationship with Daniel once the pair encountered one another but I can't help but feel that it was a slightly underwhelming follow-up to the Doctor being eaten by the Wishing Beast. The creature being a hybrid of a beast and Daniel, whilst being in a box and not actually existing at all, was intriguing but it all got a little much by the story's conclusion. Speaking of which, I felt the resolution for this story was far too simple. I did like that the Doctor had made a huge impact on Daniel but the way the Beast could be defeated was just too easy for me. I liked the ghosts and the fact that they had warned the Doctor and Mel about the sisters was good and they should have been a little more prominent. I've probably focused too much on the negatives of this audio as overall it wasn't bad and actually still pretty decent. Especially part one!

Rating: 7/10

Valhalla

"Shadows and imagination play tricks..."

Writer: Marc Platt
Format: Audio
Released: June 2007
Series: Main Range 96

Featuring: Seventh Doctor

Synopsis

Welcome to Valhalla, Capital of Callisto, Jupiter's premier moon, where anything and everything is up for sale. But Valhalla isn't quite what it says in the brochures - not since Earth granted independence and cut off the supplies.

The former Doctor (FOR SALE. EXCELLENT CONDITION) visits the Job Centre and finds power cuts, barcoded citizens and monthly riots (ALL BOOKABLE).

And then there's the problem with the termites...

Verdict

Valhalla was a very good audio adventure and a great continuation of the Main Range from Big Finish. It was quite different in that we had solely the Seventh Doctor featuring without any companions. It was a little strange and I'm not too sure why it occurred but a story featuring this incarnation of the Doctor following Survival but prior to The Movie was really intriguing. With the wilderness years and the countless novels written during this time, there is a lot of conflict when it comes to Ace and also Bernice. Here, the Doctor is seemingly post their departure from the TARDIS and that's quite uncharted territory. Sylvester McCoy gave a decent performance as the Seventh Doctor and I have to say he really was quite eerie and just different to what we got on television with him. This story had quite a dark atmosphere and the Callisto setting certainly helped contribute to that. I thought a futuristic setting on an abandoned Earth colony was very good and I really enjoyed hearing how it went into turmoil following its independence. I was delighted to hear Michelle Gomez featuring as Jevvan and she really was the absolute standout. She really is an incredible actress and her talents were on full display here, quite some time before she took on the iconic role of Missy. I loved her relationship with the Doctor and the way she and Gerium helped him to put things right here was terrific. Gerium was quite a humorous character and I really liked his reaction to Javven revealing his name. The concept behind the termites was pretty interesting and I have to say that the termites undoing the mark of civilisation that humanity leaves was a superb comment. I really did like that one. Our Mother was a unique enemy and the way the Doctor intended on getting to her was barmy and daft and that's a pretty apt description of the Seventh Doctor so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. I felt the delay between him revealing today's thoughts to the Captain was a little unbelievable and the only obvious flaw in an otherwise great story. Laxton was an interesting character and his role in the story was a very good one. One common trait in this audio that was enjoyable was the Doctor constantly emerging into conversations. It seemed liked he was always around! The fact that he had gone into the future and knew about this slavery atrocity was intriguing but I liked even more that he was up for sale! The Doctor did seem intent on perhaps settling down and stopping his travels but anytime that seems possible I refuse to believe it. The ending with the slow death of Our Mother was good and the story as a whole was a great one!

Rating: 8/10

Hunters of Earth

"We want your kind out of here."

Writer: Nigel Robinson
Format: Audio
Released: January 2013
Series: Destiny of the Doctor 01

Featuring: First Doctor, Susan

Synopsis

Shoreditch, London, 1963. The Beatles have beaten John Smith and the Common Men to No. 1 and satellites are being launched in outer space. Back down on Earth, strange goings-on are occurring: the normally placid teenagers of Coal Hill are running riot and a master thief is stealing highly specialised equipment.

Schoolgirl Susan Foreman just wants an easy life for herself and her grandfather, the mysterious Doctor. She wants to be liked and accepted by Cedric and all the other pupils at Coal Hill School. But there's trouble in the streets and bombsites around Totter's Lane.

The teenagers are becoming dangerous... Their mission: to hunt down anyone different, or alien... Susan's quiet life is about to spiral out of control. Having inadvertently started drawing attention to herself, she finds herself in a desperate situation. Suddenly, the chase is on and she and her grandfather are now the hunted.

Verdict

Hunters of Earth was an excellent audio adventure and a great start to the Destiny of the Doctor series! It has been a long time coming for me to begin this set of stories and whilst I won't be committing to doing all eleven in consecutive days, I am very excited to see an adventure with each Doctor all tied together to celebrate Doctor Who's fiftieth anniversary. I have to say, I thought Carole Ann Ford was superb as the narrator and her performance, along with the writing, easily captured the era of the First Doctor which was a huge plus. This story is hugely unique in that it's set prior to An Unearthly Child which is always exciting. What made it more exciting was the fact that it was very close in proximity to the television series debut as the Doctor and Susan were on Earth in 1963 but Ian and Barbara weren't quite suspicious of the latter just yet. It was terrific to hear Susan in Coal Hill School and trying to fit in and whilst she was obviously standing out a little bit, it wasn't as alien as I thought she'd appear. The little nod to The Idiot's Lantern with the Doctor purchasing his materials from Magpie Electricals was excellent. I thought Ford's impression of William Hartnell was very good throughout and you really did get the feel of the First Doctor. Rook was a very good character and initial enemy and I also thought Cedric's relationship with Susan was great. The revelation that he had been spying on her as he suspected she was alien was actually quite a shock but I really loved how she thought he was referring to the modern definition. Cedric and Rook were not hunting alines in the extraterrestrial sense but rather in the foreign. This was a time of Cold War and Rook wanting help in the war against their enemies was very good. They simply wanted the intelligence they thought came from other countries, not other planets. The story really changed from that point when they were suspected of being foreigners and that wasn't a bad thing at all. The way the Doctor and Susan worked together to deduce just what was happening with them being hunted and aggressively told they weren't wanted was excellent. I really loved hearing them work together and it was great to see their relationship at a stage where it was just the pair of them travelling. The TARDIS needing repairs was a lovely little backstory and I did like how authoritative the Doctor was when it came to his granddaughter. The conclusion was nicely done with the radio link capturing the 1963 setting very nicely. Overall, this was a terrific insight into the lives of the Doctor and Susan before the TV series started and it was a fantastic story to go with it.

Rating: 9/10

The Brain of Morbius

"Death is the price we pay for progress."

Writer: Robin Bland
Format: TV
Broadcast: 3rd-24th January 1976
Season: 13.05

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane

Synopsis

The Time Lords have taken control of the TARDIS, sending the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith into dangerous territory...

On the graveyard planet of Karn, the eternal Sisterhood fights to keep the sacred flame alive. High in the castle, the brilliant surgeon Mehendri Solon conducts gruesome experiments on living flesh. And as a storm approaches, evil from the depths of Time Lord history plots its return to the land of the living.

But is even the Doctor's mind a match for the Brain of Morbius?

Verdict

The Brain of Morbius was an outstanding television story! It really was superb and was pretty much Doctor Who at its purest. It was fantastic stuff with the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane on top form together and I think that definitely helped the adventure into brilliance. I loved the Doctor's reaction to having the Time Lords influence the TARDIS and send him on another mission that they were not willing to conduct themselves. The stormy setting of Karn was superb from start to finish and I just loved the eerie feeling that was felt throughout. The Sisterhood of Karn were fantastic and it's no surprise that they were eventually brought back for The Night of the Doctor. The concept behind the elixir flame was very good and with it pretty much guaranteeing immortality, I liked how the Sisterhood had a relationship concerning it with the High Council of the Time Lords. They were obviously greedy for life and with the threat of it running dry, the Doctor was required. Solon was a wonderful character and his obsession with serving Morbius and bringing him back to life was superb. He really was a madman and that was what made him so good. His relationship with Condo was a real highlight of the story and I loved how the servant knew that his master was actually evil. He just wanted his arm back and when he saw the creature that Solon had prepared with his arm, the sympathy felt for him was extraordinary. He was devastated that he wouldn't be getting his arm back and soon turned on Solon but that would prove fatal for him. The history behind Morbius was very intriguing and I liked how he was a Time Lord with a horrific past. His connection with the Sisterhood of Karn was also great and I thought his character before the transfer into the Mut, which was a lovely nod to The Mutants, was great. You could tell that he was also a bit mad and longed to return. Just how the brain survived Condo's damage was unknown but that just might have made Morbius even more mad than he once was. Sarah Jane was at her usual best in this story despite going blind and I loved her relationship with the Doctor when that happened. Her reaction was terrific. The little mention of the Third Doctor was nice too. The conclusion to this story was very good with the Doctor luring Morbius into a battle of wits. He knew he would win and used Morbius' arrogance against him. The destruction of Morbius at the hands of the Sisterhood was fitting and I liked how the Doctor also helped restore elixir flame. Overall, a successful mission that makes a sublime story!

Rating: 10/10

The Clockwise War Part 3

"I'll tell you about the worst day of the Time War."

Writer: Scott Gray
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 31st May 2018
Printed in: DWM 525

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Bill

Synopsis

Fey Truscott-Sade is after the Doctor. Bill is in mortal danger and the Doctor has returned to his past and needs a file from the Cornucopia Archives. He is reunited with Annabel Lake but there's more of his past catching up with him. Elsewhere, a Time Lord arrives in 19th century Earth - will a connection be made?

Verdict

The Clockwise War continued in excellent fashion with this third part. There's an awful lot going on so I'll take a break and look ahead to the magazine itself first. I am incredibly late blogging the latest DWM comic strip which as a result of a number of things in my personal life and I still haven't quite managed to finish the previous month's issue. This one looks set to be very good though and I love seeing the Fourth Doctor on the cover. An interview with Tom Baker is always something special and to read his thoughts about Season 12 in particular will be intriguing. The Contents page seems to be a little revamped in font which is fresh and the Editor's Note looks lengthy which I like. I am very excited to read the interview with Georgia Tennant ahead of the Jenny audio spin-off, something I am mildly interested in so hopefully this interview will persuade me further! I am quite intrigued to see what stories the Time Team will be covering although I felt that in the previous issue there wasn't a lot of space for individual stories and it seemed like they were trying to do too much which was a shame. The previous format worked much better in my opinion. The continuation of the New Faces article should be very good and I'm also looking forward to the Holmes Master Plan piece. That should be quite something. Anyway, back to the comic strip and I was quite surprised that there was yet more setting up done. This looks set to be a lengthy sendoff for the Twelfth Doctor and there's just so much going on! We have the whole story with Fey. We've seen the Doctor re-encounter Gol Clutha and Count Jodafra and now we see Totika and Bass Reeves encounter a Time Lord. How they're going to be connected to the failed regenerations I'm not quite sure, but I am excited to find out! The Doctor and Bill meeting up with Annabel Lake was good and I like how DWM never forgets its past. Sadly, I am yet to read the Endgame graphic novel so I don't know the whole story regarding Fey and Shayde but I was glad of the flashback and brief recap so readers like me know what's going on. Bill standing up to the Doctor and demanding to know what was going on following their escape from the entropy bubble was good and I think her characterisation has been nailed in this comic strip. The cliffhanger was incredible and hugely unexpected as it appears we're going to get a visual story of the Time War, featuring a very young looking War Doctor. I am hugely excited to see what part four brings and to see just why Fey is so against the Doctor and is targeting Bill. Overall, a fantastic continuation of the story.

Urban Myths

"The Doctor is guilty."

Writer: Paul Sutton
Format: Audio
Released: May 2007
Series: Main Range 95b

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis

In an expensive restaurant somewhere on Earth, three gourmets plan their evening. First item on the menu: the death of the Doctor.

Verdict

Urban Myths was a decent little audio adventure to complete the ninety-fifth monthly release from Big Finish's Main Range but I have to say, despite this being a good story I am not a fan of the format. Splitting up a release into two completely separate stories of unequal parts just seems very silly to me and doesn't make much sense at all. It would be totally different if the releases were split equally into one-hour stories as that format has proven to work but a full cast twenty-two minute story here just seems like a waste. The idea was good and I did enjoy that the Doctor was being hunted by the Celestial Intervention Agency. The Gallifreyan CIA have always intrigued me so to get a snippet of them in action here was great. I quite liked how the three members tasked with dealing with the Doctor all had a differing account of what he did on Poytee and we got to hear each story unfold. They all differed quite significantly but the idea of the Doctor being purposely cruel and causing planet-wide destruction was just preposterous. The relationship between the Fifth Doctor and Peri was terrific and I quite liked the banter the pair shared when it came to the restaurant and Peri being a waitress. It didn't seem right though that the Doctor would offer Peri's services instead of his own, or at least without her permission. Whilst only a minor issue in my opinion, I thought it was quite uncharacteristic of the Doctor, regardless of his incarnation. The events that occurred in Poytee became clearer with each CIA member telling their memory of events but they all seemed to be told with a hint of hyperbole. It was soon revealed why that was as they had been infected with a strain of a disease which caused things to be greatly exaggerated. I thought that was quite a nifty little idea but with the format, there just wasn't enough time for expansion or development which was a shame. I did though like that the Doctor wanted a good word put in for him back on Gallifrey with the High Council. Even though he wasn't exactly the biggest fan of going home, he still wanted to make sure that he was welcome and well thought of on his home planet. He quickly convinced the CIA that he shouldn't be killed and that was that. Overall, a decent little story!

Rating: 7/10

Uninvited Guest

"The games are what we live for."

Writer: Warwick Gray
Format: Comic Strip
Released: March 1994
Printed in: DWM 211

Featuring: Seventh Doctor

Synopsis

The Eternals are celebrating the ending of another game and heralding in the start of a new one. Their party is in full swing before an unwelcome visitor starts playing a guilt trip on the hosts. Will his tale be the end of him?

Verdict

Uninvited Guest was a great little story and a very good way to conclude the Emperor of the Daleks graphic novel. It's been a fantastic collection of comic strips featuring two incarnations of the Doctor (when it comes to what I hadn't already read), two companions and its fair share of returning enemies. That theme continued here as the Eternals were back to do battle with the Doctor following Enlightenment. I thought the decision to bring them back was a good one but I'm quite surprised they were only used for a one-part adventure. It was quite short and simple though and it actually worked very effectively. The characterisation of the Seventh Doctor was again excellent and that really has been a big plus for this collection of stories as a whole. There were no companions in this story but where that can sometimes hurt the quality, there was no noticeable deterioration here. The way the Doctor entered the party with such subtlety was terrific and the Eternals were initially in awe of the way he managed to close his mind off to them. I found it quite interesting that it appeared that the Doctor came to this party with the pure intention of making the Eternals mortal rather than the usual occurrence of the TARDIS randomly landing somewhere where danger or an enemy lurks. The intentions of the Doctor were clear and the way he tried to make the Eternals feel guilty with their game was brilliant. I really liked the flashback story and the reference to Enlightenment but soon they grew tired of the Doctor's games. There was only one game for them but the Doctor would soon see that things changed. It was quite refreshing and just plainly different to the usual formula of Doctor Who that it seemed like there was no real threat to anyone we knew. The Doctor simply just intruded on a party, threatened those he had previously encountered, and then took from them their most prized ability. It was unclear just what it was that the Doctor used to allow the Space-Time Vortex to get a feel of the Eternals but whatever it was, they got a taste and the Eternals no longer existed outside of Time. They would now age and their immortality was destroyed. Imagine coming to terms with that! The Doctor took everything from them and ensured that they could no longer play God. It was intriguing and quite shocking but excellent at the same time. Overall, a very good comic strip!

Rating: 8/10

Cuckoo

"The best way to teach is by example."

Writer: Dan Abnett
Format: Comic Strip
Released: December 1993-February 1994
Printed in: DWM 208-210

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace, Benny

Synopsis

Mary Anne Wesley is a palaeontologist who has defied the norms of Victorian society. She is about to present the most monumental discovery of this or any other era. But the Doctor means to stop her. Why would the Doctor prevent a triumph of feminism? And how could Wesley's discovery set human science back to the Dark Ages?

Verdict

Cuckoo was a pretty decent story to continue my reading of the Emperor of the Daleks graphic novel and whilst it did raise many intriguing questions, there definitely could have been some improvements. I thought the Victorian setting of 1855 in Lifton was very good and I loved the idea of a feminist triumph occurring in an era of male dominance. The gentlemen of this time would probably not be best pleased but the prospect of the Doctor being the one to prevent feminist success was superb. Ace was horrified by such an occurrence and stormed off and whilst she was also quite shocked, Benny was more willing to hear the Doctor out. I thought the challenges posed to the TARDIS trio and their relationships through the Doctor's plan were excellent but it was also great how they came together by the adventure's conclusion and ended on good terms. The prospect of sightings of the Devil in Victorian society is a very good idea but I didn't think the delivery was as spectacular as it perhaps should have been. The design of the Surcoth was actually pretty good but I really didn't understand why the text used for its speech was so awkward to read. It was jumbled and sometimes unclear which made for difficult reading which is just unnecessary. It sadly did have an effect on the story which was a shame but that's not to say it was a bad one by any stretch of the imagination. Ace finding the real body of Thomas Gideon was good and I liked how quickly this made her change from being angry at the Doctor to saving him by attacking the Surcoth with a fossilised alien bone. The Doctor was humorously grateful which was terrific. I actually thought the characterisation of the Seventh Doctor in this story was brilliant with the eeriness associated with Sylvester McCoy's incarnation very well captured on the page. The story was just a bit off in some aspects which was slightly annoying given the potential of the comic strip. I thought the cliffhangers were pretty good despite their similarity and they did add a little to the story which is always a benefit. The Surcoth fossil was interesting but I wasn't overly convinced by the Doctor's claim that its entering into the history of human science would set the mankind back into the Dark Ages. It just seemed a little far fetched. The conclusion was a bit mixed for me as the conversation between the Doctor and the Surcoth was very good with the emotion behind it but then the enemy just packed up and left with the fossil as it intended. The Doctor didn't seem to mind that he let a murderer walk free which didn't sit well with me. Overall though, it was still an enjoyable story!


Rating: 7/10

Final Genesis

"Visionaries are often mistaken for madmen..."

Writer: Warwick Gray
Format: Comic Strip
Released: August-October 1993
Printed in: DWM 203-206

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace, Benny

Synopsis

In a parallel universe where the Third Doctor and the Brigadier were assassinated, the Silurians live peacefully amongst mankind. But something is threatening that peace now, and there's nobody left to stop them. Can URIC trust the strange man calling himself the Doctor? And just why has the Doctor travelled across universes to help maintain this peace?

Verdict

Final Genesis was an excellent comic strip story and a great continuation of the Emperor of the Daleks graphic novel. We've already had encounters with the Sontarans, Davros and the Daleks in this collection but now we get a story featuring both the Silurians and the Sea Devils. As if that wasn't enough, this adventure took place in a parallel universe where the Silurians live in peaceful harmony following an alternative conclusion to the events that took place in Doctor Who and the Silurians. In this reality, the Third Doctor successfully brokered a peace treaty between the Silurians and humanity and the image of both species walking in harmony in the streets was quite extraordinary. Including the Sea Devils was a nice treat and I was quite intrigued to see them looking how they did in Warriors of the Deep. They didn't play too much of a role in the story but they were crucial to it. I was quite surprised to see that Ace accompanied the Doctor and Benny in this story but I do like the idea of the magazine trying to integrate itself with the New Adventures novels. They were the only new form of Doctor Who at this time and as my knowledge on this era is quite limited, it's quite interesting to see how different Ace was here. She was more suspicious of the Doctor and wasn't prone to do as he asked. Her presence seemed to make Benny a little more feisty too which brought quite a dynamic to the TARDIS team. It was different to anything we've seen before. Mortakk was a brilliant enemy and his desire to infect the world with a virus that would evolve them into a species consisting of a mixture of the best characteristics and abilities of human, Silurian and Sea Devil was horrifying. It was just frightening but with the addition that only 20% of the population would survive, the threat was all the more deadly. I thought Captain Paris was a good character and her initial suspicions about the Doctor were very good. The cliffhanger to part two was superb and I loved how it was revealed that she was under Mortakk's control and had been the one to assassinate the Third Doctor and the Brigadier. Thactus was another terrific character and his role in the story's conclusion was fantastic. I thought it was well paced and full of action and emotion and Ace and Benny's pondering of why the Doctor trekked across universes to maintain this peace was great. It was intriguing and got us questioning the motives of the Doctor, something not under more interest than in his seventh incarnation. Overall, a brilliant comic strip!

Rating: 9/10

Up Above the Gods

"Where did the rage that created the Daleks come from?"

Writer: Richard Alan
Format: Comic Strip
Released: June 1995
Printed in: DWM 227?

Featuring: Sixth Doctor

Synopsis

Having rescued Davros from his creations on Skaro in his TARDIS, the Doctor offers him an army of Daleks, with the possibility that they be lifted from their obsession with mindless universal domination...

Verdict

Up Above the Gods was a great little comic strip and it served as a lovely little addition to the Emperor of the Daleks! story. We didn't get to see an awful lot of the Sixth Doctor in that story, just one part and a few panels of a six-part story but here we get a wonderful look at him conversing with Davros inside the TARDIS. That in itself is quite an extraordinary feat and I really did enjoy that the Doctor was trying to have a normal conversation with his enemy. He just couldn't understand how a mind as clever and intelligent as Davros' had turned so evil and had created the Daleks. The Doctor seemingly failed to understand, according to Davros at least, that the evil had always been there and there wasn't anything specific that turned him. I really liked that there was a mention of the ancient war between the Kaleds and the Thals and following The Daleks, we often forget that it was the Kaleds who fought them first. The Daleks were a result of this conflict but the Doctor was now hoping that they could be used as a force for good. It was good that Davros failed to give his word that he would use the Daleks on Spiridon for a force of good and that tied in nicely with what happened in the comic strip that this story added to. I was quite intrigued to see this story printed next in the graphic novel that I am currently getting through as it was released two years later and followed by stories two years its previous, but after reading it made perfect sense. That is the advantage of a graphic novel as when this was originally released, I doubt the memory of Emperor of the Daleks! would have been fresh in my mind. I thought the Sixth Doctor was very good here and Colin Baker's likeness was well captured on the page making for some good characterisation which is always beneficial to a story. The Doctor offering Davros a frozen army of Daleks from the aftermath of Planet of the Daleks was quite incredible but when everything fell into a plan that we have already seen unfold, it wasn't quite as horrifying as it first looked. The story fed perfectly into the titular story of this graphic novel and was a really nice addition. Overall, a great comic strip!

Rating: 8/10

Emperor of the Daleks!

"My Daleks have come to save me..."

Writer: Paul Cornell
Format: Comic Strip
Released: February-July 1993
Printed in: DWM 197-202

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Benny, Sixth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis

The Doctor has a dastardly plan spanning two of his incarnations and numerous of his encounters with the Daleks. Davros is in the mix, too. Just what is he up to? Is the Doctor intent on saving Davros from extermination at the hands of Skaro's Dalek Emperor? What role will he play in the Dalek Civil War and how will Abslom Daak's presence alter his plan?

Verdict

Emperor of the Daleks! was an outstanding comic strip to continue my reading of the graphic novel of which this adventure is the titular story. It really was incredible and I was quite intrigued to see that things started with the Sixth Doctor and Peri. I was caught off guard and I actually suspected the whole story to feature them so I was rather happy to see the Seventh Doctor and Benny at the beginning of part two. I do love a multi-Doctor story and it seems an absolute age since I've done one so this was terrific, even if the two incarnations only briefly encountered one another. The story following on from the events of Revelation of the Daleks with Davros was excellent but I really did not expect it to serve as a prequel to Remembrance of the Daleks as well. This story really did have everything! The Doctor wanting to do a deal with Davros to defeat the Daleks was great but I loved that it was obvious that he knew the Dalek creator would turn against him anyway. He had planned for that quite wonderfully. I thought part four being in colour was pretty cool and a nice way for DWM to commemorate their 200th issue. The references to Nemesis of the Daleks were good and I thought the presence of Abslom Daak brought a nice dimension to the story. His aggression and impatience were fully on display here and that usually proves problematic. I quite liked how Benny was sick of his mourning of Taiyin and basically told him to buckle up and move on. It was a good relationship and an unexpected highlight of the story. The setting switching to Spiridon was superb and I loved the resemblances to Planet of the Daleks. These Daleks were loyal to Davros and that posed trouble for the Dalek Emperor. The way he was destroyed was full of impact and I quite liked that it took multiple Daleks to eliminate him. I enjoyed the mysterious nature of the Doctor in this story as we never quite knew what he was up to. He was setting things in motion for his own past which was tricky, as he mentioned, but it worked out terrifically. Daak obliterated Davros and left him pretty much in half but I loved how that led to him being encased with what we saw him on screen against the Seventh Doctor. The virus saw that he forgot most of the events of this story but one thing that remained in his mind was the Hand of Omega. He wanted it and would seek it, leading things to Skaro's destruction. I thought everything tied up nicely and everything was just brilliant. Overall, a stunning comic strip adventure!

Rating: 10/10

Exotron

"Why won't you obey?"

Writer: Paul Sutton
Format: Audio
Released: May 2007
Series: Main Range 95

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis

'The Farokosh attack us - and my Exotrons defend us.'

On a distant colonial outpost of Earth, a group of terraformers is under threat from the planet's most fearsome predator: the giant carnivorous Farakosh. All that stands between the colonists and a grisly death are the Exotrons - huge robots equipped with devastating firepower, designed by the outpost's leader, Major Taylor.

But all is not as it seems. How are the Exotrons controlled, and where did the colonists find the resources to build them? The Doctor wants answers and Taylor is reluctant to provide them.

Meanwhile, outside the compound, the Farakosh are massing...

Verdict

Exotron was a very good audio adventure and quite an emotional story. It was another three-parter from the Main Range which is something I'm still not quite sure about but the format still works, it's just very different and also rather weird having two different stories as part of one release. I'm not sure if blogging them separately works but I think that's what I'm going to continue to do for now. Whether I do that for 100 or not remains to be seen. Anyway, onto the story and it paired the rare team of the Fifth Doctor and Peri for the first time since Red Dawn which really does seem an age ago now. I must admit I did miss Erimem but they do work well together and it's great to get a rare glimpse at what happened between Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani. I thought Peter Davison was excellent as the Doctor here and his relationship with Taylor really was one of the audio's highlights. They didn't get on at all and once the Doctor found out the truth about the Exotrons, their relationship only soured further. The conflicting interests between the Exotrons and the Farakosh was intriguing and I loved the telepathic theme that the story possessed. The former actually being wounded soldiers in perpetual agony was quite a shock as it really did just seem that they were robots. To find out they weren't was horrifying and I liked how that led us to learning more about the Farakosh, discovering that they were actually natural telepaths. The Exotrons tormenting them with their telepathy by interfering in their net explained quite a lot about what had happened before that revelation which was good and I also liked how Kucha managed to make contact. Paula was a wonderful character and I really enjoyed her relationship with Peri. That was another highlight but she also brought an emotional factor to the story with her past with both Hector and Christian. The cliffhangers were pretty decent but, even though I'm not sure why, they didn't seem as important in this adventure which was actually rather weird. Maybe I've been doing too many one hour stories! The conclusion was good and I thought it was good that Christian and Paula got to see each other one last time. There was a lot of emotion there which was a nice touch. Overall, a very decent audio story!

Rating: 8/10

In Memory Alone

"The Silence are still here..."

Writer: Matt Fitton
Format: Audio
Released: November 2016
Series: UNIT: Silenced 3.04

Featuring: Kate, Osgood

Synopsis

When Sam Bishop and Osgood visit an orbiting space station for a routine mission, they have no idea that they are part of an alien scheme, years in the planning.

As the global situation spins out of control, Kate seeks help from an unlikely source.

The Silents are not done with humanity yet - and they will have their revenge.

Verdict

In Memory Alone was a very good audio adventure to finish what has been a very impressive third series of the UNIT spin-off. Silenced really has been a treat and the Silence were brought back fantastically. They were splintered and scattered but they were still at their evil best. I really liked how, once they had seemingly managed to overturn the Doctor's brilliance and freed themselves from slaughter in the Moon Landing video, they were now after revenge. I liked how their plan tied in nicely with the previous events of the series and they used the news footage of the whole LeBlanc situation to turn the people of Earth against each other. The Silence really were getting politically involved as they wanted conflict with their latest message. They were turning people and countries against each other and they planned on letting humanity destroy themselves. It was quite cunning and conniving which was great and I did think that the Silence needed to go after revenge. It reassured us that they were monsters and they weren't content with just being freed. I liked how UNIT thought they had already dealt with the threat of the Silence long ago but once pushed for an answer as to how, they weren't exactly sure. Kate was great once again and she really has been a terrific lead character in the series. Her dealing with the persistence of Jacqui McGee has been brilliant and I did not expect the latter to have such a prominent role. She kept pushing UNIT to deal with the Silence but I was quite intrigued as to how she managed to maintain her memory of them. She even had an image. I thought the way that the Silence were ultimately defeated was unexpected and not as strong as I had hoped but the idea of some ambiguity was good. Osgood and Sam being in space, as well as the setting, was pretty cool and unexpected for a UNIT story but it was a welcomed change to the usual present day Earth setting. Their being manipulated was very good and I liked how much trouble they were causing back on the planet politically. The reference to Sarah Jane and UNIT hiring journalists in the past when it came to Jacqui McGee possibly joining the team following her help here was wonderful and it was nice for UNIT to reference their past. I'm a big fan of that. UNIT keeping an image of a Silent on every desk and filing the case under every letter of the alphabet was good and even when defeated, UNIT being cautious showed just what kind of a threat they presented. Overall, a very good conclusion!

Rating: 8/10