Blue Tooth written by Nigel Fairs and directed by Mark J Thompson

What’s it about: I suppose that was one of the Doctor's most endearing qualities: the ability to make the bizarre and the terrifying seem utterly normal." When Liz Shaw's friend Jean goes missing, the Doctor and U.N.I.T. are drawn to the scene to investigate. Soon Liz discovers a potential alien invasion that will have far-reaching affects on her life… and the Doctor is unexpectedly re-united with an old enemy…

Intelligent Academic: Wow, Nigel Fairs really manages to get under Liz Shaw’s skin in this story and makes some brilliant observations about the UNIT family.. Given that she was only around in four stories on television (albeit four of the most accomplished stories) more time with this underused companion is very welcome and any story that opens with the line ‘when did I first decide to leave UNIT’ immediately perks my interest. Caroline John is a superb actress and she really brings this story to life with excitement and well-paced verve, the dramatic moments are only so good because she makes them so. In some ways she had decided to leave before she had even joined so a more relevant question is when did she decide to leave the Doctor? She was irritated by everything at university; she was an academic and obsessed with physics and the biggest prude in the Southern Counties! Then she met Jean who introduced her to her first wild night out drinking, mini skirts and huge white hats! They loved to sit and bitch and watch the world go by from a Cambridge café. Liz must have put on a stone the year she lived with Jean since she loved her fry ups so much! She feels relief when the Doctor gets involved with mysteries. He has a way of seeing right through her and she had inherited a lightly mocking tone from him, especially when dealing with the Brigadier. Liz’s filling is a vivid shade of blue; she had been infected by the living metal. Once under the influence the Cybermat inside her tries to absorb knowledge and as a representation of this Liz tries to eat the Encyclopaedia Britannica. I would have loved to see the scene where she hits Benton over the head with a large chunk of wall! Liz is forced to watch Jean die, she witnesses the end of her best friends conversion. Her tongue is forced aside as the Cyber-insect forces its way into her mouth. Liz tries to comfort the Doctor as the Brigadier orders his men to infiltrate the Cybership and murder its inhabitants.

Good Grief: Isn’t it great how the Doctor’s earthbound adventures open up such effortless storytelling possibilities? His latest tinkering with the TARDIS has taken up so much power that the local electricity board has threatened to cut off UNITs supply! He fancied a bit of colour so he bought himself a new jacket. One of the Doctor’s most endearing qualities is to make the bizarre and the terrifying utterly normal. He smiles glowingly at Liz and is very gentle with her compared to how he is with everybody else. Its lovely to have an adventure where the third Doctor gets to square up to the Cybermen. He doesn’t like to be interrupted and almost mocks them. As a man of science he suggests he could be of use to the Cybermen. He asks them why they are doing this and chips away at their individuality. One of the strongest emotions we have is the will to survive and I love how the Doctor suggests we are not so removed from the Cybermen in that respect. It’s the one drive we all share. He puts an end to Gareth Arnold’s suffering. This Doctor prevaricates by rubbing the back of his neck! When will they ever learn, he asks himself.

Great Ideas: I love the scenes of Liz exploring the abandoned cottage, the atmosphere is electric and you expect anything to leap out at her. Scientists are disappearing in Cambridge. There are files full of unexplained deaths at UNIT. Teeth marks in a bedside table? An inexperienced new boys comes on the scene – Captain Yates! Andrew Cowell jumped from a pedestrian bridge and was hit by an express train which sliced him in half. Those halves are intact and upon inspection proved to be almost entirely made of metal, the skull a metallic shiny blue. A boil erupts from his shoulder in a moment of glorious body horror and Cybermats pour forth, glistening with blue liquid metal. The largest leaps through the air and burrows into Broadwick’s arm. His leg turns into ashes and dissolves away. To survive here the Cybermen would have to convert the dominant species and this time they are using living metal. Metallic walls beneath the ground, a crashed Cyber scout ship checking the planet for invasion. A nearly fully converted Cyberman but with one human eye which snaps open in another terrific shock moment. It astonishes me that a writer has finally got the Cybermen right. They have never been my favourite monster because of the list of wasted opportunities in their appearances, writers treating them like stock robots or failing to understand the real horror of what they represent (and don’t get me started on the one chance they had to really drive home their horror in Torchwood because that was the most fudged attempt of all!). This how to get the audience involved with the Cybermen, to introduce a close friend of a companion and watch as Liz comes to terms with her friend transformed into a shell of logic and survival. It has a personal stake which makes the conversion that more frightening. By developing new conversion techniques these Cybermen have shown individuality in their cold, wet Cyber hell. Cyber handles are described as a metal parody of hair, which is a genius way of dealing with a pretty duff bit of design! Arnold experimented with the living metal, using it to conquer, convert, command and survive. The Doctor wonders if there is other uses of the living metal to benefit mankind but the Brigadier has other plans and sends in his goon to murder the remaining Cybermen.

Audio Landscape: A superbly realised story, I often find that the earthbound tales come to life with much more atmosphere. A café ambience, telephone ring, scenes of people conversing in the background, lazy flies buzzing around rotting food, birdsong, squeaky lounge door, ticking clock, traffic, torrents of water gushing along gulleys, the Cybermat whine, heavy breathing, Cyberman voices loaded with emotion, bubbling blue liquid, the sonic screwdriver and a cacophony of ‘You will be like us!’

Musical Cues: One of the best musical scores in a Big Finish adventure, its beautifully evocative. Groovy 70’s music introduces us to Liz’s university days. There is excellent tension building flute music at the end of part one. The script describes the music in the dentist’s corridor as canned banal psuedo classical. I love the music as the Cybermats attack, it got me moving and Simon asleep next to me woke up to find out what was getting me so worked up!

Standout Scene: All the scenes on the Cybership are great, capturing how frightening these creatures are better than practically any other story.

Result: One of my all time favourite Cyberman stories because it managed to get me involved emotionally with the creatures. Blue Tooth features a superb script, which is grounded in realism and has many excellent dramatic beats throughout. Liz Shaw was always one of the best companions and Nigel Fairs captures her voice authentically and adds layers to this already fascinating character. The production is of a very high standard as well with a terrific musical score and a great atmosphere brewed. If the wrap up is a little too quick its still one hell of a thrill ride, the horror of the Cybermen told from the point of view of a companion being converted. More season seven goodness: 9/10

Buy it from Big Finish here: http://www.bigfinish.com/13-Doctor-Who-The-Companion-Chronicles-The-Blue-Tooth

Fear of the Daleks written by Patrick Chapman and directed by Mark J Thompson

This story in a nutshell: Zoe is starting to remember travelling with a man called the Doctor and recalls the terrifying time the Daleks used her as an assassin…

Logical Gal: What a shame that this story should be told from Zoe’s point of view because the writer adopts a very cold and clinical narrative approach that makes it very hard to penetrate the story. Zoe is having lucid dreams, nightmares of monsters and travels in time and space. She is trying to piece together this mysterious past of hers by seeing a counsellor and studying her dreams. The Doctor enjoys having another genius in the TARDIS. She is used as an assassin to kill the Tabari President. Zoe is tortured as she tries to resist and warn the President and she admits she would rather die than kill anyone. There is not enough development of Zoe’s character or enough of a reason to have this has a flashback to make the effort worthwhile.

Oh My Giddy Aunt: ‘Oh my word! Zoe!’ – Padbury’s Troughton impression is spot in places; I found it more convincing than her recreation of Zoe! He has mop top hair, a funny well-worn face and a shabby dress sense. He is mysterious and wise, serious and frivolous and mature and silly. The Doctor genuinely believes he has seen the Daleks’ final end. He is practical in his humility, if he knew everything what would be left to discover? He wouldn’t know what it is like to meet a mind greater than his own! The Doctor doesn’t think he has the right to kill, not even the Daleks.

Scots Lad: Is Jamie in this story? Oh yes, Zoe describes him as having a kind blunt face, a brave man and who deep down makes you want to protect him. Padbury’s Scots accent is very stiff.

Great Ideas: An asteroid with a domed city and rockets arriving. There are peace talks happening because they are a neutral city. Antrekar wants to use the Daleks to take over the Zantha and the Tabari worlds and build the greatest Empire ever seen dividing the galaxy into those who are with us and those who are dead. Sleeper agents will be planted and used to create chaos and then the Daleks will sweep in during the madness and take over. At the story’s conclusion Antrekar forces the Daleks to feel a dagger of remorse so they can understand the horror they cause.

Standout Performance: Nick Briggs is very good as the Antrekar Dalek, he plays it with the sort of urgency the rest of the story needs.

Audio Landscape: There is a dramatic Dalek extermination opening but throughout this story lacks the elegant description of Frostfire so there is no chance to recreate the same sort of atmospherics. We can hear people going up and down in escalators, the hum of spaceships, extermination blasts…but on the whole this is pretty quiet, unmemorable production.

Musical Cues: Its rare for a musical score for a Big Finish production to be so out of sync with its story. Scenes are punctuated with the loudest, wince making stings and it really feels as though the musician is desperate to create the atmosphere the production lacks.

Isn’t that Odd: The sixties was a remarkably innovative period in Doctor Who but you wouldn’t think so listening to Fear of the Daleks. This is all space cities, mind probes and warring factions – every B movie cliché you can imagine! I really don’t buy that the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are picked up within minutes and then take straight to the very man who is going to take over the galaxy and are told his entire plan! Is this the lamest Dalek opening we have ever seen? Not a dramatic invasion or a sudden reveal but the Doctor recognising their technology! The story is written in such a clinical, logical and dull way, Padbury deserves so much more! Even the Daleks sound a little embarrassed saying ‘Exterminate the Doctor!’ The dialogue doesn’t really improve amongst the banality of ‘insolence invites extermination.’ Antrekar is such a rubbish villain, stupidly buying into the promises of the Daleks and then turning good as soon as he sees what they are capable of (but he already knew what they were capable of because he tells the Doctor about their plan to subjugate or kill). ‘I must atone for my treachery!’ – who in all realms of plausibility would say something like that? The story ends on the most clichéd of notes, it doesn’t force the Doctor or Zoe to make a tough choice and murder the Daleks but Antrekar steps up in a moment of self sacrifice and redemption and spares them of the choice. How lame.

Result: Fear of the Daleks has a lot to answer for. I bought this story as an example of what the companion chronicles had to offer and was bored stupid and despite positive reviews of subsequent series I never bought another for years! Like the novels that were being written at the time for previous Doctors it seems that the second Doctor suffers the worst stories. The script is swamped with clichés and features extremely banal dialogue and as a result it feels like an embarrassing example of sixties naivety. Not one of the sixties stories has aged as badly as this post millennium written story, this is a horrible misstep for the first series of companion chronicles: 3/10

Buy it from Big Finish here: http://www.bigfinish.com/12-Doctor-Who-The-Companion-Chronicles-Fear-of-the-Daleks

Frostfire written by Marc Platt

What’s it about: Vicki has a tale to tell.
But where does it start and when does it end?

Ancient Carthage. 1164 BC.
Lady Cressida has a secret. She keeps it deep in the cisterns below the Temple of Astarte with only one flame for warmth. And it must never get out.

Regency London, 1814 AD.
The first Doctor, Steven and Vicki go to the fair and meet the fiery Dragon, the novelist Miss Austen and the deadliest weather you ever did see.

But which comes first?
The Future or the Past?
The Phoenix or the Egg?
The Fire or the Frost?
Or will Time freeze over forever?

Alien Orphan: What a fascinating place to start the companion chronicles. I really like Vicki and her departure is one of the least celebrated and yet best written in the series (because the episodes aren’t available to watch). It’s intriguing to here more about her life since she left the Doctor in ancient Troy and wonderful to find out that although there is nobody to talk to about her travels, she is happy. Maureen O’Brien obviously sounds older (and she is supposed to) but she is still effortlessly Vicki. She once tried to explain elevators to Troilus but he didn’t understand…that’s what you get for marrying a Greek Adonis! Travelling with the Doctor was so special Vicki is chronicling events to she doesn’t forget. She always liked Steven because he was like a big brother to her, one she could boss about. I love the idea of the three companions eating hot spicy gingerbread and going ice-skating! Imagine Vicki taking a turn about the room with Jane Austen! When she was travelling she had no desires to find a husband and finds ambition boring and has been having far too much fun to be worrying about that. She finds the men of this time too affecting and la-di-da, not at all heroic and not a patch of Troilus. She was Vicki long before she was Cressida. She has her own life, husband and children in Greece. She loved travelling with the Doctor and they certainly had their moments. History may be an amazing place to visit but it’s so primitive. They don’t think the same or understand. She has never felt so cut off. The Trojans all thought Vicki was possessed or cursed and wanted to leave her on a rock in the middle of the sea. One spark was left burning amongst her tears as a consequence of this story, the only person she can talk to in this wilderness. They are both alone with some body to talk to, to remember.

Hmm: It warms my heart to think I can start writing reviews for the first three Doctor’s in the companion chronicles! Obviously Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee aren’t here to bring this material to life but its glorious to have their assistants take on their personas and if it is going to be as well observed and performed as Frostfire we are in for a real treat. Marc Platt has captured the first Doctor to a tee and Maureen O’Brien performs him with appropriate gravity, impatience and magic. This genuinely feels like a missing first Doctor story which I would have thought was an impossibility to pull off. The Doctor mutters to himself in a half amused way when they first arrive anywhere.
He always was a bit of a know all and you don’t argue with him if you know what’s good for you! He once saw a dragon that could thaw out the Thames with one good sneeze. He is stubborn and critical when walking through the fair of curios but seems to be enjoying himself in that. The Doctor could be so gentle when he wanted to be. I love how easily he ingratiates himself with Jane Austen; he’s read all of her novels (despite the fact that at this point she has only written two!) and finds them elegant and witty (he’s right there). He’s not a bad formal dancer and certainly shows Steven up! Takes all the credit for other peoples observations as usual! He is cold and has no fire in his hearts. At the conclusion he walks into the cold and stares down his opponent head on. I would have loved to have been able to see that!

Aggressive Astronaut: He is hardly a seasoned traveller like Vicki. I loved the description of him towering to his full height when he tries to intimidate people (I can so see Peter Purves doing that in season three!). He is quite dishy, Vicki supposes and Jane Austen thinks he is enough to set all the hearts of London aflutter. Dashing in a brotherly way and quite a hit with the ladies because of his list of accomplishments. He cannot dance for toffee and gives Vicki a filthy look as if it is all her fault (I can really see that as well!). He’s pushy and needs to know that there will be a future for him to be born into.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Cinder to flame to egg.’

Great Ideas: The three travellers standing on the River Thames covered in ice! A frost fair. A giant egg, as big as a head with a light inside with tongues of green flame. When it cracks a cold wicked eye peeks out. A dragon wreathed in green flames coming to life. The very idea of the first Doctor meeting Jane Austen and staying with her in Convent Garden delightful! The cold is trying to suck the warmth out of everything, Frostfire climbing down chimneys, gathering heat and freezing over even time itself. Blue green flame flickers amongst the rooftops like an aurora. A thousand worlds have burnt themselves cold for the great bird to live. The furnace of the Royal Mint is the perfect hatching place of the egg. The Doctor offers to take it to a fiery new world next to a new sun. It shatters inside the furnace, inside a chick is screaming, a monstrous fledging. The creature burns Vicki’s tale, hoping that it was become aflame and the egg will live again. Vicki keeps the creature underground with only one flame for warmth. The TARDIS headed off down the Thames on an ice flow. I love the idea of this creature in a perpetual loop, because of Vicki’s time travelling existence she took a fragment of this creature back in time to ancient Greece where it would find enough heat to reach London where she will meet it again and start the cycle over and over.

Audio Landscape: This is a remarkably atmospheric production with lots of well-chosen sound effects complimenting the poetic dialogue and stylish descriptions.
There’s a dripping tap, squeaking doors, the blissful original console noises, fairground music at the frost air, crowds, screaming as the egg starts to break, a hackney carriage with the heavy sighs of the horses, clip-clopping of hooves, gossipy chatter, wind whistling through the house, a frozen man shattering into ice (ugh), the voice of the frost (chilling) and the screech of the egg.

Musical Cues: Most quite understated but very good because of it, as it doesn’t swamp the glorious narration. There’s some pleasant formal piano dance music and a drumbeat as the Frostfire attacks.

Result: What an awesome achievement. With Maureen O’Brien’s evocative narration and Marc Platt’s expressive script we are whisked back to the wondrous season three for an exciting adventure with Jane Austen and a fire-breathing dragon. The production values are very impressive and the story never loses impetus, climaxing with some really exciting moments. If that wasn’t enough we also get to catch up with Vicki in ancient Greece and close the story on a very clever twist that will see the story repeat over and over for the creature. A superb introductory story for this series: 10/10

Buy it from Big Finish here: http://www.bigfinish.com/11-Doctor-Who-The-Companion-Chronicles-Frostfire

The Hive of Horror written by Paul Magrs and directed by Kate Thomas

This story in a nutshell: Its time for the final confrontation with the Queen of the swarm…

Teeth and Curls: Large as life and just as impossible, an aggravating cross between Sherlock Holmes and the Mad Hatter. He thinks he flourishes with wit and debonair style. He would be very disappointed if Mrs Wibbesey turned out to be the hornet Queen, it would be such a disappointing ending for him. Whereas Mike finds her disgusting the Doctor thinks the Queen is beautiful. He’s a madman or he veers close to the edge sometimes. The Doctor thinks there are much better ways than pointing guns about. He hopes he talks to everyone as people, alien or human. He is far too sweet natured and balanced to be controlled by the hornets. An intergalactic dilettante! Quite a cheery soul deep down. Sometimes the things he gets involved in are absolutely hair raising. It’s very sweet that the Doctor thinks Mike won’t betray him, his friend has had a few wobbles but he trusts him. The Queen pecks away at Mike’s defences by telling him that the Doctor used to take all the credit and deplores Mikes limitations, one day he will stop turning up and the human race will be left to face the monsters and he wont care. Just when you think you’ve seen the back of him he will turn up in a new body, younger, rubbing your nose in the fact that you have aged. When the hornets were in the TARDIS he was so scared. Mrs Wibbesey almost compliments him by insulting the surreal nature of his life! He comes and goes as he pleases, saying the right things. He considers his life long, fortunate and exciting. Being the Doctor is not all you think it might be. He improvises madly. Once again the old lush wants a snifter before dealing with the Queen! Tom Baker just loves say Wibbesey, doesn’t he?

Go back a read that paragraph again, this characterisation of the fourth Doctor is sublime.

Camp Captain: Its lovely that Mike Yates joins the action again and suddenly it makes perfect sense that he was chosen out of the plethora of companions to accompany the Doctor. Richard Franklin is given material above and beyond anything he was given on the telly and he is treated to some fine development. I hope he’s back for Demon Quest. A long time ago he used to find himself drawn into improbable adventures almost every week. Mrs Wibbesey describes him as a has been. Sweetly Lethbridge-Stewart gave him his hip flask the day he left the service. He’s spent many years trying to withstand brainwashing techniques, honing and training himself. Following his breakdown he studied under a number of Yogi and mystics. He’s no longer anybody’s knight in shining armour. He turns callous and flippant throughout the story and develops a mood of dark bravado. A new snappish, paranoid demeanour like in his dark days when he turned traitor against his friends. He’s a devil when his danders up. Mike was only trying to make the world a better place and yet UNIT cast him out and forgot about him. His mind has been shattered under recent exertions. He had no extraordinary knowledge or arcane powers; he had nothing to offer the Doctor except shooting things and being the butt of the joke. The Doctor tells him he was loyal. He remembers happy times at the UNIT Christmas parties. He shares a wonderful Christmas dinner with the Doctor and Mrs Wibbesey at the end of the story.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Pull yourself together Wibbesey!’
‘Sheeny tips curdled with venom…’
‘Quick tread on her!’
‘Aren’t you supposed to serve your queen and country?’

Great Ideas: The TARDISes dimensional stabiliser is creating the force shield around the cottage. The want to enslave all mankind and turn the world into a nightmarish place. A zebra is the one creature that the Doctor cannot always pacify containing the Queen of the swarm. Shrinking down to the size of a match head and walking through the black and white foliage of the zebras head! A mind made out of paper. The hornets chew it into a pulp then form fantastic cities of whirling tunnels and luminous chambers and cells, an engineering masterpiece, cities of papier-mache. Hornets as large as a bicycle peddling in the air! The throne room was a miracle, furnished in sputum, venom and pulp. Mrs Wibbesey teeters on the edge of being an impossible companion (I loved that observation). Negative thoughts are the bread and butter for their royal jelly. The hornets are susceptible to damaged souls, people who rage inside their heart. The Queen murmurs sweet dark nothings into the old soldiers ears. The hornets plan to take over the world and improve it, to use Mike’s government contacts to take over. Resorting to desperate measures the Doctor sets fire to the paper brain and the hornets attempt to fan the fire with their wings. The pupating young manufacture her majesty’s favourite grog. The Doctor exiles the Queen to the micro universe.

Audio Landscape: This is quite a bare production compared to the others in the range. I picked up a ticking grandfather clock and spitting fire and the usual hornet sound effects.

Musical Cues: A female vocalist echoes in the introduction to the Queen, a delectable specimen of vespidar.

Result: Subverting all of my expectations, the finale of the Hornets Nest series is quite a quiet piece which concentrates far more on character development than macabre ideas like the previous instalments. The Doctor and Mike shine unlike ever before, the former more unpredictable and eccentric than ever and the latter given some healthy development. I was a little disappointed at how easy the hornets were defeated after all of the build up which is a shame but given four hours of exceptional build up I think that was inevitable. The hornets are still terrifying and the sound effects really crawl under my skin and make me shiver. I can only hope that we see more of the fourth Doctor, Mike and Mrs Wibbesey because their interactions here are delightful and I am very pleased that there is another series written by the superlative Paul Magrs: 8/10

A Sting in the Tale written by Paul Magrs and directed by Kate Thomas

This story in a nutshell: The hornets have finally invaded the TARDIS…

Teeth and Curls: Whilst the characterisation of the Doctor has been of a high standard throughout this mini series I think this is my favourite so far because it shows him at his most desperate a flawed. In a story that reveals why he has taken the hornet’s invasion as his own burden we realise that he is responsible for everything we have seen so far. The Doctor thinks of himself as an ethereal spirit of midwinter misrule when he is lost in the snowy forest. I loved his impromptu improvisation of Good King Wenceslas. He really is an old drunk these days, asking for a hot toddy when he is saved by the nuns. He doesn’t need a reason to go rambling anywhere and the cold rarely bothers him. The Doctor has been brought before some very important leaders and heads of state in his time and he has visited some magnificent supreme beings. Think of him as the Pied Piper except he uses aniseed balls to lure a hornet possessed wolfhound. I love it when the Doctor enthuses about the TARDIS and describing her as bright blue and beautiful in the inky night, her windows lit up a fierce ice white is beautiful. Once the wolf takes a chunk out of him he isn’t sure if he has been possessed by the hornets or is being killed by primitive wolf bite diseases. The TARDIS has been his refuge for centuries and they protect each other. Is his mind as labyrinth as his vehicle? He makes a huge mistake and as a result the creatures devour him from the inside. His powers might be seen as Godlike but he prefers to think of himself a watcher, a dabbler, nothing much to write home about. The Doctor has never felt so alone in the face of the enemy. His wounds with Gallifreyan efficiency. Antonio’s infection is revealed to be the Doctor’s fault. The web of time heals itself and bends the Doctor to its will and makes sure everything runs with deadly accuracy. Even the Doctor doesn’t want to know everything about himself.

Great Ideas: A woodland in the heart of winter with a nunnery in the centre of the tangled countryside – you can always tell when Magrs is writing as the locations are so evocative. The sisters are protecting the Mother Superior, which turns out to be a pig controlled by a malignant entity bound up by the will of thousands of hornets. A rarefied, musical humming emanates from within, the Queen herself. The rabid feral dogs are also possessed and make a desperate assault on the nunnery. The abbey becomes a slaughterhouse, the dogs cracking their heads against the wooden doors and forcing entry. The Queen is a flash of liquid gold at the heart of the swarm. All the hornets slip into one of the hounds and it follows the Doctor back to the TARDIS and tears through its infinite corridors. The TARDIS corridors loop round and about and twist into a vast cats cradle, a labyrinth. Treasures from a thousand worlds are secreted in the TARDIS. There’s an English country garden, a swamp, a laboratory, a garage, a sitting room, a tropical greenhouse, libraries, corridors, galleries, walkways, staircases and escalators, voices crying out and a galley kitchen that smells of crepes suzette. The hornets were blow to Earth by accident, creatures of twilight from the inky depths of space. The churning morass of insects surround the Doctor and slip into his mind. They are space vermin akin to a swarm of fleas hopping from one host to the next with nothing to offer the universe. There are so many creatures that see the rich pickings on Earth for their own selfish needs. We land on the Venetian lagoon where Antonio was infected and the events recalled from the last story are seen here from the Doctor’s point of view. The story ends with Mrs Wibbesey tempting the Doctor and Mike from the cellar into the path of the hornet controlled beasts filling Nest Cottage.

Audio Landscape: Wintry winds, growling dogs, a snorting Mother Superior, crackling embers, a swarm of hornets filling a room, the TARDIS doors shutting, laughter, a waterfall, clocks, inside the Doctor’s echoing mind, flowing waters, a clock chiming in Venice.

Musical Cues: Dramatic music enhances the tension during the siege of the Abbey. A trumpet sounds the TARDIS leaping into the time vortex. Haunting choral music surrounds the Doctor’s possession. There is a fabulous room full of chamber music.

Result: The Hornets Nest story is turning out to be as multifaceted as the fractured eyes of a hornet. Another rich brew of atmospheric locations, stylish ideas and rich language but with the added tension of having the TARDIS invaded by the hornets which takes the story to a whole new level. Never before has the ship felt like a magical box with infinite wonders within. This is where the story begins and the Doctor is so desperate to defeat the hornets he is willing to rewrite his own timeline to stop them. Poor Simon was desperate for me to look at possible cruise holidays for the summer but he could not drag me away from this gripping piece, proof that I am hooked on this sumptuous style of narration. Ending on a growling, snarling cliffhanger, I don’t want to listen to the last part because it will all be over: 10/10

The Circus of Doom written by Paul Magrs and directed by Kate Thomas

This story in a nutshell: The Doctor follows the hornets back in time and discovers the circus of doom…

Teeth and Curls: I’m not sure I understand what people mean when they say Tom Baker doesn’t sound like the Doctor during his tenure? Of course he doesn’t, he’s thirty years older! Just like Pertwee sounder older in The Paradise of Death, Peter Davison and Colin Baker sound older in Big Finish Productions. Allow me to apologise for these actors for the natural passing of time and for not being stuck in cryogenic freezing until they were needed for audio dramas so they can sound utterly authentic to the audience of these dramas. How many stories did we hear the Doctor narrate on television? What’s that? None? Precisely! It is Tom Baker for frick sakes! I don’t care if he sounds a little strained in places, this is still the cheekiest, most irreverent of Doctors and Baker has such a lively way of brining Paul Magrs’ romantic dialogue to life.

The Doctor describes the TARDIS landing with its usual cheery brouhaha! He is partial to aniseed balls and humbugs when jelly babies aren’t available and he is used to funny scenes and outlandish scenes. Can’t abide the waster of good gobstoppers (well who can?). When the Doctor was younger he always imagined running away with the circus but unfortunately they never visited his dull old planet. Part of no ones parade but his own, he rarely feels offended by anyone anymore. I love it when we hear about the Doctor doing very normal things and his meandering and perusing the high street is a situation where we could actually meet him! His instincts for sniffing out the hornets has been honed to fine art. I can just imagine the subversive fourth Doctor being taken in by the gaudy cheer of the circus and applauding with some gusto! Go and listen to his warnings to Francesca, growling and menacing theatrically. He is envious of other characters more detached stance to the bigger picture. Imagine the Doctor’s head jammed in the animated maw of a dead lion! The Doctor doesn’t feel obliged to answer any nosy women’s questions or to mollify them when they have complicated things beyond reason. His ‘If you come back you’re DEAD’ is gorgeous, showing how insensitive he can be at times. The hornets are blaming the Doctor for being active in this time zone, suggesting whatever they do he is the cause of it. Antonio the poisonous midget is in his garden at Nest Cottage, another macabre addition. His next story, set in deep mid winter, is the Doctor’s last.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘The Circus of Doom’ is a title made for Tom Baker to say (with extra emphasis on the doooom!)
‘There was a drone of insects in the hedgerows. The lazy contented purring of insects all around me.’
‘There was bloodlust in the air…’
‘This tiny vampire and its trillion strong hive…’
‘Heaven parcelled up in this strange box’ is a gorgeous way of describing the TARDIS.

Great Ideas: There is a show in the village of Blandford (hmm I wouldn’t want to live there!) that is sending everyone to sleep, a travelling show revelling in licentiousness and wickedness. Gypsy tents with a moderately sized big top a sideshow of monsters and vagabonds. Its 1832 and the hornets are swarming about hatching their plans. Blandford is alive with a whispery suppressed excitement. A clown funeral at midnight, monochrome clowns whose only splash of colour is there ruby red lips. Antonio the malevolent dwarf is the hornet’s latest host and oily black smoke pours from his ears and eyes, a noise smoke that buzzed and hummed. The hornets feed on imagination, febrile dreams, desires and stymied life forces, all your darkest frustrated thoughts and twisted envy’s, the tiniest thoughts of malice and siphons these feelings for their own evil purposes. Clowns of inhuman strength with hornets buzzing behind their glassy eyes. The king of the circus ring is animated by a hive of buzzing insects. Are the hornets training the humans to play their part? Satin dancing feet, we are introduced to Francesca and her dancing feet that turned up mummified in The Dead Shoes – the Doctor knows there is nothing he can do for her. Antonio the goblin boy, the troglodyte burnt the minds of everybody who ever taunted him when he was given the power of the hornets at the age of thirteen in Venice, a city as gaudy and as decadent as the circus itself. It was the magic of the TARDIS (and its chilling whiteness within) that convinced Antonio to devote his life to magic (he describes the ship as landing with a ‘elephantine’ roar). The Doctor is submerged by swarm of hornets and stung maliciously. The tight rope finale is nail biting, its easier if the ‘vehicle’ they chose for a host is a corpse so Francesca plummets to her death, having an appointment with destiny.

Audio Landscape: A shop bell jingles, a sweet jar smashes, cats roar, morning birds sing, symbols crash and the hornets continue to creep me out! I love the sound of the audience whooping and gasping and the sound of sizzling bacon makes me think of Sunday mornings with sarnies and coffee.

Musical Cues: The music in these stories is getting better and better, go listen to the jolly jingle as the Doctor lands in Blandford. As we experience a visit to the circus we are treated to a orchestral score of freakish playtime.


Isn’t it Odd: This is not a criticism in the slightest, quite the opposite actually but I cannot listen to the Hornets Nest stories quite as easily as I can Big Finish productions. Whilst I think Big Finish have produced some startling drama they are made like soundtracks to stories that are missing from the archives. With this series I want to be seduced by the language, I want to really focus on the delicious description and sink into Magrs’ twisted and beautiful vision of Doctor Who. It has taken me longer to listen to this series than say the Jago & Litefoot series but that is only because I want the experience to last. I am timing this so I can listen to the last instalment on Christmas Day, my own little Christmas treat. Since the plotting and description is as fruity and rich as Christmas pudding, it won’t feel out of place.

Result: I love how the Hornets Nest series is telling consecutive stories and setting up the tales we have already heard, there is a fascinating jigsaw being assembled. The circus is an ideal location for Magrs to lose himself in, every bit as eclectic, perplexing and ingenious as one of his works. The Doctor’s narration continues to beguile and Tom Baker’s magnificent voice eases you into the story and is as pleasurable as a neck massage whilst your ears are being nibbled! Reviewing this series is a shame because it feels wrong to break down what should be luxurious swim through the English language and I think I will listen to it again before long to let the sumptuous flood of descriptions carry me along. Doctor Who as a delicious portmanteau: 9/10

The Dead Shoes written by Paul Magrs and directed by Kate Thomas

This story in a nutshell: Shrunk to the size of a thimble the Doctor is menaced through a Victorian dollhouse by those pesky hornets…

Teeth and Curls: As Mike comments only the Doctor would fill his house full of homicidal dead animals. He loves being by the seaside in out the way spots and last visited Cromer in the 1930’s, taking long strolls on the rock strewn beach and demolishing fish suppers, filling his lungs with clean salty air. An autograph hunter? The Doctor thinks it doesn’t do to get tangled up in police enquiries. He brilliantly uses his scarf to lasso Miss Stott from committing suicide under the influence and jumping into the violent sea. His scarf would never let him down; it’s gone to enormous lengths in the past to save his neck (love it!). Go listen to the scene where the Doctor stresses that the whole universe is made up of dancing atoms, he sounds truly alien and magnificent. This is where the Doctor came across Mrs Wibbesey his housekeeper but he does have to hypnotise her every now and again (sounds like an average relationship). He declares that he hasn’t been growing geraniums since he and Mike last met! His TARDIS is like a bloodhound when it gets a scent and he’s very persistent when his danders up.

Camp Captain: Aside from getting the Doctor all worked up about trips down memory lane he is really only present in one or two scenes where the Doctor is recounting his story. I hope this isn’t the case throughout the series; I look forward to getting to know Yates a bit better.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Possessed Reverend Small! By a malign will not her own. Something that wants its shoes back!’ Reading this line it is fun but nothing very special but Tom Baker relishes the dialogue and projects it with such gusto it becomes something very special indeed.
‘The wild gulls crashed and stirred against the stiff wind’ – more superb atmospherics from Magrs.
‘The Hornets and I are forming a foxtrot through time! A temporal tango! I am waltzing with the storm!’

Great Ideas: Miss Stott’s very strange adventure at the seaside beg
an when she was stung by a hornet. Mrs Wibbesey turns out to be a curator of Cromer curiosities! I thought they were just being cheap and using the same actresses to play several parts! I don’t know if I like the idea of handling a Denobian slime dollar. Mrs Stott attempts a surreal snatch and grab, sealing a pair of mummified feet wearing ballet shoes. Once wearing these shoes Ernestina gives the performance of a lifetime, her feet whirring and blurring like a hummingbirds wings and her feet leaving the floor for ten impossible minutes. These shoes are dancing to someone else’s tune. The shoes used to belong to Francesca, a dancer on the high wire from 100 years ago. Every curator for the last century has known the sting of the hornet and kept the Queen of the Hive safe in Francesca’s remains. They are coming after Ernestina and want her to be the new hostess for the hornets. The Doctor has a horrifying vertiginous sensation as he is shrunk and placed inside a Victorian dollhouse inside a glass case (what a wonderful idea!). It is a mad house with a silent tableau of dolls sitting to dinner and slowly coming to life. Hideous empty faces come to life and chase the Doctor and Ernestina around the dollhouse. There is a scene that would scare my Simon stupid; he is terrified of the glassy eyed stars of china dolls and this one with its benign mindless grin and black vacant eyes and teeming with insects! The swarm comes leaking from the baby’s dead eyes like black smoke, almost leisurely with their movements, playing with them. The hornets have learnt how to manipulate time itself with their songs, their unique and powerful harmonies. Once you have been bitten you are always under their control. They can dance old shoes to their death. How gross is the thought of the scratching of their legs in your mind. The shoes dancing on their own is a fabulous visual – especially the one jiggling in the Doctor’s pocket!

Audio Landscape: The seaside is such an evocative location all you need is the sound of screaming seagulls and waves lapping at the shoreline and you are there with the Doctor. The menagerie are still screaming and padding about in Nest Cottage. I love how well the series has built up the horror of the hornets so the second you hear one buzzing in your ears your heckles go up! There is applause after Ernestina’s concert and mutterings in the audience. There’s lots of banging and attempts to break into the attic. I screamed when I heard the old sonic screwdriver buzz!


Musical Cues: The music was much more apparent in this story than the first one, it is gloriously grand and toe tappingly good! The organ seaside music conjures up so many images for me. The really exciting stuff comes when the Doctor is chased around the creepiest dolls house ever!

Result: Another very strong entry in the Hornets Nest series, The Dead Shoes mixes matinee music and waltzing possession to disturbing effect. If you thought things were creepy in The Stuff of Nightmares wait until you get trapped inside the dollshouse of death! Paul Magrs conjures up the evocative seaside atmosphere and being a boy who lives by the sea I could imagine myself down that front, smelling the sea breeze, tucking into salt’n’vinegar chips and crunching my way across the pebbles. If the conclusion feels a little sudden the running storyline remains intriguing and the middle sections of this audio really are skin crawlingly good. More please: 8/10