Crashed On Dido

     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

    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.