An Ood Halloween

"I'm here to give you a second chance."

Writer: Darren Jones

Format: Audio

Released: August 2023

Series: Four From Doom's Day 03

Featuring: Doom

Synopsis

Hired assassin Doom is on a mission to save her own life before Death catches up with her. If she can find the Doctor they might be able to help her – but where in Space and Time are they?

These four missions take Doom to a Mediterranean cruise ship in 1966, the planet Mars in the distant past, San Francisco in 1999, and finally desolate planet in a dying solar system. Along the way she meets former TARDIS travellers Ian and Barbara, the mighty Ice Warriors, and Brian the Ood. 

But when a mysterious stranger with silver hair and sunglasses turns up, will he be Doom's salvation?

Verdict

An Old Halloween was a very fun adventure to continue my way through the Four From Doom’s Day contribution to Doom’s Day from BBC Audio as part of Doctor Who’s sixtieth anniversary celebration! The hits keep on coming with this particular release as after encountering a famous pair of companions and a legendary monster in the first two stories, we have something almost of a blend of the two here with Doom getting to meet Brian the Ood. I think it’s quite fun to mix the two trans-media tales with Brian obviously being an extensive feature of Time Lord Victorious, so having him encounter Doom here is a smart choice. It’s also a lot of fun to hear their dynamic as the pair are both assassins so it was good to acknowledge that they would know each other. It came with the profession! I also think it helped so much to have Silas Carson as the narrator. He was brilliant and it helped so much with Brian’s scenes. Just hearing that familiar soft and eery voice of the Ood was delightful. His history with the Lesser Order of Oberon was good to learn about and it was quite amusing that after some disagreements with the previous regime, which he’d helped bring down, he was back working for them. I did think a little more could have been done to fully utilise the 1999 setting of San Francisco, but unfortunately we didn’t really get any The Movie references. That was fine, but a sneaky encounter with the Eighth Doctor could have been great! Although I do know that’s set to come in the next batch of releases from Big Finish. Until then, Brian more than sufficed alongside her and actually using his vortex manipulator to help Doom with her target was great stuff. Brian knowing that Doom had technically failed her previous mission in The Martian Dilemma was amusing and it seemed that the client dying didn’t suffice in terms of mission completion. There was no voiding. A kill needed to be carried out. I thought the use of the Halloween theme was done well and whilst it’s probably just there to get a funky story title, the mentions of Brian wearing a mask were quite comical if not a little overdone in the half an hour running time. Even Doom was mentioned as being in costume which wasn’t much of a surprise! Valic was a good character as the Colaxian causing mayhem and having two assassins after him showed how difficult he would be to catch. The action that came from the chase after him was entertaining and Carson did a good job in providing some danger to his voice. He did sound like a booming figure which matched the way he was written. I thought his demise was done well and the use of Mr Ball after Brian seemed dead was terrific. Brian acknowledging that Doom had carried out her mission this time was a nice touch and I was quite glad that he had survived. There’s a lot of potential with his character and I do hope that we haven’t hear or seen the last of him! Overall, a great listen to continue the saga!

Rating: 8/10