Lost Warriors is a Doctor Who audio boxset from Big Finish Productions and stars Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. There are three episodes all directed by Barnaby Edwards.
James Kettle kicks off the set with The Hunting Season. The guest cast is made up of Alex Jennings, Allegra Marland, Tilly Steele, Don Gilet, and Annette Badland. The Doctor lands in an estate that is besieged by alien hunters. He meets both the owners and the staff below the stairs. The Doctor learns the hunting party are after a fugitive which could mean that someone in the manor is not they appear to be. The episode has a bit of a slow start for me, but the second half gets better as identities are revealed. Eccleston still sounds fantastic since his return to the role. Kettle doesn’t exactly overwhelm me with excitement with this effort, but I consider it a solid start to a promising idea.
The Curse of Lady MacBeth is written by Lizzie Hopley. Neve McIntosh, Anthony Howell, David Rintoul, Maggie Service, and Lucy Goldie join Eccleston and deliver their own vocal talents. The Doctor is brought to Scotland where he encounters the queen who William Shakespeare based his Lady MacBeth in the eleventh century. There is also an alien presence which may need the Doctor’s help or his life. This may need to another listen, but there is not much I found all that memorable in this episode. It was fine for the most part, I suppose.
Finally, John Dorney closes it out with Monsters in Metropolis where the Doctor meets a far more familiar adversary. The guest cast is comprised of Nick Wilton, Helen Goldwyn, Peter Bankole, Nicholas Briggs, and Raj Ghatak. In Berlin 1927, an iconic film is being made, and a lone Cyberman has been cast. This was a strong finish here. There is some history, murder, betrayal, and an old rivalry that takes an odd turn. Unlike the middle story, this one remains quite memorable. The guest cast were all solid, but I thought Helen Goldwyn in the role of Anna Dreyfus sort of stood out. She and Eccleston seemed to have a rather nice rapport throughout the play. The classic silent film, Metropolis, is the backdrop here. There is an impressive sense of foreboding as the Doctor knows that the persecution of the Jewish people is about to hit catastrophic levels. Dorney really gives a solid concluding story here.
Overall, I enjoyed the set as expected. Eccleston hasn’t really lost a step in is portrayal of the Ninth Doctor. The cast and post production work are as top notch as expected. Not every episode hits the mark, but most of the set does.
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