The Nemonite Invasion

"A mass of baby Nemonites twisting and thriving."

Writer: David Roden

Format: Audio

Released: February 2009

Series: NSA Audio 03

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Donna

Synopsis 

When the sky rips open somewhere over Dover, two objects hurtle out of the Vortex and crash-land in the sea. One is the TARDIS, out of control and free falling – but the other, a mysterious crystalline sphere, is far more sinister.

The Doctor and Donna are rescued and taken to a secret command centre in the Dover cliffs. It's May 1940, and Vice-Admiral Ramsay is about to finalise one of the most daring plans of the Second World War: Operation Dynamo.

But something else has got inside the War Tunnels, a parasitic Nemonite from the crashed sphere. Its aim is to possess all humans and spawn millions of young. The Doctor and Donna must fight for their lives in order to save both Operation Dynamo and the world at large.

Verdict  

The Nemonite Invasion was a very decent New Series Adventure audio! I’m a big fan of expanding the wider Doctor Who universe in any way possible and getting a little addition to the Series 4 era of the Tenth Doctor and Donna here is delightful. Whilst it’s sadly not a full cast drama, we do have Catherine Tate as the performer and she provided a really entertaining reading! She’s incredibly talented and it’s going to be so exciting to see her return later this year as part of the sixtieth anniversary festivities, but for now this was a nice reminder of how good Donna is and can be. She’s the main character as you might expect given Tate is the narrator because it’s always her scenes that feel the most authentic. Her impression of the Tenth Doctor was slightly lacking but I think Tate just decided from the off that she wouldn’t try and impersonation of David Tennant. That’s an approach I have no problem with as I’m sure if she wasn’t confident in it, then why bother trying? The dialogue was good though and felt authentically Tenth Doctor which I liked. The writing was definitely good in that aspect. I thought the story perhaps went too long which sadly probably lost a rating point on my final verdict, it did become a slight slog with a feel of dragging by the end, but that also isn’t helped by the fact it’s a reading and not a dramatisation. The setting of 1940 was excellent and I really liked that we had the Doctor and Donna involved with Dunkirk. That’s a legendary bit of history so having that under threat was terrific. It was exciting because the effects that would have on the outcome of World War Two if it didn’t happen could not have been positive for anyone other than the Nazis! Ramsay was crucial in seeing that it would happen so the moment he mentions that he isn’t going ahead with Operation Dynamo because of the risk to ordinary civilian life was fantastic. I do think he was convinced to take action a little easily though. It wasn’t exactly the most convincing speech by the Doctor! The banter that came between the Doctor and Donna because of the latter’s lack of historical knowledge was hilarious and I liked that she didn’t even want to know some of the names. She knew they were in a uniform and that was all she needed to know. I’m not sure it feels right that Donna would get involved with anyone romantically, but that seemed to be the case with Fossbrook! He was a good character and the flirting that came with him was fun. Donna was always in control though as you might expect. She enjoyed flaunting her boisterous personality amongst the ranks of the Royal Navy. The Nemonite threat was pretty good although I do feel with the format and reading style it was slightly difficult to fully get across how dangerous it could be. The image on the artwork doesn’t strike me with fear either, but for the 1940s it was good and the mingling of alien meaning foreigner was fun to explore. The Doctor proved he was an alien and the shipmates’ reactions to the likes of the TARDIS and the Doctor’s age was good stuff. The emotion that came at the conclusion with Fossbrook’s sacrifice and involvement in defeating the Nemonite was good and I absolutely loved that the Doctor made sure Donna knew just how much she meant to him. The splurge of superlatives for her was a wonderful moment and just what she needed in that emotional and rough moment. Overall, a good story!

Rating: 7/10

Paradise Found

"Kangs! Always getting into mischief."

Writer: Sean Mason

Format: Comic Strip

Released: October 2021-April 2023

Printed in: Paradise Found 1-4

Featuring: Kangs

Synopsis

Years have passed since Kroagnon, the great architect, returned to wipe out the inhabitants of Paradise Towers. The inhabitants now prosper under the leadership of the magnanimous reign of General Favalan and her soldiers. The residents want for nothing. They fear nothing. After all, in paradise, what is there to fear?

The residents have been told that Paradise Promises Possibility. For Viv-2, a young Kang with a restless heart, Paradise Towers offers everything but adventure. She yearns to find some trouble to get into, but maybe trouble is looking for her as well...

Verdict

Paradise Found was a really strong comic story! I’m a huge fan of what Cutaway Comics are doing with a number of Doctor Who universe related licenses and I do hope they continue despite what appears to be a somewhat shaky schedule! For example, the first issue of this comic adventure came in September 2021 and the fourth and final issue was only delivered to me in April of this year! That’s a long time to wait for a full story so I’m very glad that I waited to read any of it until all parts had been delivered. I think it makes for smoother reading and with a story being released gradually over nearly two years, I’m definitely happy with my approach! Revisiting the world of Paradise Towers is a really strong idea and one that definitely held its own in comic strip format. It was a vibrant world and the Seventh Doctor tale really did make a big impact. The world building potential here is terrific and I thought it was utilised very well. Viv-2 was our main character as a Kang and just revisiting them as a group was tremendous. Whilst I’m not a massive fan of names such as Bin Liner or Can Opener, I think they’re a really intriguing bunch and the gradual way throughout the adventure that they take back Paradise Towers was very good. It was a good build and I thought the cliffhangers were a nice change of pace in not exactly presenting peril but more a question of what will happen next as we lead into the next issue. I don’t think that should be permanent for all stories, but it definitely worked here. Considering this is a comic strip, I have to commend the artwork for this story. I thought it was outstanding and definitely the best of the Cutaway Comics stories to date. It was tremendous. The world of the Paradise Towers offers some good potential for artists as it is so vibrant and full of colour, but even so I was massively impressed and I really appreciated what it added to the story. Whilst my focus in comic strips is on the words, the visual aspect is obviously so important and I really liked it. The revelation that apex had survived was very good and it was fun to explore this world after the Doctor had supposedly solved the problems and left it in a better place. It turned out Paradise Towers was not left as promised and Favalan was ensuring that it stayed that way. She was an evil woman in charge of keeping Paradise Towers perfect. I could understand her way of thinking in that what was the problem of everyone enjoying everything they could ever want? But Viv-2 thought that people deserved a choice and the truth. Not everyone agreed with that which was good and presented a good dynamic of conflict. The Inbetweens having gone off for war was good and I thought the little revamped design of the Cleaners was brilliant. They made such a big impact on screen the fist time around so I’m glad they appeared again here. It’s fun that the Doctor was only referred to as the traveller due to licensing restrictions and it’s fun that the Towers do return to the state that the Doctor expected them on his departure. That won’t interfere in any future appearances for the Towers which I like. The return of Kroagnon within Pex was brilliant and I liked the fear just the mentioning of his name provided. The way he was defeated was very good and the brutal way in which the inner conflict was ended with Viv-2 stabbing in the neck in the water was strong violence! I didn’t see that coming but it felt real and apt for this setting. Favalan was also killed brutally beforehand in the back. By the end, all was restored so I’m fascinated by the promise that the Kangs will return. I’m excited for it though! Overall, a really strong comic adventure in a terrific world!

Rating: 8/10

Project: Nirvana

"He looks happy to be dead."

Writers: Mark Wright & Cavan Scot

Format: Audio

Released: September 2012

Series: Companion Chronicles 7.03

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Sally, Lysandra

Synopsis 

The place is Eastern Europe. The year is 2015.

The TARDIS lands in mid-air, and Captain Lysandra Aristedes is dropped into a daring mission in her own past. There are enemies and creatures out there in the night, and the Doctor is waiting at the rendezvous point.

Because this is all the part of his bigger picture. And Aristedes is going to learn something about herself...

Verdict  

Project: Nirvana was a really strong Companion Chronicles audio adventure! I must admit I completely forgot this story existed until I found myself scrolling through my unplayed list on the Big Finish app and I saw it and it clicked in my head that I was finally in a position to listen to this story with full appreciation. Whilst the events of this Chronicle take place prior to Black and White for Sally and Lysandra, I think it was good to have listen to that and the subsequent Gods and Monsters trilogy finale to fully understand where things were here and where they would head to. The timelines can get a little jumbled and that was only heightened by us meeting an earlier version of Lysandra for the bulk of the story, but that’s also fun! It was good continuity to have the TARDIS exterior as being black, although I maintain that the colour of the police really isn’t that important! It’s still fun to picture it as something other than its iconic blue though. The trio of the Seventh Doctor, Sally and Lysandra has a lot of potential and I’d love to hear more from them, though I’m not sure that will be the case given how things were left for them. So inserting a Companion Chronicle is a nice touch to catch up on their adventures. It was tremendous to actually have Sylvester McCoy voicing the Seventh Doctor in this adventure, something rather rare for this range. It really helped in making it feel authentic. The two main leads being the actresses for Sally and Lysandra themselves was terrific too and I really enjoy their dynamic. There’s a respect between the pair and an understanding of their military rank and where that places them in the hierarchy. So having Sally encounter a younger version of Lysandra from the past when she was fully ingrained in being part of the Forge was excellent. Just revisiting a time where the Forge was very powerful was fun stuff and it provided a nice history lesson. The story arc regarding the Forge has been going on for an incredibly long period of time. I really appreciated that the title was another project and the Nirvana one here was really interesting and tied in very nicely to the Monthly Adventures story arc of Elder Gods. Derleth was another of these gods and the exploration surrounding her was very good. I found it uncomfortable when Sally was laughing too much after she was essentially consumed by Derleth and that was exactly the right feeling required. It was good stuff and provided the basis for a strong villain. Having one of the Elder Gods be female was a nice touch too. This was a strong female focused story so that was rather fitting. I was a big fan of her. The action in the story was impressive, especially for the audio format and I did enjoy the train sequence to open the first episode even if it wasn’t always clear what precisely was going on. It was exciting and it peaked my interest. Lysandra being aware of the dangers of meeting and physically interacting with her past self was good and showed just how in the know the Forge were. She couldn’t understand why she didn’t remember the encounter though given that she was literally seeing her past self experience it. I thought we’d get something akin to the multi-Doctor stories with the time differential balancing out, but we had a good explanation of Lysandra taking Delerth into her own mind and that being why she couldn’t remember the past encounter. Deep trauma meant the memories were buried and that was pretty fitting. Overall, a really strong adventure!

Rating: 8/10

Pioneers: The Beautiful Game

"This is a big day for football."

Writer: Katharine Armitage

Format: Audio

Released: May 2023

Series: Ninth Doctor Adventures 9.03

Featuring: Ninth Doctor

Synopsis 

The Doctor decides to treat himself and attend the historic meeting which founds the football league. But he arrives a week early!

Instead, he must enlist the help of a hotel maid to battle an obsessive alien before it consumes everything that will ever be connected to the beautiful game...

Verdict  

The Beautiful Game was a decent story to conclude the Pioneers ninth series of Ninth Doctor Adventures! Whilst being an enjoyable episode, I felt slightly let down by how the birth of the Football League was used. I was super excited by the idea of the Doctor visiting the birth of football competition as we know it today and it was also terrific for the northern incarnation of the Doctor to be visiting Manchester at a time where the battle for football was very much in place. The perceived riches of the south wanted to keep the game amateur whilst the hard working people of the north needed it to become professional. I thought that was fun to explore and I really enjoyed the historical education on a subject I absolutely adore. I’ve actually written an essay at university on there not being enough space to play association football during the last decade of the Victorian era, and then my dissertations focused on the competition between association football and rugby in terms of popular from 1900-1950 across my Bachelors and Masters. So it’s safe to say this is a subject I know very well! I follow Wales everywhere (I’ve been to Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, Qatar and Croatia in the last twelve months following the national team) and I’m a Cardiff City season ticket holder. Football is ingrained in my life so I was slightly disappointed by the villain here. The Strike didn’t feel right by name as it was obviously a link to the football theme but I wasn’t keen on the concept behind it needed to consume something it latched onto. Football was dangerous for that at this point in time given the importance of the formation of the Football League. Hearing William Sudell discuss the meeting that would establish the league and the points system was tremendous. I loved that he hadn’t even considered a draw! That was fun stuff. I enjoyed the ridiculousness of his sexist attitude but it was a timely reminder of the way women were seen in society at this time. The popularity of women’s football would lead to it being banned for half a century which is rather frightening, and he almost laughed off the idea of women entering the league. Daphne was the true pioneer in this episode in my opinion and the way she would contribute to the future of football was terrific. She was clearly a woman ahead of her time. She knew that even if women got the vote soon it wouldn’t be for women like her working in the kitchens, and amazingly she understood that this was her place. She didn’t like it but she embraced it and that was quite incredible. Daphne really was not afraid to challenge men and that was brilliant. She was certainly companion material and by the end she even knew that the Doctor was from the future! His comments about the future of women’s football were great and I liked that he felt Daphne could know. Her importance was established in the pre-titles with the Doctor earning the man of the match award in a space match after getting a late hat trick. The idea of Autons being substitutes was fun but I do wish football was taken a bit more seriously. The ending was predictable as the Strike was consuming too much and then the Doctor set it on canals. What could possibly go wrong there? It was a little underwhelming and I didn’t like that the Strike became the focus because of football being at threat, rather than exploring the origins of the Football League more. Overall, a decent adventure and a fun education!

Rating: 7/10

Among Us: Moderation

"They're trying to kill her."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio

Released: May 2023

Series: Torchwood 7.04

Featuring: Tyler, Mr Colchester 

Synopsis 

Tyler Steele has a job moderating the comments section of a website. His old friend Petra is a star reporter for the newspaper. And Tyler realises the newspaper is going to kill her.

Verdict  

Moderation was a decent story to conclude the Aliens Among Us seventh series of Torchwood. I fully appreciate that the intention with this opening boxset was to have four individual episodes and that was certainly achieved, but this did feel slightly underwhelming as a finale. It was still a good episode as my rating reflects, but this definitely felt like more of a setup for the boxsets to come which I’m not sure is right for a finale! Regardless, it was a good story and it highlighted Tyler Steele fresh off a great cameo in Beyond Bannerman Road which makes a lot more sense now with him employed at a news organisation. He was the perfect fit to be Rani’s secret source! Barry Beans was a pretty terrible person and that made him a fun character because I was anticipating his downfall throughout. He was essentially a modern Nazi with his far right views not exactly hidden. All of the employees that left his news outlet were of a diverse background and the fertility clinic was having an 86% strike rate on producing children that were blonde and blue eyed. That was pretty frightening! Almost as much as the AI technology he’d been using that called a cab when he performed the Nazi salute and heiled. Horrific. He was just a bit of knob throughout. Petra on the other hand was a really likeable character and I’d actually be in favour of her replacing Tyler in the Torchwood team. She was really good as a journalist and she wasn’t afraid to tackle the norm or reveal the truth. Big pharma didn’t like her and that meant she was probably onto something. After getting involved in the controversial subject of vaccinations, she’d been reduced to the more whacky news stories but she embraced it. The way she questioned protestors and fact checked them outside a school after they were chanting against the teaching of homosexuality was wonderful. The power of media is frightening in our digital society and this was highlighted so well here. Following the story of Charlie and the experimental science to try and bring him back to something of a functioning human seemed odd at first, but the moment where the AI interface actually started to work was triumphant and felt big. I actually felt glad so the reveal at the end that it wasn’t Charlie at all was tremendous and certainly gets me excited for the next boxset. Just what is the AI? It’s obviously going to be linked to the voice on the phone at the end of Aliens Next Door and it’ll be fun to tie everything together as the series goes on. Before we got there, Tyler would bring down Barry Beans and his organisation but I wasn’t massively in favour of him. I’ve never been a huge fan of his and that didn’t change here with his drunkenness and desire to take drugs. He just wanted to forget and not feel anything for a few hours. I’m not a fan of people who do that so I just can’t relate to him and he’s everything I’m not. I thought Mr Colchester was severely under-utilised in the episode too and it was a big shame that he was literally reduced to being a taxi driver for Tyler. That was a really lacklustre follow up to his triumphant emergence in Colin Alone, where was the follow up? I thought that was very poor. As a whole though, it was a good episode and whilst the discussions on algorithms and code were a bit beyond me it was still interesting. Overall, a decent story!

Rating: 7/10

Among Us: Misty Eyes

"Your days at Torchwood are over. It's a new life now."

Writer: Tim Foley

Format: Audio

Released: May 2023

Series: Torchwood 7.03

Featuring: Gwen, Rhys

Synopsis 

Gwen Cooper and Rhys Williams have made a new life for themselves in Iceland. Away from death and aliens and horror and Torchwood. Until theres a knock on the door from the last person they want to see.

Verdict 

Misty Eyes was an outstanding episode to continue my way through the Among Us seventh series of Torchwood! This was easily the best of the series so far and must rank as one of the greatest since Torchwood’s official continuation after Miracle Day moved to audio. I really did think it was that good and it’s quite incredible that it only featured three characters. But they were three brilliant ones! It was lovely to catch up with Gwen and Rhys and they seemed to have finally found some sort of peace after the disaster that struck Cardiff. I really liked that they were still trying to support their home city with charitable efforts and relief, but it did feel like they couldn’t face going back there and that was completely understandable. They’d found themselves isolated in a little remote area of Iceland which was nice and just hearing the pair having fun was really nice. Their sexual innuendoes were a lot of fun and having to adjust them to the cold of Iceland with cardigans and woolly socks playing a part was very amusing. So with them settled in their new life, having new jobs and just enjoying themselves, the last person they wanted to see was Ng. Her arrival to their new address wasn’t greeted well and I was quite surprised by how calm Gwen was. She was more shocked than angered but that soon turned. Ng hoping to get the Torchwood team back together again was good and I really hope that Gwen will be a part of that in the future, but for now it doesn’t seem likely. Gwen politely telling Ng to get the fuck out of her life was sensational after her calm greeting and quickly saying that no she hadn’t heard from Jack. Ng using that as an excuse for her being there was good but she was actually hoping to protect Gwen. After everything Ng had done to Gwen including killing her mother, she didn’t want to hear about what she was trying to do. That was understandable, but Rhys was slightly more accommodating and at least could hear her out. I enjoyed the mystery that only Gwen could see the misty figure out from the window and that led to her own private investigation of the cliff area. Ng was there to find her and explained that her own past was coming to haunt her. I thought the idea of the misty figures all bearing the image of Ng was excellent and learning that they were all essentially the souls of those she had previously inhabited was tremendous. And now they were coming for Gwen! That was rather scary and she was in a lot of danger. The emotional conversation between Gwen and Ng on the cliffs was magnificent and really hit home just how the former felt about the latter. And yet in typical Gwen Cooper style she just went and saved the day by showing what kind of person she was in appealing to the mystery figures that denied Ng a renegotiation. The fact that Ng’s first was her own child was a big shock and her justification of not sharing the maternal bond was horrific. She had become human now and Gwen appealed to them to show that the deal was already broken. That was sensational. The emotional torment that occurred during the episode was really strong stuff and whilst it was a pretty simple adventure, it was so effective. Overall, an outstanding story!

Rating: 10/10

Among Us: Colin Alone

"Everything seems to be going wrong at once."

Writer: Una McCormack 

Format: Audio

Released: May 2023

Series: Torchwood 7.02

Featuring: Mr Colchester, Colin

Synopsis 

Colin Colchester-Price has been left behind. But he's kept calm and he's carried on. He knows his husband is out there, saving the world for Torchwood. And he'll comeback for him. One day. Soon. Surely.

Verdict 

Colin Alone was another great story to continue my way through the Among Us seventh series of Torchwood! This was a powerful story full of emotion and a reminder of just how dangerous it can be being a part of Torchwood. Mr Colchester had vanished and he’d been gone a long time which was rather uncharacteristic of him, and that had taken a big toll on Colin his husband. I was a little trepidatious prior to listening because I figured that it would be an adventure with Colin as the lead character, and I just was not sure whether his character was strong enough to hold my interest for an hour. Well I was proven wrong! This was really powerful writing in exploring what life is like for those left behind when Torchwood and the job comes first. Of course, the job is a crucial one with it often concerning the future and safety of the human race, but Colin didn’t know where his husband was and towards the end almost seemed like he’d given up hope. As a listener, I never doubted that Mr Colchester would turn up at the end to save his husband and that’s exactly what happened. But before we got to that moment poor old Colin was absolutely put through the wringer. He had been mugged and had his phone stolen, the landlord at his flat refused to fix the leak until he’d paid the surcharge which his statements appeared to show he had actually done, and then that meant that the lights were also out because of a fire hazard. The buses to work were infrequent and just not on time meaning he was often late and reduced to sorting through the recycling! He was having an awful time of it just going through everyday life and I really did feel genuinely sorry for him by the time the episode was coming to a close. Nothing at all was going right and that was becoming a little tough to listen to. I was really hoping he would catch a break. His constant interrogation by Jeff and Mira was intriguing and they were fascinating characters. I’m sure we’ll learn more about them in a future episode as Mr Colchester seemed to know who they were, or at least who they were working for. Were they special ops? The police? The Committee? We never knew and that’s a shame, so why was Colin offering up information to them? That’s a detail I think could have been beneficial. They were probing in an annoyingly friendly way but they were hardly subtle in their efforts to locate Mr Colchester. The unclear evidence pointed towards him being in Sydney for a weapon purchase and that upset Colin. Not because of the weapons but because they’d always wanted to go to Australia together! That was just another tug at the emotional heartstrings. I thought the emergence of Mr Colchester was very good and it was great to hear him once again. No matter the fate, he was always going to come to save his husband and whilst more answers will come in the future regarding where he was and who the security forces interviewing Colin were, he didn’t waste time in shooting them both. That showed just how ruthless he could be and it had Colin taken aback slightly, but he was sure they had it coming! I’m intrigued to hear where things move from here and another mention of Torchwood being scattered was good as I’m looking very forward to the inevitable reunion. But for now, a triumphant return for Mr Colchester and after this episode I do wonder if we’ll get more from Colin moving forward. Might he even join the team? He was enjoying seeing this side of his husband and that really worried Mr Colchester. Overall, a really strong story! 

Rating: 8/10

Among Us: Aliens Next Door

"Look at us, two aliens watching the lives of humans."

Writer: Ash Darby

Format: Audio

Released: May 2023

Series: Torchwood 7.03

Featuring: Ng, Orr 

Synopsis 

Mrs Betty Clerihew has an exciting in her spare room. Torchwood are hiding out there, watching the comings and goings of her estate. Apparently, monsters are living on the cul-de-sac.

Verdict 

Aliens Next Door was a fantastic episode to kick off the Among Us seventh series of Torchwood! I must admit that I’m not sure how much I can buy into this series being the official seventh of Torchwood, but rather I think of it as the third series now of something of a spin-off range. I’m still a little behind on the Torchwood monthly stories and with this one kicking off with Orr and Ng, I’m glad to find that this appears to be something of a separate continuity. Or at least you don’t need to be up to date! I think it’s good to kick off the new series with original characters from the range and this served as a fine reminder of their qualities. I thought it was important to address the elephant in the room of Captain Jack’s absence given the controversies surrounding John Barrowman at the moment. It’s a huge shame that he isn’t a part of this series or the continuation of Torchwood, but the show can certainly survive and even thrive without him. Sure, it would be better to have him around but at least they addressed his absence which made sense given the way everyone seemed to go their separate ways at the end of God Among Us. Jack could be anywhere! Torchwood was in fragments now and I liked that Cardiff was still recovering from the great flood. That was important continuity given the scale of what preceded up to now. The relationship between Orr and Ng was very good but it was clear that the latter was up to something regarding the former. Reiterating the empathic abilities of Orr was important to re-establish given the amount of time that has elapsed since the previous series. I was intrigued as to what was actually happening in the episode but as it went on, I really appreciated the slow build. Betty Clerihew was an intriguing character and she seemed like she was hiding something right from the off which was fun. The idea of Torchwood being reduced to camping out in her spare bedroom and taking stock of what was happening on the street was brilliant and showed the decline whilst also highlighting their ability to survive. Torchwood will go on! Betty knew they were special ops and Ng didn’t even hide that they were from outer space, but the old woman didn’t seem to believe them. The way racism in modern Britain was addressed here was tremendous and it’s not something Torchwood has shied away from in this audio series. I was really impressed. Hakan was a good character and I couldn’t help feel sorry him. He was being targeted as a sex offender, had his cat stoned and his home was offensively graffitied. He really did have a lot to deal with being a man of colour and a different nationality which was shocking. It really is horrifying to think that stuff like this still happens in modern society, and it was addressed really well here. I thought the history behind him was intriguing and the fact that he was trapped in his own experiment was a really good revelation of what had happened. Ng knew that was the case and she was apologetic to Orr for bringing her there. She was empathic and felt a little too much. The involvement of Betty was expected and her accusations levelled towards Ng and Orr were pretty amusing. I really liked how things ended in potentially setting us up for the future of the series and the overall story arc with the child on the phone who claimed to be a friend, but they knew now where they were. It seems Torchwood was due to come out of the shadows and that’s very exciting! Overall, an excellent start to the series. 

Rating: 9/10

Mawdryn Undead

"While the Doctor is alive, I am never far from you."

Writer: Robert Valetine

Format: Novel

Released: January 1984

Series: Target 82

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough

Synopsis 

'Turlough picked up a boulder and raised it over the suspecting Doctor...'

Turlough hated it all: the routine, the discipline, the invented traditions and petty snobbery of a minor English public school. He hated Earth, and when the mysterious Guardian offered him the chance to escape, he jumped at it. Naturally. All he had to do was to kill the Doctor.

Verdict 

Mawdryn Undead was an excellent novelisation of the televised story of the same name! I’ve always felt that this Fifth Doctor tale is criminally underrated and whilst the book doesn’t quite manage to receive a perfect rating like its on screen counterpart, this was still a terrific read! Reading in the sun at a holiday park in West Wales made for a lovely surrounding and environment so it was nice to be reading a story I knew was good. I was intrigued to see how it would fare in prose and it absolutely worked well. It offers a pretty fun introduction for Turlough as a companion and shows his torment with the Black Guardian really well. Perhaps a little more ought to have been included regarding the Guardian’s history with the Doctor and the whole Key to Time saga, but thankfully as a reader with avid knowledge of the series that wasn’t a big problem. His motivation could have also been expanded upon, but with this being the opener of a trilogy it is a little difficult to be critical of things like that knowing that their story is far from complete. I do enjoy Tegan being very suspicious of him from the off and it’s quite surprising that Nyssa is more accommodating. The Doctor seems to sit somewhere in the middle which is good, but as a reader I’m not a huge fan of him as a companion. He’s pretentious and that this early stage he just seems like a stuck up knob. Was that the intention with the character? I’m not sure, but he’s not exactly likeable. The Brigadier wasn’t exactly enthralled by him either! His return was a delight and it’s rather a shame that his first encounter with the Fifth Doctor has him not remembering who the Time Lord was. The Doctor is still delighted to encounter his old friend and colleague and he doesn’t waste time in fixing the Brigadier’s memories. That sequence where he first asks after Benton and Harry before following up a little more aggressively with his former companions of Sarah Jane, Jo and Liz was tremendous. The description of what the Brigadier was remembering with the likes of Yeti in the underground and Cybermen in the sewers was magnificent. A shining moment for sure. I thought the science behind the warp ellipse was a little all over the place in prose format and never fully explained which is fine given the technicalities, and it was just a backdrop really for the two versions of the Brigadier to find their way together at the most perfect moment. The Doctor arriving in 1983 through the transmat with Turlough was a fun twist as Tegan, Nyssa and the TARDIS had actually landed six years previously on the Queen’s silver jubilee! That was quite a problem but the Brigadier having already met Tegan was a fun twist and that allowed the Doctor to try and put things right. He had a time and a basis to go on so he was quickly put to work! Turlough having constant inner turmoil with the Black Guardian was good and I was a big fan of the impact the crashing of the Brigadier’s car had in the first chapter. It led Turlough to agree to murder the Doctor, but he was obviously never going to see that through. That much was clear right from the off. I don’t think the Black Guardian had chosen all that well. His determination for Turlough to see the job through was admirable though! The issue of two Brigadiers causing problems to both the Black Guardian and Mawdryn was quite fun! The titular villain first claiming to be the Doctor was excellent and I really think it’s great because it is believable. A dodgy transmat could definitely have caused the Doctor harm and the regeneration process is hardly straightforward! Who’s to say it couldn’t have gone wrong? The description of Mawdryn’s appearance was decent but I do think it could have been more grotesque to sell just how fleshy and abominable it was as seen on screen. Still, I loved the idea of a constant regeneration mutation. That was good to play with. One word on the cover as I’m so glad that I was reading the Virgin reprint rather than the original Target version. That photo image of Peter Davison is atrocious for a cover! The threat of the Doctor losing all of his remaining regenerations was superb and I loved that he was willing to sacrifice himself for Nyssa and Tegan when they’d been infected by Mawdryn and couldn’t travel in time. Mawdryn and his crew just wanted to die and with the two Brigadiers meeting at just the right moment to provide a massive dose of energy, the red ship would soon burst into smithereens and death was welcomed by Mawdryn. That was tough for the Doctor to tackle as he had to live with the consequences of his actions, but it was what they wanted. This also explaining the Brigadier’s memory loss was fun. Overall, a superb read!

Rating: 9/10

Pioneers: Northern Lights

"You're one of my heroes."

Writer: Robert Valetine

Format: Audio

Released: May 2023

Series: Ninth Doctor Adventures 9.02

Featuring: Ninth Doctor

Synopsis 

The Doctor crashes to Earth and finds himself in the Arctic – but not quite alone. The Aurora Borealis are even more unearthly than usual...

Intrepid explorer Fridtjof Nansen is trying to get home as alien forces close in. The Doctor knows Nansen has a part to play in history – can he save the future?

Verdict 

Northern Lights was a decent story to continue my way through the Pioneers ninth series of Ninth Doctor Adventures! This particular boxset certainly has a feeling of being three isolated stories which is an absolutely fine format, and there really was not even a mention or hint of a reference to the previous adventure of The Green Gift. That’s not a problem in the slightest, but I do find it slightly odd given the bridging we had in that episode to have the latest two series overlap. Whilst I did enjoy this episode, I can’t help but feel slightly misled or somewhat oversold on the umbrella title for this series. Maybe that’s just my ignorance but I wouldn’t consider there to be a well known pioneer in the previous episode and I didn’t think that Nansen and Johansen were particular pioneers either! They were really fun characters though and I enjoyed their quest for scientific knowledge. They’d done incredibly to get so close to the North Pole and just hearing their struggles was very realistic. They were hunting for a polar bear and looked at it purely in terms of how long it would feed them. That’s a dangerous place to be in not knowing where or when your next meal was coming from. I was a big fan of their explanation to the Doctor of why they turned around when they were so close to the North Pole being that they were scientists not adventurers. Despite the achievement and time away from their families, this was all about knowledge and I thought that was great. I must admit I was quite taken aback by the amount of time they’d been away from their loved ones and missing out on family time without any communication must be incredibly tough, especially with a young daughter. My little boy is nearly two and even though I do have the odd football trip or day away from him, the beauty of Snapchat and FaceTime make me feel like I’m never far away and I can always see what he’s up to. But of course technology here wasn’t what it is now so that just wasn’t possible! Their reaction to the Doctor’s arrival was a little bit disappointing given they were men of science, but it was easily forgotten after the humour of the Doctor revealing that the very place he was stood would one day be named after the two people he was meeting! That was a brilliant Doctor moment and he immediately tried to cover his tracks. But he put his foot in it again later in the episode by having the pair of scientists basically overhear their future and the significance they’d play in humanity’s history. Although at this point that was the future. I thought the Aurora was an interesting element in the story and the idea of a sentient being made of similar stuff to the northern lights was fascinating. I wasn’t a big fan of their voice and that’s a shame given the format was audio as that’s all there was to go on for them. The fact they fed on organically because there weren’t any other energy sources left on Earth for their needs was good and that’s where the Doctor stepped in to defend Nansen and Johansen when it seemed the Aurora may feed on them. The Doctor demanded they were off the menu.   Sadly, once the Aurora departed I felt the episode really petered out and I couldn’t believe how quickly the bulk of the story had ended! We basically then had a twelve minute epilogue with the Doctor catching up with them in their future once receiving the Nobel Prize and having achieved their contributions to history. Whilst fine, it was a little underwhelming and lacked oomph for the story as a whole to finish on. Regardless, a good little adventure. Here’s hoping for a strong finale!

Rating: 7/10

Island of the Sirens

"Why come back to the ship you've already escaped from?"

Writers: Keith Temple

Format: Comic Strip

Released: August 2008

Printed in: Doctor Who Storybook 2009

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Donna

Synopsis 

The TARDIS takes the Doctor and Donna to an early encounter with Jason, long before the Argonauts, but the famous historical figure has a story to tell...

Verdict 

Island of the Sirens was a very good short story! It’s been an incredibly long time since I have blogged anything from the Doctor Who Storybook 2009, but whilst on a staycation in West Wales at a Parkdean resort for the little one, this book seemed like the perfect thing for his afternoon nap to keep me entertained and ensure the daily blogging continues! I’ve always had a mixed relationship with the Storybooks and I’m not entirely sure why. They’re a quirky little item in the collection and it’s quite mad that I blogged the first story in this book nearly a decade ago! There it is just sitting on my bookshelf as the wait to complete it goes on and on. I’ll get there one day. What’s the rush? This particular story was really good and whilst I’m not usually a big fan of a story being told in the first person, I thought the way it was used here was tremendous. This is a rare example of me actually thinking that a story was improved by having this perspective. I think it would have been less interesting if this was not the approach taken so kudos must go to the author for that. Jason and the Argonauts seems to be a story title that is renowned and something I bet everyone has heard of, but for me I don’t actually know much of the details and I’m not sure I’ve ever read it or even an extract! But I was still delighted that this was the Jason we were encountering and his position in history made him a fun narrator. His nicknames given to the Doctor and Donna were fun and felt very much in line with their Doctor-companion relationship. Donna would certainly have approved of Jason referring to the Doctor as Skinnyman and that was kept up throughout the entirety of the story! That was quite impressive but it somehow just felt right. Donna was referred to as Red which was good and I wonder if that’s something she would have approved of if she was able to read the recollection back. This was a time before Jason went on his famed adventures but the line at the end about this being the most marvellous was a nice touch. I almost felt like this story would have been a perfect place to have the return of the Silurians or the Sea Devils but alas we got some weird fishy aliens instead. I must say that the artwork wasn’t overly great for this story but I still appreciate the format of having it to accompany the prose which at ten pages of an Annual style book is quite long! It works well but it felt a bit blocky and looked childish. The depiction of Donna I felt was particularly poor. I thought having Jason misspell the likes of TARDIS and sonic screwdriver was fun and actually helped in selling this as a real tale. There were also a few lines where Jason was recalling some of the science-based lines of the Doctor and caveated it with saying that it was at least what he thought he said. He couldn’t be sure. That was a nice touch and realistic which I appreciated. I liked how the Doctor wanted to apply science and fact to the apparent emergence of the sirens, and whilst the idea of using cheese and bread to block one’s ears from the noise was silly, it was picked up quickly and did work! It ought to have been too silly but when it was used again at the conclusion to see off the Parthenopes I couldn’t help but appreciate the continuity. It worked. The myth of the Cyclops also appearing in the form of a Castelathuron was fun and Donna’s reaction to seeing a one-eyed creature was as amusing as you would expect from her. I’m sure she must have had some input in Jason referring to the creature as One Eye. That just feels like a Donna line. Atalanta was a good character to compliment Jason but everything was all too far advanced for him to fully comprehend what was happening. That actually helped in fleshing out the details of the conclusion but when someone describes a torch as having the moon on a stick how can that be a problem? It was fun stuff and the Doctor would see that the Parthenopes didn’t get the TARDIS. Jason’s reaction to seeing the TARDIS dematerialise and having the noise described as a mix between an elephant and broken chains was wonderful. Overall, a really solid read!

Rating: 8/10

Gods and Monsters

"Let the chains of Fenric shatter."

Writers: Mike Maddox & Alan Barnes

Format: Audio

Released: September 2012

Series: Monthly Adventures 164

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace, Hex

Synopsis 

The TARDIS travellers arrive in a bizarre landscape seemingly immune to the physical laws governing the rest of the universe. Ace, Hex, Sally and Lysandra battle to rescue the Doctor from the trap he's walked into... soon realising that the odds are stacked against them.

Because the Doctor is playing an old adversary again: Fenric, shatterer of worlds. But the gods and monsters who inhabit this strange realm loaded the dice against them long ago, in the dim and distant past – and defeat's their only option.

Verdict 

Gods and Monsters was an excellent Monthly Adventure! This really has a lot going for it and certainly had the feeling of being a finale. As if being a sequel to The Curse of Fenric wasn’t enough, it tied up a long going arc in the Monthly Adventures for the Seventh Doctor dating back to The Angel of Scutari and beyond. It’s been a long time coming, we’ve had two different TARDISes and two different colours, the Doctor basically absent for two whole stories and now four companions! There was a lot to wrap up here but it never felt like it got convoluted which was impressive. And it stayed very high on quality throughout! The theme of the Elder Gods that have consumed the Seventh Doctor stories in the range recently was good and it doesn’t come better than Fenric. Ace’s reaction to realising that he was back was brilliant and I really enjoyed the reference to Dragonfire and how Ace ended up on Ice World thanks to a time storm and unknowingly acted as Fenric’s agent. She was scared but not afraid to fight him and that was magnificent. This also followed on nicely with the theme from Black and White of mythology and Ace having what was essentially a version of Thor’s hammer was good fun. Fenric getting to tease her was amusing and the line alluding to Rey from Delta and the Bannermen possibly being the one that could have been taken by the time storm was tremendous. A really fun line given she was basically written as a companion! Hex’s wound returning from Scutari was good and really helped sell the scale of how long the game was being played. I was a big fan of the continued analogies to chess and the Doctor soon realised that he was a pawn in a much bigger game if that was scarcely possible! Lysandra and Sally realising that they were on a flat planet and that actually being the board for the game was superb. I really liked that. Fenric describing mortals as dust was a powerful moment and really did help sell how insignificant us normals were. But the Doctor was quick to pounce on that and realised that in the games they were still needed. The revelation that the Blacksmith was at hand was sublime and I loved the reveal of him as the opponent to Fenric. The idea of him creating the shield of Weyland’s was really strong and just the idea of him making weapons for the gods was tremendous. I hope we haven’t heard the last of him! The impact of Weyland on Hex was incredible though and the emotion at the end made for an excellent conclusion. It was exciting and full of power especially when it was revealed that Hex was only being kept alive by him. The sacrifice he made at the end was brilliant and full of admiration as he wanted to ensure that the God was defeated once and for all. The anger in Ace was palpable and just when she got the Doctor back, she was absolutely livid with him. We’ve seen and heard her be quite angry with the Doctor but the way he accepted that Hex had to sacrifice himself so easily and Lysandra aiding him was too much. I don’t think I’ve heard her angrier! I’m really not sure where we move from here but I do hope that this is the last of Hex as companion. This is such a fitting finale for him and the fact he referenced his mother at the end was lovely. I’m really not sure where we go from here but I’m excited to hear it! The title really did have it all and was apt. A brilliant adventure!

Rating: 9/10

Black and White

"A goddess should be all knowing."

Writer: Matt Fitton

Format: Audio

Released: August 2012

Series: Monthly Adventures 163

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace, Hex

Synopsis 

The TARDIS arrives in the land of the Danes, where a young warrior seeks to rid the kingdom of Hrothgar of a cruel and terrifying demon. The brave young warrior Beowulf; the monster is Grendel... or so his name will one day be written. But what's written down in black and white is sometimes very far from the truth - as the Doctor knows, and his companions are about to discover.

Verdict 

Black and White was a decent story to continue my way through the Monthly Adventures! This particular Seventh Doctor trilogy is shaping up very nicely and it certainly has a feeling of being a finale. A lot of loose ends are being tied up and it has set us up perfectly for what’s to come in the next release! This followed on nicely where Protect and Survive left off but it was always going to be a tough ask to follow that instant classic. With the Doctor absent once again for the majority of this adventure, that lost its effectiveness slightly but at least we did get the returning additions of Sally Morgan and Lysandra Aristedes. The former had a strong showing in House of Blue Fire so it was lovely to have her back here in a companion role. Ace didn’t know about Sally, but she did know about Lysandra who made a big impact in Project: Destiny as part of the Forge. That organisation still being felt in the arc of the Seventh Doctor is very good and really is the long game as far as continuity is concerned. I’m a big fan of that and she definitely made her mark here once again with Ace. They had a very tense relationship and that only dissipated slightly as the story went on. I was much in favour of the relationship built between Hex and Sally instead. They were clearly smitten and interested in each other which Ace cottoned onto. I was a big fan of the emotion Hex demonstrated in this story as he was getting sick and tired of the Doctor’s antics now and not being informed of what his plans were. He’d just been through a nuclear war over and over and the events of A Death in the Family still lingered which was certainly understandable. I enjoyed the first part of this story very much with the different companion pairings getting acquainted with each other and what that meant for their relationships with the Doctor. Neither knew about the other and they were wondering why. The mystery of the white and black TARDISes was slightly disappointing in my book as it didn’t seem to have much of an impact until the very end. More could certainly have been made of the idea behind the Doctor cloning the TARDIS in my eyes! Throughout this entire audio run it has only felt like the colour of the exterior has been mentioned without anything more in terms of meaning. It’s helped with the timeline when the Seventh Doctor was travelling solo, but it hasn’t really meant much. That’s fine, and I was glad to have the TARDIS faithfully restored to its blue exterior at the end here after the black was used as a power source to propel the white back to normality. I’m enjoying the theme of Elder Gods and it feels right for the seventh incarnation to be the one actively hunting them. That was different to the situation he endured alongside Ace and Hex though as the Gods seemed to be finding him then. That was a fun contrast. The significance of the Tale of Beowulf was good and I quite enjoyed fiction getting mixed up with reality and history. The Doctor reading said book was fun and I really enjoyed the connection back to the boss of the Forge, even if it came slightly late. I wasn’t a big fan of Garundel and I wasn’t overly fussed on Weohstan either which was a shame. I didn’t care too much about the Doctor being in the regeneration chamber as I never believed for a second that’s where he was! The Doctor’s role in the conclusion with the stark warning for his quartet of companions was great though to set us up for the next adventure and trilogy finale! Overall, a decent listen that sets things up nicely. 

Rating: 7/10

Protect and Survive

"Find out what it feels like to die."

Writer: Jonathan Morris

Format: Audio

Released: July 2012

Series: Monthly Adventures 162

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace, Hex

Synopsis 

If an attack with nuclear weapons is expected, you will hear the air attack warning. If you are not at home, but can get there within two minutes, do so. If you are in the open, take cover in the nearest building. If you cannot reach a building, lie flat on the ground and cover your head and your hands.

Arriving in the North of England in the late 1980s, Ace and Hex seek refuge at the home of Albert and Peggy Marsden... in the last few hours before the outbreak of World War Three.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is missing. Will there be anyone left for him to rescue, when the bombs begin to fall?

Verdict 

Protect and Survive was a sensational Monthly Adventure! This was a masterpiece from start to finish and kicked off a trilogy of stories for the Seventh Doctor and company in glorious fashion. I was hugely impressed with this. I love the idea of the Doctor not being on board the TARDIS when something goes wrong as that’s rather precarious! Hex not knowing about the cloister bell was good and it really allowed Ace to showcase her seniority as a companion. She was able to land the TARDIS but the destination was an absurd one. Right from the off it didn’t seem right and something more was at play, and that was perfectly evident when the threat of World War III was happening! It was on the brink and the threat of nuclear war was very real which was trepidatious to say the least. I loved that and it was good that Ace and Hex knew their own personal history and that events were not proceeding as it ought to. The threat of nuclear war in the late 1980s was good to play around with and there’s no better Doctor than the seventh incarnation to do that with. If there was ever a Doctor for meddling on the scale here then it was him! I was quite surprised that he didn’t appear until the very end of part two but to be honest he wasn’t missed because the story was that impressive. Ace and Hex were brilliant in meeting Peggy and Albert. They were a likeable elderly couple who certainly appeared to love each other very much and wanted to protect one another amidst the threat of war. They’d had the leaflet through the post from the government instructing them on how to best protect themselves if a nuclear strike did happen, but Ace was quick to point out that these leaflets weren’t actually sent! It was clear we were on an alternate timeline or parallel universe and that was very exciting. I’m still confused about the significance of the TARDIS being either white or black as there doesn’t seem to be too much bother about the colour of the exterior, but it is fun that the version Ace and Hex arrived in was white but they left in a black one that contained Aristedes and Sally. That set us up for the next story very nicely, but I’d like to focus on this one and the looming threat of war. It was fun to play with global politics and Russian involvement was fantastic.   sublime and the way they were splintered 1jqc do throughout the story was incredible. They added so much and really helped make the threat feel genuine. It was exactly what you’d expect of a government announcement with nuclear war as the threat. I loved it. The fact we got to a nuclear bomb actually happening and Ace and Hex having to stay in confinement in a basement with Peggy and Albert was unexpected! It provided a good scale for the story though as we learned that they were stuck there for two weeks. The moment where time was rewinding and resetting was terrific and again something I didn’t see coming! The fact Albert and Peggy were aware of the reset and had been going through it for a century was an incredible revelation! We soon learned that the Doctor was behind everything and Albert and Peggy were actually Elder Gods being punished as humans who needed to know what it felt like to be human and experience death. Over and over. That was quite the punishment! The only way out was to become so human that you were willing to sacrifice yourself for someone else. That wasn’t too difficult for Ace and Hex which was a lovely moment. Ace and Hex having to normalise their situation and try and shift the time loop around them was tremendous but it just sped up the radio announcement process and pushed proceedings quicker than normal. That was good and I loved that Hex had his doubts, whilst Ace was determined to see it through. And she was right! I thought that was really good and as a whole this was a quite sensational story! 

Rating: 10/10

Pioneers: The Green Gift

"The Earth is always ending."

Writer: Roy Gill

Format: Audio

Released: May 2023

Series: Ninth Doctor Adventures 9.01

Featuring: Ninth Doctor

Synopsis 

Seeking a new home for Callen and Doyle, the Doctor lands on a vast spacecraft: The Greenwood.

The ship is nearing the end of its long journey but what is the price of this voyage? Who is really in charge? And what legacies from Old Earth might be travelling with them?

Verdict 

The Green Gift was a strong start to the Pioneers ninth series of Ninth Doctor Adventures! It’s quite incredible that this is the ninth boxset from the Ninth Doctor and it’s so exciting that we will have at least three more. Long may they continue as Christopher Eccleston seems to be having an awful lot of fun in the role. It’s a shame but expected that the price has increased quite a bit but to get my hands on more performed Ninth Doctor featuring Eccleston is a treat. It’s crazy to think that he has exceeded the number of episodes he did on screen by some considerable distance now and I’m liking the addition of more continuity in the range. That’s probably a long time coming but following on from Red Darkness at the end of Shades of Fear last time around is good stuff. In saying that, I’m not a big fan of the character of Callen and I was quite surprised to see him take steps aboard the TARDIS alongside his dog Doyle, so I must say I’m quite glad that he’s departed quickly here. It is nice though to get that bridge between series. I wasn’t a massive fan of the reason the TARDIS needed an emergency landing was so Doyle could use the toilet either. Maybe it’s because I’m not a dog person that I don’t enjoy the characters (I’m actually typing right now with our new kitten sitting on my lap!). He built a strong relationship with Tay and she was a good character. She was confident and could play with Callen a bit once it was clear he had a serious interest in her. The feeling was mutual and she had her own dog in the form of Lycra. Doyle took a shine to her and was bragging about how she was the one putting feelers out, and the moment at the end once the Doctor had departed and she’d also been given an AI interface in her collar was humorous. Callen couldn’t believe that it wasn’t just his thing anymore. I was slightly disappointed to learn that Callen had been on several unseen journeys with the Doctor in a hope to find a new home. Whilst it sounded like they were somewhat uneventful as far as the Doctor’s reputation and past are concerned, that felt very much like a companion to me and with everything that happens in Rose and beyond, I think that might have been treading ground a little too much. Callen could see that the Doctor was needing them less and less though which was good use of this incarnation’s personality. It was lovely to hear Louise Jameson in an unfamiliar role as Fiacra here. She was in charge on the Greenwood, well at least she was the face of authority and the idea of giving Earth the gift of sustainability is admirable, if not a little far fetched. Can anything truly be self sufficient? At least on a planetary scale? Hell, they even had nuclear reactors in case the ship went off course or needed a back up so that wasn’t entirely renewable! I thought the return of BOSS as the true force in charge was a superb surprise and I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming based on the title! It’s so good to get a sequel to The Green Death and this version of BOSS being a backup was nicely done. It has come a long way from twentieth century Earth! Time had moved on but it was still only interested in making a profit. The fact that the Greenwood had passed by Earth a number of times already was a shock as they hoped to maximise its monetary value instead of returning home to safety and for life to move on. All of those generations confined to life on a ship! I loved that the Doctor referenced Jo and Clifford Jones in finding the cure to prevent the build up of the toxic sludge and the modern space take on the maggots. Good stuff. Overall, a great series opener!

Rating: 8/10

The Next Doctor

"The CyberKing will rise!"

Writer: Russell T Davies

Format: TV

Broadcast: 25 December 2008

Series: 2008 Christmas Special 

Featuring: Tenth Doctor

Synopsis 

Christmas Eve, 1851, and Cybermen stalk the snow of Victorian London, but when the Doctor meets another claiming to be him, the two must combine forces to stop the rise of the CyberKing...

Verdict 

The Next Doctor is a very good Christmas Special! It is probably not the greatest of returns for the Cybermen as somehow they feel like they’re in the background despite the entire episode building towards the rise of the Cyber King, but it’s still a very solid story. I really like the Victorian London setting and having it at Christmas is delightful. It really looks terrific and the snow just adds to the festive feel of the episode which would otherwise be deemed pretty dark. It’s unusual in that this doesn’t feel upbeat or Christmassy in the slightest but at the fourth time of asking, I think that’s fine and there are only so many Christmas episodes where you can have a good feeling. I absolutely love the first fifteen minutes or so of this episode with Jackson Lake thinking himself to be the Doctor. It’s tremendous. The Doctor arriving in Victorian London and almost instantly hearing his name called was fantastic and the smile on his face was magnificent. He loved a bit of danger and trepidation! Rosita was a really good character as the would be companion of the apparent next Doctor, but it’s certainly he who steals the show. David Morrisey is marvellous in providing his take on how he’d be the Doctor and whilst he wouldn’t actually be a future incarnation, it’s a wonderful glimpse of what he could have been. I think he’s excellent and I’d certainly have been okay with him being the Doctor at some point. The Tenth Doctor’s reaction to seeing him action is very good and I loved how he happy he seemed to be encountering what he considered a future incarnation. The chase scene with the Cyber Shade dragging them along on the rope and their subsequent reaction was brilliant. That’s the Doctor at his best. The concept of the Shades themselves was decent and perhaps a bit more ought to have been made of them. I get that these were the last of the Cybermen from the parallel Earth so resources were thin, but did they really need converted animals? I absolutely love the design of the Cyber Leader here and with the infamous black helmet looking splendid, the use of the clear casing to see the brain is a stark reminder of the Cybermen’s humanity. I’m not entirely sure about the logic of wanting to serve a Cyber King, but it’s good that the Doctor recognised it and that it was a dreadnought ship. The first line of defence. The design is somewhat questionable and it’s probably a little wrong to judge it harshly considering it was fifteen years ago now, but I have to say it’s something of a guilty pleasure. When Eaglemoss first announced it as one of their special edition figurines I just had to have it but unfortunately the issue in my local WH Smith that day was damaged. It took me about seven years to finally obtain it! It now sits nicely alongside my Cyber Shade figurine and Cyber Leader figure. Miss Hartigan here is a ruthless villain and she’s the true enemy of the special. The moment she becomes King is very good and the black eyes really sell her evilness. I was impressed. I think the info stamps are a good source of knowledge and I love the one on the Doctor as we see all ten incarnations up to this point. Like my rewatching of all modern episodes in the last couple of years, I watched alongside my girlfriend Gemma and it’s fair to say she wasn’t a huge fan of this one which is a shame. Admittedly it does probably go on for too long but seeing the Doctor work out bit by bit what’s happened to Jackson Lake and all he’s lost is well done. The fob watch gaff is fun but the TARDIS being a hot air balloon and him just having an ordinary screwdriver are slightly silly. It’s good natured fun though! I can’t fault it too much. The build to the conclusion is good and the Doctor not being happy with Hartigan for driving him to this point was decent. I love that Jackson wants to ensure the Doctor is thanked this time around as he knows everything he does and sacrifices. Overall, a very good episode! 

Rating: 8/10

Pluto's Gate

"This is my discovery!"

Writer: James Hudnall

Format: Comic Strip

Released: February 2022

Printed in: Lucky Comics 01

Featuring: Olive Hawthorne

Synopsis 

Olive Hawthorne assembles a team of talented students skilled in the mystical arts and the arcane. Can the protectors of Devil's End stop Scorpio before he unleashes the destructive force of Bak? And what is lurking in a cave near the village that could destroy the world!

Verdict 

Pluto's Gate was a great comic strip adventure! This followed on very nicely from the Scorpio’s Sting story that served as the 2019 Free Comic Book Day special from Lucky Comics, and it was lovely to get a more feature length comic adventure to explore life beyond The Dæmons for Olive Hawthorne. She’s a strong character and that was clearly evident in this adventure. You would think after everything that happened to her that she would want to depart Devil’s End and live a quiet life somewhere else! But I really like that she feels a sense of duty to the village and the safety of its people. We already know that there’s a power source somewhere beneath the village and we got to explore that and the potential threat it had. I liked her apprentices of Grace and Jiro to really set out a team of main characters. They were definitely more prominent this time around which I liked but I couldn’t help but laugh that they had to take the car whilst Olive just transported herself to the cave site that was found. That hardly seemed fair! Olive was still the main character for sure. I thought Dr Vandal was a strong character and his interest in the dig and what he was discovering was great. He was selfish and looking to take all of the credit when he discovered the device that showed him that something lay at Devil’s End. I really liked exploring ancient mythology and artefacts so combining a Roman site with a temple that worshipped the God Pluto was excellent! That was a strong historical combination. I am always fascinated to think what life would have been like in the Roman era for an ordinary citizen and getting any glimpses at that is brilliant. I have to praise the artwork once again as I really enjoyed the retro feel! It’s black and white which initially I wasn’t terribly excited about, but after reading I thought it was fantastic and added a strong vibe and perhaps actually added to the mystery and enigmatic feel. The use of Latin was probably a little overboard and it got slightly tiresome to have another character have to ask what was said instead of just a translation, but it linked back to the Roman site nicely. I couldn’t be too bad at it! The length was good and didn’t overstay  its welcome whilst maintaining an entertaining pace that flowed very nicely. I was really interested in Pluto’s gate and whilst some elaboration on why that was dangerous would have been beneficial, I liked the history behind it. Volam was intent on taking the glory of the find and that would mean freeing the evil at hand, but the Golem dealt with him rather brutally before the cave collapsed and sealed it in forever. The lack of specifics meant the police and media wouldn’t know about it other than the tragedy, and Olive needing to guard the site for the future sets us up nicely for Hawthorne’s Brigade and hopefully more adventures from Lucky Comics! Overall, a great read! 

Rating: 8/10

Hidden

"Why was talking to you the last thing they ever did?"

Writer: Steven Saville

Format: Audio

Released: February 2008

Series: Torchwood BBC Audio 01

Featuring: Captain Jack, Gwen, Owen, Tosh, Ianto

Synopsis 

After a series of violent and seemingly unrelated deaths, the solution to a riddle seems to point the finger of blame at Captain Jack. Can the Torchwood team uncover the truth, which lies hidden in the heart of the Welsh countryside, in time to save their leader?

Verdict 

Hidden was a really strong BBC Audio debut from Torchwood! I actually purchased the Torchwood Tales boxset a very long time ago but for some reason it has taken me until now to get started on it and this was a very solid beginning! It was fun to return to the Series 1 era and this differed a lot from the Big Finish Torchwood range as they feel more like a continuation whereas this felt like it could just slot in somewhere in the middle of that first series. That was really good. I must start by saying how good Naoko Mori was as the narrator. She was tremendous and her subtle impressions of the Torchwood team that wasn’t Tosh were brilliant. A small American accent for Jack here, a hint of Welshness for Gwen and a very solid take on Owen’s boyish personality. I was hugely impressed and it definitely helped with the authenticity of the story. It felt genuine which can sometimes be difficult in a story that’s narration heavy with only one performer, especially one that goes over two hours! But Mori held her own and was just lovely. It didn’t feel that long which is a compliment. The excitement was there and I thought the build up was good. The style of the audio with the different chapters was very intriguing and wasn’t something I had heard previously. I was a big fan though and it helped break up the story as the listener went through. It certainly allowed me to get my washing out at one point! Having a cliffhanger finish between discs was also the right decision and it was a great one at that! Ianto being run off the road was a big shock but certainly one I welcomed to heighten the jeopardy in the adventure. I was impressed with how different each part felt whilst connecting back to an overall plot. The fertility clinic just being a front for genome experimentation to try and cheat death was brilliant and I loved listening to Tosh trying to break down the ownership structure of Robert Craig’s companies. There was offshore mixed in with shell companies which made me feel like I was back at work! I’m an analyst at a financial firm that assigns AML risk ratings to clients and I’ve been on that paper trail many a time to try and find an owner. It was fun to hear someone else doing it instead. Robert Craig was a fascinating character and his history dating back to the middle of the seventeenth century was quite something. It tied in nicely with the desire for immortality and just chasing that was fun to explore. Fronting it with a fertility clinic was amusing but the world had come a long way now. I liked how reference was made to breakthroughs of recent technology and how to the scientists and people of the 1660s that they would seem impossible. So why couldn’t death be conquered? It was an admirable goal for sure. The police questioning Jack as the victims had all been in contact with him in the previous 24 hours was brilliant and I really liked that he was blamed. He was very confident he wouldn’t be going down for the crime though. Ianto having a serious injury was good and I thought the realism contained in the story was Torchwood at its best. Having settings like the Brecon Beacons just north of Merthyr Tydfil and a journey to Caerphilly was very close to my home so I appreciated that! I thought Tosh working out front the photos that she was looking at the same person was good and the body going missing got Jack off the hook as a jury would never convict him of murdering a man who didn’t exist with no body, but a bit more elaboration there would have been good to fully articulate what had happened. It did allow for a moment of triumph for Jack though! Overall, a great listen. 

Rating: 8/10

The Movellan Grave

"I am your mistake."

Writer: Andrew Smith

Format: Audio

Released: July 2017

Series: Fourth Doctor Adventures 6.07

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana II

Synopsis 

When an archaeological dig in 1980s England finds a Movellan power pack buried amongst Iron Age artefacts, the Doctor and Romana have no choice but to investigate. And what they discover worries them very much indeed.

A Movellan ship is buried under the ground. Soon the robotic enemies of the Daleks are making their way to the surface, but they are not the biggest threat humanity faces. 

Because on board this ship is the greatest weapon the Movellans have ever devised. A weapon that could stop the Daleks forever... and anything else that gets in their way.

Verdict 

The Movellan Grave was an excellent Fourth Doctor Adventures story! I thought this was rather brilliant and a welcomed audio debut for the Movellans. They displayed a lot of potential on screen in Destiny of the Daleks and it’s great to have them without the Daleks this time around. They can take  centre stage and get to showcase themselves as the main attraction. That’s never going to happen with the Daleks around so this was terrific. I really enjoyed that they were still referencing the Dalek War they were engaged in and it was also nice that they weren’t really the enemies. The idea of the Doctor and Romana holidaying in London was lovely and it was fun that the former hadn’t really decided on how long they were staying for. Would it be for two minutes or for the rest of the century? Who knows. Romana wished she did though as she wasn’t massively keen on the twentieth century. Her description of a television as an entertainer scanner was magnificent though. I liked how on the TV they were looking at a live news report of a recent finding at an archaeological site and the pair recognised the supposed ancient artefact right away. It was a Movellan power bank! That was very exciting. Just what were the Movellans doing on Earth in 300BC. It was later established that they were still in their past so their desire to change the future with Chenek was an exciting prospect. The Doctor wouldn’t be having a paradox in place that’s for sure! The concept behind Chenek was intriguing and whilst he was still a Movellan, he was far from the norm. It was fun to establish that he did have the hair though! That’s an iconic element of the Movellan look so it would have to stay no matter what experimentation was going on. Injecting some emotional code into the Movellans was great and the Doctor pushing on what specifics were used was very good. He knew something was up. Captain Narina was a fine character as the Movellan who had awoken from the dig and I liked the development in Movellan evolution that they no longer needed the power bank to be attached to them. It could operate remotely and that’s where Carrie came in as she was the one who’d discovered it at the dig. That meant the Movellans were back up and running with their ship also found by Romana. I loved the use of her own sonic screwdriver too. The ease in which the Doctor and Romana created a fake archaeological society to gain access to the dig site and the Movellan power bank was tremendous. They gained access with ease! Robin was a good character whilst he lasted and the sudden nature of his seemingly accidental death was superb. It made a big impact and whilst not entirely evil, it showed the Movellans were extremely dangerous. The ambiguity regarding the intention there was excellent too. Chenek’s role in the conclusion was really good and I liked how he doomed the Movellans. That was a way to break the computer logic deadlock for sure against the Daleks! He even acknowledged that what he’d done had doomed them but it was a way to break up the stalemate. I thought that was a neat touch and tied things up nicely whilst protecting the future. The Doctor fiddling with the emotional code and the links of the power bank with the Movellans was good stuff. Mischievous Fourth Doctor at his best. Overall, a terrific audio adventure!

Rating: 9/10