Tag: big-finish

Doctor Who Audio Review: Who’s Up For A Little Chaos?

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Another pretty decent yet familiar sort of Doctor Who audio novel has been released from Big Finish Productions. Colin Brake is the author of The Chaos Cascade. One big twist is that there are three narrators this time as opposed to the usual single performer. Dan Starkey, Beth Chalmers, and Rebecca Root share storytelling duties and are directed by Nigel Fairs.

Reality is about to be destroyed yet again, and the Doctor is aided by one old enemy and a former companion in his quest to unite three pieces of a device known as the Triskelia. If this was an onscreen adventure, Peter Capaldi would be portraying his version of the Doctor. Michelle Gomez would be Missy, the female incarnation of fan favorite villain, the Master. Rebecca Root reprises another Big Finish role, Tania Bell. Tania has previously met the Eighth and Ninth Doctors, and is currently living another former companion, Liv Chenka. They have to contend with other parties searching for the Triskelia, and not everyone has the same altruistic motivations as the Doctor.

Brake is a solid writer and crafts a pretty decent adventure here. The problem is that the audience has seen the Doctor have similar quests. The banter between the Doctor and Missy is amusing, clever, and pretty close to how they would be if viewed on the television set. Brake clearly knows and can replicate the characteristics established onscreen and in previous audio episodes and is able to make it seem pretty fresh.

The narrators also do well, unsurprisingly, and are aided by the sound effects and musical score. I appreciate that Starkey can sound uncannily like Peter Capaldi. Since Capaldi has not shown any interest in revisiting his Doctor, Big Finish has a pretty solid path to representing the Twelfth Doctor without his participation.

Overall, this latest offering in the audio novel range is a solid enough contribution, but the whole galactic quest angle risks being overdone in spite of the new mixture of Doctors and companions.

Doctor Who Audio Review: Never A Box Of Delights For The Doctor

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Box of Terrors is a Doctor Who audio novel released by Big Finish Productions. Lizzie Hopley is the writer while Jon Culshaw steps up to the mic to perform this eight-hour behemoth of a story. It’s a really a behemoth by Doctor Who standard. Culshaw is a well-known impressionist in the UK and does quite an uncanny impersonation of both Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee.

The Doctor’s third and fourth incarnation unite against a threat that could release several powerful and malevolent forces into the cosmos. Also, the Doctor’s companion, Sarah Jane Smith, has the rather unique experience of encountering herself. The Master and Omega are at the heart of the chaos as well. They turn out to not be the only dangerous Time Lords to cause an intergalactic mess for the two iterations of the Doctor to unravel. Hopley throws quite a bit, including a metaphorical kitchen sink, into this story.

The release has some pretty fun elements to it. Culshaw is a fantastic narrator as well even when he isn’t slipping into the vocal impressions of the two Doctors featured in this story. His enthusiasm for the franchise and Big Finish is infectious and really helps out when listening to even the more average of stories. Big Finish always does well with the sound effects, and this one is no exception.

Hopley is a competent writer, and she had some interesting ideas, however the story here sometimes felt bloated with so many villains and different versions of the same characters running around. The basic idea is intriguing to fans sometimes, but this felt a little too busy at times and bit too challenging to keep everyone straight. Some of the descriptions and events were a little hard to picture in the mind’s eye, which was distracting at times. Fortunately, Culshaw’s performance really makes the experience worth the time.

To be fair, I am not a Doctor Who fan who just relishes multi-Doctor episodes. Big Finish usually handles these stories better than the television producers for the BBC, and this contribution is still better than what we would have gotten onscreen, more than likely. Fans now have an experience with these two particular Doctors, and that’s fine. I just wish I had found a bit more enjoyment out of it.