The Odds Against written by John Dorney and directed by Ken Bentley

What’s it about: The Doctor, Liv and Helen have landed near an abbey housing the gateway to the dimension in which the Ravenous were originally imprisoned. But their plans to enlist the inhabitants’ help in defeating their pursuers are disrupted when they stumble over a dead body. Strange creatures roam the corridors and something monstrous may be awakening beneath their feet.

Physician, Heal Thyself: The Doctor doesn’t trust the Eleven but he does trust his fear and selfishness. They are the Eleven’s enemies’ enemies and that means they are uneasy allies for the time being. A formidable foe is the perfect ally. Is it just me or does everybody else enjoy it when the Doctor is in the dark about the alien race of the week, as he is here with the Ix? Or is that simply another clue to their ultimate identity? How very unlike the Doctor to admit that he has no idea what to do. Does he always leave it to the last second deliberately?

Liv Chenka: I think it is perfectly natural for Liv to be suspicious of the Elven when he has a bit of a turn in the TARDIS, especially given everything they have been through together so far. He’s hardly been what you would call an ally. Why is it always her who stumbles on the surprise villains?

Helen Sinclair: I feel Helen has been a little neglected in the past four stories, often falling into obscurity next to Liv. Perhaps it is because she had such a strong showing in Ravenous 2. It’s worth remembering your characters in the midst of all these temporal shenanigans.

The Eleven: Imagine this. I have been a new relationship for nine months and have introduced my partner to the wonders of NuWho, which he lapped up all 11 seasons in about three months. I’ve always listened to the audios with earphones in and for once I decided to review a story with the speakers on whilst he pottered about the house. He had never experienced a Doctor Who audio before and this was an interesting first reaction. Everytime…and I do mean everytime the Elven opened his mouth in any incarnation, Ludo laughed his head off. He was astonished that anybody was given the greenlight to play a part in such a pantomimic fashion. And that is my problem with the Eleven. The idea behind the character is a fascinating one but the execution has been an abysmal failure, at least in this household. I can’t take him seriously as a villain or an ally. He’s a great big cartoon character who has been given too much importance and over exposure. When you study how many appearances he has had he hasn’t been as omnipresent as you might think but if a character isn’t working for you over ten appearances is nine too many. The Elven is quite appalled that with all the knowledge he has about the Ravenous at his disposal that all he has done is set a trap for the Doctor. He’s only been working with the Doctor through fear of the Ravenous but now he knows better it is time to step out of the shadows.

Standout Performance: John Heffernan. More please. Can’t he join the crew instead of the Eleven?

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Surrender humans! Death is certain!’ ‘That’s a statistical inevitability at least, thanks for reminding us.’
‘If you’re planning on killing us, just kill us! Don’t send out warnings in advance.’
‘My my what a handsome devil…’ ‘Shut up Nine!’
‘These temporal mash ups are always hard to remember’ – that’s covering it with a line!

Great Ideas: It’s a fascinating question that has been raised before in Doctor Who (The Two Doctors, but in a very different way) but never explored in any great depth. If you have various incarnations and something catastrophic happens to one of the earlier ones and you are following the adventures of one of the later ones…what happens to them? Do they wink out of existence? Do they feel the echoes of that event down the regenerations? The Ix only exists in their abbey, they are the children of the breach. It brought them there, keeps them alive, they feed on it and through the Time Lords they control it. The Abbey, the forcefield generators and the robotic servitors were provided by the Time Lords. They sit atop the dimension rift, guarding the gap between realities. They control the point where two realities meet, a room where either side of which is the dimension beyond. They manage the ebb and flow between the two with the aid of the Lock. They can sweep the contents of either universe straight into the other, which is what happened to the Ravenous. It was pleasant that the Nine was rewarded for his selfish act at the climax.

Audio Landscape: Did I hear the sound of the 70s TARDIS scanner opening instead of the spangly TV Movie one? Is the TARDIS feeling nostalgic? Best robot voice of all time. Very retro. Given that they are supposed to be stitches in time, the sound like the aural equivalent of nails down a blackboard. So that’s either a very effective interpretation or a painful listening experience, depending on your point of view.

Isn’t it Odd: Where the Ravenous a little difficult to hear in the opening scene? 12 hours to build up the biggest threat ever to the Time Lords…and they are barely audible? The Nine is terrific fun, far more enjoyable to spend time with than the Elven and so the idea of his demise in the pre-titles sequence does not please me. The covers are strikingly unimaginative in this set. I’d say the first was the best but even that failed to give us a decent view of the Ravenous. The rest have been montages of the various actors that appear. Contrasting these with the main range leaves them decidedly in the dark (and it’s nice to be able to say that the main range is doing SOMETHING better). Tom Webster took care of the latest Mags trilogy and all three of those covers are very striking so I can only guess that they were going for a deliberately paired back look here.

Standout Scene: I loved the reveal of who the Abbot really is, especially with who it is revealed to. Talk about timey wimey. There was a whopping great clue in there too, which I completely failed to spot.

Result: ‘Best we don’t forget the Ravenous…they are why we are here after all…’ says the Doctor at one point, a reminder from the main man of what this series is supposed to be about throughout all the distractions. Given that these boxsets tend to be as epic as possible, it’s rather enjoyable that at climax to the penultimate Ravenous set that the cast list is pared down to just the main characters. It has an economy to the storytelling and allows for the Doctor, Helen, Liv, the Elven and the Nine to interact more than usual. John Dorney has assembled a rather jolly plot too, one that seems to be going in a predictable direction and then pulls the rug out from underneath you. The scenes between the Nine and the Eleven were particularly fun…it’s probably the most timey wimey material you are going to listen that is not written by Steven Moffat and Jonathan Morris. There was some wonderfully clever wit in the dialogue in those scenes. Finally, we have a story that mixes the standalone (as this appears to be at the beginning) with the arc plot (a lot of the elements of the previous stories in this set come into play here) and a story that climaxes a box set on a positive note. That last point is something of a miracle because finishing on a high has been a real problem with these four-story sets for some considerable time. A shout out for Ken Bentley, who has been with Big Finish for many years now, and despite the uneven nature of the storytelling manages to realise this set with real energy and confidence. I have been a bit all over the place with my praise and criticism of Ravenous, but any series that has such a huge input from John Dorney is always going to be worthy of encouraging comment. This is all plot plot plot and if you like your Doctor Who emotionally charged you might feel a little short changed but I thought this was very well paced, and that it led to an appropriately furious climax. I really enjoyed this story, and this boxset as a whole: 8/10