Dead or Alive: Hereafter

"What do they want with the dead?"

Writer: Tim Foley

Format: Audio

Released: July 2025

Series: Fugitive Doctor Adventures 2.03

Featuring: Fugitive Doctor

Synopsis

Cosmo has finally captured the Doctor! But they're stranded together on a planet thanks to an unusual psychic forcefield grounding her ship. Tracing its source, they find a settlement that's preparing for a festival in honour of their 'queen' in the mountain. When Cosmo is captured, the Doctor must decide whether to help her captor... especially now she's discovered, thanks to local woman Herma, that the queen and her minions are vampires!

Verdict

Hereafter was a great conclusion to the Dead or Alive second series of Fugitive Doctor Adventures! It remains unconfirmed at the time of writing two days after release date whether this will be the last of the Fugitive Doctor at Big Finish, but I suspect there's still a lot more to come. It almost feels inevitable that this range will continue and I really hope that is the case because there is still so much untapped potential when it comes to this mysterious and hidden incarnation of the Doctor. The story arc with Cosmo has been really strong running through the two series so far and it seemed far from finished with how things concluded here! Division will not be happy, but all of the traits of the Doctor that we know and cherish here were realised. I just cannot see the Fugitive Doctor as pre-Hartnell. It doesn't fit the character and I mean the TARDIS is literally a police box which doesn't happen until An Unearthly Child. I thought it was slightly underwhelming to just start the episode with the Doctor already captured by Cosmo, especially after she gave her the slip in this series two other episodes! It seemed random but the toll taken also had an effect on Cosmo with some sort of time ram to the extreme. What I wasn't expecting to be so prevalent in this story was the theme of fatherhood. We got an incredible backstory to Cosmo which was welcomed in a big way as we learned of her past relationship with her father. He was a Time Lord that seemed to echo sentiments the Doctor as we know would be proud of with his desire to travel off world. He had stolen artefacts and relics from other worlds including something of the Drahvins which was intriguing! What are the Time Lords doing with something from them? I'd love a firm Gallifrey or Time Lord spin-off series  exploring the early days of their history because this certainly felt like it in the flashbacks. Cosmo's father couldn't comprehend why the Time Lords contained themselves to one planet when they had all of time a space at their fingertips! It was something I'd agree with for sure. Herma was another good character that was also having spotlight on her paternal relationship and the parallels between her and Cosmo were good to explore. It's a shame we didn't get the Doctor involved there but I guess the broken memory is a good excuse for that! I liked touching upon the ancient history between the Time Lords and Vampires with the Queen Verdilla a very intriguing character as a part of the latter. She already knew what the Doctor was from scent alone and I really enjoyed that becoming a thing. She challenged on if she wanted to prove she had no reflection which was good and whilst the pace for this one was something I'd describe as measured, that was almost better with the historical exploration. It didn't need to be all guns blazing which was a nice change in still having that finale feeling. I thought it was nice for the Doctor's actions to be acknowledged by Cosmo as after saving her with the psychic field, she let the Doctor get a head start on escaping from Division. That psychic field was a strong element of the episode and its connection with the Queen was very good. It seems like Cosmo will be back on the hunt and Herma sacrificing herself was an incredible moment. The return of the dead was quite something as well! I liked the mythical tones of the episode and exploring folklore and history of the Time Lords, but this still keeps me wanting more and that's exactly what you want. Exploring forbidden relics is always going to be good in my eyes and I want all the details! It's fun that even in this incarnation the Doctor had knowledge of them that she shouldn't, but one actually playing into ensuring Cosmo was safe was a nice touch. Overall, a fine episode to conclude the series and I hope this isn't the last of Jo Martin! A magnificent and consistent series. 

Rating: 8/10