The Doctor Who Book Guide
Written by Chris Stone
Published by Long Scarf Publications
Published July 2013

Over the course of the last few decades I've amassed a large -c-l-u-t-t-e-r- collection of books relating to Doctor Who, and whilst many of the reference books of recent times are available to hand on a nearby bookshelf, the multitudes of fiction novels and redundant non-fiction volumes are lurking in boxes up in the loft, piled precariously on bookcases upstairs, or strewn haphazardly in columns in premium floorspace. However, the bigger question isn't on where they are but, more importantly, what have I actually got?!!

In one of my rational moments I did create a spreadsheet so that I know which book is in which box (though not necessarily where the box is in the loft, oops), but that only tells me what's actually there - the "known knowns" to coin a phrase - it doesn't indicate what I might be missing and still need to track down (the "unknown unknowns"). However, this predicament may have a solution in the form of The Doctor Who Book Guide, a book compiled by Chris Stone that aims to list every publication relating to the Doctor's travels in time, space, and bookshops.

The book is split into several sections, covering fiction and non-fiction publications, which are again split into their 'series' where applicable. For fiction, annuals and graphic novels are also included as well as the novels, as are fan publications. Similarly, non-fiction sections include the gamut of reference works, but also items such as Doctor Who Discovers, plus a summary of other factual books organised by publisher. Books that are related to spin-offs like Torchwood are also included in their own section.

Whether this book would be of use to you really depends on whether you are looking for an in-depth reference work delving into the history of Doctor Who literature, or if you are looking for a tome that you can use to keep track of your own collection. This book falls firmly into the latter category, as the author states in his opening paragraph: "This book is designed as a checklist for any Doctor Who Book collector.". So, if you were looking for a detailed history of Target books, for example, then you'd turn to The Target Book from Telos - what The Book Guide provides is a list of each publication of those novelisations. Taking the first entry as an example, The Abominable Snowmen details nine British 'incarnations' from the 1974 first edition from Universal/Tandem through to the 2011 reprint by BBC Books, noting things like which have a Chris Achilleos or an Andrew Skilleter cover - the overseas versions of the novelisation are also included in their own section. In my case, I've collected three such editions, my original 1978 edition which is well-read and well-thumbed from my youth, a copy of L’Abominable Homme de Neiges, and then a 'pristine' first edition I picked up much later. However, it's clear that if I were to pursue all of my 'known unknowns' then my existing storage facilities would be very hard-pressed very quickly!

Though I found the listings to be quite exhaustive and, as mentioned, a way to check off which editions I already have (the book does have a handy checkbox column for those who don't mind "desecrating" a book in that way!), its large format means that it falls into an "keep on the shelf" type book rather than a "take out on the field" type, which I actually think is the more useful function in the proactive pursuit of filling those holes in the collection. There are often times when I'll go into a second-hand bookshop and there'll be a pile of Doctor Who novels staring at me from the shelf, but I don't know exactly what I've got; having this to hand would be a godsend in those cases but it would be a bit impractical to carry the physical A4 book about - for that, I think a smaller 'Rough Guide' type size would perhaps be more useful. Actually, this sort of book begs to be turned into a mobile app which would make the task even easier - something for the author to consider for the next edition, perhaps!

In summary, this isn't an in-depth reference work on the history of Doctor Who books, so might not meet everyone's needs, but if you want as comprehensive a list of book releases as you can get (up to May 2013) then this book more than adequately provides that - and name a fan who doesn't like lists! However, I personally would have liked a format that could be used more 'pro-actively' (on-the-hunt) rather than 'passively' (checking off what you've got).

The Doctor Who Book Guide is available to purchase through E-Bay.

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I love Remembrance of the Daleks. It is a story that runs through my own personal fandom like the name of a town through a stick of seaside rock. It's one of the first stories I have very clear memories of watching on television, at the age of four. A couple of years later, the Target novelisation was, as far as I can recall, the first "proper" book I ever read.

It may well be the Doctor Who story that I have seen more and know better than any other, but that didn't stop me taking the opportunity to see it again when good fortune gave me the chance to attend yesterday's screening at the British Film Institute, the latest in its Doctor Who 50th-anniversary season. And I'm certainly very glad that I did go along.

It's an excellent choice of story to represent the era of the Seventh Doctor, for many reasons. There are the high production values and excellent script, of course, along with the very strong cast. But it's also a story that combines a celebration and exploration of the history and mythology of Doctor Who with an open and accessible plot - you gain something if you have a good knowledge of the series, but you aren't excluded if you don't. And if you're anything like me, then the sense of it being a part of something larger, a teaser of so much more mythology to explore, only makes it all the more appealing.

It had actually been a very long time since I'd last been to any kind of Doctor Who-related event. I was quite heavily involved in the local fan group in the Brighton area when I was a teenager, and attended two one-day mini conventions run by the group. Since I moved away to university just over a decade ago, however, my fandom has tended to be pretty much online-only, becoming involved in debates and discussions on forums, but not actually going along to any kind of events or gatherings.

It was an interesting experience to see fans together en masse for the first time in such a long time. As Ben Aaronovitch noted from the stage in the panel session that followed the screening, "You've changed a lot in the past twenty-five years!" If you were a fan back in the 1990s, as I was, you could certainly see what he meant - many more female and younger fans than would have been the case in decades past, although I suspect that this would probably be no surprise to anybody who, unlike me, has attended an event since the series returned in 2005.

My only experience of any vaguely similar kind of screening to this was when the local arthouse cinema in the city where I live screened the film version of Quatermass and the Pit last year. That had been a slightly disappointing experience, because rather oddly the majority of the audience were clearly not on the side of the film - there had been much mocking laughter at some of the more archaic elements of the production and screenplay.

Pleasingly, there were no such problems here. The large audience - which included ever-present BFI Who attendee comedian Frank Skinner, ex-Adric actor Matthew Waterhouse, and Remembrance OB lighting man Ian Dow - were entirely behind the story, eager and excited to see it, whether for the first or the hundredth occasion. There was even an oddly charming moment when the Special Weapons Dalek earned a little ripple of applause after its first appearance blowing two Renegade Daleks into dust in episode four. Perhaps it was because the Abomination had made the effort to come along in person (in replica form, at least!), and was sitting in the BFI foyer, happily posing for photos . . .

I'd never actually seen an episode of Doctor Who shown on a big screen before, and wasn't sure how well 4:3-framed 625-line video material would hold up under such scrutiny. In fact, it looked very good indeed, perfectly sharp and at such size I found myself noticing little details I hadn't spotted before, such as the graffiti figure on the school gate next to The Girl, as she watches the Doctor and Ace in episode one.

It was curious how, even having seen the story so many times, I found myself getting quite excited as the lights went down and that gloriously menacing and enigmatic pre-titles sequence came up on the big screen, followed - of course - by the famous theme tune, which can still take me back to being a small child in an instant. I know others have their views on the McCoy era theme tune arrangement... and I don't care, frankly. For a generation of children my age, this was our Doctor Who, and the sound of it evokes an excitement and an air of mystery even all these years later.

There was one technical element of the screening that I did find slightly curious, in that it wasn't the broadcast version of the story that was used. This was only really detectable in the first scene in the cafe, where Mike sees Ace for the first time. Usually, this is accompanied on the soundtrack by a clearly very carefully-selected part of the song Do You Want to Know a Secret?, which fits in with the enigma of who Ace is as Mike watches her. Even on the original DVD release, when the rights to The Beatles' version were unavailable, the Billy J Kramer version of the same song was used. Here it was a completely different song, which is a shame - it may seem such a small thing, but that little scene loses something with its absence.

As well as not having been to any kind of Doctor Who event for such a long time, this was also my first visit to the BFI - and I doubt it will be my last. To sound boringly pedestrian, I was pleased (and relieved!) at how well-signposted and easy-to-find the place was, and the whole organisation of the event seemed to be very smooth. The tone of the day was right as well - there was a respect for the series, but not a po-faced reverence of some serious film seminar. It was supposed to be a fun and entertaining event - a celebration, of course - and it certainly managed that.

Epitomising the sense of fun was the introduction of a mystery guest for a short pre-screening interview via a showing of the K-9 and Company titles, which received much laughter and, touchingly, applause for the late Elisabeth Sladen. John Leeson had been unable to attend the Fourth Doctor screening earlier in the year, but he was here as an extra guest on the basis that he provided the voice of the Battle Computer in this story, and it was certainly nice to see him.

There were also interesting little chats with effects designer Mike Tucker and special sound wizard Dick Mills between episodes, but the main focus of discussion was the panel afterwards, with Aaronovitch, Sophie Aldred, and Sylvester McCoy, which was well-handled by the BFI season's co-curator Justin Johnson. All three Who alumni gave the impression of being very proud of their work on the series, but there was also the slightly bittersweet feeling that they had been cut down in their prime - they could have done so much more had they been given the time and the opportunity. Time at least has justified the faith they had in the power of the show, and Remembrance does feel like a pointer to what would come in the future. With its fast pace, strong characterisation, and high-quality effects, it does feel almost like a new-series story before there was ever a new series.

Perhaps my personal highlight of the day, however, came after the main event itself was over. Aaronovitch was in the foyer signing books, and I was able to get him to sign for me the very Target book I read as a six-year-old, some 23 years ago. It's battered and creased and dog-eared, but it's one of the few books I've kept with me wherever I've lived all these years later, and it can't be very often you get to meet and thank the person who wrote such an important book in your life.

After I'd had the book signed and was walking away from the queue, I was stopped by an elderly Indian couple, who were curious as to who everyone was queueing up to see, and what event had just been taking place. I explained that it had been an anniversary screening for a long-running series called Doctor Who, and that the man at the table signing books was one of the writers of the series.

"Ah, Doctor Who!" the gentleman of the couple replied eagerly, recognition flashing across his face. "Yes, that has been going for a very long time... I remember it when I visited this country in 1967..."

Doctor Who means so many different things to so many different people, whether it's a fleeting experience of it on a visit to a foreign country, or something you have loved all your life, which has become a part of who you are. I am not in the least surprised that the BFI screenings have proved to be so popular this year, as on the basis of the Remembrance screening they recognise and celebrate the fact that Doctor Who is, as Andrew Cartmel once noted, "for everyone." Fan cliques or eager children, all were represented, and I think all came away having very much enjoyed their afternoon.

If you get the chance to attend any of the remaining screenings, I urge you to take it. It's a fine way to join in with the anniversary celebrations, and especially enjoyable if they happen to be showing one of your very favourite stories.

Paul Hayes

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Reviewed by Tom Buxton

Destiny of the Doctor: Shockwave
Released by AudioGo
Produced by Big Finish
Written by James Swallow
Directed by John Ainsworth
Released: July 2013

This review is based on the CD release from AudioGo and may contain minor spoilers.

"So, seventh time lucky then. Hello, me! I’m sure you remember getting the previous six of these, so you know the drill- I’m in an awful bind, and I need your help to get out of it. In fact, I need all of me to help...me!"

As listeners move into the seventh instalment of AudioGo’s Destiny of the Doctor series, they’d be forgiven for having initial concerns that a predictable and less compelling experience may await them within. Indeed, when James Swallow’s Shockwave opens to a dystopian-esque intergalactic society on the brink of collapse, with the Seventh Doctor and Ace forced onto a rescue cruiser in an attempt to escape an oncoming apocalypse, it’s only natural that an inherent sense of déjà vu begins to kick in.

Nevertheless, once Shockwave moves past its premise and into deeper and darker territory, it becomes far more than the sum of its predecessors’ parts, evolving into a great standalone release in its own right. At times, it channels recent episodes of post-2005 Doctor Who such as The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, The God Complex and even The Rings of Ahkaten, yet equally the approach here regarding faith and moral dilemmas around it feels fresh when placed in the context of the Seventh Doctor’s era. It’s arguable that just as last month’s Sixth Doctor tale Trouble In Paradise managed to break through the confines of the televised era on which it was based, so too does this month’s outing benefit from a lack of financial and perceptual constraints to great success.

It’s notable to recognise that much of this release’s success derives from the strength of its central narrator. Sophie Aldred’s Ace was a divisive companion to say the least in the final years of Doctor Who’s ‘classic’ era, yet here she gives a stunning performance both in character and in terms of relaying the action of the storyline. From her cavalier and apt rendition of Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor to her adaptive style of narration that suits the varying pace of the tale, Aldred boasts an incredible range of talents over the course of her contribution that won’t soon be forgotten by this particular listener. Ian Brooker provides fine support in the role of a courageous captain whose implications on the wider Destiny arc are still to be revealed, but it’s undeniable that this release’s returning cast member is its star.

In the past few months, the matter of the Eleventh Doctor’s various cameos in these Destiny tales has been a point of contention for this reviewer. Shadow of Death, Babblesphere and Trouble In Paradise all boasted effective uses of the pseudo multi-Doctor nature of their narrative structure, while lacklustre instalments such as Vengeance of the Stones showed that some writers on the roster found integrating the latest Time Lord more of a challenge. To its credit, Shockwave’s use of Matt’s incarnation is handled in an intriguing manner, posing more hints at what shape the November finale The Time Machine could hold for the incumbent eleventh incarnation than we’ve heard before. Sufficed to say that if Matt Fitton doesn’t manage to live up to expectations with the aforementioned final instalment in four months’ time, it will truly be a crying shame given the success of building such an ambitious arc.

However, despite a wealth of successes in terms of effective moral dilemmas and a strong narrator, Shockwave isn’t devoid of blemishes. This reviewer has their own qualms with Ace as a character moreso than Aldred as an actress, and at times Swallow’s script affords the final televised classic companion a few lines of dialogue which portray her in an extremely childish and foolish light unbefitting of her overall depiction here. Ace’s interaction with a young girl aboard the rescue cruiser perhaps echoes conversations witnessed in The Beast Below and Rings a little too heavily at times, and the listener may find himself or herself wondering whether Swallow utilised already established source material rather than his own imagination to inspire their discussions. A reluctance to innovative such as this is by no means a proverbial deal-breaker, but should be taken into account nevertheless so as to at least provide a critique on what this release as a whole could have improved.

If a single word can be used to assert the overall effect of Shockwave on veteran followers of the Destiny arc, it would likely be ‘reinvigorating’. While as an audio drama and a new instalment of classic Doctor Who it has its imperfections, this is yet another sterling release in an impressively consistent season which has yet to provide us with any truly dismal or lacklustre experiences. Whereas Trouble In Paradise perhaps felt somewhat too familiar, lulling the listener into a worrying sense of fore-knowledge barely halfway through the run, Shockwave takes the listener’s expectations and throws them out of a metaphorical window, innovating upon what we know while raising some superb moral dilemmas along the way with a strong level of ambiguity to boot. More than anything, Shockwave does seem to reinvigorate the Destiny franchise as a whole, leaving this particular listener ecstatic to hear what the final four monthly instalments have to offer.

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Doctor Who - The Ripple Effect
Written by Malorie Blackman
Puffin Books
UK release: 23 July 2013

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the UK edition of the ebook. 

This is undoubtedly a bit of a scoop for the world of Doctor Who publishing; it’s not every day that the Children’s Laureate pens a story featuring the seventh Doctor and the Daleks. Even in this anniversary year, replete with Proms and Celebrations and previously unknown incarnations of our favourite Time Lord, it’s good to know that Who can still break new ground in its literary guise. A perfect companion to the BFI’s July screening of Remembrance of the Daleks, this novella (also featuring Ace, and referring to her prior adventures with that baseball bat) might almost be dubbed ‘Amnesia of the Daleks’. Because something terrifying and vastly alarming has happened: nobody other than the Doctor and Ace seems able to recall that the Daleks are a force for evil. In this alien universe, the Daleks are instead skillful geneticists (“I bet they are!” mutters the Doctor darkly at one point), surgeons and philosophers dedicated to keeping the peace. The concept of Daleks as academics is highly intriguing, and as might be expected from a writer as skilled as Malorie Blackman, this is impressive stuff.

Of course, given the brief word count there’s little scope for an intricate series of twists and reveals, and the basic mechanics of this storyline are fairly guessable. But the chief pleasures of The Ripple Effect aren’t really ones of plotting. Instead, the thrill here is that this short story comes about as close to being one kind of ‘anti-Doctor Who’ as is possible without causing brand management to implode. Challenging the central tenets and structures of Who, this is akin to a moment from Genesis of the Daleks expanded to novella length, or an instant from Dalek vigorously elaborated upon. In The Ripple Effect, Blackman sets up a startling moral question and pursues it to the very brink: what if the Daleks really were good, and the Doctor was prejudiced against them, unable to let go of a counterfactual past that he remembers all too well?

Readers are warned that this isn’t going to be a conventional tale when we begin with exaggerated stasis. The TARDIS is trapped, for once, and could remain so for the rest of time. The Doctor’s usual ingenuity doesn’t appear to be working, leaving Ace worried that she might be forced to live out her days inside the time machine. It’s the kind of opening you could imagine a script editor querying, but Blackman is free to engineer her own scenario here. Indeed, she has expertly explored prejudice before in a science-fictional setting, particularly in the award-winning Noughts & Crosses book series. By pushing artfully at the boundaries of what makes Doctor Who, well, Doctor Who, the Children's Laureate is reiterating and extending some of her characteristic concerns. And if ever there was a Doctor who we might doubt, I guess it’s Time’s Champion, the Machiavellian and manipulative seventh incarnation.

In line with stories like Power of the Daleks and Victory of the Daleks, readers might expect that The Ripple Effect’s well-behaved 'monsters' will eventually prove to be scheming their way to galactic domination. We sympathise with the Doctor at first because he’s still behaving as if he’s inside a conventional Doctor Who story, and his reactions make sense in that template. But then doubts begin to magnify: what if this story isn’t patterned after Power or Victory after all? What if, this time, the Doctor really is trapped in old-fashioned and obsolete beliefs, left following the wrong script?

The Ripple Effect offers a viewpoint figure in order to dramatise its challenge to the Doctor’s moral superiority and good sense, and this is Tulana from the planet Markhan. A student of the Daleks, Tulana is appalled by the Doctor’s refusal to accept her universe as it is, and tells him so. Occasionally this means that Blackman’s moral lessons are voiced very directly rather than left to echo uncannily and uneasily through the world she’s created. And when matters eventually come to a head then they do so very rapidly, something that left me wishing for much more of this universe and its Dalek gentlemen-scholars.

Malorie Blackman's contribution more than maintains the high standard set by recent Puffin stories from the likes of Philip Reeve and Richelle Mead. And although you get the feeling that, ultimately, the author isn’t able to push things quite as far as she’d like to, The Ripple Effect thoroughly deserves to resonate out through the larger Doctor Who mythos. I’d be amazed if it doesn’t end up being a high water mark for this particular series. Well suited to the novella format, this is an entertaining parable that enables the Doctor and the Daleks to pose serious questions of (unearthly) prejudice. Essential reading!

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Voyage to the New World
Big Finish Productions
Written by Matthew Sweet
Directed by Ken Bentley
Released December 2012

Following their eventful voyage to Venus, the Doctor, Jago and Litefoot are looking forward to a celebratory pint, but the TARDIS has brought them astray. Stepping onto the shores of a new world, they are immediately embroiled in the mysterious disappearance of the colony of English settlers on Roanoke Island. Who are the ghostly children that haunt this unfamiliar land? And what do they want with Jago?

From the Mary Celeste to the Loch Ness Monster, Doctor Who has long delighted in creating its own solutions to notoriously unexplained events. Here writer Matthew Sweet has turned his eye to a somewhat obscure historical mystery, the English colony of Roanoke, which was found deserted in 1590. The play is also (as the new series would put it) a ‘celebrity historical’ with Sir Walter Raleigh putting in an appearance, and many of the other characters based on real life figures. This being a lesser known section of the past, a history lesson from the Doctor would have been useful at the start of the play, rather than at the end, when he assures his companions that history is back on the right track.

With three lead characters and only an hour’s running time Litefoot takes a back seat in this adventure, leaving most of the interesting stuff to Jago and the Doctor. The scenes of Jago being haunted by the sinister children are the play’s highlight. Creepy kids are one of the standard horror movie convention, and one that Doctor Who has used surprisingly little in its 50 year history, and they are effectively used here, with their presence signified by unsettling indistinct giggles.

While the chemistry between Jago and Litefoot is typically strong, their pairing with the Sixth Doctor doesn’t feel right. The Sixth Doctor has propensity for pomposity and grandiose turns of phrase, traits he shares with Jago and they don’t quite work together. Wisely Matthew Sweet separates them for most of the play, teaming the Doctor with the more sedate Litefoot.

The play is oddly structured, which can at times be confusing. The pre-credits see the TARDIS arrive on Roanoke and a flash forwards to later events in England. Following the credits there is an ellipsis with the audience left to piece together what has happened in the gap. This is a trick the current TV series often uses, and here it feels rather clumsy and confusing. Rather than a clever trick to speed up the narrative or play with narrative structure, it feel more like a judicious cut has been made to get the story to fit its running time, especially as the rest of the play unfolds at a normal speed. The 'flash forward to England' scenes exacerbate the problem, as they further fracture our sense of what is happening when.

Like many recent Big Finish plays, the plot hinges on what we’ve come to call ‘timey-wimeyness’. Such plots are hard to get right without the audience feeling cheated, which is sadly the case here, especially as the plot all hinges on the TARDIS, rather than a force separate from the Doctor. The conclusion feels rushed and unsatisfying, and after listening to it twice I’m still not sure it makes sense.

Despite these faults this is a well produced play which is strong on characterisation, performance and atmosphere. The previously mentioned scenes with the children, especially the exposition scenes of Jago and fellow captive Eleanor are decidedly creepy. Overall it’s an average slice of Doctor Who, (which neatly leads Jago and Litefoot on to their next series of adventures without the Doctor) but not one of Big Finish’s greatest offerings.

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Reviewed by Tom Buxton

UNIT: Dominion
Released by Big Finish
Written by Nicholas Briggs and Jason Arnopp
Directed by Nicholas Briggs
Released: 2012

“This is the Doctor’s darkest hour. He’ll rise higher than ever before, and fall so much further.”

When it comes to creating a sense of foreboding in Doctor Who adventures, few do it better than the show’s current helm Steven Moffat - indeed, the section of dialogue above from his enigmatic construct River Song skilfully demonstrates this dramatic ability. Nevertheless, in Jason Arnopp and Nicholas Briggs, scribes of Big Finish’s audio drama UNIT Dominion, the acclaimed showrunner may have yet found his equals. This thrilling Seventh Doctor piece brings across the oncoming darkness of the Time Lord’s subsequent incarnations with powerful effect, lending new emotive and tonal resonance to an often criticised era of the programme.

Dominion does not simply echo the sentiments of Melody Pond tonally, though. In fact, that metaphorically vivid concept of ‘rising higher than ever before’ only to then ‘fall’ on the same scale applies to the structure of this production too. For any listener with even the faintest recollection of Castrovalva, Utopia or other past adventures containing a consistent narrative trend, the central narrative ploy presented here will come neither as a surprise nor as a satisfying development of proceedings. Perhaps it is the curse of the Whovian to anticipate the unexpected with hindsight of fifty years’ worth of stories, yet equally it seems justified to expect today’s Doctor Who writers to innovate with new storylines and shocks, regardless of the format of their episodes.

Looking on the bright side, however, this apt parallel at least highlights the strength of the first three-quarters of the story. While Dominion’s climax is lacklustre to say the very least, those fans of the mind-set that it is the journey rather than the destination itself which defines narrative quality will be pleased to hear that the journey here is sublime. Sylvester McCoy and Alex Macqueen play off one another enthrallingly as the Seventh and a potential future incarnation of the Doctor respectively, their interweaving narrative strands bringing with them a host of intriguing implications in terms of how a Time Lord can become corrupted by their prolonged experiences during their travels.

Indeed, as ever for a Big Finish production such as this, it is the central cast who inevitably shape the pleasures to be found upon an initial listen. Tracey Childs, for instance, makes a spectacular return to the realms of audio adventures, with her ex-Nazi professor Klein rendered in a redemptive new light in her work at UNIT in our universe. The Seventh Doctor’s dilemma regarding Klein and his own hidden agenda surrounding her destiny is fascinating to witness developing as events reach their crescendo, particularly for viewers who joined Doctor Who in the midst of its revival. Here, the listener essentially has the chance to experience a moral conflict not unlike that which David Tennant’s Doctor faced in his swansong, as he witnessed his companion Donna Noble devoid of her memories and the subsequent regret this loss had provoked.

Between cases of mistaken identity, impending invasions and those aforementioned moral dilemmas for the Doctor, it may seem a wonder that Arnopp and Briggs have compounded further companion characters into their mixture. Few could have blamed these two esteemed storytellers for electing to omit Beth Chalmers’ Raine from proceedings should they have so desired. Nevertheless, Raine is here to accompany McCoy’s Doctor into the darkest of days, providing suitable comic relief on infrequent instances while never going so far as to disrupt the effective pseudo-dystopian tone. Those listeners who glimpse the cast list before experiencing Dominion will discover that there’s even appearances awaiting fans from an ex-cohort of the Time Lord, and although this reviewer won’t spoil their identity, sufficed to say these cameo moments are as masterfully handled as the rest of the production.

When it comes to contrasting the innovation and dramatic power of the first three-quarters of Dominion with the predictable nature of its climax, the verdict of course lies with which of these two opposing factors holds the greater favour in tipping the balance. Certainly, the supposed piece de resistance of this proverbial dish, the revelation awaiting the listener as the fourth episode opens, fails to have its desired impact and thus robs the piece of its opportunity to venture beyond the ranks of Big Finish’s greatest works and into the esteemed ranks of Doctor Who’s own Hall of Fame. It seems this is where River’s analogy regarding ‘rising further than ever before’ comes to light, as we can perhaps speculate whether the pride of Arnopp and Briggs in creating an ambitious, screen-worthy piece of audio drama blinded them to the extent of dropping the ball during the final crucial act.

Pride comes before a fall, or so they say. If a moment of pride, hubris and crippling nostalgia contained in Dominion’s final act proves so detrimental, then, do we dub this Big Finish’s ‘darkest hour’? Of course not- the reality is quite the opposite. In fact, in attempting so boldly and (for the majority) successfully to match and surpass the televised adventures of the Doctor, Arnopp and Briggs have defined a terrific new benchmark in UNIT Dominion for future audio and on-screen tales alike. Whether it’s in Macqueen’s brilliantly enigmatic rendition of Theta Sigma, or in the subtler moments where McCoy’s ever-scheming Time Lord is left to contemplate the ramifications of his continued meddling, virtually every moment of this adventure serves as a spectacular indicator of how far this range of ‘classic’ sagas and storylines has come in the past decade.

“Well, then, soldier - how goes the day?” River’s next words to the audience again seem remarkably apt in the case of UNIT Dominion, for above all, this lengthy yet compelling audio drama is a mission statement, a call to arms for Big Finish playwrights to step up their game and rival even Steven Moffat’s televised Doctor Who works. By the time the credits have rolled here, the listener is left in no doubt that if future writers in the range can avoid the solitary ‘fall’ present in this narrative, then subsequent adventures may truly rise ‘higher than ever before’.

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Reviewed by Damian Christie

Prisoners of Fate
Big Finish Productions
Written by Jonathan Morris
Directed by Ken Bentley
Released June 2013

"You’re saying we’re all about to be Blinovitched!"
Tegan Jovanka, Prisoners of Fate

For a TV program celebrating its 50th anniversary, it is remarkable, although not necessarily surprising, how many great, similar ideas pervade Doctor Who across its other media – print, comic strip or audio drama. Some ingenious concepts and visuals in the spin-offs are often developed quite coincidentally of the TV series (the primary source) but are inevitably trumped by the parent program.

Indeed, as if the parent program doesn’t have enough of its own continuity to draw from, it has since its return in 2005 drawn inspiration from its spin-offs. The recent Season 7 finale The Name of the Doctor repeated some ideas that were first mooted by Virgin Books’ New Adventures range in the 1990s. Paul Cornell adapted his original NA Human Nature into a two-part serial for David Tennant’s Doctor in 2007. Key ideas in some of Big Finish’s audio dramas in the early ‘00s were also “borrowed” by the TV series, notably from Marc Platt’s Cyberman origin tale Spare Parts and Robert Shearman’s Jubilee (the famous cell scene of Dalek – in which the Doctor realises his cellmate is one of the creatures – happened in Jubilee first!).

The latest Doctor Who audio release Prisoners of Fate – if it had been released a year ago - would probably be hailed by fans as a classic of the audio range. It is an intelligent and cleverly thought out story, with some truly brilliant ideas and visuals and a wonderful villain. Unfortunately, coincidence can, to put it crudely, be a “bitch”. I suspect Jonathan Morris conceived of Prisoners of Fate at least a year ago so who couldn’t forgive him for feeling a little miffed that his story and ideas have been trumped by none other than the Season 7 finale?

For the sake of the readers of this review, I will discuss the more obvious aspects of the plot first but warn it is hard to comment on this story without touching on potential spoilers (which I will return to). I can talk more freely about the “B” and “C” plots - even if they are actually presented as the “A” plot in all the publicity for the story and on the CD sleeve. The Doctor and his companions touch down on Valderon after the TARDIS is drawn there by a temporal anomaly. The incongruity appears to be a Chronoscope, which the colony uses to police its society in a manner that is reminiscent of the Philip K Dick short story (and subsequent movie) The Minority Report. The Doctor’s companion Nyssa is also reunited with her son Adric 25 years after she went missing, presumed dead.

While it is not essential, it helps if you have scrubbed up on Jonathan Morris’ earlier BF outing Cobwebs which reunited Nyssa with the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough some 50 years (in her personal timeline) after she first left the TARDIS crew in the TV serial Terminus. The “B” plot, nevertheless, reinforces just how much of an indirect impact the Doctor’s meddling can have on not just the lives of a 15-year old boy but his whole family and the galaxy at large. Not only does the Doctor’s reunion with Nyssa rob her family of their mother but it means she is also not able to provide the crucial antidote to Richter’s Syndrome that she originally sought and discovered in Cobwebs. The effects of the Doctor’s interference are disastrous, with billions across the galaxy having succumbed to the virus. Prisoners of Fate also revisits some of the themes that were touched upon in the TV serial The Angels Take Manhattan and to a lesser degree the preceding BF release The Lady of Mercia – that once the Doctor and his companions arrive in a given time and place, they are at risk of learning about their own futures and becoming ensnared in the web of time.

However, as it becomes clear by the half-way point of the story, the Chronoscope sub-plot, together with the notion of imprisonment on the premeditation of murder, is a red herring. It’s a little disappointing that Morris does not explore this in more depth – however, if he had done so, I suspect it would have been an entirely different story. Similarly, there is the potential for Adric’s experiments on Valderon’s prisoners to alienate him from his mother but that too could also make up another story. As it is, the Nyssa/Adric reunion is also a clever distraction from the raison d’etre.

The true “A” story to Prisoners of Fate features many similarities (at least on a superficial level) to Season 7 finale The Name of the Doctor – most notably that both stories involve a villain from the Doctor’s past who threatens the Time Lord’s very existence (and with it the web of time) and that the key to his survival is one of his companions. There are also some strong, impressive visuals to the story, set on the penal planet Valderon, that also bear an uncanny resemblance to imagery on Trenzalore. More than likely I’ve already said too much and to say any more would be to spoil the listener’s enjoyment of the story on its own merits and independently of The Name of the Doctor.

As we’ve come to expect from Big Finish dramas, the scale and quality of the production is almost flawless. The regulars and the guest cast are very impressive in bringing the story to life. While they comment in the CD extras just how complex this tale is to understand (compared to The Lady of Mercia), Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Mark Strickson through their energetic performances really do anchor this story (and their preceding adventures) in the period of Doctor Who in which it is meant to be set (eg circa 1983-84). The guest cast are also very competent performers, even though their characters are mostly one-dimensional, a case in point being Sarah Douglas’ Prime Elector Sybor. However, as I’ve mentioned, not everything in this story is as obvious as it seems and Douglas clearly relishes the opportunity to play the story’s true villain (as do Fielding and Strickson briefly as well).

The sound effects and incidental music in Prisoners of Fate also deserve a special mention, especially the score by Fool Circle Productions. The use of haunting choral music really conveys the sense that you are (along with Tegan and Turlough at one point) visiting a haunted medieval castle and there is also a lovely homage to Nyssa, reprising Roger Limb’s theme for the character from the TV series. It’s great to hear a suite of all this music at the end of disc one.

The problem with such an enjoyable story like this is that the bar is raised so high that the conclusion is always going to be on a hiding to nothing. The seemingly all too convenient climax is my only gripe with the tale (again I can’t risk spoilers!) but I personally like the melancholic twist in the resolution between Nyssa and her son.

Prisoners of Fate is, fittingly in Doctor Who’s golden anniversary year, virtually an unofficial anniversary story. Like The Name of the Doctor, it celebrates Doctor Who’s past and present while also challenging fans’ established knowledge with a curved ball hitherto unknown (even the villain’s name seems to inadvertently symbolise the anniversary). However, as I’ve mentioned, its impact has been diluted by the historic events of Doctor Who’s recent TV finale. It may be some time before Prisoners of Fate emerges into the limelight to be evaluated as an outstanding story in its own right.

Postscript and Spoiler Alert: If you aren’t overly bothered by the threat of spoilers, I will give out one, final cryptic hint – an alternative title for this story could be “The Doctor’s Other Wife”!

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The Dalek Contract
Big Finish Productions
Written and Directed by Nicholas Briggs
Released June 2013

Returning to events and characters from The Sands of Life and War Against the Laan, The Dalek Contract is itself Part One of the grand finale to this season of adventures for the fourth Doctor and Romana, or “Ramona”, as Cuthbert calls her. Yes, David Warner is back to spar with his fellow actors once more, as writer/director Nick Briggs continues to explore the Conglomerate’s shady activities. And helping the story to bounce atmospherically along there’s some excellent incidental music from Alistair Lock.

If Phantoms of the Deep partly hinged on a cliffhanger putting K9’s catchphrase in a whole new light, then this month we get a similar gambit surrounding the Daleks’ most infamous slogan. Dalek stories can perhaps be grouped into two categories: one where they are traditional monsters intent on invasion or domination, pure and simple, and one where they are more radically recontextualised or reimagined (with the latter also sometimes acting as a lure or a blind for the former, as the Daleks eventually reveal their true colours). Big Finish have previously welcomed Shakespeare-citing Daleks, affectionately merchandised versions, and Toy Daleks as well as nano-versions. One might be forgiven for wondering whether there are many new twists that can be put on the polycarbide-shelled creatures, but The Dalek Contract pulls something out of the hat. These Daleks are employees, it would seem, part of the Conglomerate’s outsourcing plans. Although this is undoubtedly an interesting concept, turning Skaro’s meanest into the story’s hired muscle means that they necessarily have a very different narrative role to usual and are necessarily blunted or reduced in the process. It’s as if they’re the new Ogrons, playing second fiddle to a far greater threat. Presumably The Final Phase will restore the order of things and feature the Daleks turning on Cuthbert – though this story move seems so blindingly obvious that hopefully it’ll be avoided, complicated or subverted in some way.

John Leeson plays two roles here, but to no great gain, as his non-K9 part is that of Tollivun, a rather generic figure among the cast of rebels. On the plus side, K9 does get to mount a heroic rescue mission at one point, as well as conversing very entertainingly with the Daleks. A few other elements here feel overly familiar, though: there’s a resistance force (of course) on Proxima Major, and Cuthbert is busy beaming propaganda down to the planet. And there’s a MacGuffin to get the Doctor involved and raise the stakes: a “haze” of miniscule particles which could lead to Very Bad Things, i.e. tearing apart the fabric of space-time. However, as a reason for getting the Doctor to switch off his randomiser and explore the Proxima System, this is actually a rather intriguing and playful story device – it threatens vast destruction, but only due to the creation of almost infinitesimally small particles. An inversion of conventionally epic scale, it deliberately undercuts what we might expect, just as the Dalek’s typical role undergoes a similar kind of alteration. Feeding into this unexpected set-up, and again playing Mr. Dorrick, Toby Hadoke has great fun with his delivery of certain dialogue, instantly transmuting what could have been the base metal of bafflegab into comedy gold. In this Contract it’s not the small print you have to beware – it’s the even smaller “particles”.

There are some reversals which are less effective, however. Romana asserts that she knows the Doctor very well just before he does something that she’s failed to predict. On the plus side, this makes the Doctor’s behaviour appear daringly risky, but on the other hand it makes Romana look slightly foolish, which is a shame. From this run of stories, The Auntie Matter has probably given Mary Tamm the most to do (treating Romana like a parallel version of the Doctor rather than his subordinate), but here she again seems to be cast back into a more standard ‘Who girl’ role, especially towards the end of this installment. Cuthbert is also sidelined a little, though no doubt he’ll take centre stage in the following story, as Briggs’ revisionism of the Daleks edges out other story content this time round.

The Dalek Contract suffers by virtue of being a connective part of this season’s mini-arc. Its job is to set everything up, and move narrative pieces into place ready for The Final Phase. As a result, we don’t quite get the full pleasure of encountering a new world, culture, or scenario that a standalone story can offer, but nor do we get the satisfaction of a tale that's neatly resolved. There are some great ideas, such as how the Daleks cope with operating on an icy, frozen planet, but by the end I was impatient to find out more about Cuthbert’s aims. Although there can be no doubting Contract’s ambition to do something different with the prototypical shape of a Dalek story, I suspect it will end up being judged more on how well The Final Phase seals the deal than on its own merits.

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Seeds of War
Big Finish Productions
Written By: Matt Fitton and Nicholas Briggs
Directed By: Barnaby Edwards
Released March 2013

After years of devastating war with a mysterious force know as the Eminence, humanity is finally starting to recover. The enemy has withdrawn and the last of its strongholds are being torn down. But when the Doctor and Mel arrive they discover that the war is far from over, for the Eminence has played a long game, and is ready to make the final move...

The Sixth Doctor and Mel are a pairing who have long been problematic for Doctor Who fans turned-writers. The two characters are often seen as totemic of the Doctor Who’s fall from grace in the 1980s and its eventual cancellation. Consequently many authors have sought to redeemed the characters in some way, something that Big Finish's writers have gone out of their way to do, especially in the company’s early years.

The Seeds of War is another in this long line of attempts to rehabilitate the characters and the era, but it approaches this in an interesting and rather unique way. In writing this story Matt Fitton and Nicholas Briggs have woven together numerous pieces of storytelling TV stories from the Sixth Doctor and Mel’s tenures on the show (seasons 22-24) and made them work a lot better than they did on TV.

The story’s opening is taken directly from Paradise Towers in a way that is a little disconcerting until you realise what is going on. The Doctor promises Mel a wonderful dining experience at the renowned Great Tower of Kalsos, but when they arrive they find the tower derelict and well past its glory days. However, rather than simply replaying Paradise Towers, the story moves on, zipping from location to location, encompassing more disparate elements of Sixth Doctor TV adventures as it does so (specifically Timelash and Trial of a Timelord parts 9-12).

Key to this is the concept of the ‘imagined sequel’, borrowed from Timelash. In that story the revelation that the Third Doctor had previously visited Karfel added little to the plot other than a sense of nostalgia. Here however, the Doctor’s previous encounter with the Eminence is absolutely integral to the plot. Keeping us in the dark about the Doctor’s past adventure it means that the writers can work in an important twist which changes the nature of the story. Listener’s who want to get the most out of The Seeds of War are advised to treat this is the Eminence’s first outing, rather than waiting for their chronological debut in Briggs’ Fourth Doctor play, Destroy the Infinite, which will be released next year.

But The Seeds of War isn't just a rewarding intellectual experiment, it also tells an exciting and involving story. The play is rigorously structured, with each episode moving the action to a different location (from the tower, to a spaceship, a colony world and finally Earth), while ratcheting up the stakes and adding to the mystery surrounding the Eminence as it goes. If there is one thing that lets the play down, it is that the conclusion is a little too reliant on events which occur ‘off-screen’ (as it were), meaning that the defeat of the Eminence doesn’t quite feel earned. However, the final scene with the Doctor and Mel is an utter joy, and for my money the best moment the characters have shared together in any medium.

The Seeds of War is a strong outing for Mel, as the only character who doesn’t know anything about the Eminence she’s very much our viewpoint character for the first half of the play, and we learn about the enemy as she does. Bonnie Langford is particularly strong playing Mel’s self-righteous anger, and the scenes where she berates Trellack are a world away from the character’s irritatingly priggish demeanour in Trial of a Timelord’s courtroom.

The play’s supporting characters are rather generic ‘space people’ which isn’t necessarily a problem in a story like this, but this production shows what a difference good actors can make. Ray Fearon and Lucy Russell put in such good performances as Barlow as Trellack that the other actors pale by comparison, and scenes without Baker, Langford, Fearon or Russell can be a bit of a drag. However, these scenes are necessary to give us a sense of the time and place we are in, and give a sense of the aftermath of war. Thankfully the fast pace of the play means these weaker scenes are kept to a minimum.

After over a decade of successful Big Finish productions based on this era of Doctor Who it may seem redundant for a play to be so focused on redeeming aspects of it. However, when the results are as strong as The Seeds of War, it is hard to find too much fault in this approach. The Seeds of War is one of Big Finish’s best Sixth Doctor plays and I hope that Matt Fitton (who scripted the play based on Briggs’ outline, and wrote The Wrong Doctors) returns to write for this particular TARDIS team again.

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