The Jabari Countdown written by Alan Flanagan and directed by Scott Handcock

What’s it about: Arriving on a mysterious island, stranded with a group of mathematicians, the Doctor and his companions find themselves on the fringes of the Second World War. Trapped with only each other and an unknown threat, the group must work together to solve a puzzle greater than just one world’s war.

The Real McCoy: Chris and Roz figure that the Doctor presses buttons just for show on the console, an elaborate theatrical effect rather than out of necessity. He’s that impish little devil in this one, especially amusing as he adopts a pirate accent to try and explain why he is a stowaway. Amusing he introduces Chris as his manservant and Roz as his personal secretary. The other way around, surely? When the Doctor tries to explain where they have come from he sounds like a complete fruitloop. You would think that after all this time he would have some go-to explanations for every time period he finds himself in on Earth. Sylvester McCoy is brilliant during the climax of this story but it’s unsurprising given the Doctor gets such strong material. Succinctly working out who brought them to the house, growling accusations at the guilty party, desperately trying to figure out how to save everybody’s lives. I’m usually extremely critical of McCoy’s performances and so it’s wonderful to be able to shower him with so much praise. I guess it comes down to the quality of the writing. The Doctor is such a smart bloke, and how he puzzles out all the meaningful numbers is inspired.

Moody Copper: The Doctor calls a slap from Roz shorthand. I’m glad that Roz was the one to go back to the TARDIS and seek information about the Jabari. She’s a character that is often treated as a grumpy old copper but her best writers gave her a steely intelligence too. I’m pleased to see that passed over here and she’s already reached some interesting conclusions about their foe before presenting the data to the Doctor.

Puppy Dog Eyes: Chris is such a great big kid and he’s exactly the sort to want to play hide and seek in the TARDIS. I mean think about it for a second…hide and seek in a Ship where the dimensions shift! That means you might never be found should the TARDIS get in on the game and keep secreting your hiding place away! Infinite fun! Chris longs to be treated as something more than a well-muscled heavy, but the Doctor selects him for all the physical work. Chris has a very good point when he says if they were trying to think of an appropriate alibi would they seriously go for the ‘we travel in time and space’ route. His romantic goodbye with Eleanor feels earned, despite the fact that they have hardly spent any time together. Portrayed this well, I would very much like to spend more time with Chris…and I NEVER thought I would say that.

Standout Performance: I really love Janine Duvitski. Having appeared in two of my favourite sitcoms in strikingly different roles, she’s one of those British actresses who tends to get remembered for a particularly vivid role rather than a versatile character actress. But as this story proves, she’s extremely talented and she elevates the story whenever she appears. I loved the moment where she calls the Doctor out, thinking that she is just some dotty grandmother along for the ride. ‘With as many grandchildren as I have you get used to organising an army!’

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Earth takes its time on too many things’ – never a truer word spoken but the NAs suggest that we get there in the end with the important issues.

Great Ideas: The house isn’t a house, it’s a spaceship belonging to the Jabari who conquer through mathematical infection. There’s no pattern to the worlds they have invaded, it’s completely scattershot. It’s almost as if they are avoiding certain planets where the infection won’t take. Alpha was seeking the best, recruiting people to save her world.

Audio Landscape: I listened to this in candlelight alone in my flat and there were a few times where I found myself looking over my shoulder to make sure I was on my own. Handcock directs the suspenseful moments really cleverly, recognising that less means more.

Isn’t it Odd: Doesn’t Alpha get away rather lightly given what she has put everybody through? I’m no sure I would be so forgiving.

Standout Scene: Chris’ sexuality has always been a malleable thing. He’s a guy from the future and he has never let somebody’s gender get in the way of finding them attractive. Not so much bisexual as pansexual. The reveal about Eleanor is a fantastic moment, not only because it says something profound about the sexual politics of the time (given how terrified she is of anybody finding out that she was once a man) but because it is at that moment that Chris chooses to show that he is attracted to her. It’s one of those audio moments when you want to cheer at the sheer beauty of the writing and the performances.

Result: ‘A mysterious island, a group of scientists, a dash of mathematics and a dollop of inclement weather…’ We’re introduced to far more interesting characters in the first ten minutes of The Jabari Countdown than in the entirety of Vanguard and its good sign that this will be a far more engaging and thoughtful listen. Trapping a group of characters in an isolated location isn’t just a staple Doctor Who set up but a recognisably dramatic construct stretching back to the birth of storytelling. And so it takes some skill to pull it off with this much dexterity, with a plot that constantly surprises and thrills. What Alan Flanigan has done here is take the essence of a base under siege story from Troughton’s era and run it through a sieve, thrown away all the fatty bits and presented it as a perfectly structured, beautifully characterised story in less than an hour. Not a second is wasted. It’s a fairly big cast but they're pretty vivid given most of them die before the hour is out, especially once their secrets are out. He uses the team of the Doctor, Chris and Roz well too, a story that is once again presenting them as a cohesive unit with a likeable seventh Doctor and friends. Chris is especially well written and Oliver gives his finest performance to date. Take a dash of Agatha Christie’s And The There Were None, add a pinch of The Chimes of Midnight, fold in a generous helping of The iterations of I and serve for 60 minutes with delicious performances and suspenseful direction: 9/10

Vanguard written by Steve Jordan and directed by Scott Handcock

What’s it about: The planet Vanguard was once ravaged by a war between its peoples: the Dauntless and the Intrepid. Now, robotic titans stalk the desolation, searching for survivors. Their mission: to end the war for one side or the other. But which side will the Doctor take?

The Real McCoy: Does it ever seem odd to you that wherever in the universe that the Doctor seems to go that, almost without exception, he seems to know the history of every planet and race? He understands the conflict between the Dauntless and the Intrepid the second he steps from the TARDIS allowing us to slip straight into the story fully armed with information. Maybe that’s why, for brevity. You have to wonder if the Doctor is losing his touch when he has to ask ‘any potential escape routes?’ The experience of knowing he is going to die never gets easier.

Moody Copper: Listen how desperate Roz is to find Cwej when he is stolen away from them. Roz never behaved like that. The NA Roz would have appeared like she didn’t care and suggest that he can take care of himself, whilst simultaneously trying to work out how to help him.

Standout Performance: Connor Calland. Really giving his part some welly. I was so deeply uninvested in the situation that I didn’t care, but I appreciate the effort.

Great Ideas: This has to go down as one of the Doctor’s most unfortunate landings, the TARDIS materialising on a planet at war on a battlefield between two charging armies. When she says that she always takes him where he needs to be in The Doctor’s Wife, perhaps she could do so without, you know, shoving two armies in his face. What do you do when you are introduce to the sole survivor of a desolate war that ravaged a planet…and you were supposed to save everybody? A fully programmable bioweapon created by both the Dauntless and the Intrepid in their attempts to destroy the other side. This required hosts to incubate a strain of virus to carry to everybody else. It says something about the creation of super weapons during warfare that both sides never intended to create something this powerful but their meddling with science and unleashing of two sets of children loaded with virus created something more terrifying than either side could comprehend.

Result: We’ve gone from a story idea that nobody has tried to a story idea that everybody has tried. Think of any TV SF series and think of a time when they have done one of those ‘warring clans’ tales where everything comes good in the end. It’s a particular speciality of Star Trek and Stargate, but Doctor Who is hardly immune either. A few years ago this sort of tale was subverted brilliantly in the 4th Doctor story The Paradox Planet and Legacy of Death where the two opposing sides in the conflict are the same race at different points in their history. When I start comparing the current story unfavourably against the 4th Doctor Adventures, be scared. The performances are earnest but there’s no escaping the fact that there is little here that we haven’t seen before and there’s nothing to fill in gaps in interest like decent characterisation and skilful plotting. It feels like every box set has to have that one release that you could kind of do without, the one story that brings the batting average down. The one story that doesn’t aspire to be as strong as its fellows. Vanguard takes that trophy, even though it does give the Doctor, Chris and Roz equal share of the action. This is the kind of story that Russell T Davies was warning about in series one, set on planet Zog with the Zogs and the Zogettes at war and this time our only identification characters are a Time Lord and two space cops from the future. So nobody. It is trying to say something profound about war in the name of progress but it gets lost under a lot of waffle and misplaced angst. I’m really really pleased they didn’t open with this story. I may not have come back to the set: 3/10

The Trial of a Time Machine written by Andy Lane and directed by Scott Handcock

What’s it about: After colliding with another time-ship in the vortex, the TARDIS materialises on Thrantas where it is arrested and forced to face trial. While Chris and Roz investigate the crime scene, the Doctor must defend his most loyal companion against a society where guilt has no meaning.

The Real McCoy: One of his moral rules is to never eat anything that can talk back. There’s much more of a suggestion of camaraderie between the Doctor, Chris and Roz than there ever was in the books. The Doctor of this period was an enigmatic fella who crossed the line more often than not when it came to his companions and despite the terrible things that he put them through they still came back for more. At times it felt more like they were his employees rather than his companions. It felt like he had hired two coppers to join him in the TARDIS because that’s what this big tough universe that he was facing needed. Scott Handcock has instead chosen to direct his writers to introduce a much more comfortable solidarity between the three of them that works to this series advantage. I love how he uses both Chris and Roz’s deductive skill to fathom where they are, playing one’s reasoning off against the other. He questions what he would do without the TARDIS. Listen to how emotional the Doctor is when he thinks the TARDIS is going to murdered. It’s not often that you hear him begging. Inadvertently, the Doctor turns this entire society upside down and wants to leave his legally minded companions behind at the climax to tidy it up and create a whole new legal system. He tells Roz and Chris that he trusts them to the end of space and time.

Moody Copper: I’m probably going to get stick for this (when have I ever shied away from that?) but I feel that Yasmin Bannerman is seriously miscast as Roz Forrester. That doesn’t mean that she is a bad actress and I have admired her work elsewhere a great deal. Roz was a tough as nails space cop with enough chips on her shoulder to serve them with fish. She was aggressive, bolshie and violent. Bannerman is far too gentle and easily persuaded in the role. I like her far too easily whereas I had to work to like Roz in the books. The result is that the Roz in the audios is fair too amiable to be very interesting whereas I found myself loving Roz in the end in the books, despite her nastiness because she was genuinely vulnerable underneath all that anger. It will be interesting to see if they can add that element of unpredictability and moodiness to Roz in these original adventures, but Bannerman has already adopted this pleasant Roz in the novel adaptations and it would be very odd to see a shift now. It’s amazing the things that Roz has gotten used to, like working with Chris.

Puppy Dog Eyes: Whereas Chris benefits hugely by having Travis Oliver cast in the part. One of my least favourite companions for a plethora of reasons (mostly being that nobody could be quite this green and this wet at the same time), Chris Cwej has been given a complete overhaul on audio. Oliver is likable, warm, funny and engaging. Go figure. There are some things that are universally wrong, that’s why he and Roz became adjudicators. Morality is relative, especially in the Doctor’s adventures. He and Roz are going to have to learn that if they are going to stick around.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Nobody likes to have an Overlord, no matter how pleasant they are.’
‘See you in 100,000 years.’
‘Society is better off so that’s okay.’
‘Did we do that to you? You are here with me of your own accord?’ – in a moment of rare poetry, the Doctor asks the TARDIS if she is a willing as traveller or considers herself a slave. Interestingly, we don’t get an answer.

Great Ideas: Is this a good idea, I ask myself? The New Adventures were a huge deal to a fair number of Doctor Who fans in 90s, especially when the love for the show had been all but abandoned by the BBC. However just as many people loathed the novels and thought they betrayed everything that the show was about and had plunged headlong into a series that thrived on violence, sex and swearing (the Torchwood of its day you might say) and confused, continuity destroying and mostly terrible prose. I was somewhere comfortably in the middle, and whilst I was never an avid reader of the books I did find the time long after they had finished being published to read through them all in some depth and review them and to reach a critical consensus. Some dazzling ideas were in there, some powerful characterisation and some very mature storytelling. Alongside some truly abysmal prose, agonising tweenage angst and some moments that felt so out of place turning up in Doctor Who books. Target novels these aint. Genuinely fantastic novels, seriously poor ones. Big Finish have done something nobody expected when they began adapting and releasing the more popular of the New Adventures. There is something electric about having a part of your childhood brought to life by the original TV actors as though they were actually broadcast during the nineties. I understand the appeal, even if Big Finish (who dedicated a fair whack of money on this venture with some pretty hefty casts) overestimated how popular they would be. Not wanting to call the venture a failure (because the results are pretty fantastic), they have no decided to head off into the unknown with two of the original New Adventures companions, Chris and Roj, and tell some innovative stories in the NA style. I applaud the attempt to try something both original and old fashioned like this but I question whether hour long stories are long to tell the sort of stories that in the NA’s own words were ‘too broad and deep for the small screen.’ Will this turn out to be another missed opportunity from Big Finish or will the quality of the releases be the salvation of the NA audio line? Time will tell…

The TARDIS has a form of sentience and if the sensors are sophisticated enough then it can be detected as a life form. According to Thrantasian law, the passengers in a space/time craft cannot be held responsible for the living creature at the crafts heart. Any self-aware species under arrest is entitled to representation. When asked about the TARDISes learning difficulties, communication problems, violent tendencies, allergies or food intolerances the Doctor answers no, yes, no, no, no. I’ve always wondered about our justice system and how, if the judge is in a particular mood, might sway the verdict of a hearing on a whim. To have light thrown on it so brightly and exposing the paucity of the legal system is quite an eye opener. On Thrantas the severity of the crime and thus the severity metered out depends on the impact the crime has on society in the short and long term. All things are known to the Magistrum, both past and future because it can see through time and understand the effects that a person can have on the timeline. Convicted felons are taken into appropriate hospitals and their brains are treated with electric shocks to reduce their intelligence, strength and reflexes. Punishing the felon and deters others, their IQ depleted depending on the crime they have committed. This society has inherited time travel but doesn’t really understand it. That it turns out to be a Time Being forced into slavery is a great twist.

Musical Cues: I’d buy an audio series just to listen to the Big Finish NA audio theme four times. Isn’t it fabulous? A fusion between the techno-madness of McCoy’s theme and the big brass band feel of the YV Movie. It’s one of my favourite things that Big Finish (or more specifically Howard Carter) have done.

Isn’t it Odd: Pull the TARDIS apart and scatter it through a billion years of history? Outrageous!

Standout Scene: There’s a gorgeous moment when the Doctor walks into the TARDIS and has a conversation with his oldest friend. It’s just Sylvester McCoy talking to himself but given the weight of 50 years of travel, it doesn’t feel that way.

Result: ‘A computer that can see through time!’ The TARDIS is placed on trial and the Doctor is forced to represent her. Just let that soak in for a little bit. That’s a phenomenal idea to kick start both a story and a new series of adventures for the Doctor, Roz and Chris. Andy Lane has written a smart, compact script with a terrific role for the Doctor and an excuse (if it was ever needed) for him to express his love for his time machine. You might think placing Sylvester McCoy in a role where he is forced to use lots of technical jargon at pace might be a mistake but this is the New Adventures Sylvester McCoy, you know the one who knows how to act. It’s a story with an awful lot of temporal bafflegab so prepare your brain before entering but if you’re willing to put in the effort it’s a damn clever piece of work. It baffles me that so many Big Finish Doctor Who productions go for the ‘action on audio’ route rather than using the time explore ideas through language (which essentially what the best of the audios do) and while The Trial of the Time Machine is very talky, high marks for doing something original with time travel that a show 50 years plus hasn’t attempted before. It’s a script to get you thinking rather than feeling, so it might seem quite a cold exercise to some. My biggest problem is that the stakes don’t feel particularly high, which could be down to the direction or possibly because I wasn’t really sure what the TARDIS was being accused of. But I loved the discussion and the dialogue really sells this world and its insane legal system as something compelling and convincing and quite disturbing. To answer the question of whether the original audios can be as ‘broad and deep’ as the NAs, yes and no. This has much more substance than your standard audio but it lacks the riveting characterisation of the best of the novels. It’s a damn good first effort though: 8/10

Nightshade written by Mark Gatiss (adapted by Kyle C Szikora) and directed by Scott Handcock

What’s it about: Professor Nightshade - tea time terror for all the family, and the most loved show in Britain. But Professor Nightshade's days are long over, and Edmund Trevithick is now just an unemployed actor in a retirement home, fondly remembering his past. It's the same through the entire village of Crook Marsham - people are falling prey to their memories. At first harmlessly, and then, the bodies begin to turn up. The Doctor and Ace arrive on the scene - but, with the Doctor planning his retirement, it may be time for Professor Nightshade to solve one last case.

The Real McCoy: Whereas Ace finds it grim, the Doctor considers the North characterful. The TARDIS food dispenser is all very well but sometimes you can’t beat a good British cuppa. The Doctor is starting to think that he is a selfish old Time Lord that is keeping Ace from better things, an ironic statement given what is about to happen in their lives. There’s not a day that passes where he doesn’t think of Susan. He’s in a wistful mood, thinking about settling down and retiring. Just for a few centuries, somewhere away from death. He calls his adventures ‘aimless wandering.’ Much like Peter Capaldi’s Doctor in his first season, he questions whether he is a good force. It’s great to hear the usually sanctimonious and heartless NA 7th Doctor questioning whether he has the right to interfere as much as he has been. It’s Ace that snaps him out of that thinking, and it’s Ace who will condemning him for those faults in the not too distant future. He generally describes Gallifrey as a dreary hole. It’s a bureaucratic nightmare but its hearts are in the right places. How strange to hear the Doctor saying there is nothing he can do to help…could it be that he really means it when he suggests he’s ready to put down roots and stop meddling? He can’t quite help himself when a body presents itself. He’s terribly irritable at times, unusually so with Ace. He’s a scientist, philanthropist, explorer and general do-gooder. Waltzing in and telling people what to do is the story of his life. He’s furious when Ace comes blundering in with her nitro nine just as he was beginning to understand the creature they are facing. The Doctor agonises about getting involved again, about letting people down and getting them killed. There is a real feeling of the universe weighing heavily on him at the moment, almost as if he knows the momentous and out of character role he is going to be forced to play as Times Champion. It’s gorgeous listening to McCoy playing the ‘one day I will come back’ scene from The Dalek Invasion of Earth. He can’t seem to tear himself away from being the Doctor. He helps people, that’s what he does.

Oh Wicked: It’s interesting that they chose to adapt Nightshade because it marked the beginning of the end of the Ace that we recognise from the TV series before Love & War drove a huge wedge between her and the Doctor that never truly healed. Beyond the opening four Timewyrm books, this is probably the closest you can get to the Ace from the Big Finish audios normally. That’s because Mark Gatiss had no real interest in the ‘adult’ innovations that were occurring in the novels at the time, he just wanted to tell a damn good Doctor Who story. She thinks of the Doctor as her mentor, someone who is helping her to grow. She doesn’t mention the very strange way he goes about it. Discuss it with a therapist, love, they might say it is emotional torture rather than education. When you see that kind of treatment as cruel to be kind you have question the sort of bloke that Ace will end up with. She has to believe in the Doctor otherwise there is no point in going on. Like those Agatha Christie adaptations on television, the decision is made to remove the original ending of Nightshade and replace it with a much happier one where Ace leaves the Doctor to stay with Robin. It’s well set up, well written and well played. It’s entirely wrong when you try and fit it into NA continuity (or even if you want to listen to these adaptations in order) but as a statement of Ace’s growing maturity and the Doctor’s wiliness to let his friends go but continue travelling it is really nicely done. I never thought I would say this but I was rather touched by the idea of Ace leaving (something I have been asking for for ages!), and how maturely they both handled it. Sophie Aldred gets to really show how far Ace has come.

Standout Performance: A round of applause for Samuel Barnett, who has received plaudits for his work for Big Finish elsewhere and made a name for himself front lining the short lived by unforgettably bizarre Dirk Gently series in America. He’s fantastic as Robin, very different from Ace’s other squeezes (James Redmond’s Jan and John Dorney’s Henry) and yet shares natural chemistry with Sophie Aldred. He’s one of those characters that you could describe as sweet and down to earth but without the irritation and blandness that can come with those descriptions. Probably a little too safe ultimately for Ace, but for a while I was convinced this might actually work. And with only two hours to tell this story, that is mostly down to the actors.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Soon the people of this village are going to know fear…’ – listen to how McCoy says that line. Sometimes he can really get under my skin.
‘Sonic screwdriver! It screws things. Sonically.’

Great Ideas: I thoroughly enjoyed the excerpts of Nightshade that were scattered throughout the story. They are lovingly created to capture the feel of those old pulp classics like the early Quartermass serials. At first I was wondering why on earth the story was opening on such dated and bombastic music but everything was soon made very clear. A being of incalculable age that the Earth may have formed around. Running through the planet, like a virus feeding off energy. It can’t feed directly and so it latches onto memory. Emotion makes the ghost creatures come to life. Just because it is torturing people, it doesn’t mean it isn’t just trying to survive like the rest of us. It’s just that it’s method or living and ours isn’t mutually compatible.

Musical Cues: An authentic season 27 score (can I say that?), Blair Mowat realises the best of the music from the late eighties (the emotion and excitement of scores like Greatest Show and Fenric) whilst completely avoiding the techno horror of other stories (the disco friendly McCulloch scores).

Isn’t it Odd: I can understand why people grew a little weary of listening to this one if they are used to the more robustly plotted nuts’n’bolts Doctor Who that Big Finish usually delivers. I reached the 30-minute mark and little had happened in terms of plotting. It’s very much a case of setting up the location, introducing the characters giving the limelight to the Doctor and Ace. In terms of events occurring there is little beyond someone watching telly and friends eating a fry up. In the novel the way that people’s memories were twisted and made black was quite graphic and disturbing, especially since we had gotten close to the guest cast and understood why the reappearance of those people were so torturous. It was what they wanted more than anything, and it was being used against them. In the audio we have barely begun getting to know the same people and whilst the visitations are still realised in a creepy way, they have none of the impact. I’m not sure we needed the hope in the TARDIS in the coda to explain away the fate of the creature. It’s gone, that’s enough. It’s a whole bunch of technobabble of the sort that the show really wasn’t interested in in the late eighties.

Standout Scene: It’s a long time coming to reach a moment of real terror, but by golly that cliff-hanger is worth waiting for. Those screams. It’s a shame that Carole Ann Ford is advertised on the cover because her involvement would have been a complete surprise to those who haven’t read the book. It’s one of the best scenes in the book, Susan’s surprise re-appearance, and it proves to be the case in the audio too. Torturing the Doctor with the regret of leaving his granddaughter. Sylvester McCoy unleashes a relentless anger at the climax and is quite brilliant. Who knew he had it in him?

Result: Nightshade felt like the most truncated adaptation of all for me, so it loses points for gutting the novel of some of its more emotional moments but at the same time it felt exactly how the series might have done had it entered a 27th season, continuing the more down to earth feel of the previous season. So, it gains points for that. It was certainly far more involving and authentic the Lost Stories 27th season and I think that came down to Sylvester and Sophie and the director. What is it about these adaptations that they bring the most convincing and mature performances out of the regulars, in a way that the main range only very occasionally does? Is it that Sylv and Soph understand the importance of these novels to the fans and give it a bit of extra welly? The secondary characters lose much of their empathy and starkness in this version of the story, but the Doctor and Ace are superbly characterised throughout. What’s interesting is that even though the supporting characters like Robin and Edmund pale compared to their print counterparts, they are still a cut above what we would normally get in the main range these days. And the guest cast is excellent, doing some sterling work, especially in the second episode. I’m not sure if it is because some of the work is done for the person adapting the script already but there is an atmosphere to even the weakest of these NA adaptations and an excitement to hearing them brought to life. Scott Handcock has got a tricky script to bring to life here, one which has had a lot of the emotional power of the book excised and yet he goes for broke with his direction anyway, and the whole piece is dripping with an atmosphere of regret and remorse. It’s tangible. I really enjoyed the Ace/Robin pairing and don’t really have a strong opinion about the altered ending. I’m not sufficiently invested in the NAs to consider this sacrilege. I’m sure there’s a really good Big Finish audio out there waiting to be told about a Doctor Who actor who is dragged into a Doctor Who style plot and having to face Doctor Who style villains. That’s essentially what happens to Nightshade here. Although I suppose that idea was perfected in Galaxy Quest. Nightshade was far more interested in being a Doctor Who story than an NA, and usually I would say that is a good thing but having to structure this to fit in a recognisable Doctor Who narrative loses the fact that so much of the original novel was character driven. And ultimately there isn’t much plot, but there’s plenty of atmosphere and I was carried by the mood and the central performances quite a long way towards enjoyment: 7/10

The Perfect Prisoners written by John Dorney and directed by Nicholas Briggs

What’s it About: The Doctor, Ann and K9 are hot on the trail of the Syndicate, and straight into trouble. After contending with killer robots and dangerous aliens, the clues lead straight to a machine that can literally make your dreams come true. A device that in the wrong hands could lead to misery for billions. But who’s the real villain here? And what exactly is their master plan?

Teeth and Curls: You know the stakes are high when the fourth Doctor calls in the authorities, since this Doctor always likes to go it alone. It was his predecessor who liked the back up of the forces. He likes to think of himself as a freelance trouble-shooter, whatever that means. They have barely started looking into the Syndicate and between them they have saved multiple planets whilst the SS have been twiddling their thumbs. I love the fact that there is a trail of murder in their wake and the Doctor has no clue that it is Ann who is doing most of the killing. I was waiting in anticipation to see how he would react to the news. There are many records of the Doctor opposing oppression wherever he finds it. It’s always better to threaten the Doctor’s companions rather than the Doctor himself, they only have one life to lose. Except this time his assistant is a lot deadlier than she appears. The Doctor genuinely believes that things can always be resolved peacefully and that there is no justification for murder. Which means the second he realises that Anya has taken lives that she is no longer welcome in his life. It’s really sad when the Doctor calls K.9 his best friend, realising that he can no longer include Ann in that list. The Doctor is never more dangerous (especially the fourth Doctor) when all the odds seem to be against and so the apparently suicidal act at the end of part three is brilliantly predictable in its unpredictableness.

Bobby on the Beat: This might not make me very popular but I think that Ann as a psychopathic Time Agent who will literally ring an alien’s neck with her bare hands is far more enjoyable to listen to than the sweet, grumpy PC Ann Kelso who has been travelling with the Doctor. There’s nothing particularly subtle about her characterisation in either but the exposed sleeper agent at least behaves in an unpredictable manner. Since this season has been a huge love letter to The Daleks’ Masterplan it feels quite appropriate that a relation of Sara Kingdom’s should make an appearance too. No wonder the Doctor has struggled to control the TARDIS lately, Ann has been practicing and wrestling control from him. Trenix was in witness protection because he had given evidence against the Syndicate’s associates, the Sinestran’s and he had been hidden in Earth’s past to try and keep him safe. He was traced so Anya was sent in, given a false personality and memories of her were implanted in police officers so they would accept Ann Kelso as one of their own. I love the fact that I was having a moan about how insubstantial Ann’s character was earlier in the season…when that vacancy of information was a plot point waiting to be sprung! Anya proves to be far more dangerous than Sara Kingdom ever was, ruthlessly destroying the Celation cloud when the Doctor is busy trying to be diplomatic. Anya attacks K.9 in the TARDUS and there is no coming back from that in my eyes. ‘I think you need to get a new dog!’ indeed!

Standout Performance: Astonishing how much more engaging Jane Slavin is as Anya than she ever was as Ann. As soon as she drops the northern accent and starts murdering people she suddenly becomes somebody who is really fun to be around. I’m not sure what that says about me. Tom Baker’s performance when he confronts Ann about who she really is quite took my breath away. This is how good he can be when he is given powerful material. At one point I wondered why Hannah Bartholomew had wandered into the story. Hunt’s voice is so distinctive.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Of course something’s the matter! You don’t think I would cry out in pain if everything was fine, do you?’
‘The perfect prisoner is the one who doesn’t even realise he’s in a prison cell.’

Great Ideas: Zephon was never a true member of the Syndicate, he was just a despot with delusions of grandeur. The Sinestrans were all murdered in custody, a mass killing by the Syndicate. If you’re going to raise the stakes substantially in a season then this is the way to do it: by taking everything that the Doctor and Ann have encountered so far this year and brush it aside as insignificant compared to the horrors to come. Zephon’s files led the Doctor and Ann to Robaras, an automated factory world where another Syndicate member was trying to poison the local solar system. Technix have computer augmented brains that make them more logical than people. Their minds run at a rate that cannot be comprehended. As a result they see patterns that ordinary human beings do not. The Dream Machine is a device for retouching reality. Sometimes reality isn’t good enough. Reality itself doesn’t change, it is how people perceive it to be that alters. I think a machine like this would be in huge demand if it were real. Imagine all the things about people’s lives they could change their perception of? Mind you if everybody was walking around seeing a very different version of reality it would get awfully confusing. They are expecting near universal uptake when this thing hits the shelves. In the wrong hands these devices could be quite the tool for despotism. The Celation nebula is a sentient cloud of gas that moves through the outer spirals of the milky way that can manifest itself into a human form. Zaal has had the Dream Machines implanted into people as chips and has been playing a long game. He’s used them to make sure the Syndicate have forgotten that the system is already under his control and then used Anya to wipe them all out so he would be the only one left with the knowledge. Those Technix, they do like to think big and fast. He would be in control of everybody with nobody to stop him. Some of the deaths of the Syndicate members are very imaginative. Malpha shattering seems a particularly painful way to go.

Audio Landscape: I loved hearing all the different voices for the delegates in the Syndicate. Particularly Celation. It astonishes me that after all this time that there are still new modulations to be found, and it feels like a lot of care has been given to this bunch.

Isn’t it Odd: The story opens with ten minutes of energetic action and for a moment I wondered if I had put on the second part of this story first (it wouldn’t be the first time). I’m not averse to being kept in the dark for a little while whilst action rumbles on at the beginning of a story as long as the writer puts everything into context at some point. Fortunately, around the 10-minute mark there is a catch up between the Doctor and Ann where all is explained. ‘The Doctor will be in the clutches of the Syndicate!’ is possibly the most predictable cliff-hanger we have ever had. It’s what this season has been leading up to and it hasn’t exactly been secretive about it. As soon as the Syndicate start arguing amongst themselves and bumping each other off I figured they might take of the Doctor’s work for him.

Standout Scene: One of the most insidious examples of slavery that Doctor Who has ever featured comes in the scene where Ann discovers malnourished factory workers hooked up to the Dream Machine and believing they are being well paid and treated extremely well. To exploit people is one thing, to make them believe they are living in luxury whilst doing so is unbelievable tyranny.

Result: There’s a truly great scene at the end of the first half of this story where the Doctor is finally exposed to the truth about Ann and realises that he is completely out of his depth. It’s such an unusual moment in the 4DAs (he’s usually so unflappable) and I had absolutely no idea where the story was going to go next. What a lovely feeling. And how nice for a season in this range to genuinely understand how to structure a finale and pay off so much of the season that has just played out. The first half of this story is all set up as you would imagine, but with lots of interest with the various exotic members of the Syndicate and the ever-confident Ann coming out of her shell to the Doctor’s suspicions. Not a great deal actually happens but it’s builds up the suspense and introduces a number of fascinating ideas that come to fruition in the second half. Thank the Lord that Nick Briggs admits that they have been pushing the nostalgia element in the 4DAs and now it is time to push away from that and do something a little more original. Whilst this season has been as mired in continuity as ever, it has certainly played about with those elements in a fresh way and just how tightly plotted the series has been as a whole is a brand-new approach. The second part flies off in a completely new direction with the Doctor having to join forces with his enemies to defeat his companion! That’s novel. I never believed that John Dorney would take things quite as far as he does with Anya and she truly is a formidable force to be reckoned with. It was an incredibly brave creative call by building this entire season around a character who doesn’t exist but it has paid off in spades. And Dorney is also right that the first half of The Daleks’ Masterplan seems to promise big things are going to happen with the Technix before they are ceremoniously dumped in the second half by Dennis Spooner so it’s nice to see them reach their full potential here. That’s the perfect kind of continuity, taking something that was neglected in the series and giving it more substance. The story ends with a clever piece of sleight of hand by the Doctor and there’s still plenty of work to be done after the last scene, and I liked the emotional sting of the Doctor turning his back on his new ‘companion.’ It would be wrong for Anya to travel in the TARDIS after this and so it leaves this run of stories as a unique narrative, and one that is worth returning to. Unbelievably, this season has just gotten better and better. The first series of 4DAs that I would wholeheartedly suggest you listen to: 9/10

Fever Island written by Jonathan Barnes and directed by Nicholas Briggs

What’s it About: Jason Vane is England’s suavest secret agent, and today he’s on his deadliest mission yet. Tracking down the evil Okulov... before he destroys the world. The Doctor, Ann and K9 are, in contrast, finding their own mission a little hard to complete. A strange storm in the vortex has swept them back in time, back to Earth in 1978 and a strange place called ‘Fever Island’. A place where their worst nightmares are about to come true...

Teeth and Curls: He finds it helps to grin as broadly as he can when he starts to worry – which is what Elisabeth Sladen always used to say about his character and how Tom Baker accentuated the alien characteristics. The Doctor decides that Fever Island sounds a little ominous but let’s be honest this sort of title is like red rag to a bull to the Time Lord. What is it about the Bakers (Tom and Colin) bursting into poetic exclamations that just sounds so right? He’s met one or two evil geniuses in his time. The Doctor couldn’t sound any less interested in Jason Vane’s latest adventure, almost as if he knows that he has stumbled in on somebody else’s turf and is willing to back off and let him have the limelight. Tom Baker has always talked about the wit of James Bond villains and how that is the sort of wit that he enjoys in Doctor Who. It’s fitting then that he gets to play the bad guy in this story and ham it up as Okalov, Jason Vane’s nuttiest opponent. It’s a great opportunity for Tom to play something completely different and to go to town with it. How funny to hear the Doctor telling Jason Kane that he is a piece of fantasy and pure escapism. I almost wanted him to throw the compliment back at him. Does that mean that the Doctor dreams of being an insane supervillain? Sounds perfect for the fourth Doctor.

Bobby on the Beat: There’s a reason I have managed to fill an entire paragraph with commentary about K.9 below where Ann’s section remains bare. After the bombshell that was dropped in the previous story it is a shame that she has reverted to her previous irrelevance. It would have been quite nice to have a knowing sleeper agent in the TARDIS ala Charley Pollard or an assassin ala Turlough.

Metal Dog: How cute of K.9 to ask the Doctor and Ann what it is a like to dream. We come to accept K.9 as the Doctor’s companion and therefore give him all the emotional affection we would a person and so it rather sneaks up on me when I’m reminded that he is merely an automaton. Oddly asking this sort of wistful question, like Data from Star Trek, makes my heart go out for him more. Perhaps it is John Leeson’s lovable voice that imbues the character with such personality and warmth. The thought simply popped into his circuits and the Doctor is delighted at a gap in his dogs’ knowledge for a change. How is it that hearing John Leeson cry ‘Danger Master!’ takes you right back to the 70s effortlessly in a way that a thousand prequel/sequels to 70s never could? He wants to understand the power of imagination and fantasy, words that have been planted into his brain. His computer brain is vastly complex and leaves him susceptible to malign influences.

Standout Performance: It’s a wonderful cast all round, but huge kudos to Gethin Anthony as the silky-smooth Jason Vane and Carolyn Seymour who impressively plays two roles imperceptibly in the story.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘The scarred man still lives on Fever Island!’
‘Imagine the world shaped to the fantasies of a psychopath of some frothing demigod? Imagine the nightmares that would be unleashed?’

Great Ideas: Jason Vane faces assassins and despots at every turn and is trained to kill with the scantest of resources. After the war, the Commordore was recruited by the Kremlin and for three decades she has been their puppet at the heart of British intelligence. Imagine if this sort of twist had been revealed about M? It would shake the Bond universe to its core. The mist on the island is from another dimension. They created an aperture in the fabric of reality and subsequently the mist started coming through. All the clues were there to point out why Vane wasn’t at all who we thought he was and I thought the reveal was very nicely handled, with Anthony’s performance altering perfectly when the bombshell is dropped. Of course there was military funding involved in this madness.

Musical Cues: I love it when the music gets in on the twist, dropping away when the spy genre is stripped away.

Standout Scene: For once the cliff-hanger isn’t some faux danger that we know won’t kill the Doctor but instead a complete change of personality that suggests a really avenue to explore in the second episode. I always applaud writers who take a different approach with these pauses in the action, making the twist a narrative shift rather than the story just holding its breath in the middle of an action sequence. In one of the funniest moments of the range, K.9 blasts the Doctor a second time just to make sure that he’s back to normal.

Result: Apparently Doctor Who can turn its hand to anything, any genre or style, because of it’s malleable (lack of) format. Even James Bond. As Lance Parkin discovered in BBC Books’ Trading Futures and Jonathan Barnes realises here, the campy spy thriller genre is a brilliant hat for Doctor Who to try on and have a laugh with. Fever Island has all the hallmarks of a parody Bond story; a suave hero, a sadistic super villain, an unusually exotic location, ridiculously melodramatic danger, one liners, a stylish music and the Doctor. Hang on…the Doctor? What’s really impressive is how this works as both a Bond tale (or rather a Vane tale) and a Doctor Who story, exhibiting all the fun and frolics of a really good Graeme Williams tale and aping popular culture like a really good Hinchcliffe tale. There are some wonderful breaks in the conventions - the M substitute turns out to be a traitor, Vane’s narration can be heard by all and sundry to their disgust and the villain of the piece turns out to be…well that would be telling. A really fun script, very sure of its tone and with enough content to keep me entertained. This is a fourth Doctor season that hasn’t dropped the ball since it’s opener, is that really a possibility? I’ve dolled out 3, 7, 7, 7, 8 and 8 so far which automatically makes this the best average for a season of Tome Baker stories, whilst not being perfect. Some of the other seasons have had stronger individual stories but I am really enjoying how consistently entertaining this run has been. It’s avoiding that feeling on nonchalance that has plagued this range since day one. Long may John Dorney continue to script edit. Fever Island is a perky piece, very silly but blissfully enjoyable with every member of the production team in the know about the mood they are trying to create. Keep fantasising: 8/10

Time’s Assassin written by Guy Adams and directed by Nicholas Briggs

What’s it About: The true identity of the Director has been revealed and he wants vengeance upon the Doctor for past crimes... But the Director is not the only danger to the crew of the TARDIS. Deadly experiments are coming to a head, and everyone’s life is at risk. However, the greatest threat is yet to come. The Syndicate’s plans are in motion... and no one is safe from them. I loved the Doctor’s response to saving the people trapped in no-time, to give them the space/time vortex to swim about in. The TARDIS comes to the Doctor’s rescue without him even having to ask. His reaction is delightful.

Teeth and Curls: It’s heartening to hear that when people are told that the Doctor is the sworn enemy of the Daleks, they automatically think he is okay. He doesn’t want the villain to explain his nefarious plot because he is so over the top he doesn’t think he can bear it. How wonderful to hear the Doctor call somebody a ‘deluded, pathetic imbecile!’ I laughed until my sides hurt when the Doctor, right at the end of the adventure, suddenly remembers that Ann exists. Clearly it isn’t just me then.

Bobby on the Beat: In possibly her best moment yet, Ann loses her shit when she is trying to rescue the Doctor. Something is seriously off with her in this story. Perhaps it is a little bit early to suggest that she is acting out of character but she is pushing away from the simple bobby on the beat and becoming somebody quite obsessed. I don’t think anybody was prepared for the moment where she murdered somebody in the pursuit of her mission, but at least it was something surprising. The twist that she is a sleeper time agent is a good one, and it does explain away quite a few of my complaints about the character. Let’s see where they go with this one. I actually felt rather sorry for Zephon. She isn’t the first companion of the fourth Doctor to murder her way through adventures, but this is the first time a murder is used to reveal new shades about a character. It’s really rather well done.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘I knew that frilly face was familiar!’
‘A basement full of monsters and you the worst monster of all!’
‘You can never have enough power to be safe!’

Great Ideas: Zephon’s father was once involved in an interplanetary incident with other high-ranking officials from various solar systems. A top-secret conference. His father was executed because the Doctor meddled and took his place. It’s as somewhat skewered sense of history (isn’t it always when there is a personal stake) but it does have a grain of truth to it. Zephon’s family were disgraced and the information about what happened was passed down by the Delegate from Celetious. You can understand why Zephon has a personal stake wanting to bring the Doctor down. The Zephon species are so arrogant they name everybody after the same thing. A man who only makes ethical weapons. What an alarming prospect. Imagine you could send all of your enemies into a fixed continuum bubble hidden away at a constant remove, a permanent couple of minutes in the past. Holding back something in time permanently…not existing anywhere. The Doctor’s DNA might be the key to making this insane prospect possible. All Elmore is doing is causing untold damage to space time.

Isn’t it Odd: Oh why not? Why not The Delegates from The Daleks’ Masterplan? There was a time when you could take in Big Finish’s output and point to the number of instances where they have used TV series continuity. Nowadays the reverse is true. You can point at a few stories that they haven’t provided a sequel/prequel/alongside story for. Pyramids of Mars? The Age of Sutekh! The Ark in Space? Wirrn Isle! Curse of Fenric? Gods & Monsters! Even when you get into more obscure stories like The Invisible Enemy and The Horns of Nimon. Have a go and this game, it’s really quite fun. This pilfering of Doctor Who’s continuity has gone beyond 80s Who’s propensity for wank, it has gone beyond fan service. Glimmers of originality abound but the company does tend to be a machine churning out fan service storytelling these days. The fourth Doctor range is particularly guilty in that respect, but the 8th Doctor and Lucie Miller range was just as culpable. What’s wrong with provided guilty pleasures for fans, I hear you ask? Nothing at all and I’m not saying that all of these examples are especially bad ones. My issue is that if you are pouring all of your energy into old continuity then you’re spending any time building up anything new. Which means you get remembered for picking over the husks of classic Who rather than created a bold, new version of the show to proud of. When the result of all your hard work building somebody up for a big return is ‘In the name of Zephon, die Doctor!’ is it really worth it?

Standout Scene: I wonder if they should have chosen somebody other than the Doctor to vaporise during the cliff-hanger because it must be obvious to a blind spielsnape that he isn’t utterly vapourised because there are three and a half other stories left in the set and I think some people would have something to say if Tom Baker doesn’t appear in them.

Result: ‘The single most powerful organisation for mayhem and terror the universe has ever seen!’ You’ve got to be careful when you advertise your Syndicate like that because you have to live up to that kind of hype. This is bonkers, insanely over the top and featuring a villain who speaks in every villainous cliché turned up to eleven. He’s rubbing shoulders with people turning into Varga plants and trying to kill everybody and a nutty as squirrel shit fella who thinks he is Chen, Guardian of the Solar System. The whole story is a Daleks’ Masterplan wank-fest but you don’t need to be a big fan of that story to get something from this. Guy Adams keeps the madness frothing, the twists coming thick and fast and gives Tom Baker a chance to waltz wittily through proceedings, treating nobody with any great respect. Is this the sort of thing that Big Finish should be indulging in? As far as I’m concerned it should be shining a light on new ideas and characters and giving the continuity a rest a little but if you are going to indulge then this is probably the right approach – not holding back and drowning the story in past references and ensuring there is plenty of energy, enjoyable exchanges and surprising moments. Bask in the insane performances of a cast who have realised that this is a licence to go a bit crazy and let themselves go. Relax into a story that is happy to suggest big things are coming whilst unleashing chaos on Kembel. Ever wanted to hear the Doctor trapped in a Chronon wave front with no way back? Well now’s your chance! The soundscape for these sequences is something else and you might just feel like you have snorted line by the time the story has finished. Ann Kelso is the weak spot again, but only in the first episode. Something massive is revealed about her in the second episode that goes some way to explaining why she has been so ill defined until this point. This is doing exactly what a mid-season story should, paying off the earlier parts of the season and promising things for the latter half whilst providing a mercilessly entertaining ride: 8/10