Doctor Who-Sontarans vs. Rutans comes to a satisfying conclusion with John Dorney’s In Name Only from Big Finish Productions. The audio drama was directed by Ken Bentley. Jonathon Carley has taken over the role of the War Doctor from the late John Hurt. During this particular incarnation, the Time Lord once known as the Doctor has rejected the moniker due to his reluctant participation in the Time War. Although he has not lost much of the morality shown in his other selves, this version of the Doctor is certainly more ruthless and dangerous in many ways. The guest cast is comprised of Dan Starkey, Christopher Ryan, John Banks, and Debbie Korley.
In the midst of the Time War, the Time Lords suffer a devastating attack apparently committed by the Rutans. The War Doctor has arrived and has some different ideas as to who to blame for the attack on his people. The Time Lords are itching to deliver a terrible retaliation, but the War Doctor conducts his own investigation before Time is damaged beyond repair.
I have enjoyed the mini-series overall. The story is a little confusing, but it does tie together the other plots in this series pretty well. Carley does sound uncannily like John Hurt at times. I was not a fan of the series introducing some secret incarnation of the Doctor, but this particular iteration is starting to grow on me, mostly due to the presentation by Big Finish.
I also find myself enjoying the encounters with the Sontarans more. The performances of Starkey, Ryan, and Banks are well done. There seems to be some add a little more diverse personality in the Sontarans. I normally would balk at such an effort, but the writers are still remaining true to the original concept.
There is plenty of reason to enjoy this episode, but it may take more than one listen to fully understand it.
Christopher Eccleston makes another solid return to the microphones of Big Finish Productions as the Ninth Doctor in another set of Doctor Who audio dramas entitled Pioneers. Helen Goldwyn directs this trio of adventures. The guest cast includes Louise Jameson, who is better known as Leela in the series, however she is playing a new character here. Adam Martyn, Harki Bhambra, Ian Conningham, and Andrew James Spooner are some of the other performers lending their vocal talents.
The trilogy of stories begins with Roy Gill’s The Green Gift. The Doctor is accompanied by a bling young man and his talking dog, who were introduced in the previous collection entitled Shades of Fear. Louise Jameson appears as the apparent leader of a colony spacecraft known as the Greenwood. Earth has been all but destroyed, and humanity needs a new home. There is an artificial intelligence aboard which the Doctor may have encountered before.
It is pretty cool when other well-known Doctor Who actors appear as new characters. Jamison is best known as playing the Fourth Doctor’s companion, Leela, but she gets to stretch her range a bit here with Big Finish, and I think it’s a great idea. I can work through the distraction of recognizing her as Leela without much problem. The story is interesting and sort of revisits a very distinctive episode from the classic series. There are some engaging character moments when the Doctor is getting some explanations for the setting. that did quite well with building the intrigue until the revelations of the threat was revealed. Eccleston is unsurprisingly compelling during these more thoughtful scenes. The two new companions of Callen and Doyle, who really aren’t long-term mainstays in the TARDIS, are kind of fun. The dog, played by Harki Bhambra, is able to talk with some fancy, futuristic AI assistance. Anyway, the story is a pretty solid beginning to this particular set.
Next up, Robert Valentine takes the audience to a bit of Norwegian history with his story entitled Northern Lights. The Doctor crashes in the Arctic Circle toward the end of the nineteenth century and encounters Norwegian explorers, Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen. There is another presence within the famous Aurora Borealis, and the Doctor discovers that his current location may not be as isolated as it appears.
This story had a few fairly heartwarming moments that were unexpected. I have not heard of these particular explorers before this audio. Doctor Who does have a way of introducing historical figures and events that are not widely known or appreciated. The science fiction element is nice, but it’s pretty cool that Valentine did some research and brought forth some important historical figures that are not known as well as they probably deserve. Valentine has yet to put out a bad script, and this one is quite good. I think I appreciated the historical background that was rather new to me, but the overall drama was pretty good too.
Finally, Katherine Armitage takes the TARDIS to the early days of a football league formed in the United Kingdom with her script entitled The Beautiful Game. An American would recognize this as soccer. Another rather important historical sports figure in the shape of William Sudell, played by Raymond Coulthard, is brought forth. The Doctor attends to attend the meeting which formed the league, but he arrives a week early and finds himself witnessing another important meeting instead which involves the women’s suffrage movement in the late nineteenth century instead. Since it’s Doctor Who, there is an alien presence lurking around that feeds off others’ obsessions and is able to change size in seconds.
The alien threat is hard to really visualize through an audio play. However, there are some great moments between the characters. Once again, I am exposed to some influential figures from the past that I would not have otherwise known if not for a script. The cast does a great job, as is normal for a Big Finish drama. This episode is not bad, but it didn’t quite impress as the first two. It does have an interesting, little-known setting so that helps.
Overall, Eccleston himself makes the set worthwhile. The episodes are solid contributions, but they don’t really stand out other than some interesting touches on little discussed historical events. It’s still something I would recommend for the fans to collect because Eccleston is still worth the effort, and the stories have plenty of points of interest, and the history aficionados will get a pretty good kick.
The Sontarans vs. Rutans saga continues with another enjoyable audio drama from Big Finish Productions. This time, the Doctor Who range pits the Sixth Doctor against the Sontarans again in Born to Die by Tiegan Byrne. Colin Baker is back behind the mic and is joined by India Fisher reprising her role as Charlotte Pollard. Jon Culshaw, Christopher Ryan, and Dan Starkey make up the guest past portraying various Sontarans.
This is the Big Finish era where Charley is keeping the rather peculiar secret that she has already traveled with the Doctor in his future. The TARDIS has brought them to the planet of Taxodon where they come across a Sontaran who dies under mysterious circumstances. The Doctor has a chance of prove their innocence, but he discovers that a race is in captivity due to the Sontarans experimenting with their natural ability to camouflage. He also finds another experiment which appears to be at the behest of the Rutans, and not every Sontaran may be as he appears.
This has been an interesting little mini-series. Colin Baker is quite engaging as usual. India Fisher still sounds great as Charley Pollard even though she is over twenty years older than when she started playing the role. The story is pretty good as well. Byrne is at least a competent writer who knows how to run with an interesting idea. It was kind of fun to hear the Doctor paired with a Sontaran who is acting in a kind of Watson-esque role.
The episode itself isn’t necessarily a stand-out, but the performances and the overall idea of examining some aspects of the endless war between the Sontarans and the Rutans does make it worthy of collecting and revisiting from time to time.
Big Finish Productions returns to Tom Baker’s era Doctor Who with the audio drama release Storm of the Sea Devils, which turns out to be quite enjoyable, which is not surprising with this version of the Time Lord. Nicholas Briggs returns to the director’s seat. There are actually two stories in this audio set. Baker is joined by Christopher Naylor as Harry Sullivan, who was originally portrayed by the late Ian Marter. Eleanor Crooks is a recent addition to the TARDIS crew in this range as Naomi Cross.
Storm of the Sea Devils is written by David K Barnes. The guest cast includes Tracy Wiles, Silas Carson. Nicholas Briggs, and Satnam Bhogal. Although some previous audio dramas have included Harry Sullivan and Naomi Cross, this one actually sets up their meeting. For Harry, he also is reunited with the Fourth Doctor. He is supposed to be in holiday in Calcutta, but Naomi Cross intercepts him and wants him to look into the sudden cancellation of a new hotel’s opening. There have also been sightings of strange figures that appear familiar to UNIT. The Doctor is also on hand conducting his own investigations. There is a mysterious prisoner at the hotel, and its continued internment may have dire consequences for the human race.
The fact that Tom Baker is in the lead is already going to give this story a huge advantage, but the episode does get even better than that. The Sea Devils are an interesting adversary because, like the Silurians, they are part of a civilization that thrived on Earth well before the humans came along. The Sea Devils are not necessarily driven by the most evil of motivations, but they are still dangerous, especially when one of their number is in captivity. Naomi Cross is becoming one of the better creations by Big Finish as a companion to the Time Lord. Crooks has an interesting voice and is developing some nice chemistry with Harry. There is also a fantastic scene with just her and the Doctor in which the Doctor uses a bit of subterfuge to convince the Sea Devils that not all humans operate out of a sense of fear or bigotry. That was really well written and of course performed brilliantly by the pair.
I have to say that Naylor is doing quite well capturing the essence of Ian Marter’s portrayal of Harry Sullivan. I am a little ambivalent about Harry’s presence in the television series, but the writers for Big Finish make him more interesting as a character.
Storm of the Sea Devils does a great job of blending some of the traditions of the Fourth Doctor’s era with something fresh, most notably the inclusion of Naomi Cross.
Then we get to Worlds Beyond written by Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky. The guest cast is comprised of Anthony Howell, Amaka Okafor, Oscar Pearce, and David Shaw-Parker.
Naomi Cross gets her first trip in the TARDIS with Harry Sullivan and the Doctor. They find themselves in a resort world where the holidays are custom-made after a brain scan. The Doctor has a stimulating chess match with Alan Turing while his companions find other diversions. Since they are traveling in the TARDIS, this idyllic getaway has a terrifying secret, and the Doctor will have to fight for his mind to keep it from being fed upon by a dangerous alien presence.
This story is pretty good as well, but not quite as engaging as the first one. The cast, as usual, are up to the job. The Doctor encountering historical figures is almost always a delight. Of course, when that Doctor is played by Tom Baker, one is not quite certain how the entertainment will be enhanced, but it never becomes a disappointment. This one may take another play for me to grasp some elements of the plot better. Still, it’s a solid contribution for the range, but it’s not just that uniquely memorable.
The release as a whole is well worth the time. The sound effects are beautifully realized, but one is always able to predict that when Big Finish puts something out. Crooks is likely going to turn out to be one of my favorite casting decisions. I have heard some other Naomi Cross episodes and have grown to like her more with each episode. It is great to have Harry Sullivan continue to be represented, even with the original actor no longer able to step to the mic.
Storm of the Sea Devils is likely to be a favorite of mine of the 2024 Big Finish releases.
The Children of the Future is another worthy entry into the Big Finish audio range Doctor Who: Sontarans vs. Rutans. Tim Foley provides the script which was directed by Ken Bentley. Tim Treloar has once again performed his version of the Third Doctor, originally portrayed by the late Jon Pertwee. Sadie Miller reprises the role of Sarah Jane Smith, who was originally portrayer by her late mother, Elisabeth Sladen. Jon Culshaw continues his masterful impression of the late Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Jeremy Ang Jones, Nicholas Boulton, and Lucy Goldie make up the guest cast.
The Doctor has become more irascible and secretive lately, and the Brigadier and Sarah Jane Smith become concerned enough to follow him to a secret base of soldiers who claim to be from the future. They claim that they are refugees after the Sontarans invade Earth in the future. There is an audacious plan to breed humans who are uniquely capable of standing up to the invasion that has yet to happen. Sarah detects a few inconsistencies and begins to doubt the Doctor’s allegiance, and then his identity. The Sontarans’ long-standing enemy, the Rutans, are shapeshifters, and this Doctor may not be the genuine article.
All of the original actors who played the main parts are deceased, but the characters live on. Sadie Miller really is getting better at emulating her mother’s vocal talents. Treloar has continued to solidly capture the essence of Pertwee’s performance as well. The story has some interesting red herrings in the plot. The resolution was not as obvious as it could have been, but that’s good. It still ends up being merely solid entertainment, but that’s better than being outright garbage.
Two pretty good stories make up the latest set of Fifth Doctor audio dramas just released by Big Finish Productions. Peter Davison is reunited with his original TARDIS crew portrayed by Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, and Matthew Waterhouse in a pair of audio dramas written by Tim Foley and Lizzie Hopley. Ken Bentley is in the director’s chair yet again.
The great Agatha Christie is channeled in Tim Foley’s The Merfolk Murders which kicks off this set. The guest cast includes Tom Alexander, Pearl Appleby, and Josie Lawrence. The TARDIS arrives in 1940 Scotland at the dawn of the Second World War. They encounter a little group known as the Merfolk Society, who meet to discuss murder mysteries. They are gathered to discuss The Casebook of Orion Hood, whose protagonist is quite familiar to the Doctor and his friends. It seems that the Doctor spent some time as an amateur detective in his previous incarnation, and those adventures were chronicled by one Sarah Jane Smith, who was using a pseudonym at the time. Anyway, a murder has occurred, and the Doctor has to slip back into the role of Orion Hood.to get to the bottom of the disturbing crime.
This was a pretty fun and interesting story. The red herrings were pretty effective. Apparently, this is a set-up for a future Big Finish project which is likely to star the great Tom Baker. I am a great fan of murder mysteries of this sort, so Doctor Who dipping into this genre is a bit of an extra treat. The main cast continue to display their usual chemistry. I do struggle with ignoring how much Peter Davison’s voice has changed over the years. He was in his early thirties when he first played the Doctor on television. Although he does not really sound bad in these new stories, his voice seems to have changed the most compared to the other Doctors participating in these recordings. His acting is still on par, and I still enjoy dipping into the range of stories regardless. This is still a pretty good addition to the Fifth Doctor catalogue of Big Finish stories.
Dream Team is written by Lizzie Hopley and brings back creatures first introduced in the new series known as the Dream Crabs. The Crabs latch on their victims’ face and puts them into a deep sleep, feeding on their brains as they dream. They’re actually rather effectively chilling. The Doctor and his friends arrive in a place that specializes in corporate bonding and find themselves experiencing some very vivid nightmares. There is no guest cast in this story, and it’s a two-parter. Hopley manages to pack in a lot in this relatively short episode which focuses solely on the main cast. It’s another one of the stronger episodes that Big Finish has been putting out recently.
I will also mention that there is a range included in some of the recent downloaded releases known as Interludes. This release included one of these episodes entitled Meanwhile, Turlough by Jonathan Blum and features the talented Dan Starkey presenting this audio short story. While the Doctor and Tegan Jovanka deal with a crisis on a planet where the TARDIS has recently arrived, Turlough has his own crisis going in that his escape from his exile on Earth has been noticed, and he has to contend with a monitor from his own planet who has recognized him. Starkey is pretty good as a narrator and actor, but his efforts to emulate the Fifth Doctor is not that good. He actually is closer to mimicking Mark Strickson, who plays Turlough in the series. It’s an interesting story, but I am easily intrigued by Turlough. He was definitely one of the Doctor’s more enigmatic and intriguing companions. Blum has a long history of writing Doctor Who stories, and I was reminded why he was one my favorite contributors.
The whole set is quite good. The main cast once again prevails in making any plot holes much less meaningful. Davison is getting older, and one can hear it, however he is still welcome to keep me entertained as I listen to his new recordings with Big Finish. I think the murder mystery at the top of the release is going to be my preference, but the whole collection is worth the time.
Sontarans vs Rutans: The Battle of Giant’s Causeway is another triumphant beginning to a pretty fun series of Doctor Who audio dramas from Big Finish Productions. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary since the introduction of the Sontarans in Doctor Who, and Big Finish decided to mark the occasion by a short series of dramas that feature aspects of the ongoing war between the Sontarans and the Rutans.
The first episode features the return of Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. India Fisher reprises her role as Charlotte Pollard with Conrad Westmaas returning to the role of C’rizz after fifteen years since audiences heard the tragic departure of the character. This is basically a flashback story that sort of tantalizes the nostalgia for long-time Big Finish listeners. John Banks and Dan Starkey return to voice the absurdly militaristic Sontarans. Lizzie Hopley wrote the script, and Ken Bentley returns to the director’s chair. Michelle Fox and Amanda Hurwitz round out the guest cast.
A temporal tidal wave throws the TARDIS to Ancient Ireland, and the Doctor, C’rizz, and Charley encounter Sontarans behaving like Roman Legionnaires. They have landed in a region known as the Giant’s Causeway, and something has shut the TARDIS down, leaving the Doctor and his friends stranded in the midst of a brewing war between two alien forces who have been displaced and the savagery of those who are supposed to live in that time and place.
Doctor Who is a pretty strange show on the outset, and this script is up there when it comes to odd plotlines. Hopley is talented enough to make this work. The Sontarans are acting odder than usual, but Starkey and Banks still manage to make them compelling and amusing. McGann, Fisher, and Westmaas easily recapture the chemistry that made them a popular team in earlier times. I would not consider this script to be one the greats, but it’s still pretty enjoyable. Hopley shows some creativity in bringing in some fresh amusement in the depiction of the Sontarans and the Rutans. Yes, we’ll be hearing more from the Rutans in this little mini-series. Hopley gives this range a pretty decent kick-off.
Broken Memories is the title of the latest Doctor Who audio collection from the Classic Doctors New Monsters range, and Big Finish Productions once again releases an intriguing and enjoyable collection of tales featuring numerous incarnations of Time Lord.
The premise of this series, which is directed by Barnaby Edwards, is to have Doctors from the classic era face monsters and adversaries that were introduced in the current run that started in 2005. It’s an ambitious idea that almost always pays off. I tend to enjoy the series, and there are four in this particular set to briefly examine.
Tom Baker is up first as the Fourth Doctor in Invasion of the Body Stealers by Jonathan Morris. He is joined by Sadie Miller, who has taken the role of Sarah Jane Smith. Miller’s mother, Elisabeth Sladen, originated the performance, so Sadie is able to breathe new life into one of the most popular companions to enter the TARDIS. The Doctor and Sarah arrive in time to offer aid to crashed spaceship and encounter the body-swapping criminal organization known as Harmony Shoal. I am not that fond of the title, but the story is actually pretty good. Baker still sounds great, and Sadie Miller does a pretty job emulating her mother. There is a truly chilling moment when one of the supporting characters is about to have his brain ripped out of his skull, and the sound effects and score actually freaked me out a little. Anyway, it’s a promising start to this collection.
The Queen of Clocks by Jacqueline Rayner features Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, and he is accompanied by the always welcome Bonnie Langford as Mel. The Clockwork Droids are invading a kingdom with a peculiar obsession with time. The Doctor and Mel are about to learn of a tragedy that had started well before their intervention. In spite of the absurdity of the plot, there is a clever yet heartbreaking twist on the horizon. Baker and Langford, as usual, perform this one beautifully. There were some moments that were a little picture to pull into imaginary focus, but that’s always a risk when listening to Doctor Who in this manner. Rayner has contributed to the franchise in some form or another for many years, and this contribution affirms that she has earned the repeated invites to write something new. It has one of those revelations that I wasn’t expecting but felt that I should have been. Anyway, Rayner’s offering here is quite engaging, but there is little reason to expect anything less.
David K. Barnes has a two-part story featuring the race known as the Silence. Once someone turns away from a member of this race, they cannot retain the memory of that encounter. The Eighth Doctor arrives in the city of Sunset during the events of The Silent Priest and to find some solace from the Time War. Paul McGann delivers another masterful performance here. Two rival criminal gangs are at war, and a mysterious priest who no one can remember meeting holds the key to bringing peace. Nicholas Briggs voices the Silence with the correct amount of creepy, sibilant whispers and hisses. This was pretty good, and the Silent featured here was much more interesting than I remember from those in the television series. The overdone Eastern American accents were a little off, and that distracted me a bit. Overall, it was an interesting story and sets up the concluding story quite well.
Sylvester McCoy returns as the Seventh Doctor as he arrives sometime after his future self. The Silent City finds the Doctor looking into an unusually successful casino which has come into being after crime has apparently disappeared. The Doctor is facing the outcome of an adventure he has yet to experience. McCoy is back in all of his Scottish glory, and he also delivers his usual enthusiastic, r-rolling vocal talents. It’s great to see him, and this story ties matters up quite effectively.
I liked all of the stories, although the first one stands out a bit more in spite of its questionable title. All of the Doctors featured showed their formidable talents in spite of their advancing years. This is a collection that is worth the time.
Big Finish Productions has recently released the conclusion a Doctor Who audio saga entitled Once and Future. Paul McGann and Tom Baker are featured the most as the Eighth and Fourth Doctors, respectively. The conclusion does more to strum the heartstrings of nostalgia than actually aim for any real coherence in the story, but it’s still a pretty fun indulgence for the Whovians.
Ken Bentley returns to the director’s chair to coordinate the realization of the script written by Matt Fitton. Carole Ann Ford reprises her role of Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter and the first companion he really wanted to impress. Alex Kingston also returns as the time travelling archeologist and the supposed wife of the Doctor’s. Maureen O’Brien, who would normally be playing the role of one of the Doctor’s early companions, Vicki, takes on the role of an adversary known as the Union. The Union turns out to be someone else who is quite familiar to the Doctor. Other Doctors also appear sporadically during this adventure since this was a release that celebrated the show’s fiftieth anniversary last year.
I have skipped out on reviewing the earlier episodes in this range, so I will offer a brief recap. The Doctor has been the victim of a weapon that destabilizes his regeneration cycle. As he has been trying to reconstruct what has happened to him, he has been suffering from something known as degeneration. He has been erratically returning to his past and sometimes his future incarnations as he has been chasing the cause of his condition through time and space.
Paul McGann and Tom Baker take on the bulk of this particular adventure. The Fourth Doctor rather amusedly referred to it as co-piloting. It was kind of touching and amusing to see Susan interact with other versions of her grandfather. Big Finish has already had the Eighth Doctor and Susan reunite in earlier episodes; however, it was pretty cool to get a taste of what she would make of the Fourth Doctor and his absurdly long scarf.
I have never been a real fan of multi-Doctor adventures like this because the story often takes a back seat to a quality plot. But I am still a fan and some of those scenes where the Doctor drags his other iterations is pretty funny most of the time.
There were times where I struggled to imagine what was going on based on the sound effects. It wasn’t always that clear as to what I should be conjuring up in my mind’s eye.
As usual, the actual performances were really good. McGann and Baker still portray their respective Doctors very effectively. It was still pretty fun to hear a bit of the other Doctors as well during the climax of the adventure even if the plot is a bit of the mess.
This is another sprawling, nonsensical episode that still manages to be entertaining just because the heartstrings of nostalgia are strummed with enough of the right notes. Multi-Doctor storylines do make less sense than a regular episode, but they are usually pretty fun, especially if Big Finish is on the job.
Revolution in Space, the latest Doctor Who audio drama to feature the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, is quite entertaining even though it does seem to drag on a little too long sometimes.
Big Finish Productions continues its efforts to bring new adventures for the Third Doctor, who is continued to be performed by Tim Treloar. Sadie Miller takes on the role of Sarah Jane Smith, who was originally portrayed by her mother, Elisabeth Sladen. Prolific Doctor Who contributor Jonathan Morris brings another solid script to the range with Nicholas Briggs returning to the director’s chair. The guest cast includes Juliet Aubrey, Richard James, Barry Aird, and Charlie Norfolk.
The story takes place on a colonized asteroid in the furthest reaches of Earth’s solar system. While the asteroid is being mined for vital minerals, a prisoner with growing and terrifying psychic powers is planning her escape. The denizens are also plotting a revolution to break the control that the Earth government exerts on them. The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith arrive just in time to get swept up into the maelstrom of fear and discontent. The psychic abilities that some of the people, including Sarah, comes at a fatal price, and the Doctor has his hands full in his efforts to stop an unhinged prisoner from wreaking havoc and saving Sarah’s life.
There is a lot to appreciate about this release. Tim Treloar’s impression of Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor continues to improve. Sadie Miller is able to emulate her mother as well, while showing her own acting abilities. Juliet Aubrey is perfect casting as the villain, Zyla Kalstein. The sound effects are, as usual, quite effective. The effort to emulate the Third Doctor’s is quite successful.
Big Finish Productions usually are quite successful with the quality of writing, and Morris is certainly one of their more reliable contributors. Revolution In Space is a solid addition to the range, and many elements work nicely, but it is not really a unique adventure. In some ways, I rather wish Big Finish would not necessarily stay devoted to the somewhat cheesy, grating musical score of the Third Doctor era.
This story has six episodes and does feel a little strained at times, which was often a problem noted in the television series. Still, there is a good chance I will appreciate it more when I listen to it again. Once again, the performances and some of the dialogue really helps with forgiving the downfalls here. Doctor Who does require some forgiveness and grace in order to properly enjoy it, but Revolution in Space, in spite of its flaws, is still one of the better adventures. Jonathan Morris still proves himself to be an interesting and capable writer, and I hope he still has plenty of time to bring many more ideas to the table of Big Finish.
Reviews, Musings, and Other Things... 