Posts

Review: Slipback

Image
     We all know the story, Doctor Who went on an unprecedented hiatus, and during that hiatus the Doctor returned in audio drama form. Except this happened twice, what that introduction most likely calls to mind are the Big Finish audio dramas we know and love today, but back in 1985 - during the 18 month hiatus - the BBC brought the Doctor and Peri to audio themselves for a one-off six-part adventure: Slipback . The cover art of the 2001 CD release.      Following a strange dream and an unexpected materialisation, the Doctor and Peri find themselves boarding the Vipod Mor, a ship captained by a being who is able to make his crew ill by the force of his own will, and operated by a computer with a mind of its own. As the Doctor investigates what brought them here, he gets separated from Peri, who finds herself tagging a long with a comedic duo of policemen.      Penned by then script editor Eric Saward, this is a surprisingly light-hearted and comical story, in stark contrast to the d
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Blazing Hour

Image
      In the September of 2024, the Fifth Doctor Adventures range promises a six-part adventure of grand proportions, written by James Kettle. Though at the time of writing this review, The Great Beyond is still a short way off, so what better time than now to look at Kettle's previous experience writing for the Fifth Doctor with The Blazing Hour . The era-appropriate variant of the cover art, by Tom Webster.      In the far future, the planet Testament is the backbone of the human race, providing them with the vast amounts of power they need to travel the stars and continue to expand. Under pressure to keep profits going up and growing fast, an experiment is being carried out to exponentially increase its power output, an experiment that researcher Ellison believes will go horribly wrong. The Doctor and companion Turlough arrive, and before long all hell breaks loose.      The first part is a wonderful introduction to the world of the story and sets the tone for all that's t
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Goth Opera (2024)

Image
     Once upon a time in the early-mid 2010s, Big Finish produced a range known as The Novel Adaptions , taking books from Virgin Books' Doctor Who ranges from the 1990s and turning them into full-cast audio dramas. Due to poor sales it wasn't to last, but in 2024 it has risen from the dead, for a one-off release celebrating 30 years of Goth Opera . The era-appropriate variant of the cover art, designed by Sean Longmore.        Full disclosure, I haven't read the original novel so this review will not look at how it fares as an adaption, but as its own story. Perhaps in future a comparative look may come to the blog but today is not that day.      Originally written by Paul Cornell and adapted by Lizbeth Myles (who wrote personal comfort listen The Grey Man of the Mountain ), the story features the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa taking some time to unwind in Tasmania, but another Time Lord - Ruath - seeks to bring back the vampires the Time Lords thought banished long ago in full
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Meanwhile, Turlough

Image
    As this year's run of The Fifth Doctor Adventures features the Doctor's season 19 companions, Vislor Turlough finds himself left out of the action once more, a situation all too familiar to fans of his television stories, and one that this year's entry into the Interludes series plays into. The Doctor and Tegan are out there saving the day but Meanwhile, Turlough ...   The cover artwork, designed by Rafe Wallbank.        Written by Jonathan Blum, the story drops you into the deep end of a typical Doctor Who adventure, with the Doctor breathlessly trying to explain the situation - a virus that allows victims to be remotely controlled - to the Over-Secretary, the usual  bureaucracy . Unfortunately for Turlough, the Over-Secretary is from his homeworld Trion, from where Turlough is an escaped political prisoner they'd be keen to get back. Turlough has to weasel his way out of being sent home and out of the Over-Secretary's grip, without the Doctor's help.   
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Dream Team

Image
      Another year, another run of The Fifth Doctor Adventures by Big Finish. This time Adric is along for the ride, completing the season 19 quartet. It's a team I like to describe as a dysfunctional family, and is one befitting of the box set's title: The Dream Team .   The era-appropriate variant of the cover art, designed by Ryan Aplin. The Merfolk Murders      Tim Foley has become a regular writer on this range, previously penning The Auton Infinity and last year's Pursuit of the Nightjar - which I previously gave a glowing recommendation - expectations are set high, this time stepping away from sci-fi and placing the Doctor and his friends into a more traditional murder mystery with The Merfolk Murders .     The team find themselves at the University of St Andrews in 1940 and meet the Merfolk, a society that spends the summer reading murder mystery stories, who soon have a real murder to discuss. The society's leader Athena, maths student Henry, the allied so
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: In The Night

Image
    Following on from Conflicts of Interest , Big Finish's In The Night returns to the more well-trodden ground of two and four part stories while sticking with the format of one story set out in the wider universe, with the other set in Earth's history. However, this box set flips the script, with the adventure out into space framing itself as a historical adventure of the far future, and the Earth-bound historical being contemporaneous to this era of Doctor Who . The era-appropriate variant of the cover art, designed by Ryan Aplin Pursuit of the Nightjar      The first story of this release - Pursuit of the Nightjar - is written by Tim Foley, a name I could not have been more eager to see if I tried as he was previously responsible for The Auton Infinity , a story I have made no attempt to hide as my favourite Big Finish adventure, as well as Break the Ice which is one of the best from the Ninth Doctor Adventures range. Such a thing is a double edged sword, it comes with
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Gobbledegook

Image
      Back in 2022, Big Finish started a series known as Interludes , bonus hour-long audiobooks included with one set of the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors' adventures a year. To me, these seem a nice way to sweeten the pot with pricepoints being a common point of contention to listeners. However, as much as I've enjoyed the longer-form Audio Novels range, I prefer the usual full cast adventures and perhaps to my shame I've dismissed Interludes as nothing more than an afterthought. After today, I've had a change of heart. The cover art for Gobbledegook . A small shame to not see Velar with his reading glasses on.      Gobbledegook is a story by Frazer Lee, a newcomer to Big Finish, included as an downloadable extra for Conflicts of Interest . Rather than being a totally isolated adventure, it expands on lore introduced in the set, allowing us to meet the character Velar - an armadillo-like alien friend of the Doctor's - who was previously only talked about in th
Post a Comment
Read more