Reviewed by Damian Christie

Written by Jonathan Morris
Directed by Ken Bentley
Big Finish Productions, 2015
Stars: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), Angus Wright (Alek Zenos), Mary Conlon (Celia Dunthorpe), Robbie Stevens (Sir Niles Bunbury/Frank Lewis), Kirsty Besterman (Serena Paget), Ashley Zhangazha (Brinsley Heaton), Lizzie Roper (Shari), Dominic Thornburn (Afrid), Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks)

“Daleks invest and return!”

The recent two-part opener to Doctor Who’s ninth series was a trip down memory lane – for both the Twelfth Doctor and his fans. Aside from overtly drawing on Dalek mythology, represented by the portrayal of Daleks of many shades, colours and variations from across the TV program’s history, and the restoration of the Dalek home world of Skaro, The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar also homaged other parts of the pop culture zeitgeist (eg Back to the Future, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

While it’s a quite different tale from the modern TV series opener, Big Finish’s recent Doctor Who audio adventure We are the Daleks, featuring Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor and Bonnie Langford’s Melanie Bush, is also a nostalgia piece. However, it draws more subtly on Dalek mythology than its TV counterpart, as well as homaging other pop culture elements (eg The IT Crowd, Star Trek, Galaxy Quest, Ender’s Game, Beadle’s About, 1980s console video games) and some real life events, eg the 1987 international stock market crash, the Bradford riots and militant unionism, and the entrenchment of Thatcherite conservatism in Britain. According to BF’s Doctor Who range script editor Alan Barnes, just as the 1988 TV adventure Remembrance of the Daleks was a nostalgia piece that homaged the early 1960s and Dalekmania, Jonathan Morris’ script also seeks to objectively revisit and reassess the 1980s with not-so rose-tinted glasses.

Is it a success? On the whole, Morris skilfully crafts an entertaining, action-packed, rapid but well paced and thought-provoking plot from the above melting pot of ideas. In fact, so much happens in just the first episode (of what is a four-part, two-hour serial) that you’re quite surprised when you realise that you’ve only been listening to the tale for 30 minutes. There is no attempt at mystery and the dull Terry Nation-style go-slow approach to reintroducing the Daleks here. From the moment the TARDIS materialises in central London in the pre-titles teaser to episode one and the Doctor and Mel realise the capital’s skyline is now dominated by a skyscraper resembling a Dalek, the listener is thrust headlong into a new Dalek scheme to invade the Earth via the free market and a life-like console game called Warfleet. Along the way, we’re introduced to a remarkable array of supporting characters: Alek Zenos (Angus Wright), the head of the Dalek-controlled Zenos Corporation, Zenos IT administrator (and computer game enthusiast) Brinsley Heaton (Ashley Zhangazha), journalist Serena Paget (Kirsty Besterman) and two MPs in the stuffy, anti-Common Market Sir Niles Bunbury (Robbie Stevens) and the Thatcheresque, pro-free market and ultra-conservative Celia Dunthorpe (Mary Conlon).

The pace of the serial comes down a notch in the subsequent instalments once Morris has rapidly brought us up to speed.  He is free to focus on the Dalek machinations of Warfleet, which tie in with the Daleks’ efforts to wipe out anti-Dalek league forces, led by their perennial enemies the Thals, in a meteoroid cluster neighbouring Skaro, and of wooing Great Britain into a new economic partnership that will introduce Earth to the intergalactic free market and promise humanity a “new golden age of prosperity”. The latter is an ingenious, albeit uncharacteristic approach by the Daleks but their other methods of subversion throughout the plot – which homage classic Dalek serials such as Power of the Daleks, Evil of the Daleks, Destiny of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks, as well as modern serials Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways and Victory of the Daleks – are entirely consistent with their modus operandi. Just as it was ludicrous in Power or Victory to see Daleks crying “I am your servant/soldier” and serving cups of tea, so it’s amusing and menacing in equal measure to hear Daleks serving and offering prawn cocktails and bon-a-bons when Mel attends a gala launch at the Zenos Corporation. It is intriguing to know why they are being so covert and devious, qualities you don’t necessarily attribute to Daleks but which the metal meanies have demonstrated throughout the program’s history.

Indeed, Morris cleverly juxtaposes just how close humanity is to the Daleks, both through the covert use of Warfleet and the Dalek-like Zenos Tower, as well as highlighting humanity’s general propensity for self-interest, greed, deceit, partisanship, parochialism, intolerance and warmongering – qualities that are strongly defended in certain quarters of the political spectrum as democratic, patriotic and integral to “our way of life”. This is a theme which Terry Nation first mooted in his early Dalek serials (particularly The Daleks and Genesis of the Daleks) but Morris presents them in a way that is fresh, modern and down to earth. The Doctor expresses his disgust when Dunthorpe expresses these sentiments: “Good grief! Who needs Daleks when you have politicians?” And even the stuffy Bunbury is mortified by Dunthorpe’s behaviour when he realises the full extent of the Daleks’ plan to subvert the British population:  “Good god, Celia! You can’t do this! You’re turning them into fascists!” The further this serial progresses, the more pertinent its title becomes.

The performances throughout this play – from the regulars down – are first rate. Sylvester McCoy plays a Seventh Doctor who is gradually making the transition from comical figure to the wily manipulator that he was from Remembrance of the Daleks onwards. Therefore, while McCoy’s portrayal of the Doctor is not as over the top as it was in his first three televised serials (this tale is in all probability set between Delta and the Bannermen and Dragonfire), it is still a lighter, good-humored interpretation, marked by the Seventh Doctor’s early penchant for hackneyed lines (eg “I get by ... with a little help from my friends!” or “Ashes to ashes, rust to rust!”). As depicted on the cover sleeve, the Doctor even dresses in what he thinks is the outfit of a “youngish, upwardly mobile professional” (typically, the Time Lord’s fashion sense is wrong again!).  However, McCoy loses none of the Seventh Doctor’s steel or authority in dialogue with the Daleks or the Daleks’ humanoid allies.

After a break of several years since she last reprised the role for Big Finish, Bonnie Langford returns as once maligned companion Melanie Bush. Big Finish’s Doctor Who plays over the last 16 years have not only restored much respect to the later 1980s Doctors such as McCoy and Colin Baker but they have revitalised companions from the same era such as Nicola Bryant’s Peri Brown, Sarah Sutton’s Nyssa and Mark Strickson’s Turlough. Langford’s Mel is no exception here. Gone is the piercing, hyperactive, over-effusive, irritating, helpless (and some might argue useless) damsel that trailed McCoy’s Doctor in the TV program’s much detested 24th season (although none of that can be laid at the feet of Ms Langford who suffered from poor character development and awful scripting and disliked her character as much as the fans did). In the “damsel’s” place is a confident, independent, likeable and measured young woman whose professional IT knowledge and skills are for once utilised (after being barely referenced in the TV series) and ultimately play a major role in the climax. What remains consistent in Langford’s portrayal from the TV series are Mel’s selflessness and courage (especially when she is embroiled in the Warfleet game). There is no doubt Langford enjoys the opportunity to flesh out a very two-dimensional character that she had once thought she’d left far behind in the ‘80s (in the CD extras, she describes Doctor Who as the “gift that just keeps on giving”). Just as We are the Daleks reassesses the “heady” days of the late ‘80s, so it also gives the most sceptical Whovian the opportunity to reappraise Langford’s true talent as a reinvigorated Mel.

The supporting cast is outstanding. Angus Wright effortlessly brings a vocal authority to Alek Zenos that in the first episode in particular evokes memories of the late Maurice Colbourne’s Lytton in his dealings with the Daleks (Resurrection of the Daleks). Wright, of course, was brilliant as Magnus Greel in the Fifth Doctor tale The Butcher of Brisbane, in which he was able to make a quite insane, ruthless character simultaneously flawed and sympathetic. Similarly, he makes the dubious Zenos three-dimensional, empathetic and not as black and white as he seems.

Mary Conlon is also excellent as Celia Dunthorpe; thanks to Conlon’s initial delivery, you imagine Dunthorpe to be a harmless, old-fashioned and dotty MP, not unlike Harriet Jones when she was first introduced in Doctor Who. Of course, what you get instead is a pushy, rational, motivated and coldblooded individual (“Ambition is not a dirty word!”) with quite dangerous values and ideas who is aiming squarely for the premiership (even though she is unaligned to any political party) and would probably eat Harriet Jones for breakfast! The Daleks, despite being “ethically challenged”, prove to be a perfect stepping stone for Dunthorpe’s aspirations – and as her fate remains unresolved (there is a brief allusion to Asylum of the Daleks), it would be a waste if Big Finish doesn’t revive the character for a rematch with the Doctor at a later date.

Both Wright and Conlon eclipse the other performers in the versatile Robbie Stevens (who in addition to voicing the crusty Bunbury plays union shop steward Frank in episode one), Ashley Zhangazha, Serena Paget, and Lizzie Roper and Dominic Thornburn (who play Thal resistance fighters). But it is Dalek voice artiste Nicholas Briggs who continues to steal the show. You would think by now that Briggs must be weary of the Daleks (or at least prepared to share the voice modulator duties on the BF audios so he can save his throat for his TV performances!) but if so, it doesn’t show. Briggs continues to play all of the Daleks with passion and purpose (as Sylvester McCoy remarks, there are at least six different Daleks in him!), saving his best performance for the booming, guttural tones of the Dalek Emperor, which (in a nod to Evil of the Daleks and The Parting of the Ways) sounds exactly like the behemoth you would imagine it to be.

Of course, much of the success of Briggs’ performance is also down to Big Finish’s sound production values which are overseen in this tale by Wilfredo Acosta. Acosta is also responsible for the incidental music, successfully capturing the flavour of McCoy era Doctor Who episodes in his electronic score, which riffs off the likes of the then controversial TV composer Keff McCulloch.

We are the Daleks is one of the most enjoyable, innovative takes on the Daleks for some time (both on TV and audio), as well as being an entertaining and thought-provoking Doctor Who adventure in its own right. The serial not only satirically implies that the Daleks may have had an influence in the economic and cultural upheavals that plagued Britain and the world economy in the 1980s but it also highlights that even after nearly three decades many of the same problems that existed then are equally as prevalent in the 21st century. The themes of We are the Daleks are as topical as ever.

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Reviewed by Thomas Buxton

Starring: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Phillip Franks (Superviser/Acolyte), Dille Keane (Lydek), Clare Buckfield (Ann/Darl), Barry McCarthy (Fred/Terminal), Anna Bentinck (Jean/Computer), Barnaby Edwards (Reef)
Released by Big Finish Productions - August 2015

Ever hoped for a Doctor Who serial which takes two entire episodes to actually get to the point, utilising every delaying tactic imaginable – including some heinously contrived cliff-hangers which rival “The Trial of a Time Lord” for their absurdity – as its protagonists essentially aimlessly wander about until the storyline’s halfway point? If so, then look no further than The Warehouse. Whilst this reviewer isn’t going to try and put forward the claim that the show hasn’t taken its good time to build narrative momentum in the past – just look at “The Ark in Space” Part 1 or indeed most of the New Series’ twelfth episodes – rare has been the occasion when a storyline’s overall set-up has taken so long and been executed quite so monotonously as is the case here. Thankfully, as has virtually always been the case with Big Finish’s endless array of Who titles, there’s just about enough in the way of pleasant surprises to be found in Mike Tucker’s latest Seventh Doctor script to warrant a listen for devotees of all things Sylvester McCoy, not least since the tale picks up the pace monumentally later on, yet whereas the greatest entries in the studio’s pantheon have appealed to the sympathetic and apathetic alike, in this instance the appeal will almost undoubtedly be limited to the aforementioned section of the programme’s vast fandom.

The first question that we must ponder, then, is precisely what makes Warehouse’s opening half such a downright chore to experience in comparison to this four-part adventure’s admittedly eventful (if not exactly action-packed) denouement. That Bonnie Langford’s Mel once again earns herself little to do beyond accompanying the Doctor around a clone-laden, futuristic warehouse as they’re chased by vicious rodents for almost 50 minutes certainly doesn’t help matters; indeed, between this relatively shallow storyline (the philosophical contemplations in which don’t go much further than mild commentaries on consumerism, our instinctive mistreatment of vermin and the inert dangers of deification) and “The Brink of Death”, the final chapter in last month’s largely brilliant The Sixth Doctor – The Last Adventure, Langford’s audio incarnation of her classic 1980s character rather seems to be getting short shrift at the moment, at least when contrasted with the considerable amount of emotional progression offered to Lisa Greenwood’s Flip in The Last Adventure’s grand “Stage Fright”.

In fairness, McCoy himself hardly fares much better, instead finding himself forced to simply untangle the mystery connecting the titular facility to the seemingly derelict planet below without ever revealing much more about one of the more divisive incarnations in Who’s half-century-spanning history, a true crime in and of itself given the extent to which his ludicrously accomplished 2013 trilogy of releases – “Persuasion”, “Starlight Robbery” and “Daleks Among Us” – went out of its way to develop the Seventh Doctor just as substantially as the Dark Eyes series had done for his increasingly sombre successor of late. That’s not to say that either Langford or McCoy doesn’t give their all in terms of creating a performance which remains both accurate in terms of their TV counterparts and genuinely earnest, only that Tucker has missed a severe opportunity in opting not to provide them with some juicier content with which to broaden their respective time travelling constructs’ psyches.

Perhaps the problem therefore doesn’t lie so much with the individual performances powering this underwhelming new chapter in the Seventh Doctor saga as with the flawed characterisation on the part of Tucker himself; that would certainly explain why many of the supporting players to whom we’re introduced here completely fail to resonate on any kind of personal level. Once we move forward into Parts 3 and 4 and the tedious introductions (most of which take up far too much of the running time, thus only adding to the laborious nature of the opening half), the various clone constructs such as Clare Buckfield’s Ann and Barry McCarthy’s Fred stationed aboard the space-bound vessel which gives Warehouse its name at least reveal some more engaging traits thanks to them having inspired an entire religious cult worshipping them from below, with the inevitable crossing-of-paths that occurs between these so-called deities and their blindly loyal followers lending a welcome dose of humour to the tale’s penultimate chapter. Even so, though, despite Tucker having showcased his talents with regards to bringing minor constructs to life in his past New Series Adventures novels like The Nightmare of Black Island and more recently The Crawling Terror, most listeners will more than likely find themselves hard pressed to name any truly memorable members of the ensemble beyond McCoy and Langford (which is saying something given that, as discussed earlier, Warehouse hardly represents a landmark chapter for the pair either).

That said, even if comparing The Warehouse to a Summer’s day might be construed as a step too far, just as “Fear Her” was redeemed by its overblown yet somehow wondrous image of the Tenth Doctor carrying the Olympic torch through London, so too does the 202nd addition to Big Finish’s ever-expanding line of Doctor Who sagas sport a few unexpected merits, the most notable of which is easily Tucker’s implementation of the aforementioned theistic cult, the seemingly psychologically unhinged leader of whom is brought to life with commendable aplomb by Dille Keane. At first a humorously ignorant and hopeful entity, this ever-faithful group shows its morally warped (and therefore dramatically stimulating) side later on by demonstrating to the Doctor both purposefully and (subsequently) inadvertently their dystopian origins (which in turn feed into a slight but appreciated discussion of how humanity’s meddling with unknown substances in the name of scientific advances could someday mean its end), their hilarious take on our increasingly pervasive loyalty card systems as well as their horrific solution to dealing with those who blaspheme in any way, shape or form.

Combine this saving grace with the undeniably admirable effort given by Philip Franks to his performance in the role of the scheming, manipulative Supervisor (despite the dull dialogue afforded to the character in question), not to mention the refreshing lack of attempts by Tucker to throw in convoluted arc elements into a yarn which, if nothing else, certainly works best as a standalone instalment, and we’re left with a serial that provides tantalising glimpses of its overall potential in its closing moments, albeit one which takes so long to do so that it’s all but guaranteed to lose the interest of plenty of its audience long before this transition from mediocrity to stunted greatness transpires. Its approach is not completely dissimilar “The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People”, which bided its time for longer than necessary before revealing the crux of its ethics-driven plot in its second half, but the Season Six tale in question at least endowed its viewership with a clear inkling as to what moral dilemmas lay ahead. Tucker’s latest, on the other hand, meanders for such a great length of time with no through clear-line that it’ll take a truly dedicated listener to persevere in search of its engaging (but still hardly revolutionary, not to mention hopelessly delayed) second and third acts. In all honesty, if Big Finish echoes the stock check conducted by the duplicates littering this at times painful outing’s central setting and happens to find that all remaining copies of The Warehouse have somehow gone astray, then – much as it pains this reviewer to say it in light of the traditionally high calibre of the studio’s contributions to the realms of the Whoniverse – it’ll represent no great loss to the fandom at large.

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Reviewed by Damian Christie

Written and directed by Nick Briggs
Stars: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates), Barnaby Edwards (Commander Wingford), Neil Roberts (Captain Cornelius), Rachel Bavidge and Jez Fielder (the Europans)
Released by Big Finish Productions, April 2015

“I kept trying to think what my Doctor would have done ...”
“I am your Doctor, Jo – just with the benefits of a few more centuries’ wisdom ...”
Jo Grant and the Seventh Doctor, The Defectors

The Defectors is the first instalment in a trilogy that culminates in (and marks) the impending 200th release of Big Finish’s Doctor Who “main range”^[note] later this month. It has been described (with tongue firmly in cheek by Big Finish) as the “locum Doctors” trilogy, as each story transplants some of the Doctor’s later regenerations into the respective eras of his first three incarnations.

In The Defectors, the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) finds himself deposited at UNIT headquarters during the Third Doctor’s era, much to the surprise of companion Jo Grant (Katy Manning). Indeed, the Time Lord can barely reflect on how he suddenly came to be at this point in his past before he and Jo are whisked off to a remote island in the North Sea by regulars in the British Army who have, in the “interests of national security”, had all UNIT personnel despatched to London, including Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin) who is standing in for Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart whilst he is in Geneva.

In the ensuing events, the Seventh Doctor and Jo uncover a near three decades-old conspiracy and the Doctor is presented with an agonising moral dilemma that may (or may not) explain why he has been relocated to this point in his timeline. Is he supposed to rectify something he did long ago or sanction a course of action which his third incarnation would have vociferously opposed?

Writer/director Nicholas Briggs delivers a very good script which seeks to capture the spirit of the Pertwee era whilst offering a twist on the usual “alien invasion/base under siege” style of storytelling. Briggs’ brief is challenging, as he has to deliver what is nominally a UNIT tale without that era’s key players – Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) has sadly departed and John Levene (Sergeant Benton) declined to appear, effectively robbing Briggs of two-thirds of the UNIT staff before he had even put pen to paper. As a result, UNIT is relegated to the sidelines, and the Doctor and Jo must rely on their wits to uncover the truth on Delphin Isle. The Defectors therefore has the undercurrents of classic Pertwee and McCoy TV serials The Sea Devils and The Curse of Fenric respectively. Both serials are set in seaside locations and the respective Doctor/companion combinations have the assistance (or hindrance) of the armed forces, but the perceived threat in The Defectors is not nearly as cut and dried.

Indeed, there is good reason to sympathise with the motives of the antagonistic Europans (Rachel Bavidge and Jez Fielder) and to be suspicious of Delphin Isle’s populace, represented by the slippery Commander Wingford and Captain Cornelius (portrayed by BF regulars Barnaby Edwards and Neil Roberts) – in spite of the alien influence pervading their community. Indeed, Briggs channels Pertwee era scribe Malcolm Hulke by showing that the token monsters aren’t as monstrous as they appear and that their victims – the so-called “defectors” of the tale – aren’t so innocent either. Unfortunately, Briggs cannot emulate Hulke’s flair for irony and tragedy. If Hulke had written this script, I think he would have put an entirely different complexion on the climax. Briggs, in contrast, rather neatly winds up the story in exactly the manner that you would expect of a Pertwee era serial. So, yes, while Briggs remains true to the essence of his brief, The Defectors lacks the pathos that Hulke (or perhaps his peers like Barry Letts or Terrance Dicks) would have instilled in the closing proceedings and gives the tale an almost upbeat ending that it probably doesn’t deserve.

As you would expect of a BF Doctor Who audio, The Defectors benefits from excellent sound production and top-rate performances. Sylvester McCoy continues to be excellent as the Seventh Doctor, injecting the right amounts of humour, assurance and steel into his character as the script demands. What isn’t in play here (which is great for the script and the character) is the Seventh Doctor’s proclivity for playing cosmic chess with his adversaries and his friends. Indeed, the mystery of how and why he has been brought to this earlier point in his personal history is not even properly considered until the serial’s fourth episode; this particular version of the Doctor is uncharacteristically as much in the dark as Jo Grant and the listeners are. Indeed, he remains relatively unflustered by this turn of events, concentrating instead on the mystery of Delphin Isle; it is only as the stakes soar that the Seventh Doctor questions his place and also the intended course of his actions.

Katy Manning is fantastic as Jo Grant, having only had the opportunity to portray the character previously in BF’s The Companion Chronicles without the advantages of a full cast audio drama. Although you can occasionally detect the age in her voice (she is, after all, a near septuagenarian playing a character in her mid-twenties!), Manning still manages to recapture the qualities that make Jo so fondly remembered to this day: her naivety, compassion, courage and impetuousness. Briggs shows he has a very good handle for Jo’s character and that’s she not just a “dolly bird” assistant; she makes some critical discoveries through her own detective work, aided by Doctor Who veteran David Graham’s befuddled character Shedgerton. Manning’s scenes with Shedgerton are also illustrative of the rapport Jo could quickly develop with supporting characters, and how she could bring out the best in those people.

Jo’s reaction to the “new” Doctor is also an intriguing part of the story, even though she is cut off from him for almost a good half of the serial. She is familiar with regeneration (this story, for her, occurring not long after the events of The Three Doctors) but she is nevertheless uncertain how much she should trust this stranger claiming to be the Doctor. At first, her accidental acknowledgments of this man as the Doctor is a frequent source of humour – both with the Seventh Doctor himself and the listener alike – but by the climax, Jo’s faith in the Time Lord is unfailing – to a fault. Like her attempt at self-sacrifice in The Daemons or Ace’s conviction in the Doctor in The Curse of Fenric, Jo’s belief proves to be critical ...

McCoy and Manning eclipse the play’s other performers. Franklin is underused as Yates but makes the most of his limited role. Edwards and Roberts are unconvincing villains, although you get the impression their caricatures of old school soldiers is a deliberate feature of Briggs’ writing. Graham is surprisingly convincing as the constantly bewildered, yet courageous Shedgerton (his reaction when he is introduced to the interior of the TARDIS gives off the impression it is the least of all the uncertainty he’s had to deal with!). Hackneyed accents aside, Bavidge and Fielder are also proficient as two of the lsle’s local publicans as well as the alien antagonists.

Indeed, if there is one disappointing aspect of the sound effects, it is the Europans’ voices. The aliens sound too often like wounded 1960s Cybermen or 1970s Silurians and their voices are so high pitched and heavily modulated that they are at times almost inaudible. You either have to play back the tracks on the serial to understand what they are saying or listen to the story multiple times to improve your understanding of their dialogue. Perhaps the voices are also an attempt by Briggs to recapture the style of alien tones frequently tried during the Pertwee era – the quality of sounds used back then were experimental and on repeat viewings today can still grate with the audience because the dialogue is hard to understand. When sound is so integral to BF’s output, it’s ludicrous to compromise the story out of affection for archaic sound techniques which are incomprehensible to the listener.

Nevertheless, Joe Kramer’s sound design and incidental music does enough to evoke impressions of the era of Doctor Who in which this story is ostensibly set while also providing some stirring and exciting passages of music. Although I’m a great admirer of film and TV soundtracks, I don’t often notice incidental music on BF audios largely because I’m focusing on plot and characterisation while listening. However, for The Defectors, I did notice and enjoy the music. Some of the cues Kramer uses – particularly for the lighter moments that exploit Jo’s accidental acknowledgements of the Doctor – are reminiscent of the humorous cues that Dudley Simpson employed in the Pertwee era. But there are also tracks in the story that are grander and more ambitious than what Simpson or his contemporaries in the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop could have attempted. Kramer’s passage of music when UNIT helicopters converge on Delphin Isle in the story’s climactic moments has an almost cinematic tone, daresay of the likes of Apocalypse Now. It just illustrates how far along music has come in 50 years; compositions that would have taken Simpson or the Radiophonic Workshop weeks to develop on what was then considered state of the art equipment can probably be replicated on Big Finish’s studio facilities in a matter of minutes.

The Defectors is a solid start to the “locum Doctors” trilogy and a fun, entertaining and well thought out morality tale in its own right. By the end of the serial, we are no clearer about why the Doctor has been drawn back earlier into his time stream or who or what has perpetrated it. No doubt more clues will be laid in the next instalment Last of the Cybermen and answered in “200th” release The Secret History^[note], with Colin Baker and Peter Davison respectively. If The Defectors is any guide, then these instalments should be just as entertaining.

Author’s note: BF’s Doctor Who output over the last 16 years truly exceeds 200 releases, considering the “main range” does not encompass the Fourth and Eighth Doctor adventures (whose output alone equates to an extra 100 titles), Companion Chronicles, Lost Stories and numerous Whoniverse spin-offs, eg Gallifrey, Jago & Litefoot, Counter-Measures, Dalek Empire, Professor Bernice Summerfield, etc.

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Reviewed by Martin Ruddock

Written by Russell T. Davies, 
Adapted by Jonathan Morris
StarringSylvester McCoy, Travis Oliver, Yasmin Bannerman, with Denise Black, Michelle Collins, and Peter Barrett
Directed by Ken Bentley
Released April 2015

Revivals are a funny old thing. In popular culture, they tend to happen because something happened, say, twenty years ago. These revivals tend to take the form of TV specials or talking head documentaries detailing trends or fashion crimes of the time - or, in music, themed anniversary gigs or 'special editions' of albums. 

Big Finish is having its very own 90s revival at the moment. Thankfully, it's chosen to leave out the dodgy fashions and the Macarena. 

The 1990s were, arguably, not a brilliant time to be a Doctor Who fan. The TV series was effectively dead for the entire decade, barring around fourteen minutes in '93 and ninety in '96 when it briefly stirred from its slumber. However, Who enjoyed an extended afterlife in print through most of the 90s, where old hands and hungry young writers were given practical carte blanche to bend the rules, and take the TARDIS to new, more grown up places. 

Having successfully adapted a slew of the New Adventures and Missing Adventures novels, Big Finish have now moved on to one of the big hitters, Damaged Goods, a 1996 novel by one Russell T. Davies, expertly adapted here by Jonathan Morris.

Damaged Goods is an interesting beast, looking both forwards and backwards. It's very much a New Adventure in that we have a mysterious chess-player of a Seventh Doctor, new companions, adult content, Gallifreyan super-weapons, and grisly death everywhere. However, there's also a germ of the sort of Doctor Who that Davies would bring us nine years later, with its late-80s council estate setting, strong female characters, and that instantly recognisable dialogue. In fact, the only person not talking like a character in an RTD episode of Who is the Doctor himself. Sylvester McCoy is in a mellow mood here, rrrrrrrolling his rrrrrrs, and clearly very much enjoying himself.

He's not the snappy Doctor of 2005 - instead his dialogue is mysterious and florid, much more the Cartmel Masterplan than the Bad Wolf scenario, but it's a refreshing look at what might have been if the likes of RTD had got their hands on the series earlier.

He's joined here by Travis Oliver and Yasmin Bannerman as NA Companions Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester. Both are already established by the time of the original novel, and Morris wisely doesn't waste much time introducing them, instead choosing to write them in by basically having them arrive with the Doctor and that's that. Oliver is gung-ho and likeable throughout, playing up nicely to the coded sexual come-ons he receives. Bannerman is equally good, but in truth doesn't have as much to do, being basically back-up whilst the Doctor solves mysteries and Chris.....gets involved.

The story isn't quite a straight adaptation, instead this is more the sort of rewrite that Davies himself would later perform on Paul Cornell's Human Nature - faithful, but retooled for audio with hindsight and a few changes made with Davies' blessing. There's still sex and drugs, but the famous same-sex fumble between Chris and David is now a little less explicit, and the cocaine being dealt by the Capper in the novel is now, a 'made-up drug' - Smile, perhaps in tribute to Chris Morris's 'Cake' episode of Brass Eye.

This doesn't mean the story's been in any way neutered. This feels more like the darker moments of The Second Coming and Cucumber. The dialogue sings, but it's dark as hell, with perhaps the only concession to a family audience being a note of hope at the end.

The real heart of the tale is the terrible bargain that Winnie Tyler (Michelle Collins) strikes in the 1977-set prologue. The moment where she gives away one of her twin babies, through a third party, to rich, childless Mrs Jericho (Denise Black). Collins plays a troubled everywoman, driven to do the unthinkable by desperation. Black's Mrs Jericho is utterly chilling, appearing initially meek and grief-stricken, before she literally transforms before your ears into a very prim and proper murderer, who calmly visits the vendor to announce that she has been sold a faulty child and wants an exchange, whilst all hell breaks loose around them. In fact, she's almost oblivious to it. Further darkness is added by the creepy Capper, a reanimated grinning corpse full of tentacles, played by Peter Barrett. Barrett has a tough gig, having to convey undead malevolence purely through a low, gravelly voice and gritted teeth. He pulls it off, but is overshadowed slightly by the more human menace of Mrs Jericho.

The sound design and Ken Bentley's direction are both first-rate. The cast and crew rise to the material brilliantly, and Morris brilliantly re-weaves RTD's story for audio. Morris also surprisingly drops in one or two very on-the-nose new series references which I won't bring up here. One is definitely a portent of things to come, considering Big Finish's recent announcements about a certain institute based in Cardiff. The other could be something. I'll leave you to decide. New series links or not, this is another excellent offering from Big Finish. it's perhaps the only time we'll hear a Davies story on audio, but, you never know.......

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Reviewed by Martin Hudecek

Threshold, Artificial Intelligence. The Pelage Project, State of Emergency

Written By: Paul Finch, Matt Fitton, Ian Potter and Justin Richards
Directed By: Ken Bentley
Producer: David Richardson, Script Editor: John Dorney
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs Big Finish Productions 2012

Remembrance of the Daleks’ is still for many fans of the classic show one of the very best stories ever, and was a highlight of Sylvester McCoy's era. With wonderfully written characters and strong themes it transcended its humble trappings of low budget and throwaway scheduling as an hour and half of compelling action. There had always much potential for a spin-off owing to the strong triumvirate of characters who get caught up in the pitting of wits between the Doctor and two Dalek factions. Firstly there was Group Captain Gilmore – or ‘Chunky’ to those who know him a bit more personally. Then there was Professor Rachel Jensen – who was forthright and sharply witty, and yet clearly was a loyal friend to those she trusted. Lastly there was fresh faced and mellow, but eminently capable Allison Williams.

In an ideal world the Seventh Doctor’s era would have had the relative ratings that Ecclestone, Tennant, Smith and now Capaldi enjoy on Saturday nights; and the demand would have been for further adventures with these three very human characters in a sister show along the lines of 'Torchwood'. Luckily ‘Big Finish’ is the saviour of many a lost cause and these adventures – now in their third season – have been given a chance at long last.

The actual premise of this series concerns the three colleagues being officially united under the banner of ICMG – the ‘Intrusion Countermeasures Group’ - where their role is to try and find the cause of paranormal or alien phenomena occurring in Britain. Only months after their escapades with Davros, Ratcliffe, countless Daleks, and the eerie girl/battle-computer this functions as their first real test. The man with two hearts is not able to help out. They are therefore thrust into making some difficult decisions and must show their ability to adapt to the wider context that is 1960s Britain.

The three core characters of Gilmore, Allison and Rachel are reprised by the original actors: Simon Williams, Karen Gledhill and Pamela Salem. They definitely are having a fun time revisiting these roles and all manage to give a good account of themselves; with perhaps a little leeway being required with Simon and Pamela sounding a little bit older than their actual characters for obvious reasons. They are joined in the regular cast by Hugh Ross as Toby Kinsella, a somewhat unknown quantity in that while he helps the Countermeasures team to function by liaising with the British government, he has some of his own motivations that skirt the edges of immorality. Alastair Mackenzie also features on a recurring basis as Julian St Stephen - Allison's boyfriend of three years. This character is given a strong arc of his own which wrong foots expectations.

The opening episode is a solid enough beginning if somewhat unoriginal and static as a stand-alone piece. An apparent ghost is at work and an eminent German scientist has suddenly vanished. The villain (or misguided antagonist depending on your parameters) is somewhat broadly sketched as a crazed scientist/ Nazi stereotype. The actor’s performance is pretty arch on top of this, reminding me of a similar stereotype from Lucasarts' PC game 'The Fate of Atlantis'. The attempts to fill in a back story with Rachel’s admiration for his work are a good idea but do not quite get the right pay off when the dust settles at the end of the events. Episode Two already has signs of the show hitting its stride. A Czechoslovakian former flame of Gilmore has found a device of terrifying power but also great potential benefit. This artificial intelligence will end up influencing the behaviour of various characters dramatically. Eventually the dilemma hinges on how to contain such a sentient creation. There is quite a bit of important set up for later in the season – especially with Allison’s beau Julian. The villain of this particular piece is rather more effective here and he is described by Professor Jensen as making her ‘skin crawl’. Even his eventual fate is done in a surprising and shocking fashion and will make listeners reconsider one of the main cast in a wholly different light.

The following story has some memorable concepts of genetic augmentation and is quite satirical in many ways. Within the newly built town of Pelage, a dangerous encounter ensues with Ken Temple, a man with a very novel mindset as regards the future prospects for planet Earth and how mankind will have to adapt to survive. Political party funding is to blame for Temple's progress thus far and the Countermeasures team need to find a way to halt total chaos. This third episode has many good aspects but is slightly ruined by a perfunctory ending which seems overly predictable and also vetoes having a good supporting character return in a future story, By now the regulars are quite fluent in their roles and are still being developed organically as one would hope. Also the majestic Stephen Greif (of Blake's 7 fame) turns in a fine performance as Temple. This man has a tenuous grasp on reality but cannot be faulted for lacking pioneering ambition,

The series finale is a riveting tale - full of revelations, action and strong evocation of the time period. The story builds upon the plot device of 'Threshold'- with Rachel having apparently solved the issues that the matter transporter had previously. Events are set during Harold Wilson's elevation to Prime Minister. Pressure is put on the Countermeasures team as Chancellor Callaghan plans to reduce the budget of the Ministry of Defence. Before long creatures from another plane of existence make their presence felt, just as a group led by a senior military figure looks to stage a coup. How many of the closest friends and colleagues of Ian, Rachel and Allison will turn out to prove rogue? I never was left being distracted with this fourth story, which rewarded the work required to get committed to the previous plays. The villains may have some despicable methods but at the same time are believable and credible up to a certain point, and the character of Toby continues to shine brightly as a fine combination of writing and performance.

Overall 'Countermeasures' has good pacing and distinct atmosphere, and the stories are pretty easy to grasp. The show doesn’t force too many characters or require the listener to visualise too much difficult material. The character development and overall portrayal of individuals is very solid. There are lots of themes that resonate and tie in well to the time period the show is meant to be set in. Sometimes the plot doesn't feel too conspicuous either which is always welcome given how formulaic the Doctor Who fictional universe can inevitably be on occasion. Plenty of scope remains to explore how our three heroes really do feel about being back together on a long-term basis; hooks for the listener are not in short supply.

As for the original theme tune it is of the brand that stays in the head, but not really something I would want to play to myself outside of the show itself. Other music is serviceable enough and conjures up atmosphere without being intrusive. The show has started on a solid footing and the brilliance of Ben Aaronovitch’s creations means that it would take something drastic to deliver a noticeably weak story.

Behind the scenes material is also very good as we get a grasp behind the creative process from the individual writers as well as the producers and directors. Quatermass stories had a huge influence on the source Dalek story, and so its ability to inspire these new stories is an obvious place to start. Much strong discussion ensues over various 'chapters'. A generous run time of well over an hour is very welcome and rounds off the box-set package nicely.

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Reviewed by Richard Watts

Mask of Tragedy
Written By: James Goss
Directed by Ken Bentley
Released September 2014

In his first audio adventure for the Big Finish Main Range, writer James Goss (The Scorchies) takes the seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy), Ace (Sophie Aldred) and Hector (Philip Olivier) for a holiday to ancient Greece in the year 421 BC. As holidays go, it’s about as refreshing as a dip in the seas of Marinus.

Outside Athens’ walls the Peloponnesian War rages, and a horde of Spartan warriors (described by the Doctor as "like the Daleks, but with better hair") are preparing to sack the city. Inside the walls, a strange sickness stalks citizens and slaves alike, turning them into mindless zombies; and a winged fury haunts the Tyrant of Athens, the tormented Cleon (Alisdair Simpson).

In the words of the poet Sophocles:

"Ah me! it is a world, a world of woe,
Plague upon the height and plague below!"

Or as Goss puts it, speaking through playwright and comedian Aristophanes (Samuel West), this story’s major supporting character: "Basically, it’s the end of the world.".

Mask of Tragedy is that relatively rare Big Finish release, a comedy; a wry, knowing, bawdy and clever comedy that balances camp quips with dark undercurrents in a way that recalls such classic Doctor Who stories as The Sun Makers and Revelation of the Daleks.

As with the comedies of Aristophanes (c. 446 – c. 386 BC), that humour is sometimes dragged down by the occasional cheap laugh that reminds listeners why everyone from Wilde and Faulkner to Arthur Quiller-Couch urged writers to "kill their darlings" (the most groan-inducing example being the line, "Is it a bird? Is it an astral plane?") but for the most part it’s a smart, even sophisticated script that takes every opportunity to celebrate Goss’ love for Aristophanes’ contributions to the theatrical canon, as well as the foibles of the theatre in general.

Continuing the playfully self-aware approach to storytelling that has become a trademark of Goss’ writing, from Torchwood spin-off novels Almost Perfect and Risk Assessment to his tenth Doctor audio Dead Air, the adventure’s structure reflects classic Greek proscriptions around the need for all plays to have a hero, a villain, and a chorus, with Ace often playing the latter role. Much of the script is presented in extended flashbacks, framed by narrative sections which heighten the listener’s awareness of actively listening to an audio drama. Goss also successfully and meta-theatrically plays with the listener’s awareness of common Doctor Who tropes, such as the Doctor’s exasperation over Ace once again stuffing up his plans by taking action at the wrong moment, or the Time Lord’s sudden realisation that he neglected to listen to one of his companions when they were telling him something important.

Indeed, even the citizens of Athens in Mask of Tragedy seem hyper-aware of the nature of the universe they live in: apparently ancient Greece is a hotspot for temporal tourists. As Aristophanes succinctly notes: "We get visitors all the time. From all of time."

Mask of Tragedy sees a return to the Machiavellian Doctor whose long games were so successfully represented in the Virgin New Adventures, even as Goss leavens his script with jokes that writers in particular will enjoy, such as Aristophanes’ faux-exasperated complaints about the popularity of his base comedies: "Hack work. But alas people do seem to like them."

Supporting characters, ranging from time-travelling theatre-luvvie, Tyrgius (Russell Bentley) to a surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of Cleon, are well developed, though a cameo from the slave-girl Lysistrata (Emily Tucker) is tantalisingly brief.

Goss also writes Hector well, making the recently changed relationship between the current TARDIS crew feel genuinely fresh – such as an early scene, when in response to Ace telling Hector that she and the Doctor care about him Hector replies, "You don’t even know me!" And indeed they don’t know him well; not his new personality at least.

This new Hector gets a chance to spread his wings in this adventure (as does Tyrgius); certainly more than in the previous month’s lacklustre Revenge of the Swarm. Here Hector tries to become a hero in response to what he sees as the Doctor’s indifference to the plight of Athens – with predictably unfortunate results. That said, for someone whose only known memories are as life as a petty Liverpool gangster, Hector is still a relatively passive character – perhaps suggesting that Hex’s lost memories are not all that lost after all?

Not every aspect of this audio adventure is entirely successful: Ace is written as strangely naïve as she leads the Spartan army into Athens, and some of the line readings – such as Philip Olivier’s Jim Carrey-esque exaggerations when wearing the artefact that is this story’s titular McGuffin – are a trifle grating, though perhaps deliberately so given the Mask in question. Too, Richard Fox and Lauren Yason’s sound design is not always successful; for instance the invading Spartan army’s cheers seem distinctly masculine, despite the fact that said army is written as female. The pair’s score, however, is far more impressive, a convincing pastiche of traditional Greek music that makes excellent use of percussion to ramp up the intensity of the drama.

Though it may be a trifle too light-hearted and self-aware for every taste, for this fan, Mask of Tragedy is one of the strongest Big Finish releases of 2014: a playful, intelligent and engaging homage to the dramatic structures and characters that have made Doctor Who – and Greek drama – a lasting success for so many years.

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Reviewed by Tom Buxton

Afterlife
Produced by Big Finish
Written by Matt Fitton
Directed by Ken Bentley
Released: December 2013

Strangely enough for an audio drama which packs countless nods to the past and exists entirely within the continuity of Doctor Who’s ‘classic’ era, Matt Fitton’s latest Seventh Doctor release captures the essence of modern-day Who more faithfully than any of its predecessors. Where the show in its 1980s guise would rarely place a significant focus on the consequences of the titular Madman with a Box’s journeys through time and space, barely an episode goes by these days without a past action coming back to haunt the character or a spur-of-the-moment decision forcing him to contemplate the limits of his moral compass and the extent of his ability to aid those in need of liberation. No longer will a regeneration be casually cast aside mere moments into the new Doctor’s first adventure, nor a companion’s departure left unacknowledged in the episodes which follow it. Afterlife gracefully echoes this grounded, sympathetic take on the Time Lord’s adventures and their effects on his assistants, and- despite a few tonal mishaps along the way- comes off all the better for it.

In stark contrast to recent Big Finish releases such as Dark Eyes 2, the premise of Fitton’s narrative is relatively straightforward: Thomas Hector Schofield (better known to Doctor Who fans as ‘Hex’) was killed by Fenric in 2012’s Gods and Monsters, a calamitous event which has (with good reason) turned Ace against the Doctor, leaving the latter to contemplate how to redeem himself after his being directly connected to the demise of one of his most loyal allies. Not since Earthshock and (albeit briefly) Time-Flight has a pre-21st Century Who yarn sought to have its eternal protagonist’s psyche and endless internalised guilt go quite so far under the microscope, and indeed, Fitton utilises the rarity of such a narrative opportunity as this to his significant advantage, providing a script which offers its lead stars their strongest material in years in terms of emotional and dramatic scope for future development. If there remain fans out in the big wide world who doubt Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred’s talents, then this just might be the drama to convince them otherwise.

Inevitably, Ace is of the most paramount importance to the listener (and her ‘screen time’ reflects this suitably) as their entry point into proceedings, and to this degree, Aldred conveys beautifully the pathos of the character’s loss of a close friend, of someone who perhaps could have been something more than that had he not bitten the proverbial bullet before his time. Too often in the final episodes of the show’s 1980s run before its cancellation, this feisty and yet wholly sympathetic companion was cruelly robbed of a satisfying personal arc, with The Curse of Fenric coming the closest to matching Father’s Day and The Fires of Pompeii in its representation of its human protagonist’s utter disbelief at their extra-terrestrial hero’s detachment from emotion, yet still somehow falling short. In this respect, Afterlife excels without limits, casting Ace in an entirely new light and in doing so presenting Aldred with potential aplenty to continue this developmental and refreshingly formative arc for her character in months to come.

Where McCoy fares best is in his mirroring and evolution of the detached, uncharacteristically repulsive version of the Doctor glimpsed in Curse, the latter attribute central to the early stages of the narrative in which he and Ace are both literally and metaphorically separated not only by the gravity of Hex’s passing, but by the Time Lord’s inability to comprehend his friend’s grief in light of the frequency of meetings and partings such as these for a seasoned time traveller. An extended metaphor referenced by him and ex-TARDIS voyager Sally Morgan involves the concept of his companions being kites, the character himself being the one who controls them to varying avail, a notion which once again achieves its purpose of subverting our perspective on the titular wanderer’s morality magnificently.

Scribes before and after Fitton have and surely will continue to draw the line on this semi-psychological interrogation at this stage, yet to the immense benefit of Afterlife, Fitton steps once more unto the breach in his narrative’s final moments, teasing his audience with hints of the man who will become “a warrior” and seemingly commit double genocide in days to come as McCoy’s incarnation revels in his increasingly apt mythological title of “the Oncoming Storm” and the likelihood that, on occasion, his enemies could perceive him as “[their] worst nightmare”. Once the narrative’s final confrontation between its uncovered antagonist and its concerningly-omnipotent protagonist is done and dusted, it’s difficult to shake the sense that the Doctor has commenced a self-instigated psychological metamorphosis, whereby the character who represented nothing more than “a mild curiosity in a junkyard” to his first human onlookers has slowly but surely become a source of fear for the universe’s plethora of terrorising menaces, a thematic strand which of course only continues to build as we analyse and evaluate the implications of modern tales including The Pandorica Opens and A Good Man Goes To War today.

If you’ve noticed the omission of discussion of Afterlife’s alien adversary so far in this review, then feel free to treat yourself to a sizable bag of Jelly Babies and/or Jammie Dodgers at some point today: while her presence isn’t detrimental enough to derail the drama as a whole, Mandi Symonds’ Lily Finnegan (whose true identity this reviewer shan’t spoil, since the revelation itself is undoubtedly one of the narrative’s finest moments) is presented in a pantomime-esque manner at times, since the tiresome stereotypical representation of her Irish cultural roots (clearly intended by Fitton to act as a satirical element of comic relief) becomes more of a running gag than anything else in a rightly sombre storyline which could easily have done without it. It’s rare that Doctor Who’s inhabitance of the science-fiction genre proves to be disadvantageous for its scribes, but in this instance, Finnegan seems to be intended as little more than a means through which Fitton can assert his narrative’s (arguably unnecessary) conformation to the programme’s generic conventions.

Such is the mark of any great singular instalment of Who, however, that in spite of its minor shortcomings, the strength of its narrative, its performances and its construction prevail as the dominant elements for which we will remember and cherish it in the years following its debut. Afterlife is one such defining example of a chapter of this ilk, for quibbles regarding its slight structural blemishes and tonal missteps (the former manifesting as a result of the latter in Fitton’s somewhat awkward utilisation of Finnegan in the rushed cliff-hangers which tail-end Parts One and Two) become near-irrelevant in light of Fitton’s subversive, emotionally riveting script, Aldred and McCoy’s potent evolution of Ace and the Doctor’s personas respectively and a genuinely shocking final sequence which could set the Seventh Doctor audio range off on a completely unique trajectory with unprecedented consequences down the line (or to put it another way: “Change, my dear, and it seems not a moment too soon!”). This gripping audio drama is one of (if not the) best releases that Big Finish have produced in years, and consequently, it ranks up there with Doctor Who’s superior 21st Century works overall.

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Reviewed by Lani Smith

The Light at The End
Produced by Big Finish
Written and Directed by Nicholas Briggs
Released: November 2013

The Light at The End was built up for quite some time as the true Doctor Who fan's 50th. Where many seemed fit to ignore the majority of the show's time, Big Finish, as per usual, decided to do quite the opposite and revel in the past. They wanted to do a proper 8 Doctor story, shattering the previous televised records (which was essentially held by The Five Doctors, which, despite its name, had about 3 and a half Doctors).

However, this sort of thing had been attempted by Big Finish before with Zagreus. Zagreus, for those who are unaware, has something of a rather unfortunate reputation about it. The common narrative surrounding why Zagreus flopped so immensely was that it simply had too many Doctors and returning cast members. Indeed, for the long-term Doctor Who fan who defends the upcoming rather New-Who-Centric televised 50th, Zagreus was always a go-to example for the age-old proverb of "Too many chefs spoil the broth."

Challenging this narrative, however, is The Light at The End which, thus far, has received a warmer and much more enthusiastic response. The question here is why? Why did this succeed where Zagreus failed?

Put simply, The Light at The End understood what it was. It was a celebration of 50 years of Doctor Who. Where Zagreus tried to expand upon the universe, in often very interesting ways, it was bogged down by narrative, rather than filled with celebration. When Zagreus was properly celebrating Doctor Who, as-in the rather brilliant recasting decisions, it shined. When it went on about exposition and nothing happened, it failed.

The Light at The End fixes this problem. Before we go into this, I should describe what a beat is. In directing and scriptwriting a beat change is a moment when the perspective of a character, or the audience, shifts in relation to a scene. For an example of one of the most famous beat changes in film history, look to Star Wars Episode V and the infamous "Luke, I am your father" line. Both Luke and the audience, in this moment, had their perception of events change entirely. Beat changes are directly related to the pacing of a piece and are vital to understanding why Zagreus failed where The Light at The End succeeded.

In essence, it saw that the core problem with the previous anniversary celebration was that it relied on glacial, or nonsensical, beat shifts. In Zagreus, the beat shifts never came quickly enough, often relying on people talking and the situation remaining static for huge swaths of time. Likewise, following the intense and emotional beat at the end of Neverland, the story made a nonsensical shift towards the humdrum as the protagonists trapsed about the TARDIS calmly for an hour. It was jarring and made little sense in context of the previous beat.

The Light at The End has no such problems. The beats come quickly, they land well, and they keep the two hours flying by. It felt dynamic, exciting, and fun. The script is also cleverly edited and every single scene, except one short scene with The Master gloating to himself, has a clear intention and purpose. The script does not waste your time as a listener, which is vital.

But, I'm sure you are all wondering, how the script holds up with so many cast members? Well, this is rather brilliant actually. The various Doctors and companions are split up into teams, much like The Five Doctors, and each has their own largely separate stories (that come together well at the end). We see about three or four groups form, which by definition makes the vast cast more manageable. However, due to the nature of The Master's plan, the various companions eventually flicker out of existence, delivering a much more manageable cast as time goes on. But, of course, not before delivering some amazing character interaction with some great combinations. Who knew that Charley and Four could get along so well? It's certainly a combination I would never have imagined working. Or what about Ace and Peri? Or, most tragically, Seven and Peri. As the script goes on, the groups form and the companions drop off, so that the cast actually becomes quite manageable with each group having their own basic section that is laden with Doctor-interaction dialogue. Four and Eight were the highlight for me (and a combination I hope to see much more of someday!), but there was plenty here to like. The “too many chefs” argument falls absolutely apart when the chefs are being overseen properly by both an experienced scriptwriter and, more importantly, an experienced editor and director.

It should also be said that there were some other moments of brilliance with the handling of The Doctors and the large cast. Firstly, and most impressively, the first three Doctors actually have rather a large role – with tons of lines! I was incredibly impressed with this, only expecting Big Finish to give them lipservice and some reused lines from their televised time. However, they got a spot-on impersonator for Three, returned Frazer Hines's Two, and possibly used the wonderful William Russell as One. The interaction between One, Two, and Three is a joy to see and it's wonderful to see how they interact with some of the later incarnations that they have never really gotten a chance to meet in the past. Secondly, it was nice to use the script to allow some “time bleeding” and enable the other companions that were not featured prominently to have some one-liners. We hear Tegan, Susan, Zoe, Jamie, and plenty of others. Even if it wasn't for long, it was still nice for a celebration to bring them all back for that.

One thing you'll notice in this script is that the script compliments the complications inherent in the casting. Mainly that the script and the story allows for the script to simultaneously expand the cast without allowing it to become unwieldy (the one-liner ghostly visions), while also allowing the cast to shrink and become more manageable as the plot goes on.

That said, the script is also necessarily quite simple in nature. The purpose of the script was not to tell a good story, or even a remotely compelling one, but to celebrate the years and the characters that have made the show what it is. One will not come away from this script thoroughly impressed with the plot as in something like Jubilee or Farewell, Great Macedon. The plot is secondary to the celebration here and, in reality, that is precisely what is needed for a good 50th celebration. If one puts too much focus on the plot, as in Zagreus or likely the upcoming televised 50th, the focus comes away from what made the show great in the first place and the characters that helped craft it. This is the one time of the decade when it is fully appropriate, and even ideal, to look back fondly instead of looking forward. And that's where the script shines. It delivers exactly what is needed – tons of character interaction and lovely combinations of Doctors that we would never get to see any other time of the year. This includes the first time we really get to see Four interact with any other Doctor or companion (Tom Baker is an absolute joy here, by the way). It's got enough references and returning characters that any long-term fan will be positively thrilled, but it's a simple enough plot that anyone with a basic understanding of who The Doctors are and what their personalities are like will enjoy it as well. For the casual fan and the dedicated one, there's plenty here to enjoy.

Oh, and get the Limited Edition. Trust me – you'll want to hear it all. There's so much content there.

(You can check out more of Lani's Big Finish and Doctor Who reviews at http://who-reviews.com/dwnews)

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Reviewed by Tom Buxton

The Light at The End
Produced by Big Finish
Written and Directed by Nicholas Briggs
Released: November 2013

“You know, old girl, sometimes I think you’re probably the finest ship ever to have sailed the Vortex.”

It’s a scene that has played out before our eyes a thousand times- a wearied, eternal time traveller verbally caresses his ship, readying it for a new adventure in the fourth dimension, his gentle care for its complex machinery as unyielding as his faith in the human race. Even after fifty years, however, depending on the talented British thespian cast in the role, this subtle, familiar sequence can still feel fresh, each incarnation of the Doctor developing a unique relationship with his TARDIS and yet at the same time rarely deviating significantly from the established status quo. The Light at the End, Big Finish’s spectacularly ambitious 50th Anniversary Special, similarly lays its foundations in the familiar, what fans have come to expect of the ‘classic’ era, then rapidly subverts those preconceptions in order to tell one of the studio’s most captivating narratives yet.

That the Special’s scribe, Nicholas Briggs, can find the time to craft a cohesive and engaging storyline at all is in itself a notable accomplishment. The prospect of integrating each of the first Eight Doctors, their companions and the ever-villainous Master into one delicately structured drama must have been daunting enough, even before the need arose for the plot to neither ignore nor become too dependent on the programme’s legacy. Briggs is careful in the latter regard, not shying away from throwbacks to 1963, The Three Doctors, Logopolis, The Eleventh Hour and other landmark moments in the show’s history, but simultaneously ensuring that the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth incarnations of our titular hero each have their moment to shine, to remind the listener why this iconic science-fiction drama continued to survive and thrive with them at the helm.

Inevitably, this balance of nostalgia and narrative cohesion which Briggs has struck won’t please everyone. Anniversary tales can often be something of a double-edged sword, in that many fans (perhaps rightly) want as many elements of days gone by to be referenced or have a physical presence within the episode, whereas others desire a storyline which pushes the boundaries of the show’s storytelling. While Briggs fulfils both of these desires to an extent, at the same time he arguably fails to completely excel in either regard. The Daleks, the Cybermen and plenty of companions are barely name-checked here, a stark departure from the nostalgia-fuelled ‘glory days’ of The Five Doctors, and equally the justified blockbuster-esque storyline brings little in the way of heartfelt emotion or dramatically challenging content, falling short of the heights attained in recent televised episodes such as Human Nature and The Doctor’s Wife by some distance.

All’s not lost by any stretch of the imagination, though, for where The Light at the End falters at times in the execution of its audacious Anniversary narrative, it more than compensates the listener with its stellar cast ensemble. Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann each capture the essence of their respective Doctors perfectly, the sheer brilliance of each of their incarnations demonstrated masterfully without the need for CGI or extensive make-up to cover up the age which these five men have gained since their last televised appearances in their role. Try as some fans might to contest against the notion, it is impossible to overlook the unmistakable fact that were these five Doctors to have appeared on-screen in The Day of the Doctor through new rather than archived footage (the latter eventuality all but inevitable), their bare resemblance to their appearance in the 1970s and 1980s would become all too apparent within moments of the viewer catching sight of them. Here, in an audio medium, fans new and old can remember the first eight Doctors in a guise purely rendicative of their original selves and thus worthy of the esteemed thespians who maintain their loyalty to the show decades on from their departure. To paraphrase a much-cited lyric, you can’t always get what you want, but instead, sometimes, you get what you need.

Of course, such as fans would also expect from a Special of this prestigious, rare ilk, the Doctors aren’t alone in their battle with an old foe. Louise Jameson’s Leela, Sarah Sutton’s Nyssa, Nicola Bryant’s Peri, Sophie Aldred’s Ace and India Fisher’s Charley all join their respective incarnations of the Time Lord, and for the most part they all provide substantial contributions to the wider narrative, even if at times that boils down to a nostalgic rendezvous between old friends and adversaries. Fisher is arguably the most short-changed supporting actress of the piece, relegated to a brief appearance alongside McGann in the opening scenes and a diminished return in the drama’s final moments. Other than that odd case, though, the ‘gals’ find plenty to do here, and not one of them finds themselves reduced to pantomime- screaming while tumbling down a relatively harmless incline, for example- which is always a positive omen in this reviewer’s book.

If only Geoffrey Beevers were so lucky. Returning to the role of the Master in his pre-Logopolis decrepit guise, Beevers’ portrayal is overexaggerated, shallow and dictated by superfluous dialogue which does nothing whatsoever to broaden our perspective on this iconic antagonist. Whereas Steven Moffat no doubt aims to challenge the viewer’s assumptive preconceptions of the character of the Doctor in The Day of the Doctor, it appears in this case that Nick Briggs has simply aimed to cast the Doctor’s arch-nemesis in a purely nostalgic light, neglecting to add any layers of depth in his construction such that Beevers is forced to rival Eric Roberts’ TV Movie portrayal for unreservedly outrageous expressions of evil.

What does prove to be an additional distinctive trait is Briggs’ direction of his own piece. Over the course of Light’s two-hour running time, listeners will ‘visit’ 1960s British homes, pocket universes, various TARDIS control rooms and plenty of other diverse settings, and whether through the eclectic soundtrack or the manner in which Briggs structures the dialogue and exposition, there’s rarely a chance to become lost in terms of where events are taking place in spite of the whistle-stop tour on which the narrative takes us. If this particular special release is anything to go by, then Briggs should definitely consider taking up joint scripting and directorial duties on a more frequent basis.

Like any Doctor Who Anniversary Special before it (indeed, Dimensions in Time knows this better than most), The Light at the End has its share of shortcomings. Like the majority of celebratory episodes that have preceded it, though, this is a drama which is worth the time of any fan, regardless of whether they were present at the time of An Unearthly Child’s broadcast or only just began to tune in with The Name of the Doctor this Spring. This isn’t the most original, stirring or effective instalment of Doctor Who by any means, yet it revels in its familiarity, in taking the scenes we’ve witnessed playing out a thousand times over and putting a glorious new spin on them.

For too long, uncompromising ‘fans’ of the show have lamented the impending absence of the first eight Doctors in next month’s celebratory movie- their focus should always have been on Big Finish, the only studio possessing the ability to bring these timeless characters back to life with no visual blemishes of age or otherwise. Steven Moffat surely knew that he would never even need to resurrect the classic Doctors for his Special- they’ve received their own, spectacular 50th Anniversary epic in The Light at the End, an adventure which does greater justice to the pre-2005 legacy of Doctor Who than a nostalgia-burdened televised outing ever could. It inspires wonder, awe and mystery, just as the show always has, and encourages us to remember how those same feelings came from a mere trip into a near-abandoned junkyard housing a strange blue box half a century ago- after all, that’s how it all started.

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Reviewed by Tom Buxton

Starlight Robbery
Produced by Big Finish
Written by Matt Fitton
Directed by Ken Bentley
Released: August 2013

A more apt title for the second instalment in Big Finish’s latest trilogy of Seventh Doctor adventures would perhaps be Starlight Treasury. For within this follow-up to Persuasion, the listener is offered a metaphorical vault of contributory delights which combine to form one of the production team’s strongest efforts yet. It’s rare that a reviewer can so fully complement an audio drama as to assert its shortcomings as purely negligible, yet in this particular case that’s precisely the situation which has presented itself.

What remains a surprise throughout the duration of the story is the effectiveness with which its scribe Matt Fitton develops upon what is a fairly traditional premise. The action picks up moments after the conclusion of Persuasion, with Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor, Tracey Child’s Klein and Christian Edwards’ Will all intent on discovering the whereabouts of the lost Persuasion device and its creator Kurt Schulk. Their search leads them to an intergalactic auction featuring a plethora of galaxy-threatening weaponry, forcing the TARDIS crew to engineer a devious heist in order to gain access to the ultimate prize.

Unless listeners manage to somehow experience Starlight Robbery without glancing at its cover art, they’ll already have noticed that the Sontarans are due a comeback in this piece. Sure enough, faster than you can yell ‘Atmos’, the classic adversaries make their entrance heard in the midst of the auction and pose an additionally dangerous dilemma for the Time Lord at its heart. Dan Starkey is rightly offered full vocal control over the various soldiers of this particular Legion and he manages to intelligently differentiate between the dialects and colloquialisms of each of the different soldier roles he inhabits. Naturally, there are instances where Starkey’s recent regular work as Strax on the show has an influence on his portrayal, yet this only serves to enhance his contribution to proceedings rather than acting in any detrimental manner.

Before the Rutans’ most notorious foes even take to the stage, though, this release’s finest asset is introduced in subtle but sublime fashion. Jo Woodcock takes on the role of the flirty and rather vivacious entrepreneur Ziv with a zestful and enriching energy that allows her to dominate each and every sequence she appears in, regardless of the extent to which she appears or indeed the level of challenge the dialogue places before her. Refreshing as it is to see McCoy in particular on such strong and consistent form as his incarnation of the Doctor, always the prospect of discovering fresh and invigorating new blood on-screen or in these audio releases is just as thrilling, doubly so in the case of the supremely talented Woodcock here.

Similarly unexpected and yet beneficial is Fitton’s capability to relax the arc stands of the 2013 Seventh Doctor trilogy so as to allow himself to convey a standalone, layered tale without the restraints of specific narrative elements holding back his own creative vision. Whereas Persuasion occasionally seemed confined by the expectations of the events it had to fulfil and pre-empt, Starlight Robbery serves as a great interlude before a presumably climactic confrontation of wits in the upcoming finale. Despite the return of Black And White’s elusive conman Garundel (played marvellously by Stuart Milligan once again) and the continuation of the search for Schultz’s masterpiece, there’s plenty of standalone content here that won’t likely leave newcomers to the range too confused as to exactly ‘what’s occurring’, in the elegant words of Gavin & Stacey’s Nessa.

Undoubtedly, the metaphorical glue which holds it all together is the intelligent structure that Fitton engineers as the backbone of his drama. At no stage in the four ‘episodes’ of the piece does any notable lapse in momentum occur, even in the more intricate and reserved exchanges between main and supporting characters aboard spaceships, storage crates and the various other modes of transportation which they hop aboard. Plot twists are dispensed equally in such a manner that listeners will frequently find themselves lulled into a false sense of security or foreknowledge, only to eventually discover that their understanding of events to come is minimal and inaccurate at the best of times.

If a minor inferior element of this second instalment must be uncovered, then it is arguable that a singular flaw lies in its climax. Fans of the Doctor Who stories broadcast in the show’s first decade may find themselves experiencing déjà vu as Starlight Robbery draws to a close, with a familiar spaceship cruiser’s interior sound effect employed in the final scene as a teaser of what’s to come next time. For this reviewer, the conclusion of Frontier In Space came to mind, although on the whole the effect of this supposed shortcoming is minimal, with the scene in question handled in such a manner that its dramatic impact is intense enough to justify its relative familiarity.

When Daleks Among Us does arrive in stores later this month, then, it faces a battle on dual fronts. On the one hand, writer Alan Barnes must engineer resolutions to narrative arcs such as the Klein mystery, the manipulation of the Persuasion machine and the foreboding trap which the titular antagonists and their creator have set for the Doctor. On the other hand, in following on from Starlight Robbery, Barnes acquires the unenviable task of matching or bettering what is to this reviewer’s mind one of the greatest single releases that Big Finish have produced since their inception. Starlight Robbery represents everything that makes the programme a success fifty years on- the intricate narratives, the accomplished performers, the supreme dramatic impact of it all- and without a doubt Fitton’s finest hour writing for the range. If you’ll pardon the pun, it’s stellar in every sense of the word, and for this reviewer Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary Special has truly come early.

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Reviewed by Tom Buxton

Persuasion
Produced by Big Finish
Written by Jonathan Barnes
Directed by Ken Bentley
Released: July 2013

If Big Finish’s UNIT Dominion presented its listeners with a renewed definition of the scale and potential of the Seventh Doctor audio range, then Persuasion can be perceived as serving an altogether different purpose. The first instalment in a trilogy of intergalactic adventures featuring Sylvester McCoy’s Time Lord, Tracey Child’s Klein and Christian Edwards’ new UNIT recruit Will Arrowsmith, writer Jonathan Barnes’ latest contribution to the Doctor Who universe does not find itself in want of narrative ambition. That said, a number of elements in this initial chapter restrain it notably enough to affect its overall quality.

The premise Barnes sets upon his listeners in the drama’s opening stages is simple, yet provides an effective and somewhat audacious opening to proceedings akin to that of a pre-titles sequence in a modern episode of Who. Now fully integrated into her role as UNIT’s scientific advisor, Klein is faced with training a relative newcomer to the organisation in Will. Before either of them can so much as utter the word “Kandyman”, however, the TARDIS appears on their proverbial doorstep, as the Doctor whisks the pair of them to Nazi Germany in the aftermath of the Second World War to hunt down a dangerous secret.

Of course, for more than one particular member of the TARDIS crew, the prospect of a trip to the Reichland is arguably threatening enough without a devastating piece of alien technology on the loose. Barnes rightly doesn’t ignore the significance this time period holds for the Doctor’s first German companion, instead seeding in a variety of whispers and hints from Nazi officials and others as to the nature of the information that the seventh incarnation of the Time Lord is holding from his ally at this stage. UNIT Dominion began to tease out inklings of Klein’s forgotten past, and thus to hear these murmurings developed on an explicit level here is enthralling for keen followers of the range.

What’s perhaps less effective in this case, then, is that Barnes appears to have been constrained by the overarching narrative structure set in place for this new trilogy of adventures. Certainly, fans who wanted to bear aural witness to new developments in the saga of Klein’s trip between parallel universes and our own won’t be outright disappointed by this release, but there remains an ever-present sense that certain revelations and events have been collated and stored for future instalments rather than placed here to serve a narrative which alludes to them. It’s one of the only arguable caveats of a trilogy such as this, in that there must always inevitably be loose ends which the opening instalment leaves for its successors to deal with, yet here that truth proves detrimental to Barnes’ narrative vision.

Thankfully, another element of Big Finish’s audio dramas which often has a great effect has not been restrained in this sense. Despite inhabiting a narrative that often falls plague to restricted progression due to its arc functions, the central cast of this release maintain a consistent benchmark of accomplished performances throughout. Sylvester McCoy is on just as fine form as he was in last October’s Dominion, an increasingly deceptive and omniscient presence within the lives of his companions, while Tracey Child maintains that impressive cold and hardened exterior of her oft-vulnerable UNIT advisor. Christian Edwards, a relative newcomer to the scene, must also be awarded great credit too for his stellar initial portrayal of Will, an instantly recognisable and empathetic construct who the audience can grow and bond with over the course of his coming travels aboard that oh-so-familiar time machine.

Elsewhere, the supporting cast of the piece are all served strongly with contemplative and emotive dialogue that rarely fails to hit the mark. Jonathan Forbes seems to revel in the layered depth of portraying a degraded Nazi officer such as Hinterberger in a post-war state, David Sibley’s Kurt Schalk comes across as a constantly elusive and wily rogue whose wider implications in the trilogy have yet to be seen, and Gemma Whelan’s hilarious intercom sequences as the artificial intelligence representing the Khlect foundation truly have to be heard to be believed. It’s testament to the diversity and uniqueness of the range that even now, a performance such as the latter actress’ can still inspire such profound, unforeseen hilarity and compelling listening fifteen years on from Big Finish’s inception.

Once again, though, by analysing and highlighting each of the elements which aid in providing the listener with a ceaselessly compelling and invigorating experience, inevitably the shortcomings which restrain the piece’s potential only become more prominent. Indeed, as with several other releases in the Doctor Who audio range, the notion occurred to this reviewer as to whether perhaps Barnes’ storyline would have been better served in a standalone context rather than that of a trilogy. It’s naturally clear that plot devices including the titular Persuasion machine, Schalk and the mystery of Klein will have roles to play in Starlight Robbery and Daleks Among Us over the next two months, yet this arc has seemingly forced Barnes to limit his line of investigation into the moral state of the Nazis after their defeat and indeed the Doctor’s own growing realisations that his next death and subsequent regeneration seem closer than ever before.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the latter contemplation from McCoy’s incarnation remains one of the most effectively underplayed moments of the entire production. The Doctor suggests to Klein in one way or another that his darker, enigmatic schemes which come into play here are simply his own way of dealing with his seemingly impending demise, his current incarnation making the worst of decisions in order to relinquish the universe of its darkest threats, allowing his next persona a degree of relief. This is a truly intriguing perspective for Barnes to take on a version of the Time Lord who has often been criticised for his eschewed sense of violence and justice, especially if the implications that this version’s transformation into the Eighth Doctor is near. When it comes to penning future instalments of televised Who, showrunner Steven Moffat could do far worse than to use Barnes’ contemplations of the Doctor’s darkest actions as an influence, even if it’s too late for such contemplations to have a direct influence on the portrayal of John Hurt’s new Doctor in the 50th Anniversary Special.

In fact, a recent statement by Moffat regarding the impending celebratory event can help to epitomise the effect of this latest Seventh Doctor release: “One of the things that I’m concerned about this year is that the show must be seen to be going forward. It’s all about the next fifty years, not the last fifty years.” Similarly, here Barnes appears to have adopted a mantra of moving the tales of this incarnation forward in an innovative manner rather than simply revelling in the nostalgia which ultimately killed Who in 1989. For the most part, it’s a supremely effective approach, and one that this reviewer hopes will not be forgotten as we move into escapades involving old foes like the Sontarans and the Daleks next time around.

Persuasion is a challenging audio drama to rate, simply because for every glowing strength it presents in the course of its two-hour running time, there’s a narrative or structural shortcoming which acts as a counterbalance to restrain it from greatness. However, what’s clear is that if the team behind UNIT Dominion were intent on redefining the Seventh Doctor audio range, then the team working on this production were equally intent on kick-starting a rapid chain of exhilarating events which no self-respecting listener is going to want to miss. In spite of its blemishes, Persuasion’s argument is aptly far too compelling for fans of McCoy and Big Finish to ignore, continuing a bold new lease of life for this particular range.

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