Neverland written by Alan Barnes and directed by Gary Russell

What’s it about? The Web of Time is stretched to breaking. History is leaking like a sieve. In the Citadel of Gallifrey, the Time Lords fear the end of everything that is, everything that was... everything that will be. The Doctor holds the Time Lords' only hope - but exactly what what lengths will the Celestial Intervention Agency go to in their efforts to retrieve something important from within his TARDIS? What has caused Imperiatrix Romanadvoratrelundar to declare war on the rest of creation? And can an old nursey rhyme about a monster called Zagreus really be coming true? The answers can only be found outside the bounds of the universe itself, in a place that history forgot. In the wastegrounds of eternity. In the Neverland.

Breathless Romantic: If there was going to be a story that you pointed at to prove just how wonderful Paul McGann is as the Doctor Neverland would certainly be one of the best. It’s a story that manages to achieve a great deal but first a foremost it gives McGann’s eighth Doctor the sort of stunning season finale his succesors have enjoyed and brings his relationship with Charley into tight focus and exposes their chemistry at its finest. McGann gets to play some very strong scenes, from his coy attempts to hide Charley away at the beginning of the story to his touching admission that he loves her at the end; this is a firm indicator that the 8th Doctor and Charley are a winning combination. When he agonises over the choice between the murdering his best friend or saving the whole of time and space you come to realise just how strong his feelings are for her. As brilliant as all this stuff is nothing could have prepared for the final scene that leaves both the series and the Doctor on a shock cliff hanger that promises great things for the future.

The Doctor hasn’t been around the Acteon Galaxy since he was an old man and finds it terribly tedious. He knows the Time Lords are going to come after him for rescuing Charley and it is a testament to his optimism that he hopes just not yet. In a very sweet analogy he reminds Charley of Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up. He’s sweet, kind, caring and too good to be true. In a hilarious scene he does a terrible cockney accent and enjoys ripping the piss out of ‘nosebone’ Vansell. In a moment that mirrors his second incarnation standing trial he admits that he stands by his mistakes and if the Time Lords want to kill Charley he will not let them do it with a clean conscience. The Doctor wasn’t sure at first but he is warming to Romana’s boorish style of government. In a scene that reveals the very difference between the Doctor and the Time Lord’s approach to life he informs them that Anti Time cannot be recorded, it has to be experienced. His one abiding characteristic is his sense of what is right, which isn’t always the right opinion. He wont ever let Charley down as she is one of his best every friends. You get whisked right back to the Graeme Williams era when the Doctor and Romana attempt to whisper a plan whilst loud wittering on about Ganymede drivers and Mergenuts…these scenes reveal a sparky chemistry between Paul McGann and Lalla Ward that promises great things for Shada. He loves charley and he can’t shoot her no matter what is at stake. In one of those moments that makes you want to burst in on the story and kiss the Doctor he admits charmingly that he has had a good life and if he has to die to save his friends then so be it. Romana reveals that the Doctor has saved Time itself and that she thinks he is absolutely magnificent.

Edwardian Adventuress: How far has Charley come in these six incredible stories? What a great season for her character which has offered hints and clues about her survival causing all sorts of problems with the Web of Time and everything coalesces beautifully in this story that sees Charley stepping forward to take centre stage and defend her right to survive. We have seen her get closer to the Doctor throughout these last ten adventures and now we are seeing the sort of chemistry that made 4/Sarah and 10/Donna such a joy. Charley is the ultimate companion of the 8th Doctor, and would remain so for quite some time yet.


Sometimes the Doctor gets right on her wick…especially when he ignores her! She estimates that she has been travelling with him for six months now. Rather sweetly the Doctor tries to tuck Charley away discreetly whilst he heads off to deal with the Times Lords and dresses it up as wanting to celebrate her birthday which they must have missed at some point because she is the best assistant in the universe and deserves to go to the best party. Charley knows him better than that and sees through him in an instant. Her speech (quoted below) is Charley’s coming of age moment where she realises she cannot hide away from the truth of her death any longer and has to face the judgement of the Time Lords. She knows that the break in the Web of Time is being caused by her and that the Time Lords will consider the easiest course of action to shove her back on the R-101. Completing the analogy she is Wendy Darling enjoying adventures with the boy who never grew up. Charley’s adventures with the Doctor have been better than her wildest dreams but it is time to stop dreaming and time to grow up. As far as the Time Lords are concerned she is a fascinating anomaly, turning up at various points in the future after her death. In one of several cold moments from Vansell he describes Charley as nothing special as far as Time is concerned, nobody of significance. Charley hasn’t felt this scared since she was six and she hid away from Nanny in the woods and as it got darker and darker she realised she was lost in the dark and alone. She admits that she is living on stolen time. In a moment of icy shock we realise that as long as Charley is alive the Anti Time creatures can use her as a breach in space time and invade Gallifrey and our reality. Charley recognises this and begs the Doctor to shoot her. Unlike the Anti Time creatures she is grateful for every second she has been given and declares herself for the last time as Charlotte Pollard, Edwardian Adventuress. She’s terrified of dying but still faces the moment bravely.

Aristocratic Adventurer: Romana is disappointed that in all of the billions of people in universe that could have been responsible for the breach in space/time, the Doctor is responsible. In the Anti Time alternative timeline she is a vicious, violent Imperiatrix intent on ensuring the Time Lords supremacy at the cost of all other species. In a touching scene she reveals that she trusts the Doctor absolutely and always has. Charley calls her Madame Icy Draws for giving her such a cold reception. Vansell accuses her of being too scared to use her powers as President of Gallifrey to turn the universe into a force for good. Will she let the Daleks out of the Doctor’s time loop from the previous story…of course she will. She is deposed by Vansell who considers her spineless. When Romana was a child of 60 she used to holiday on the shores of Lake Abidos and she used to swim with the singing fish. She doesn’t remember her friends Taris and Rorvan who were blasted from existence by the CIA. Romana will never forget the Doctor who gave his life to save time. Rassilon gives Romana his blessing from within the Matrix as a Daughter of Time and President of Gallifrey.

Great Ideas: Where do you start with a story as complex and involved as this one? I have to say there are a number of Doctor Who stories which I whilst I enjoy on an emotional level, I enjoy even more on an intellectual level simply because of the wealth of clever and brain bursting ideas they feature. Christmas on a Rational Planet and The Last Resort are two very good examples and Neverland joins their ranks. What I find especially clever about this story is that it manages to squeeze in all manner of clever ideas without ever become incomprehensible or losing its entertainment value. Instead it drives these bold concepts to a dazzling climax and closes the story on the best idea of all!

There is a fantastically surreal teaser where the Matrix has a paddy because it cannot remember the events of the Web of Time because they are being distorted by Charley. It turns out that the Daleks cannot be removed from Time because too many historical events pivot on their grandiose schemes. Battle TARDISes surround our TARDIS in an escort formation and attack with time torpedoes and if they were hit they’ll be frozen in a micro second of space time for several centuries, long enough for the Time Lords to override the entrance protocols and get at them. As an example of how imaginative this story is, the Jovian Fold is thrown in as a throwaway idea (in later years it would be enough to drive a whole story!) – the Millennium Mardi Gras! The Jovians decided to celebrate the billionth lifespan of their species by throwing a 1000 year party inside a discrete space time fold that the Time Lords no nothing about (rotten killjoys!) and the Doctor has a one year exclusive invite. Anti Time – the Eye of Harmony was created in a universe of finite, positive time and just as matter has its opposite in anti matter so Time by all the immutable laws of the universe the Web of Time must have its shadow. A destructive force to causality; no past, present or future – no beginning or end…just chaos. History is leaking like a sieve and the Celestial Intervention Agency no longer have enough agents to ensure Time’s continuity. There is a virus spreading with Charley as Patient Zero and she has caused a whole in the timeline, a gateway that has allowed Anti Time through. She is a living conduit to a dimension that should never have met ours. Ramsey became unmanageable because he could sense what Charley was. In a brutally dramatic sequence we get to experience what Gallifrey would be like if Anti Time was allowed to take hold; its forests cracked, a charnel house, the people hardened to ice, the Panopticon adorned with heads on spikes and Imperiatrix Romana overseeing everything and banishing the Daleks to a life of eternal darkness in the Vortex. The Time Lords want to cross over into the realm of Anti Time and destroy it using Charley as a bridge. They can see the universe through Charley as she screams her way into the realm of Anti Time. Destination monitors go round and round – there is no space or time; it is an anathema to our science. In a scene of devastating beauty we witness a comet eating its own tail, two nebulae locked together in an accelerated dance, a star swallowing a star swallowing a star…the life, death and life of a universe. The only fixed point in Anti Time is a storm lashed planetoid with a forest of metal spikes. In a breathtaking moment we realise the Anti Time creatures are all the people who never lived or died in our universe, the potentials who never quite made it. They can drain energy from time vehicles and they want to gorge themselves on the Time Lords who are filled with Time energy. Upon exploring the planetoid they discover a chamber that is much bigger than the planetoid could ever be…this blasted lump of space flotsam is a TARDIS, its dimensions ripped asunder, turned apart. What a truly fantastic idea that is. The first disc ends on a terrific cliffhanger as realise just who the TARDIS belongs to…Rassilon! He locked all of space time into place with the Eye of Harmony and Anti Time could destroy everything he set out to achieve so he went in search of his nemesis and discovered the Anti time reality, the realm of Zagreus, Trapped in the Antiverse, he locked himself into a zero cabinet. The truth behind Vansell’s visit to the Antiverse becomes clear, he always knew Rassilon was here and he has been planning to overthrow Romana in a blood coup for some time. It transpires that Vansell has been authorising the use of the Oubliette of Eternity, a dispersal chamber for those found guilty of treason which erases your entire timeline from existence. The Anti Time creatures are those very Time Lords, dispersed by the CIA and as they never existed they could only exist here. Sentris, head of the CIA, sentenced himself to dispersal when he couldn’t come to terms with what he had done to his people and was surrounded by his victims in Neverland. Vansell has been infected by Anti Time and working as their puppet. The story turns again as we realise Rassilon had never come to the Antiverse and this has all been an elaborate trap to ensnare Vansell so he would take back a cabinet of Anti Time to our universe believing it was Rassilon. They want to detonate the casket on Gallifrey and it would be as if the Time lords had never existed, history would be a blank canvas and a churning chaos of unregulated Time – the Empire of Zagreus. Vansell sacrifices himself to kill one of the Anti Time creatures and allow Romana and the Doctor to put their plan into effect. Romana implores the voices of the Matrix to get a message to the High Council. In a brilliant and bold move that will have serious repercussions the Doctor materialises the TARDIS around the time station and it explodes not on Gallifrey but inside the TARDIS. The paradox of Charley’s survival is resolved – if history’s web was saved by the very fact of her existence then the fact of her existence cannot have imperilled it! Another paradox…but one the Time Lords can live with. In a final shocking twist we realise that all that remains of Anti Time is locked inside the Doctor, the undying anger of an unreal race. He has become…Zagreus!

Standout Performance: It is impossible to choose one performer who excels as this is one of the strongest ensemble casts yet. Paul McGann gives his best performance to date in a script that allows him to emote beautifully and yet be playful and intelligent too. India Fisher has never been better and plays her important moments with uncharacteristic restraint which makes them all the more powerful, certainly her speech about Peter Pan and her climatic moment begging the Doctor to murder her are some of the most touching moments Big Finish have provided. And her turn as the Anti Time creature deserves a lot of praise, she gives one of the most understated and yet menacing villains to life with real zest. Lalla Ward is always good value for money and nobody bosses people around like her…but her chemistry with McGann is surprisingly wonderful too. Bonus points for Anthony Keetch who plays Vansell just on the right side of pantomime and has some great moments of betrayal and redemption.

Great Lines: ‘Happy birthday Charley! Only it isn’t my birthday, is it? It isn’t my birthday because I’m not supposed to have any more birthdays. No more cake, no more candles, no more presents, not now, not ever, no more birthdays since I died! That’s right, isn’t it Doctor? No more birthdays because I’m supposed to be dead. Dead and burned in the wreck of an airship. Born on the day the Titanic sank, died in the R-101. Poor tragic little Charlotte Pollard, her life snuffed out before it had even begun.’

‘A postcard from planet Nosebone!

‘And you Doctor, your life has been rich, your stories many, history is filled to bursting. You have lived more life than ever dreamed possible but now your time is up.’

‘It’s alright Doctor, I’m not afraid. It’s like I said in the TARDIS, my time is up. There is no alternative. Oh Doctor, you rescued my from the R-101. You gave me these last few wonderful months. The things that I’ve seen, the places I’ve been. I’ve lived more than I could ever have dreamed of and all thanks to you. And you’re the sweetest, the kindest, most wonderful man I’ve ever met and I’m sorry its come to this and I’m sorry it has to end like this but if the Web of Time is destroyed all the time I’ve had, everywhere I’ve been, all those fabulous, fantastic things we’ve done they wont ever have happened at all. Don’t let those times be taken away, don’t let it all go to waste. I know its an awful, terrible thing but I want you to do it. Oh Doctor please do it before it’s too late!’

‘I am not the Doctor! I have become he who sits inside your head, he who lives among the dead, he who sees you in your bed and eats you when you’re sleeping. I am become…Zagreus!’

Audio Landscape: Rumbling thunder, overlapping histories, stuttering voices of the Matrix and a terrifying cry of, ‘I CAN’T REMEMBER!’ open the story very dramatically. The TARDIS rides the tail of the time slippage after the time torpedoes hit. The roar of the TARDIS engines as Charley hits the fast return switch is terrifying. One of several filmic moments comes when the Time Lords cut into the TARDIS in environmental suits. The Antiverse Gallifrey is a very atmospheric landscape of ships soaring overhead, bombs falling and crowds jeering. Crossing into the Antiverse sounds desperately painful with Charley’s prolonged screams, engines grinding and voices distorting horribly. The storm lashed planetoid is inhospitable in the extreme. India Fisher’s distorted voice as the Anti Time creature is a menacing purr. You can see the ground cracking open and swallowing the TARDIS with the sound effects alone. The Time Station crashes with real drama…electrics shorting out and consoles exploding. The Anti Time creatures sucking and slurping energies from the Time Station is pretty disgusting. Acid rain falls like ice crystals and voices echo through the air. The fizzing voices of the Doctor and Vansell once infected with Anti Time breaks you out into a sweat.

Musical Cues: Nicholas Briggs’ finest score to date. It is hard to categorise his music but I was aware of it throughout without it ever being intrusive and moments such as Charley’s Peter Pan speech were beautifully underscored.

Isn’t it Odd: That all the fantastic work done in Neverland would be blown on the next 8th Doctor story? But that’s for another time…

Standout Moment: The whole story really but plaudits go to the frankly terrifying cliffhanger to Neverland that kept me guessing for nearly a year to see how it would be resolved.

Result: What else can I say that hasn’t been said above? This is a superb climax to McGann’s second season, brilliantly dovetailing all of the hints that have been whispered throughout the year and bringing the paradox of Charley’s survival to a dramatic climax. I can’t remember a companion ever being given this much focus and India Fisher holds the story together beautifully, both as Charley and Sentris. Gary Russell has assembled a fantastic cast and each them bring something special to the story and his direction is nothing short of masterful throughout. Neverland is a story with a wealth of mind expanding ideas at its disposal but whilst it is thrilling you with its possibility it never forgets to have a heart and the touching scenes between the Doctor and Charley as they realise their partnership may be coming to an end provide the icing on the cake. Alan Barnes has written a thrilling script and it is joyously brought to life by all concerned. Triumphant: 10/10

Buy it from Big Finish here: http://www.bigfinish.com/33-Doctor-Who-Neverland

Time of the Daleks written by Justin Richards and directed by Nicholas Briggs

What’s it about? The Doctor has always admired the work of William Shakespeare. So he is a little surprised that Charley doesn't hold the galaxy's greatest playwright in the same esteem. In fact she's never heard of him.
Which the Doctor thinks is quite impossible. General Mariah Learman, ruling Britain after the Eurowars, is one of Shakespeare's greatest admirers, and is convinced her time machine will enable her to see the plays' original performances. Which the Doctor believes is extremely unlikely. The Daleks just want to help. They want Learman to get her time machine working. They want Charley to appreciate the first ever performance of Julius Caesar They believe that Shakespeare is the greatest playwright ever to have existed and venerate his memory. Which the Doctor knows is utterly impossible.

Breathless Romantic: The best thing I can say about the Doctor in this story is just how well he seems to fit into the mock Victorian world of clocks and time machines – he is far more at home than the 2nd Doctor was in Evil of the Daleks. He thinks Shakespeare is the most accomplished, talented and influential playwright; his prose is peerless, his sonnets sensational and his verse beguiling. But aside from keeping on the go throughout, he doesn’t really make that much of an impact.

Edwardian Adventuress: In an almost Amy-like moment of madness we realise charley doesn’t know who Shakespeare is and she thinks he is an obscure playwright. She is quite partial to cheesy pineapple things…do you see how much I am reaching here for meaningful characterisation? Charley finds the twitchy Daleks quite unnerving. She is getting quite adept at understanding paradoxes. We realise at the close of this story that Charley is emitting the time energy that made this whole story possible. She is the Eye of the Storm; time is unravelling with Charley at its centre.

Great Ideas: Time of the Daleks was never going to win merits for its quality characterisation but being a Justin Richards script it does earn a reprieve for its clever ideas. Rassilon quoting Shakespeare at the beginning of the story is a portent of the climax to the season. A time fissure has sprouted between the mid 21st century to the 16th and Shakespeare has vanished down this crack in time. Learman’s dictatorship came to pass after the Eurowars and the foundation of New Britain. The rebels are obsessed with restoring Shakespeare back to history and have standard quotes amongst themselves who know about the playwright. Learman’s time machine is 111 mirrors and 1600 clocks – since light travels to the mirror and back to the observer what it shows is an image of the past and the machine uses mirror matter which enables them to open a portal into the mirror universe – a realm where light travels at a different speed. Yeah, it didn’t make sense to me either. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle that the very act of measuring something changes it allows them to apply that principle to time itself, a clock counting of the second’s changes time and 2000 clocks in a tiny space slaves time to a Master clock. Anything? Nope, it’s all nonsense but it all sounds wonderfully romantic. A month ago the time machine worked and something came through…in a scene that mirrors Evil of the Daleks to a point beyond plagiarism, the Daleks appear at this moment. The Daleks are the most enthusiastic of Shakespearean scholars and quote Shakespeare as though it is the most natural thing in the world. The Daleks require a temporal stabiliser to repair their damaged ship and agree to help restore Shakespeare in a bargain. Viola and Charley fall into the mirror into 1572. History has been changed and the Daleks are suddenly the rulers of Earth in all time periods. As the Doctor changes time back we see the Daleks turn back into soldiers before in the mirrors. As history continually changes the rebels can’t remember if they are fighting Learman or the Daleks. Learman’s plan is revealed – she wants to kill Shakespeare and keep his amazing works for herself as only she can appreciate his genius. The mirrors show London through the ages and the Daleks are ripe to just step through and invade. When the reactor explodes and the energy is channelled into the time vortex and magnified by the exploding Dalek fleet – that is what causes the damage and gives the Daleks their chance. We get to see a Dalek thrown back into Roman times and destroyed by the Romans (explaining that weird cameo in Seasons of Fear). The Daleks have made their own version of the Eye of Harmony based on Time Lord design acquiring the knowledge from Kar-Charat (The Genocide Machine). In a brilliantly grisly moment the Daleks march Learman to her death, forcing her into a mutant with radiation and by forcing a Dalek that has failed its orders to commit suicide they put the Learman mutant inside its casing. The boy (shock horror! Not!) is revealed to be Shakespeare, Viola took him to protect him thus she was responsible for erasing his works from time. TED – the Temporal Extinction Device! The master clock was only ever good at telling the time – not as a temporal stabiliser! The story is revealed to be one great big time loop…the beginning and the end of the story are exactly the same moment – the Daleks attempting to conquer time leads them to escape the time corridor which leads them to attempt to conquer time…

Great Lines: ‘We will await rescue!’
‘It’s not like these Daleks are going around killing anyone?’ ‘I know and that’s what worries me most.’
‘We are the Masters of Time!’
‘It’s a strange partnership where they do all the work and we get all the reward.’
‘Think of pure evil made malignant flesh.’

Standout Performance: She’s not the most memorable of villains as her motivations are all over the place and (frankly) unrealistic but Dot Smith brings certain gravity to the role of Learman regardless.

Audio Landscape: Ticking clocks pervade this story; the Dalek heartbeat still gives me a fanboy thrill and they use the Cushing Dalek control room hum as well. There is a horrendous intercom jingle, a ticking time machine, Daleks on a hunting rampage, dogs barking and birds singing. I loved how Briggs realised Charley and Viola banging on the mirror desperate to come through. There is a brilliant sequence where history is reset and Dalek monotones melt into soldier’s voices. Learman being mutated is as disgusting as you can imagine and her gurgling Dalek mutant is yuck.

Musical Cues: There is some sweeping dramatic music over the opening scenes. I love the Dalek piano sting which always pre-empts their arrival. I love the use of cymbals in the later scenes when the rebels plan their attack.

Result: Every now and again Justin Richard throws every idea he has into the pot and mixes it up and sees how it goes down. Time Zero and Sometime Never…have a similar cold and intelligent feel as Time and the Daleks but the complicated plotting and wealth of ideas are a lot easier to digest on paper where you have time to understand them rather than on audio which charges on even when you are still trying fathom out what happened in episode one! I think there is far too much cleverness and not enough characterisation happening in this story and it is to the credit of the director that it still manages to be vaguely entertaining even when its utterly incomprehensible. The Doctor and Charley are utterly wasted and none of the guest characters really shine…the best thing you can say about this story is that it is delicious to have the Daleks quoting Shakespeare. Although I am a huge fan of Shakespeare I don’t think this scenario is even remotely feasible, he is given a gravity and level of importance that is clearly the writer’s feelings rather than something that comes naturally from the storytelling. When the Doctor gushes about the playwright, he is merely a Mary Sue for Richards: 4/10

Artwork by Simon Hodges @ http://hisi79.deviantart.com/

Embrace the Darkness written and directed by Nicholas Briggs

What’s it about? The Doctor and Charley travel to the remote Cimmerian System to unravel the mystery of its sun. But darkness has already embraced the scientific base on Cimmeria IV in more ways than one. In a fight for survival, the Doctor must use all his wits against a deadly artificial life-form and an ancient race whose return to the Cimmerian System threatens suffering and death on an apocalyptic scale

Breathless Romantic: I honestly do enjoy Nicholas Briggs stories – I do but his first handful of Big Finish scripts are a valuable learning experience and you can see how he steadily improves with each piece of writing until he is producing works as strong as Patient Zero and Blue Forgotten Planet. Embrace the Darkness features stronger characterisation of the 8th Doctor than Sword of Orion did and a lot of this pre-empts what would come after the season ends with the Doctor embittered and suicidal. But this is still in the ‘humble beginnings’ stage and whilst there is a few standout moments this is still pretty forgettable stuff for the 8th Doctor.

He has a gap in his knowledge about the Sumarian system and so naturally hops straight to the planet to satisfy his curiosity. He is described as being highly sophisticated and intelligent. I loved the scenes between the Doctor and ROSM as he tries to distract him from killing Charley, they have a fun banter that is missing between him and his companion in this story. He’s always interested and shames Orlenza into getting off her backside and saving herself. He feels guilt for making his mistake in reactivating the suns around Sumaria 4 and plans to make a grand and noble gesture to atone for causing their potential destruction.

Edwardian Adventuress: Charley isn’t just a historical curiosity; she can use the console after observing the Doctor. ROSM considers Charley a biological hazard because she comes from a culture that doesn’t genetically modify itself. Charley pities Orlenza and calls her obnoxious. She has become more confident in her travels with the Doctor and being with him in the TARDIS feels like home to her now. She becomes Miss Bossy Boots when she realises that the Doctor is going to commit suicide to save the Sumarians.

Great Ideas: The darkness has been the stuff of nightmares for many years and the idea of all the lights being extinguished in a base on a planet with no sun is certainly an attention grabbing opening. Briggs follows that with utter silence and the creepy suggestion that something is moving about in the darkness touching people’s arms. The Time Lords are patrolling the Vortex looking for the Doctor. There is a marvellous idea where the Doctor drifts the TARDIS half a century a second of the Sumarian system. ROSM is a great creation, a pedantic and yet highly intelligent and rather polite killing machine or rather Rescue Operational Security Machine. The Sumarians are fabled by legends to live in perpetual darkness and released particles that stole the light from the sun. The Sumarian sacred history is visualised as a boiling mud pie, storing their history in its taste. The Sumarians have always chosen to heal the sick but the Solarians kept coming in their ships to a point where they threatened their survival. Their ships have solar sails and were attracted to the suns of the system so the ancient Sumarians snuffed out their sun to avoid extinction. In reality the returning Solarians are in fact Sumarian archaeologists looking for relics.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Your eyes…you’ve lost your eyes…’
‘The first dawn in the Sumarian system for a 1000 years…’

Audio Landscape: This is where Nicholas Briggs excels himself in his early stories…his command of the audio medium, using sounds to tell stories. Even when the narrative isn’t up to scratch he can still immerse the listener into a world of sounds and he does a superb job here in creating an atmosphere of tension. The sibilant, whispering voices of the Sumarians are chilling especially when they whisper the title, ‘Embrace the Darkness…’ The TARDIS has a real hissy fit when it is in hover mode. ROSMs voice is somewhere between a metallic grinding and a polite but throaty growl. Charley in the escape pod counting down and ejecting from the ship and docking at the Sumaria 4 base is a remarkably visual piece of direction. There is a creepy hum whistling through the deserted base. We have screams in the darkness and manic laughter, ROSMs clunky footsteps and Orlenza’s beautiful singing echoing down the corridors. The suns reactivating provide an appropriately climatic moment. The Sumarian screams as it heals. The bubbling Sumarian history – Charley and the Doctor are surrounded by cries of the infected.

Musical Cues: Almost to spite Gary Russell who seems to direct everything these days we have a story written, directed and scored by Nicholas Briggs. He introduces us to the Sumarian system with some exotic whistling and the story is kept in a constant state of tension with some lovely pan pipes. The sudden sting at the end of episode one is very dramatic.

Standout moment: After such a fast paced episode it is great to have Charley on her own in a very ‘you are there’ scene of terror as she emerges from the escape pod onto the base with no lights. The dull lights from the pod throw some illumination on the approaching figures who have been scratching around in the dark for an age but they still can’t see. Charley finally gets a good look at them and gasps as she tells them their eyes have been burnt out.

Result: Embrace the Darkness is a really odd beast.…
It doesn’t have the content to fill four episodes and would have worked much better as one of McGann’s 45 minute episodes and it is especially annoying that after waiting for a climatic ending Briggs reveals that the entire story hinges on the fact that there was no danger at all. On the other hand the story is a wonderfully visual piece with some stunning direction and a cracking first episode that plants you right into the story with some really scary set pieces. Characterisation is a slave to the atmosphere so the secondary characters inconsistently shift from the best of friends to embittered colleagues. Orlenza in particular goes from being sarcastic and xenophobic to sensitive and caring in the blink of an eye (haha). Embrace the Darkness is like the film Avatar, whilst you are experiencing the story it is attention grabbing but half an hour after you have turned it off you can’t remember a thing about it: 5/10

Buy it from Big Finish here: http://www.bigfinish.com/31-Doctor-Who-Embrace-the-Darkness

Season of Fear written by Paul Cornell and Caroline Symcox and directed by Gary Russell

What’s it about? On New Year's Eve, 1930, the Doctor lets Charley keep her appointment at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. But his unease at what he's done to time by saving her life soon turns into fear. Sebastian Grayle: immortal, obsessed, ruthless, has come to the city to meet the Time Lord. To the Doctor, he's a complete stranger, but to Grayle, the Doctor is an old enemy. An enemy that, many years ago, he finally succeeded in killing. And this is his only chance to gloat. The Doctor and Charley desperately search human history for the secret of Grayle's power and immortality. Their quest takes in four different time periods, the Hellfire Club, the court of Edward the Confessor and the time vortex itself. And when the monsters arrive, the stakes are raised from the life of one Time Lord to the existence of all humanity.

Breathless Romantic: Seeing Charley and Alex together reminds the Doctor of why he had saved her – he loves seeing her so happy. As Paul Cornell points out so succinctly in his writers notes Paul McGann narrates beautifully and he directs us through this particularly time twisting story with real ease. Hilariously when he first meets with Grayle he suggests that his nemesis to be might have mistaken him for the Master or the Rani! I love how bashful he is about asking Charley if she has snogged Alex. His relationship with Grayle is fascinating throughout, we have never really had a proper villain for the 8th Doctor to butt heads with and they manage to wind each other up into a frenzy of emotions that is great to listen to. The Doctor promises Grayle he will be there every time he summons his masters for the sake of established history but you get the sense that he simply enjoys hampering his plans too! He’s like a thorn in his side, preventing his transcendence to Godhood. He sings a nursery rhyme about Zagreus which might just become important as the season progresses. He is very used to the bitchiness of Time Lord society and he sees a lot of it in Grayle. The Doctor thinks Time’s ability to make things change is beautiful and he stumbles his way through bodies – he thinks Grayle’s immortality is times way of killing him inside. One leap year Edith offered the Doctor the hand of marriage to the Doctor and he did a runner which has now caused bad blood between them. In one of the rare moments that he really shows his teeth he promises Grayle that if he hurts Charley he will show him suffering beyond anything he has experienced so far. The Doctor is the only man who is wily enough to understand the Queen. He has a moral code, an aversion to killing. It really worries him that for a moment he really wanted to kill Grayle as he represents everything that he despises a turncoat and somebody who betrays his own people for his own advantage. He rarely touches meat and turns his nose up at venison. He chooses a swordfight to dispatch Grayle and turns out to be something of a master of the blade! You can just see Paul McGann with wild hair and his Edwardian clothes brandishing a sword in a moonlit duel! The Doctor is stabbed several times during this story and yet he still fights on. According to Charley he smells of honey, lets his tea get too cold before he drinks it and lets her win at Scrabble.

Edwardian Adventuress: Finally Charley makes it to the Singapore Hilton to meet Alex and indulge in some serious smooching. Nobody could have survived the R-101 and as such Charley, fully aware of the messing with time she caused in Chimes of Midnights, wonders if she is responsible for the time disruption here as well. It transpires that Alex never really fancied Charley but was Grayle’s nephew and he manipulated her into bringing the Doctor to this particular location. Throughout the story Charley has a surprising taste for violence suggesting they stone Grayle to death and dropping him into a volcano! She promises not to make a habit of disobeying the Doctor’s orders (yeah, right!). She is poisoned by Grayle to allow him entrance into the TARDIS. In return she knocks him out with the hat stand! We learn that she adores wearing a good frock and once went to an orgy…but didn’t stay. She has read Austen and can play a very convincing upper class virgin! At the end of the story her mind is full of two sets of memories – one from this story and the other where it never happened. The Doctor promises they will last until she sleeps and they will become memories, stories and dreams.

Ideas: Another extremely innovative story. Rather like River Song in Silence in the Library Grayle meets the Doctor out of time and their first meeting is at very different times for each of them. Grayle tells the Doctor that he has killed him in the future and the timeline that has created sees the Time Lords no longer top dog with his Masters feeding on the energy of worlds. The Doctor uses Alex’s DNA (which somehow made its way into Charley’s mouth!) to locate Grayle’s family home. Hopping back to the Hellfire Club they discover Grayle happy to sacrifice everyone to complete the first stage of his immortality. In a very odd moment a Dalek makes a cameo at the end of part one (watch this space, folks). King Edward’s homosexuality is described as an affliction! Nobody wants to invade England because they all think they are going to inherit. Grayle doesn’t age – he was married 12 times and watched each one fade into a crone whilst he didn’t gain so much as a wrinkle. He plans to kill the King and Queen using jewellery made of plutonium to poison them but the Doctor has pre warned them and they wear fakes and outfox him. At one point in this story Grayle has lived even longer than the Doctor has but we see the danger of living such a long life unchanged, it turns you twisted with hatred. Regeneration keeps things interesting and keeps you sane. There are lots of clues to point that it might be the Nimon behind all of this (Mithras the Mighty Bull, a Black hole on the doorstep, they invade one at a time…) but you would never imagine the return of such a derided Doctor Who monster so all kudos to Cornell and Symcox for pulling them off with such style! For all their shoddy design (which we obviously don’t have to look at) the Nimon are a surprisingly effective and serious idea. A plague of intergalactic locusts preying on the weakness of people’s greed. I love it when one character says you wonder what will fall out of the sky next…and down screams the Doctor! The Doctor defeats Grayle in the only way he can imagine…to head back to before they have ever met and stopping him contacting the Nimon. In one of the twisted climaxes we have the evil immortal Grayle face up to the innocent Grayle who has never turned to evil and the as Grayle stabs his nastier version to death time heals itself and the new timeline quietly replaces the old one. In a dramatic climax we realise that the Nimon made use of the conditions that the Doctor saving Charley caused. The last scenes sees a creature of terrifying possibility appear and kill Lucie and Richard, a creature that hungers for time energy and swallows them down for the paradox they are. The Doctor and Charley have unleashed something and it is coming after them…

Standout Performance: Stephen Perring deserves a round of applause for his strong performance as Grayle, a new nemesis for the Doctor. Perring gets to play a whole range of emotions from niavete and innocence to scheming and plotting to twisted and bitter Godhood. He manages to be melodramatic, a little bit sexy, verbose, smug, sweet and completely insane. Not bad at all and surely a fascinating character to play.

Audio landscape: Weird bells raining over the opening scenes, heavy rain hitting mud, religious chanting, alien voices over the intercom, fizzing time energies, a Dalek screaming, a temple exploding, wind whipping, ticker tape in the TARDIS, trees swaying, owls hooting, church bells a ringing, the Nimon pod arriving and their fabulous distinctive voices, growls and electric bolts. The sound effects were the best thing about the Nimon so on audio we get the best of them.

Musical Cues: The music for Seasons of Fear is extremely distinctive and unusual, not the usual orchestral helpings but more of an electronic feel. The heartbeat music at the end of part one suggests things are hotting up nicely. There is a Kings Demons style of synthesised historical music during the scenes in 305AD only it actually serves to enhance the mood of the piece. There is a haunting female vocal during the duel. The Nimon get a heavy techno beat in the last episode that really suits them.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘I’m shopping around, trying out all the different cults!’
‘Well you please stop believing in things Decurion! It’s really very messy!’
‘What sort of things did they get up to in here?’ ‘You know…rude things…’
‘I shouldn’t be in your universe. We don’t like each other very much…’
‘I am coming for you Charley Pollard. And for you Doctor…’

Standout Moment: The end of episode three is a triumphant return of a pretty naff monster and for that it should be celebrated!

Result: For content and interest, this is one of the most involved Doctor Who stories but it is a little too fractured to be an all conquering classic. Seasons of Fear tells a more detailed, less emotional version of the Girl in the Fireplace with the Doctor walking through Sebastian Grayle’s long life and outfoxing him at every turn. It breaks the curse of Doctor Who quest stories by being rather good and offering up a number of fun locations and lots of clever ideas. Paul McGann and India Fisher have an effortless chemistry at this stage in their partnership and are a joy to listen to together. The second eighth Doctor season is proceeding with real drama and drive with lots of hints that something is not at all right with time and the Doctor made a terrible choice in saving Charley’s life. Extra points for the fabulous return of the Nimon and a script that works itself into knots to keep us entertained: 8/10

Artwork by Simon Hodges @ http://hisi79.deviantart.com/

The Chimes of Midnight written by Rob Shearman and directed by Barnaby Edwards

What’s it about? Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house not a creature was stirring... But something must be stirring. Something hidden in the shadows. Something which kills the servants of an old Edwardian mansion in the most brutal and macabre manner possible. Exactly on the chiming of the hour, every hour, as the grandfather clock ticks on towards midnight. Trapped and afraid, the Doctor and Charley are forced to play detective to murders with no motive, where even the victims don't stay dead. Time is running out. And time itself might well be the killer...

Breathless Romantic: Wow, and I thought Invaders of Mars would be the best we would ever see of Paul McGann’s 8th Doctor. This is a superlative piece of Doctor Who in every fashion you can imagine but in its drawing of the regulars it really does transcend the usual adventuring schlock and become a piece of drama that genuinely says something about the Doctor’s relationship with his companion and how much he cares about them. Not only that but it sees the Doctor at his most scared, terrified of the awesome powers at work within Edward Grove and yet he is still brave, intelligent, witty and thoughtful in his dealings there. Whatever way you look at it it was worth bringing back the 8th Doctor to see just how bloody fantastic he could be as exemplified here. If The Holy Terror and The One Doctor showed us the sixth Doctor as the best Doctor, The Chimes of Midnight do exactly the same thing for the 8th.

He loves the dark as it encourages the anticipation of the mystery of where they have landed. He has been far too methodical of late and remembers there was a time when he recklessly joyriding from adventure to adventure. In his last couple of incarnations he has played it safe and set the co-ordinates for places he knew he would arrive in. Now it is time for the TARDIS to decide where they go. He proves himself to be as proficient as Sherlock Holmes at deducing their whereabouts from the contents of the larder alone. He exclaims ‘how lovely’ when he realises they have landed in an Edwardian Christmas. The Doctor understands psychopaths; they are ten a penny in his line of work. Throughout the story he questions various members of the household staff and manages to keep up with their evasions, lies and red herrings. He needs Charley, without her he would be a lonely old man rattling around in the TARDIS with no one to talk to, his life going round and round without meaning.

Edwardian Adventuress: Aside from her appointment at the Singapore Hilton and her general lust for travelling and adventure there is little that we know about Charley Pollard. The Chimes of Midnight takes the brave steps of dealing with the consequences of the Doctor’s actions in taking Charley away from her fate in the R-101 and shows how miserable the family and friends of Charley were at the news of her death. It gives India Fisher the first chance to really grab hold of a script and milk it for all the pathos it is worth rather than simply going ‘golly gosh’ and boggling at the surprises the Doctor’s adventures keep throwing up.

Charley can’t quite drop her upper class attitude and reveals that her family had quite a sum of money, a large house and maids. Her cook always used to make too much plum pudding and put threpenny bits in it which she used to chip her teeth on. Throughout the story we realise just what an impact Charley had on Edith the cook. She was the only person who ever spoke to her, who remembered her name and who smiled when she had nothing to say – Charley did not consider them very close friends or that she even spoke to Edith very often but to Edith these moments of kindness were a lifeline. Edith considered Charley to be her best friend and was devastated when news returned that charley had run away from home and no one knew where she had gone. Her diary was found in the wreckage of the R-101 and it was brought home and the house went into mourning but Edith who cared so much for her was not allowed to care – she had work to do. Everybody forgot about her and one lonely night she went into the kitchen, took out a knife and slit her wrists because living without the one person who was kind to her would have been unbearable. Because Charley turns up in Edith’s past after she should have died it creates a paradox – the very reason Edith killed herself is no longer real and it is before she has committed the act. Charley experiences her death on the R-101, the people screaming around her and knowing that she only has seconds left to live. Without the Doctor she would never have tread upon the beaches of alien worlds or marvelled at the eclipse of new suns, the birth of new stars. The Doctor makes her realise that she has seen the universe and made a difference and convinces her to choose to live with him rather than die on the R-101. She promises that she will never forget Edith Thompson and she will make her life count for something.

Great Ideas: Rob Shearman has such a twisted imagination you know you are in for a treat when his stories come around. This story is a melting pot of imagination, science fiction staples, Sapphire and Steel madness and clever quirks. Landing in the dark is a great audio device to have the characters explaining where they are. Charley thinks she has cut herself on glass but it turns out to be raspberry jam. They soon realises things are not how they should be when dust rearranges itself and Christmas crackers come back together after being pulled – it is The Space Museum all over again where they cannot make an impression on the world. The first episode builds up the character so we understand them very well and can see possible motives for murder before they have even taken place. Edith is drowned in the kitchen basin. The story assigns roles for the Doctor and Charley and spares them the inconvenience of having to explain themselves. Mrs Baddeley suddenly becomes Charley’s childhood cook and treats her like a child in some very creepy scenes. The Doctor interrogates Frederick and reveals some inconsistencies with time – he drives a Chrysler and knows about Agatha Christie but neither exists yet suggesting the discontinuity between Charley’s time and Edith’s. Mary brilliantly accuses Edith of her own murder because she has shifty eyes. Mrs Baddeley is suffocated to death with her own plum pudding after rattling on about it so much. Charley realises there is a killing on the hour that represents the victims job. The killer cannot be somebody that they haven’t already suspected because these sorts of stories have rules. Mary assumes the role of Edith who is promptly forgotten by all the staff in a terrific metaphor for her invisible life. The clock catches the Doctor and Charley looking at it and stops, the second hand quivering but then takes fright and starts running away going faster and faster. They go back in time before the first murder took place and Edith is murdered in a different fashion. Frederick and Mary own up to killing Mrs Baddeley before she has even been murdered. This is a murder mystery where the murders themselves are the red herrings – how bloody clever is that – to hide a suicide. The killer is revealed to be…number 22 Edward Grove, the house and they are all trapped within its belly. The house is given nothing but traumatic events and it feasts upon it and is given life by a paradox of Edith’s death that should never have happened because Charley is still alive. Edward Grove takes over the TARDIS in a surreal and terrifying scene, ripping away everything about Doctor Who that makes us feel safe and transforming the console room into the scullery. It is a temporal and spatial loop inside the TARDIS is the scullery with a TARDIS in it and inside that TARDIS is another scullery and so on and so forth. This is the beginning and the end of the Doctor’s travels with Charley, living forever in a looped two hours of life within Edward Grove. Edward Grove looks upon Charley and the Doctor as its parents because by landing in this time they have given it life by making the reason of Edith’s death impossible. The Doctor asks the house to commit suicide but instead it decides to crush existence down into one everlasting second when the time loops back at the chimes of midnight. By convincing Charley to live rather than die in R-101 and then Charley convincing Edith not to kill herself and promising to remember her ends the paradox and kills Edward Grove. Phew. That is one intense storyline.


Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Silent and fruity…sounds enchanting!’
‘I’m nothing, Sir, I’m nobody.’
‘Edith was so simple minded that she didn’t realise she couldn’t drown herself in the sink and so she did!’
‘He’s got shifty eyes…’
‘Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without my plum pudding. It just wouldn’t be Christmas.’
‘Edward Grove is alive, together my poppet, we make him so…’
‘He was most particular about what I could do to you with my knitting needle, Sir.’
‘It’s quite clear that Frederick brought the car into the house, ran himself over with t and put it back outside before he finally expired!’
‘I was wrong to think we could escape the house, instead we’ve taken the house with us…’
‘I died for you Charley because you were the only one worth dying for.’
‘It took me a long time to die but I did it eventually…’
‘How can I be dead and alive at the same time?’

Standout Performance: This is the strongest ensemble cast yet and they work together superbly. How can you choose between Lennox Greaves’ silky voiced bullying butler or Louise Rolfe who will break your heart as Edith the maid that nobody remembers. Sue Wallace provides an unforgettable Mrs Baddeley and Juliet Warner and Robert Curbishley convince as the lovers caught in the headlights Mary and Frederick.

Audio Landscape: The first few second convince you we are dealing with something very special; a sweet lullaby, a fiercely ticking clock, a heartbeat and something unnatural coming alive. I love the little details like the smashed jam jar, the chopping of carrots and the Christmas chill that runs through the kitchen. Time is playing about and fire comes to life suddenly and crackers come back together. Edith’s ghostly singing is both haunting and festive. Charley’s audio assault is defeaning – every character is talking at her at once as she finally enters into the story. Charley’s name is scratched into the dust by an unseen force. I was genuinely disturbed by Edith’s ghastly scream each time she was murdered and even more so when I found its origin. There is a comedy sucking and popping noise as the plunger is pulled from Edith’s face. The moment when we switch to Edward Grove’s point of view, the powerful heartbeat, the terrifying music and his laughing that sound uncomfortably like someone throwing up is enough to break me into a cold sweat – I remember listening to this story in pitch darkness when I first got it and this scene scared the life out of me. The kettle whistles on the stove like a ghastly scream. The re-enactment of the destruction of the R-101 with wood snapping, fire burning and people screaming is every bit as uncomfortable as you would imagine.

Musical Cues: A beautiful musical score, perfectly fitting the atmosphere of the piece and Russell Stone’s triumph. He manages to conjour up a perfect Christmas mood and then subverts it and terrifying us with the exact same music. Listen to the cue when the Doctor says ‘its mocking us’ in the first episode – utterly chilling. The clock moving forward towards the cliffhanger in episode two is exciting and surreal. Best of all is the music in the last episode as Edith gives Charley the knife to kill herself and then the piano score as the Doctor jumps in to rescue her from herself.

Standout Moment: Well two to be precise. I love the cliffhanger to episode two as time runs away and murder approaches and it is captured with dazzling performances and excellent music to trap you within that moment and make you desperate to hear the next episode. The climax of the story is unbelievably moving where the Doctor steps in and convinces Charley not to commit suicide. The pace and the performances are perfect and it remains the most touching, haunting and life affirming scene in Big Finish’s repertoire.

Result: As good as you have heard and then some, The Chimes of Midnight is one of those very rare Doctor Who stories that get everything right and even when you are told about how brilliant it is it still manages to surprise you. With peerless performances, a script that constantly plays with your mind and leaves you breathlessly emotional at the climax, direction that couldn’t be bettered and more clever concepts than both series of Sapphire and Steel I can’t think of a more accomplished piece of time twisting drama. Paul McGann is given more opportunities to prove just how right he was for the part and India Fisher finally comes out of her shell and rocks Charley up into the higher ranks of the companions. Like The One Doctor I have heard this story more times than it is probably sane to admit and I still find it as thrilling as I did on my first experience. This was a really good time to be a fan of Big Finish where they were producing some of the finest Doctor Who we had been privileged to enjoy: 10/10

Artwork by Simon Hodges @ http://hisi79.deviantart.com/

Invaders from Mars written and directed by Mark Gatiss

What’s it about: Hallowe'en 1938. A year after a mysterious meteorite lit up the skies of New York state, Martian invaders laid waste to the nation. At least, according to soon-to-be infamous Orson Welles they did. But what if some of the panicked listeners to the legendary War of the Worlds broadcast weren't just imagining things? Attempting to deliver Charley to her rendezvous in Singapore 1930, the Doctor overshoots a little, arriving in Manhattan just in time to find a dead private detective. Indulging his gumshoe fantasies, the Doctor is soon embroiled in the hunt for a missing Russian scientist whilst Charley finds herself at the mercy of a very dubious Fifth Columnist. With some genuinely out of this world 'merchandise' at stake, the TARDIS crew are forced into an alliance with a sultry dame called Glory Bee, Orson Welles himself and a mobster with half a nose known as 'The Phantom'. And slowly but surely, something is drawing plans against them. Just not very good ones...

Breathless Romantic: Throwing away all of the incoherent nonsense that was suggested in Minuet in Hell, Mark Gatiss kicks off the second year of the 8th Doctor’s audio adventures by writing for his character with as much zest and enthusiasm as possible. He is extraordinarily fun throughout, making it all up as he goes along and juggling up super powers and Martians with equal aplomb. The closest comparison I can think of is Tom Baker in Talons of Weng-Chiang – in that story the Doctor seems to adore the living homage he is experiencing and has a sense of glee about the whole experience, throwing out witty lines and dazzling the enemies with his fiendishness. That’s exactly the same feeling I got with the 8th Doctor and Invaders of Mars – that he loved every second of his stroll around 1930’s America.

He loves a detective story and always seems to end up helping the police with their enquiries. It is a constant mystery to the Doctor that whilst he is showing his companions the wonders of the universe they are striving to get home and return to a normal life. He has a stab at the witty film noir-ish dialogue swearing that he is an expert at the local patter but Glory Bee merely thinks he is ill. He only sleeps once in a while. Every now and then he treats himself to a complete makeover – what a great way of explaining regeneration. By episode three he is juggling the Nazis, the Russians, the CIA, gangsters and Martians and he barely breaks a sweat. Devine asks if he is a part of Victorian revival week. He is a huge fan of Orson Welles and has seen all of his movies even though they haven’t been made yet. He has the brilliant plan of using the War of the Worlds scare to scare of a genuine alien threat and wants to get in on the action so orders Charley into the TARDIS so he can grab the mike and have a go at playing the monsters trying to take over the world!

Edwardian Adventuress: Does Charley appear in this? Not really…she is kidnapped early in episode one, drugged in episode two, escapes in episode three and tails behind the Doctor in episode four. This is the Doctor’s story through and through but never mind as the next story is the ultimate Charley story.

Great Ideas: As you can imagine this is full of the imagination you would come to expect from one of the League of Gentlemen. Cosmo Devine is such a fantastic character, the life and soul of every party and the biggest crook on the planet! He uses Jimmy and Biro and murders them both afterwards. Glory Bee is revealed to be a Russian Agent and ends up falling off the Brooklyn Bridge to her watery death. The Nazis, the Soviets and the CIA all want to get their hands on the alien technology and created weapons to control the world. I love how the Martian scare of War of the Worlds is subtly squeezed into the story around all the political shenanigans going on elsewhere. It is a great use of a genuine historical event. Devine’s associates turn out to be the Nazi’s and he is a most unusual sympathiser and has visions of the Master Race with flying saucers and death rays – it is such a clichéd idea but a refreshing way of telling the same sort of story. The story really kicks off when Streath and Noriam show up – adult aliens who are as mischievous as the Slitheen when it comes to manipulating the human race and exploiting their wealth. It is basically one big protection racket where they shoot a ship full of alien eggs to different planets and let them hatch and cause the local populace to panic. After fooling them into thinking they are vulnerable they step in and look after them for a modest fee! Devine cottons on to their scheme and steps in to convince them to actually conquer the world! The Doctor sneakily arranges a second broadcast of War of the Worlds for the aliens benefit only and they scarper thinking that beefier invaders have turned up.


Sparkling Dialogue: This is probably Mark Gatiss’ strongest script for Doctor Who when it comes to witty dialogue – it is as sharp as a needle being dragged down your arm! Gatiss clearly adored Devine and every single syllable he utters is as gorgeous as his name.
‘I see little green men all the time! All I need is a few hours with my old friend Jack Daniels!’
‘I better get you to a darkened room’ ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Nice equipment’ ‘I bet you say that to all the girls’
‘Listen to me you lousy faggot!’
‘What are you waiting for, Fritzy?’
‘Martians! From the planet Mars! The red one you passed on the way in…’
‘’How does it feel to betray your own planet?’ ‘A lot like betraying your own country but a teensy bit more satisfying.’
‘Err…what’s that ticking?’

Audio landscape: Good golly gosh! Gary Russell is not directing this baby! Wonders will never cease! Gatiss treats this piece like a labour of love and makes it sound as authentic as possible with lots of brilliant US accents and framing the story within a radio broadcast. Cars blast their horns in the pack American traffic, windows smash, the TARDIS grinds through the vortex and there is a fabulous 30’s style death ray effect. I loved the sequence when the Doctor opens up the second storey window and lets in the noise of the traffic, they clamber down the clattering fire escape and bullets bounce off of the walls. Welles reading War of the Worlds in episode two is very creepy. The tacky and melodramatic voices for Streath and Noriam are belly-ache funny. Insects hum in the evening air.

Music: It was a wise move to include less music as it allows you to focus much more on the performances but the dramatic stings at the end of scenes really drives home the feel of a 1930’s radio broadcast. The Doctor Who theme is worked in a few times to amusing effect.

Standout Performance: What a cast! How can you choose one performance in this repertoire? John Arthur rocks on as the delightful Cosmo Devine, one of the slimiest Doctor Who villains it has been my pleasure to listen to – a homosexual Nazi sympathiser with all the wit of Noel Coward and the ruthlessness of Genghis Khan! Streath and Noriam are a very amusing pair; one is a histrionic world conqueror and the other a cataloguer in awe of what the planet has to offer. Any story with Jessica Stevenson and Simon Pegg is going to stink of quality and Don Chaney and Glory Bee allow them to have great fun with a number of accents. A small mention as well for Ian Hallard’s squeaky voiced Mouse in the first episode who meets a very unfortunate end.

Result: I am starting to wonder if I used to be a superficial youth (despite always thinking the contrary as all youths do!) as I used to find this story as boring as sin but in hindsight this is one of the better McGann audios with an infectious sense of fun and lots of marvellous and imaginative ideas. Using the real War of the Worlds Martian scare to excellent effect and giving Paul McGann to take centre stage and wow his audience, Mark Gatiss proves to be the perfect choice to kick of the second season of 8th Doctor Audios. The plotting is watertight and the characters manage to walk that fine line between realism and melodrama with Cosmo Devine taking the place as the campest Nazi sympathiser of all time. India Fisher is sidelined completely but that just makes way for some other fantastic performances and a general feeling of old school Doctor Who produced with real verve. A very strong start: 8/10

Artwork by Simon Hodges @ http://hisi79.deviantart.com/

BIG FINISH UPDATE

Hi guys, I am about to crack on with McGann's second season and after which I will move onto another spin off series so I thought this was a good time to have a little catch and see how well Big Finish have done to this point. I'm sure you will agree with me that the first 25 stories saw some of the absolute finest that Big Finish would offer...

The Sirens of Time: Overly ambitious but with some lovely ideas, a historical episode that works better than the others combined and promising great things for the future: 5/10

Phantasmagoria: Confident, assured and as traditional as they come, this is a positive step in convincing that Big Finish could pull of classic Doctor Who with aplomb: 8/10

Whispers of Terror: An aural masterpiece with some excellent sound design and a brilliantly bombastic sixth Doctor: 8/10

Land of the Dead: The first Big Finish disappointment which lacks a strong plot and features one of the most irritating characters in Monica Lewis: 3/10

The Fearmonger: A world of bombs, politics and guns awaits and Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred both give strong performances in this hard hitting drama: 8/10

The Marian Conspiracy: A feel good introduction of Evelyn Smythe and a superbly written historical romp to boot: 9/10

The Genocide Machine: A script that undersells its threat, introduces the Daleks as faceless thugs and reduces the regulars to stereotypes: 3/10

Red Dawn: A confident production of a poor Justin Richards script that lacks punch and takes ages for anything to happen: 4/10

The Spectre of Lanyon Moor: A gothic fantasy, a spooky setting and nice dose of nostalgia awaits the sixth Doctor and the Brigadier in their long overdue meeting: 8/10

Winter for the Adept: A beautifully scored and atmospheric ghost story which comes unstuck in its last episode when it jettisons the paranormal for science fiction: 7/10

The Apocalypse Element: Grossly undervalued, this is a Hollywood blockbuster that gives the Daleks a chance to kick some serious ass and presents its threat in as grander fashion as I could imagine: 8/10

The Fires of Vulcan: A brilliant use of Melanie Bush is the icing on the cake of this beautifully produced and intense historical drama: 10/10

The Shadow of the Scourge: Paul Cornell writes with wit and beauty and Gary Russell masterfully opens out the world of the New Adventures: 8/10

The Holy Terror: A flawlessly intelligent and witty script which gives Colin Baker the chance to become the best Doctor we have ever seen (or heard): 10/10

The Mutant Phase: An interesting paradox tale which gets more complicated and enjoyable as it goes along: 8/10

Storm Warning: A sublime re-introduction of the 8th Doctor which introduces a brilliantly alien new race and sees the beginnings of the Doctor/Charley partnership that teams with energy and chemistry: 9/10

Sword of Orion: Thunk goes Sword of Orion, a story that trades intelligence and fun for atmosphere and violence. A spectacular failure and a chore to listen to: 1/10

The Stones of Venice: Delicious dialogue, an evocative setting and a real sense of magic and wonder sees the Doctor and Charley enjoying their best adventure yet: 10/10

Minuet in Hell: Dull characters and banal dialogue wound this excursion to the US and sees the inconsistent first year for McGann end on a low note: 2/10

Loups-Garoux: An evocative production, a complex script and some unexpectedly deep characterisation of the fifth Doctor and Turlough: 9/10

Bloodtide: A traditional story told with some real gumption, Jonathon Morris gives the Silurians some fascinating development and writes a fantastic Evelyn Smythe: 8/10

Dust Breeding: Handicapped by the regulars by featuring a strong number of imaginative concepts that keep this mildly diverting story ticking over: 6/10

Project Twilight: Surprisingly nasty with some real horror and character drama, the sixth Doctor and Evelyn tip toe their way through this ultra modern and yet surprisingly tradition piece of storytelling: 8/10

Eye of the Scorpion: A rip roaring tale of politics and history that introduces us to a fascinating companion in Erimem. Nicola Bryant steals the show throughout: 9/10

Colditz: A mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous, Lyons fascination with history and time travel continues and the script enjoys a number of excellent twists. However both Ace and Sophie Aldred need to be toned down: 6/10

Primeval: Quiet, uneventful but also polished and rewarding, Primeval sees some fine development of Nyssa and Traken: 8/10

The One Doctor: A real achievement, a hilariously funny and entertaining story which delights and thrills in equal measure and has some of the best performances and wittiest lines of any Big Finish story: 10/10