#EighthDoctorAudios

[bigfinishaudioreviews]

“She's here...”

Featuring: Paul McGann as The Doctor and Nicola Walker as the companion

Set Between:  ‘The Eleven’ and ‘The galileo trap’

Stand alone? : No, Part of the 1st Doom Coalition boxset

Marks out of 10: 10/10

Summary of the Plot

The Doctor and Liv are hot on the trail of The Eleven. A trail which leads them to a museum containing a rather strange and sinister collection. The mysterious Red lady appears in the distance of all this artist’s paintings and the writing on the artefacts is too old even for the Doctor to translate. The Doctor is determined to discover why he can’t translate the writing, but consequently leads Liv into a far more dangerous mystery.  

Review

Taking extra time to establish a strong plotline base and flesh out the environment before bringing in the main events is the key to a good solid story. It’s the kind of writing which made Sarah Dollard’s televised stories stand out so much and half the reason why I have been so utterly compelled by the stories in this boxset so far. John Dorney has penned a good old fashioned horror story and what makes this particular story so intriguing and chilling is the fact that the Doctor has no clue who this mysterious red lady is and how to defeat her. It’s something that rarely happens in Doctor Who since the Doctor knows so much and always saves the day but in this case there is a real feel of danger that he may not.

The second story joins the first in its clever dialogue and strong characterizations. We are introduced to yet another strong, empowering female character with Helen Sinclair, who no surprises will later turn out to be a new companion to the Doctor. It’s always interesting to see (or in this case hear) actors portraying the struggles of the era (1963 surprise, surprise) particularly when they are centred around the gender gap and stereotypes. For the most part Hattie Morahan is thrown into centre stage and gives a wide range of emotion to her performance.

Buy it here

[bigfinishaudioreviews]

“The trap one sets ought to be appropriate for the pest one hopes to eliminate.”

Featuring: Paul McGann as The Doctor and Nicola Walker and Hattie Morahan as the companions

Set Between:  ‘The galileo trap’ and ‘Doom Coalition 2’

Stand alone? : No, Part of the 1st Doom Coalition boxset

Marks out of 10: 6/10

Summary of the plot

Whilst in search of The Eleven, The Doctor and his companions stumble across a factory orbiting the sun. The people in this factory are hypnotised and enslaved by robots into walking tread mills to provide power. 

Review

“Well, can somebody tell me what just happened?”

Yes I’d like to know that too.

This is one of those cases where I sing high praises of the concepts but wish the actual story was strong enough to carry it. The story starts off with a fantastic idea of people powered factories and stripping people of rights, it’s all very Seventeenth century and yet we know almost immediately that it is a futuristic story due to the robots. At first I was reminded hugely of ‘Time Works’, what with slavery and robots, but whilst ‘Time Works’ came across as more fairy tale like, there’s a more disturbing vibe from ‘The Satanic Mill’.

Things quickly take a different turn in the second half which rather than flowing on smoothly and continuing this brilliantly disturbing concept, revolves around The Eleven’s new scheme, which again is a brilliant concept but it feels like the two mismatched halves have simply been shoved together. All in all there isn’t a great deal of direction and it’s pretty hard to follow.

Once again Mark Bonnar gives a phenomenal performance. He’s terrifying but I’d definitely like to hear his character explored in greater depths in future stories. Liv and Helen are once again characters that fit perfectly alongside each other and work extremely well as a team, I look forward to hearing where their story takes them and hearing a bit more of each of their back stories in future audios. 

Buy it here

[bigfinishaudioreviews]

Featuring: Paul McGann as The Doctor and Nicola Walker and Hattie Morahan as the companions

Set Between:  ‘The Red Lady’ and ‘The Satanic Mill’

Stand alone? : No, Part of the 1st Doom Coalition boxset

Marks out of 10: 8/10

Summary of the Plot

Following a message sent by Galileo Galilei, The Doctor, Liv and Helen head to Italy, where what locals believe to be a plague is in fact something far more deadly. If Galileo didn’t send the message, then who did?

Review

I’d forgotten this third story was penned by Marc Platt but once I realised it is it made perfect sense. Platt tends to stray away from action packed plotlines and tends to instead focus on the little details, characterizations and atmospheric feels. Which is perfect for an audio set in the past. You want to be able to shut your eyes and imagine you’re there walking these streets in history and with this story you can. All in all this story had a similar vibe to ‘Point of Entry’ and if you enjoyed that, you’ll probably enjoy this too. The first half is considerably more detailed than the second which is a lot harder to follow, but that’s not to say that it dropped considerably in quality.

Helen experiences a great deal of culture shock here which works well and is relatable. Too often New WHO has the companions simply excepting things as they are and not questioning, and it’s just not realistic at all. Theres a genuine excitement as she experiences this new world. I loved the dynamic between Liv and Helen. The two appear to get on well together and there’s no irritating jealousy. The companions are quite different and each provide a different perspective to the story. Nicola Walker and Hattie Morahan are both incredibly talented actors who perform fantastically alongside Paul McGann.

I probably mentioned this in my Dark Eyes review but I have to say I’m enjoying the darker portrayal of the Eighth Doctor, it provides a bit of differentiation to the ‘New Shoes’ persona McGann took on in the Charley Pollard era and fits in perfectly with the atmospheric feels of the boxset.

Buy it here

[bigfinishaudioreviews]

“I believe it was the result of some vile scientific experiment.”

Featuring:  Paul McGann as The Doctor and Julie Cox as the companion

Set Between:  ‘The Company of Friends’ and ‘The Witch from the Well’

Stand alone? : Yes

Marks out of 10: 9.5/10

*Jump on point*

Summary of the Plot

The Doctor and Mary Shelley visit Vienna, where they hear word of The Silver Turk and it’s skills in playing Chess, Checkers and the Piano. But The Silver Turk is not what it seems and its skills are far more deadly. And the Silver Turk isn’t the only act in town and it certainly isn’t the deadliest creature amongst the streets of Vienna.

Review

Disturbing lullabies combined with gruesome events provide a good start to another fantastic Cyber Man story penned by Marc Platt. In true Platt fashion it’s a chilling story filled with Victorian melodrama and a little hard to follow at times.This audio had a similar feel to “The Talons of Weng Chiang”, however the concepts could also be compared to “Jubilee/ Dalek” in the sense that the companion feels sympathy for The Doctor’s enemy who is left tortured and broken. This story is of course based on the real Mechanical Turk hoax, it’s always nice to see Big finish incorporating factual history into their fiction.

Throughout this audio Platt keeps the characters at the heart of his storytelling, which is something that makes Big Finish’s stories stand out. There’s a large variety of interesting and unique characters who are all well-established within the plot. The characterization and performance of Mary Shelley is especially good, particularly in the scene with Gram. Her pairing with The Eighth doctor provides a different dynamic. The version of the Eighth Doctor we hear here is a step away from Paul McGann’s darker performances in the Lucie Millar and The Dark eyes stories and more leaning towards the “New Shoes” excitable child version in the earlier stories.

 Buy it here

[bigfinishaudioreviews]

Featuring: Paul McGann as The Doctor and Nicola Walker as the companion

Set Between:  ‘Dark Eyes 4’ and ‘The Red Lady’

Stand alone? : No, Part of the 1st Doom Coalition boxset

Marks out of 10: 9/10

*Jump on point*

Summary of the Plot

A dangerous Criminal has escaped from a Galifreyan prison and is wreaking havoc. A criminal who has all Eleven of his time lord incarnations living inside his head.

Review

The idea of the character of The Eleven was incredibly sinister and Matt Fitton executed that idea very well, penning this sinister villain into what seems like a fairly simple but effective opening story, which sets the scene fantastically. In my opinion Gallifrey rarely provides a good setting for an action packed Doctor Who story but Fitton has proved here that it can. I’d certainly be up for hearing more about the inhabitants of Gallifrey’s prison and more of the non-political aspects of this planet.

The depth of the writing really plays out through its characterisation. Mark Bonnar plays all eleven incarnations within one and my god is it one of the most terrifying and well preformed pieces of dialogue on Big Finish. Amazingly he manages to make it seem as though each incarnation is played by a different actor. His actions appear very John Simm master-esque but Master/Missy eat your heart out because this time lord is crazier.  

This story was also my introduction to Liv Chenka. On first impressions she’s a warm, likable character who plays a strong role within the plot and is a down-to-earth kind of woman. Let’s face it the writers at Big Finish rarely bring in a poorly characterized companion. There are some people who are born to act on audio, Nicola Walker’s delivery of the lines is very natural.

Buy it here