Resistance written by Steve Lyons and directed by Lisa Bowerman

What’s it about: February 1944: France is occupied by the Third Reich, the French Gestapo has an iron grip and the native resistance attempts to overthrow the invaders. On one quiet winter's night, a British plane crashes to the ground, leaving a flying officer desperate to escape via the evasion lines. Separated from the TARDIS, Ben and Jamie, the Doctor and Polly find themselves with enemies on all sides. Trapped in one of the darkest times in history, Polly discovers that humanity can be just as dangerous as any threat from outer space. She resolves to make a difference - even if it means leaving the Doctor forever…

Long Lashes: What is Polly’s role? That’s a lovely place for Steve Lyons to start and explore her place within the TARDIS team. She tried her best to be useful and was happy to make the tea and mop the brows of the wounded but sometimes she wonders if she had ever made a difference. They always loved stepping into a new world but it could be a bit scary. Polly lost somebody during the Second World War, her Uncle Randolph. When she mentions that its so recent you have to remember suddenly that the opening years of Doctor Who were just two decades after the terrifying events of 1939-45. The horrors that Polly has seen, the nightmares she has lived through are so far beyond her scope that she had no defence. This time it wasn’t fighting monsters, this was her world and she had never been more scared. Polly knew what the future held for her Uncle and found it cruel that she had to be and watch it all unfold. She takes real umbrage to the Doctor’s suggestion that her Uncle might be a traitor. It’s lovely that Polly hears Ben’s voice in her mind when she needs some advice. Even though she knows it is wrong to do so Polly sticks to her Uncle and vows to find a way to change his fate. Polly doesn’t tell the Doctor her plans because she knows he will enforce that she cannot save him and spare her father the pain of losing his brother and that was the last thing she wanted to hear. Polly expected to feel different, like her childhood memories had been rewritten and her Uncle would now be a part of her life now he was saved. Polly has four brothers, one older and three younger. Had she not been there, had she never boarded the train then the spy would never have been exposed. She had down the right and she had made a difference. That was all she needed.

Oh My Giddy Aunt: Take of and never find out where they are – outrageous! I really liked the assertion that for all his impishness and slyness the Doctor is in fact very strong, physically manhandling Polly into a gorse bush when she is in danger. He has a brilliant mind but sometimes he needs help with the more practical side of things. In a very sweet scene the Doctor thanks Polly for being there when he most needed her, for making him the man he is today. He lets her know that he thinks she is extraordinarily resourceful and compassionate woman and that one day she will work out what it is she is supposed to do with her life and she will do it magnificently. He doesn’t want her to change the past, but change the future.

Able Seaman: Because of the closeness between the characters on screen it seems right somehow to have Anneke Wills putting on a cockney accent and bringing Ben to life. All false bravado and loyalty to his friends, its easy to like Ben Jackson.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘That’s the worst thing about this war. The way it tears families apart.’
‘There is no place for us now in my country.’

Great Ideas: The TARDIS had a knack in this period of materialising in awkward spots – in the path of a plane coming into land and now on a train line. I loved the Doctor’s assertion that that train would not smash the TARDIS to bits, more likely the other way around. It’s a lovely fresh way of telling a companion chronicle with two voices telling separate threads of the tale, one a companion that we know well and the other a stranger but whose adventures take on greater meaning as we realise this character means a lot to Polly. Suggesting the desperate measures people had to go to to appease the Nazi’s Jacqueline talks about turning herself in and killing herself to save her parents from the occupying force. In a great twist it transpires that the Pilot isn’t her Uncle after all but a Gestapo Officer who has taken on his identity to infiltrate and expose the resistance. Polly manages to expose him when he fails to name the correct family members. Jacqueline’s real name is Michelle – Michelle of the Resistance!

Audio Landscape: Aeroplanes gliding through the air, bullets clacking, propellers grinding around, the calmness of the air as the soldier parachutes to safety, foxes screaming, crunching in the gravel, booted footsteps, the screeching of the barn door, dropping a knife, hens pecking, escaping in a tatty old tractor, the train whistling and chugging away from the platform, there is a great shock moment when there is shot and Polly’s scream melts into the shrill whistle of the train.

Musical Cues: A minimalist score with moments of discordant piano, perfectly in tune with the uncomfortable atmosphere of the writing. Robertson writes in a cheeky little sting every time the Doctor starts improvising.

Standout Scene: The cliffhanger is inevitable, as soon as Polly mentions her Uncle lost in the war it is clear who the second storyline belongs to but that doesn’t stop this being a shock moment for Polly and leaving the audience wondering if she will try and save him in the second episode. Her decision to jump on the train is a character-defining scene and the confrontation between Polly and the Pilot is superbly directed.

Result: Steve Lyons always likes to subvert your expectations; he wrote a gripping historical for the dizzyingly camp season 24 and here he whips up a stifling historical for the monster laden Troughton era. It makes the most refreshing change of pace and shows how this sort of Hartnellesque drama could have worked a treat had they continued. It a coming of age story for Polly and takes us through a whirlwind of emotions with her, from trying to figure just what it is that she is good at in their adventuring to the aching need to save her Uncle who died during the war. She has never been so prominent or as interesting before and Anneke Wills imbues the philosophical material with some real emotion. It’s a dark piece and brilliantly structured, the first episode setting up the dilemmas and twists of the second and deserves a relisten when the revelations come to light. A strong character drama: 8/10

Buy it from Big Finish here: http://www.bigfinish.com/39-Doctor-Who-The-Companion-Chronicles-Resistance

The Prisoner’s Dilemma written by Simon Guerrier and directed by Lisa Bowerman

What’s it about: Two prisoners meet in a prison cell. Zara is searching for the segments of the Key to Time; she was only born yesterday but already she’s killed hundreds of people. Ace is more ambitious: she was going to kill everyone on the planet. What have they got against the people of Erratoon? They go peaceably about their simple assignments, beneath their artificial sky. They share their meals and leisure time and they never ask questions. Are they even real? Ace and Zara will only survive if they can trust each other. Or perhaps if they sell each other out... If not their awful punishment is to become just like everyone else.

Oh Wicked: I was very impressed by Sophie Aldred’s dramatic reading in this story, taking away Sylvester McCoy leaves her without her anchor from the main range and she works a treat on her own. If only the story had served her better… Tries to use the excuse that she is a girl for the guards not to treat her so roughly! She’s good at taking things apart, she’s a sort of demolition expert. She’s very trusting and you can get lost in Ace’s enthusiasm. I love that Ace can empathise with Zinc and Magda as kids seeing how far they can push their boundaries because she was exactly the same at their age. She remembers her mum bringing someone to a wedding and she had met him before, someone who was the same age as her. If she can’t believe that the Doctor knows best she wouldn’t be able to carry on. Magda talks to Ace like she is sorry because she knows the Doctor’s companion will never be one of the pretty ones, which really raise her hackles. Florana, The Eye of Orion and Cheldon Boniface are the three places Ace mentions where the Doctor takes them to lick their wounds between battles. She’s been all over the universe and there is always someone there to mutter ‘we don’t like strangers here.’ Ace thinks the Doctor has the saddest, deepest eyes, more memory behind them than she can even fathom, he’s kind and he listens. He smiles a smile you cannot read but there is something instinctive in Ace that recognises the Doctor, memory or not.

Tracer: If she had a name Ace might use it against her. A liar, a temptress and a killer. Her sister Amy is exactly the same, malleable. They are both artifical, constructs, flesh machines. Why were they created and why that weird flaw? Remembers the moment of being before not being and the sudden rush of information. Her tickly nose gets ticklier the nearer she gets to the segments. She is crossing a line if she takes her lead from herself. Zara has learnt to be jealous, Zinc is hers now

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘You can’t say no to logic! Its not logical!’
‘A good meal starts with hunger and the three of us are famished.’
‘The last couple who assembled the Key to Time ended up on the run with nothing to show for their trouble.’

Great Ideas: The whole of existence as a straight line with the Guardians at opposite ends. In them is what you think of as the universe. Every now and again one of the gets the advantage and the universe falls out of whack. The Grace have a gadget for putting things back to order, The Key to Time can put the universe to rights. Broken up and hidden as segments through time and space. The segment was the lake and when Zara stole it is became a hard body of mud. A time ring stolen from a museum and the Doctor, Benny and Ace are on the case, stolen by a couple of crooks from the Commune of the White Sun. Zinc and Magda turn up, fleece the locals and then disappear back into he vortex. They are testing the give of the timelines, seeing how much they can rewrite the timelines they already know, what’s possible, what damage can be done, stuff everyone who has time travel has to work out. On some worlds they save people and put people right. Maybe they could work and they could leave them too it. One of the great things about time travel is that you can spy on real events and find out what really went on instead of hearing about it second hand years later.

Audio Landscape: Alarm, lasers, rain, thunder, crowded streets, birdsong, the segment of the Key to Time transforming into the crystalline element, screams from the shore as the lake vanishes and the people die, a police siren, the hideous wail of the memory stealing device, the marching of the Constables, the rocket tearing into the sky.

Isn’t it Odd: Is that robotic voice director Lisa Bowerman? I would recognise that voice anywhere…even if it is distorted and deepened! I found the first episode hard to engage with because Zara is not a character I am familiar with. I’m sure once I have reached The Key to Time 2 series it will take on greater significance and I can understand why they seagued the main range and the companion chronicles together to create a deeper, more cohesive whole. The trouble is I go into this range with certain expectations and one of those is to be able to listen to the first person narration of a well-known Doctor Who companion (even Jago & Litefoot and King Peladon count as I am intimately associated with them) and unfortunately as well as she written for Zara doesn’t really count. The cliffhanger makes no sense because we have seen nothing in episode one to suggest that taking away Ace’s memories will mean the deaths of everybody on Erratoon. It just sounds like an idle threat to save her life. I have no doubt that the second episode will reveal what she is on about but if we spent every cliffhanger wondering what they are about and having the moment of peril explained afterwards I wonder if we would ever have any moments of tension!

Notes: Like a bank holiday back in Eastbourne – that’s the second time I have heard my town mentioned this week in Big Finish stories!

Result: I remember once an episode of the Outer Limits featuring Nicole de Boer and Robert Patrick which featured two POWs in a prison cell who develop a relationship and the drama climaxing on a devastating twist wherein Patrick reveals the whereabouts of their fleet and De Boer turns out to be the enemy all along. It was positively gripping, beautifully performed, claustrophobic and great drama. What is this fool getting at, I hear you ask? Well I expected something similar from The Prisoner’s Dilemma after reading the synopsis. It led me to believe that this would be a correspondingly stifling slice of character drama set inside one room and we would find out much about both characters in this range crossover. Audio seems ideally suited to this kind of two hander. Not a bit of it – instead I’m not even sure why writer Simon Guerrier bothered to bookend the story with the scenes between Ace and Zara in the cell because instead this story tells two equally unengaging stories revealing how they came to be in the cell in the first place. I know who Zara is now but I don’t think I understand her any more than I did before I started listening and I would hardly say she was a character who deserved this attention. Sophie Aldred proves quite a skilful narrator and this is set during her New Adventures period, which brings out the best in the actress but the story lacks tension and excitement. Its just sort of there. Perhaps they were better off keeping this series to four stories a season because the most inconsistent series of the companion chronicles strikes up another disappointment: 4/10

Buy it from Big Finish here: http://www.bigfinish.com/38-Doctor-Who-The-Companion-Chronicles-The-Prisoners-Dilemma

The Transit of Venus written by Jacqueline Rayner and directed by Nigel Fairs

What’s it about: The year is 1770, and daring explorer Captain James Cook and his crew on the Endeavour are navigating the Pacific Ocean. Into their midst come strangers: the Doctor and Ian Chesterton, who are believed to have come from Venus. But the TARDIS is lost to them - along with both Susan and Barbara - and Ian makes an enemy of the ship's chief scientist, Joseph Banks. Why is Banks acting strangely? Could it be that the travellers are not the only visitors from the stars?

Science Teacher: I so often forget what a debt we owe to Ian and Barbara in that first season of the show we adore. More than introducing us to the Doctor it is their journey that we invest most of our time in, they are our anchor as we set sail in the time ship dressed up as a police box and experience horrors and wonders in equal measure. William Russell is a fine actor and Ian maintains as strong a protagonist now as he was then and his turbulent but evolving relationship with the Doctor still one of the finest the show has developed. Jac Rayner taps into that rich vein of the unknown that permeates the first season as we lose Susan and Barbara and see Ian and the Doctor sailing the oceans with Captain Cook and grieving the loss of their friends and family. A scientist and something of a student of the stars. His life has not been an ordinary one, it was ordinary enough for the first few decades but then he met the Doctor. He couldn’t believe the TARDIS to start off with despite the evidence of his five senses. They encountered everything from aliens to Aztecs. Ian has such a cavalier attitude, standing in front of Barbara and telling her to get back to the ship whilst he holds them off. In his mumblings Ian has wished citizenship of the planet Venus on himself and the Doctor. The food on board the Endeavour makes Ian think back fondly on post war rationing! It’s quite a different experience in a storm lashed sea than it is in Coal Hill Municipal Pool! He hated Banks for giving him terrible nightmares more than he hated him for trying to kill him. Ian is reluctant to meet Captain Cook, meeting somebody so famous is like meeting a pop star of his time and he wanted to be careful not to alienate Cook after convincing him he is an alien. Ian always dreamed of visiting Australia but never imaged of doing under these circumstances. So much for Banks trying to meddle with history, it turns out that the meddler is Ian planting ideas in people’s heads for future historical events! Over the last few weeks Ian realised how much he had come to rely on Barbara’s calm guidance and how much he needed her to lead him back to the person he used to be. He needed her so much.

Hmm: Prone to be rather short tempered and vowed to dump Barbara and Ian at their next stop. He was an extremely stubborn man. He was neither a careless nor a wicked man but his curiosity had once almost led Ian, Susan and Barbara to their deaths. There’s an astonishing sequence when Ian walks in on the Doctor and he spots a tear glistening on his eye and they sit in silence and share their loss of Barbara and Susan. Ian had never seen the Doctor look so human. How long had he and Susan been travelling together? How many years had it been since they had been apart like this? Did he have any other family, any friends? Ian looked upon him as the person who dragged him away from his home, as the owner of a ship that took them from pace to place but he had rarely though of him as a person, someone with feelings as acute as his own. Ian has never seen such joy in the Doctor’s eyes than we he spotted Susan again but he hides it with his usual gruffness.

Simply Susan: Ian thinks Susan’s emotional behaviour had come from her recently discovered gift of telepathy. Experiencing the thoughts of others had had a considerable effect on her. She was told this empathy would not exist outside the Sense Sphere but a few remnants had been in evidence. She refused to leave until she saw the their friends settled.

Standout Performance: Astonishing that just a few seconds into this story listening to William Russell bring to life Ian Chesterton enchanting us with his nostalgic memories at the high seas during his travels with the Doctor brings the glorious atmosphere of the first season flooding back. His storytelling is masterful and he brings the script to life with a quiet passion. I can remember Ian Hallard quite vividly as Mr Mouse from Invaders of Mars and Sabian in Primeval and its great to see him playing against somebody as skilled as Russell. Together they make this an enchanting experience.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘A woman! A woman on board!’
‘Who knows what he might have gone on to discover if his passion had not been given a killing blow at such an impressionable age’ – Ian’s story of his pupil who could have cultivated his love of a scientific mystery is a small but powerful moment of character drama the likes of which Jac Rayner is superb at.
‘Sometimes, even today I get flashes of the horrors that haunted my mind in those days. Barbara sunk to the depths of the ocean suffering a sea change, her bones becoming corral, her sightless eyes turning into pearls and then her soul, released, would soar upwards breaching the surface becoming a bird, as an albatross, free and magnificent!’
‘What use is knowledge if there are no men to share it?’
‘I was on Captain Cook’s Endeavour and I was going to miss the discovery of Australia!’
‘That tall blue police box perched on a sandy ridge…then he started to grin again and he couldn’t stop.’
‘I have lots of stories, you know, more than you can ever imagine…’

Great Ideas: A transit is when one heavenly body moves across another, in this case Venus moving in front of the sun. A bit like a solar eclipse but Venus doesn’t completely obscure the sun. The TARDIS being heaved over the side of the sailing ship – what a glorious image that is – with Susan and Barbara trapped fathoms deep beneath the ocean! Having recently observed the Transit of Venus Captain Cook has recently left Tahiti. Banks is not whom he seems to be, quoting the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner despite the fact that Samuel Coleridge wont be born for another two years! ‘We would land on the coast of Australia in two months time’ – this is a time when Doctor Who stories could take place over vast periods of time, when landing in a period of history wasn’t just a jolly adventure but a way of life for as long as the travellers were there. Travelling along shores as snow capped mountains rose up to greet them – this really is an evocative tale. The rocky hand at Five Point Fingers waving at Ian as they depart! The man who is to recommend that prisoners be transported to Botany Bay is Joseph Banks…after Ian has put the idea into his head! Imagine the TARDIS filling with seawater, Barbara treading the water in the console room. Susan has maintained a measure of the telepathic powers she discovered, transmitting Barbara’s words to Banks and possibly a degree of paranoia to Ian.

Audio Landscape: The opening TARDIS doors, the winds of the high seas, the commotion amongst the sailors that Barbara causes, the creaking decks of the ship, albatrosses whirling in the air, shooting it down, Banks scratching at his parchment, Ian being manhandled overboard and hitting the surface of the sea with a splash, dolphins diving in and out of the water, the ship listing to one side, seagulls screaming on the shore.

Musical Cues: An eerie whistling music as the Doctor steps into the light and reveals his presence on the ship. There’s a mesmerising moment when both Ian and Banks start singing Botany Bay in harmony and we realise with horror that once again the mysterious passenger is predicting the future.

Standout Scene: As a long supporter of the obvious chemistry between Ian and Barbara (and since satisfied with the novel The Eleventh Tiger which brought their feelings to light and Death to the Doctor in the Sarah Jane series mentioning that they are married) the moment he realises how much he needs her and then as if by a miracle she is waving at him from the shore – I had goosebumps all over. What a remarkable scene.

Notes: Susan tells Ian stories about the planet Quinnis. Was the story in preparation at this point? What with both Relative Dimension and The Transit of Venus mentioning the planet you can’t say that the Marc Platt penned story didn’t have adequate advertising!

Result: For fans of the Hartnell era of which I am a massive aficionado it doesn’t get much more authentic than this. Returning us to the dangers of the unknown and the remarkable characterisation of the regulars in the first season, Jac Rayner has written a powerful and involving script that gives Ian the rare chance to stand centre stage. There’s a pleasing amount of history thrown in and after listening I looked a little more into the voyages of Captain Cook and Joseph Bank’s debt to botany – I love it when Doctor Who piques my interest in times past enough to get me to read up about it. Nigel Fairs directs the story delicately, never letting the terrific atmosphere of the piece pull us away from the central relationship between the Doctor and Ian and the mystery surrounding Banks and the answers when they come prove satisfying and build the characters. A superb snapshot of the past written with care and performed beautifully, Transit of Venus restores my faith in this range and then some: 10/10

Buy it from Big Finish here: http://www.bigfinish.com/37-Doctor-Who-The-Companion-Chronicles-The-Transit-of-Venus

The Darkening Eye written by Stewart Sheargold and directed by Ken Bentley

What’s it about: While investigating a debris-littered battlefield in deep space, the TARDIS crew are salvaged by an ancient race of collectors known as Dar Traders. Separated from the Doctor after an accident, Adric, Tegan and Nyssa find themselves at the mercy of the Traders’ curiosity. But the Traders have salvaged a cabinet from the battle that could be very dangerous indeed. What does the suave assassin, Damasin Hyde, know of the cabinet? And why is everybody so interested in the missing Time Lord? To find the Doctor, the TARDIS crew will have to enter a violent inter-planetary war. Where someone will die, and it will change everything

Alien Orphan: This is a great chance to see what Nyssa got up to when she left the Doctor, caring for the Lazars patients and trying to will them to live. Sometimes if she thinks about the destruction of Traken for too long she thinks she will go mad. Everything and everyone she loves was wiped out in as quick of an action as it would take to strike a match. Despite the beliefs of her people, Nyssa knows there are some evils that must be faced. The Doctor showed Nyssa wonderful and terrible things. She always gets a strange feeling when the TARDIS dematerialises and often feels demoralised at the loss of life that occurs on their travels. It was time for Nyssa to leave the Doctor, she had to. There is something in the idea of exploring the point between life and death that struck a harmony in Nyssa, a beautiful marriage of the scientific and the spiritual. Death is attracted to her. Does she rely too much on the Doctor? It hurts Nyssa more than she can say to think that there is a man out the with her fathers face causing what pain he can to others. How could she destroy the one thing she has left of her father? Nice to see Nyssa staring Tegan down when she starts complaining. Nyssa’s heart stops for three minutes but the Trader brings her back. She has natural defences in death. There are those who can lay claim to a perfect innocence, like Nyssa. Nyssa believes that she survived the Lazars disease because of what she went through with the Dar Traders.

An English Gentleman: Leaps into danger with a cavalier recklessness. Always in the wrong place at the right time…or is that vice versa? The Doctor always survives but every time there is a possibility that he wont.

Trashy Tegan: One thing this story demonstrates is that given the correct material the three very different companions in season nineteen could stimulate some real drama, a conflict of ideologies. Unfortunately the other thing that it shows off it reveals is that that is impossible given their extreme personalities. Sarah Sutton gets Tegan’s shrillness and Adric’s bossiness perfect but unfortunately when it comes to something as morally ambiguous as an peoples opinions of death you need far more realistic or at least toned down characters to bring it to life. I am very pleased that Sarah Sutton chose to represent Tegan as a strident individual and not try and conjure up an embarrassing Australian accent. She has a vein of sarcasm that makes the Doctor tense up.

Spoilt Brat: The most celebratory cliffhanger of all time – Adric is stabbed with a sharp dagger and crumples to the ground! Imagine the collective cheer that rang when people first listened to this release! Gah saved by an unfortunate quirk of biology…if only someone could have whispered in the guy’s ear that the Alzarian heart was on the other side of the chest! I’m glad to see Adric portrayed authentically as a bossy know it all, just how he was in season nineteen. Sounds truculent and is used to being told off! ‘Just because you don’t understand their culture, it doesn’t make them evil!’ – even with Sutton (excellently) playing the role I still want to strangle the condescending little rat. Death follows Adric closely (waiting for him…).

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘We must trade…’

Great Ideas: Nyssa once went beyond death. Dar traders eating the dead of other races? The Traders vessel’s walls are covered with the dead, eyeless faces staring out as you walk through the corridors. They wish to see the threshold of death but be able to come back into the corporeal universe afterwards. The collect death but they cannot become it but they study it as an art and an experience. They could possibly build up immunity to every disease going. Their machine is made of dwarf star alloy, a very dense metal which is known to help travel between dimensions. The perfect assassin – a man who cannot be killed. The threshold is absolutely, perfectly silent, a place between both realms.

Audio Landscape: Heart monitor, oxygen mask, the console room sounds like a large, echoing space, the hissy voices of the Traders, the door portal materialising, a planet in autumn – crows whirling in the sky, leaves hushing in the wind, the assassins gun a blast of light and a terrible, terrible crack, stones crumbling, leaves whirling.

Isn’t it Odd: What a shame to write the Doctor out of the story so quickly, I would have loved to have seen the enjoyable chemistry between him and Nyssa brought to life by Sutton. The Doctor is talking about blowing a whole in the universe and unleashing death on a catastrophic scale…so why does it all sound so boring? ‘The spear was removed from Adric’s throat!’ – oh what a shame. Having listened to the story I would have much preferred to hear a tale about Nyssa coping with the problems with Lazars disease but I can take some small comfort that her adventures post-Terminus will be picked up in a later date.

Standout Scene: Adric’s near death experience, obviously!

Result: What with the Great Space Elevator, Empathy Games and now The Darkening Eye all being less than stellar efforts I am starting to wonder if the companion chronicles might have run out of steam in their third season. The script teeters on the edge of something interesting but never quite has the guts to explore its moribund theme through its characters, instead pushing on through some pretty lifeless set pieces. Sarah Sutton is an extremely underrated performer, she is by far my favourite regular of the Davison era and it disappoints me to see that although Stewart Sheargold has given her some development the tone of the piece is cold and dreary, precisely the sort of feelings people usually unfairly associate with Nyssa. Ken Bentley’s direction is nowhere near at its best here either with no dramatic moments beyond the cliffhanger and a general lack of atmosphere. Lacking clarity and cohesiveness, this is one memory Nyssa was better left forgetting: 4/10

Buy it from Big Finish here: http://www.bigfinish.com/36-Doctor-Who-The-Companion-Chronicles-The-Darkening-Eye

The Year of the Pig written by Matthew Sweet and directed by Gary Russell

What’s it about: Ostend, 1913. War is coming. A war in which millions will die. And the guest in suite 139 of the Hotel Palace Thermae knows it. Which is odd, considering he has trotters, a snout and a lovely curly tail. Toby the Sapient Pig is a swine on the run. Two peculiar strangers have been hunting him across Europe. The first, Miss Alice Bultitude, is an Englishwoman and collector of obscure theatrical ephemera. The second, Inspector Alphonse Chardalot, is a celebrated member of the detective police - the man who brought the trunk murderess of St Germain to justice. This was supposed to be a reading week for the Doctor and Peri. Now they must do battle with a villain who wants to wipe every last human from the face of the earth - once he's had just another dish of truffles. And maybe a valedictory glass of fizzy lemonade.

Softer Six: Its interesting that the two stories that feature scripts with such a gargantuan amounts of complicated language (this and …ish) also feature both the sixth Doctor (who is perfectly suited to this sort of verbose verisimilitude) and Peri (who isn’t but actually fits into the style quite snugly). There’s a lovely relaxed chemistry between the Doctor and Peri, which is a joy to listen to, their battle dictionary definitions and laugh gently at each other. As Nurse Albertine looks through her telescope she sees a man on the beach in a deckchair with a pile of books but he’s hardly dressed for the beach – spats, the colour of a poison bottle, yellow trousers striped and eating a piece of battenburg that matches the colour of his waistcoat! His first incarnation was more of the Francophile but after that his last three incarnations have hardly been great bibliomaniacs – the third being more interested in axel grease and looking in the mirror. His previous incarnation preferred cricket and fizzy lemonade to reading unless it was a Boys Own yarn! He feels lucky to have finally found himself with a persona with sufficient sensitivity to appreciate Proust and the patience to understand that it takes a holiday to read him. Not so dozy after all! His nom de garre is not familiar because he works a little further afield (Varos, you know). The Doctor’s new nickname is ‘Battenburg’ which suits him rather well, I think. The Doctor rushes to the aid of a drowning man, puffing away as he cuts through the ocean like a big blond cormorant! The Doctor almost has an apoplectic fit when he spots Marcel Proust having dinner in the same dining room and accosts him (‘Oi! Marcel! I’ve got a bone to pick with you!’). How embarrassing that he grabbed him by the shoulders and breathed port fumes up his nose! The Doctor doesn’t do retiring, even when he tries to take time out something always happens. He used to be a younger, happier man but then he changed. He and Peri enjoy making life difficult for tyrants, bullies, ne’er do wells and anthropomorphic slugs. Nurse Albertine recognises the Doctor because he crashes through an awning and she’s told that is exactly the sort of thing he does! You’ve got to love how the Doctor pre-empts his inelegant act with a fire extinguisher. The Doctor’s French maid impression leaves quite a bit to be desired. Trust the porky sixth Doctor to be diverted by the sight of Tunnock’s teacakes during a fraught moment!

Busty Babe: Peri read Proust in her gap year, proof if it was needed that not only Time Lords could appreciate its subtleties. She wants to send a postcard to Herbert Wells. She once spent an afternoon being turned into a Parakeet! Peri scoffs at the idea of her and the Doctor being married and says that they are friends – sometimes. She’s’ been with him for a couple of years, she thinks but she has lost track. She never finished her course in botany. She’s not waving her panties in the air for anyone!

Standout Performance: What an extraordinary cast featuring a wealth of Doctor Who actors, old and new. You’ve former Doctor Who companion Vicki, Maureen O’Brien who dashes it up and what-ho’s away as the peck-at-your-sanity Miss Alice Bultitude. Then there’s Martha Jones’ mother Francine in the irreplaceable form of Adjoa Andoh who I have seen in a variety of equally strong roles and gets her lips around some gorgeous dialogue here as Nurse Albertine. Michael Keating will be more familiar to Blakes’ 7 fans as the coward with a heart Vila but he also turned up in the Robert Holmes classic The Sun Makers and played a part in the slightly less successful The Twilight Kingdom for Big Finish. His turn as the identity morphing Chardalot with the spectacular vernacular was a right hoot!

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘You have just saved the life of Inspector Alphonse Chardalot, the cutpurses and the pash of Paris will be obliged to celebrate some other day!’
‘I do adore the flickers!’
‘Our Inspector is as fishy as a Grimsby herring lugger! Fishier!’
‘Do we keep them prisoner or eat the evidence?’
‘What a marvellous telescope! The people down there all look like ants!’ ‘You’re pointing at the balustrade, Miss Bultitude. They are ants…’
‘How extraordinary! The beach is covered in raw steak. Some of it still moving.’
‘Have you ever wondered how a ham feels just before the gong goes for Sunday lunch?’ ‘To die! To eat! To eat! Perchance to lunch!’
‘Touch my chocolate biscuits and I’ll fillet you!’ – who hasn’t been there?
‘There’s a cow on the track!’
‘He’ll eat anything…it doesn’t even touch the sides on the way down!’ – my mum says something similar about me!
‘What were his parents like? Were they pigs?’ ‘They looked like him, yes. He always says that in Essex that doesn’t matter so much!’
‘Whoops…I’m still leaking.’

Great Ideas: I was howling with laughter as the Doctor prostrates before a stuffed rhesus macaque suggesting it could be an alien ambassador silenced by their bad manners (‘Welcome to the planet Earth, your Excellency!’). They’re all here on this side of the channel, plausible bigamists, the more successful sort of poisoner, unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort! Toby the Sapient Pig, the celebrated stage performer! Toby on what he can see in the future: ‘I see death, I see blood, razors, barbed wire, cruelty, torture, rats, poison gas, boys dead in the mud with photographs of their mothers and sweethearts stowed next to their silenced hearts, I se the blasted earth, I see the carcases of horses half submerged in the slimy feculence, I see women weeping over fields of whitewashed graves, I see war. War and revolution!’ Chardalot is on the trial of an extraordinarily dangerous individual, pursuing him for 20 years, he’s devious and vicious and the master criminal of our time. Toby’s mother was fine 700 pound fancy Devonshire and his father was portly Essex half-black. The heavens open and it starts raining cows! Chardalot turns out to be Toby’s father! Toby is an alien from the planet Gamantus. Chardalot has left a number of not too elaborate traps for the Doctor; giving their names to the gendarme so they will be brought to police if they follow them to the train station, a fun sized volatiser balanced on Albertine’s door, a few razor blades slipped into the apples on the Doctor’s fruit bowl and a time bomb clamped to the petrol tank of Toby’s car, primed to explode when the engine reaches a certain temperature. When it explodes the impact will be felt in time and space, you will be blown into the middle of next week! The explosion in the field threw the cows scattered thirty miles back towards the Channel and four hours back in time – the twitching beef they saw land on the beach! There were many failures but Charlie and Toby took. Chardalot was a time traveller and died years ago and the Inspector took his identity. The TARDIS: ‘a multi dimensional travel capsule for surfing the loops of the time spiral!’ Toby and Charlie have pieced together the evidence and they’ve got it all wrong, truffled through the personal effects of the man who made them and playacting with them ever since. Their creator came here from another world and did something extraordinary; he brought two boys into the world.

Audio Landscape: The sea rolling and folding in the distance, seagulls screaming in the air, the Doctor snoring in his deck chair, the dining room experience, cows mooing as they fall from the sky, steam filling the room, a bleeping bookmark, the grinding engine of a motor car, whistling steam train, clackety clack on the tracks, the car goes up with some force, birdsong, heart monitor.

Musical Cues: Andy Hardwick always provides memorable music and this tinkly piano, madness about the town score gives this (at times) painfully slow story some real bounce!

Standout Scene: I loved the explanation for the cows raining over the beach! The finale that sees two brothers finding themselves once again is beautifully poignant. Notes: The Trial of a Time Lord theme is in place, probably to suggest the more amiable relationship between the Doctor and Peri. Lets set this just before The Mysterious Planet. Ooh Toby and his nurse consider Eastbourne or Brighton as next possible destinations – I love it when my hometown gets some recognition!

Result: Not the best story to listen to whilst you are trying to diet! I have never been gormandised with such a nectarous display of culinary exquisiteness! Immaculately performed and sumptuously written, The Year of the Pig will appeal greatly to consumers of the English language as you get to gorge yourself on the loquaciousness of this piece. For those of you who enjoy a brisk narrative and lots of action will be left feeling extremely short changed. I’m trapped somewhere in the middle, I couldn’t help but enjoy the verbal luxuriousness of the piece and the quality of the incredible guest cast but at a whopping 145 minutes I couldn’t help but wonder every now and again when the story would get moving. As a Doctor Who story shaped into a comedy of manners Matthew Sweet’s unforgettable debut perfects the genre and there are many amusing moments of nonsense. An impressive piece of erudite theatre and an intriguingly experimental piece that ends on an optimistic note Gary Russell’s turn as producer of Big Finish: 8/10

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

No Man’s Land written by Martin Day and directed by John Ainsworth

What’s it about: It is 1917 and the Doctor, Hex and Ace find themselves in a military hospital in northern France. But the terrifying, relentless brutality of the Great War that wages only a few miles away is the least of their concerns. The travellers become metaphysical detectives when the Doctor receives orders to investigate a murder. A murder that has yet to be committed... Who will be the victim? Who will be the murderer? What is the real purpose of the Hate Room? Can the Doctor solve the mystery before the simmering hate and anger at Charnage hospital erupts in to a frenzy of violence

The Real McCoy: When the Doctor is knocked unconscious he uses it as an excuse to catch up some rest from time to time. When asked if he thinks there aren’t Germans out there conditioning their men in the same way he responds he can only deal with what’s in front of him and what he sees is wrong. He’s faced more firing squads than brook has had lukewarm dinners and he is only too familiar with the process. Call him suspicious but he always likes to have more than one way out of a room. I love the Doctor’s maniacal laughter as they escape on the motorbike.

Oh Wicked: It’s been a long time since Ace was called a lady! Ace and Hex suggest they work together and have no secrets, I think they forget that they are travelling with the million and one secrets under his hat seventh Doctor. I really like Ace’s pragmatism in the face of Hex’s grumbling – the First World War would happen whether they are here to experience it or not. Its interesting that Ace has taken on so much of the Doctor’s role for Hex, explaining the dangers of letting slip something that they know about future events (I guess she really learnt from her CD walkman faux pas during Colditz). She always thinks people are spying on them. She’s strong; she knows her own mind and the toughest of the army wouldn’t want to cross her. Ace steps in when Wood starts bullying Dudgeon you realise how far she has come – she was laying into Tim in Colditz for selling out to the Germans and here she stands up for somebody even though they may have acting cowardly because it is the right thing to do. Feeling as though you have let the men down because you are the only one to come back from a battle is the stupidest thing Ace has ever heard. Ace trying to be sexy outside Wood’s door is pretty lame. She bumped into her mother and brother once or twice on her travels and she figures having being travelling with the Doctor for so long she should miss them but the Doctor and Hex will do for now.

Sexy Scouse: Hex is perfect for these sorts of stories where the lad is forced to confront medical horrors that he cannot cope with. Philip Olivier always gives a superb performance but he manages to push Hex to the limit when he cannot cope with what he is experiencing. Wartime stories such as The Settling, No Man’s Land and The Angel of Scutari see his character at his best. He’s trouble, admits he is a coward and nobody knows why he is working for the army. Hex is forced to endure images of women and children being murdered whilst he gets some very nasty electric shocks to develop with a tongue depressor shoved in his mouth to develop his hate for the enemy. He screams that he is not on anyone’s side, which labels him a coward. It’s a very raw form of torture that is hard to listen to. With one dose of therapy from the Hate Room and he’s itching for a fight, getting irritable with Ace and deliberately winding her up about her fancy man. The Doctor doesn’t know what the effect on his exposure to the Hate Room would have on him. He doesn’t know what happened to his mum, his dad never talked about it although he did keep a photo.

Standout Performance: Rob Dixon is always thrown into roles where he is an unthinking bully – he was similarly terrifying in Project Twilight as Reggie and Sergeant Wood’s brainwashed violence follows suit. Michael Cochrane is the big name on the cover and he’s hypnotically frightening as Brooke, losing control in his ability to fire up the hate of the British soldiers. His admission that he is making it up as he goes along is really uncomfortable, testing men’s psyches to see which ones break and which ones hold up.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘I suppose politeness can cover a multitude a multitude of sins.’
‘Imagine fighting your way through the War to end all Wars only to find out that in twenty years part two kicks off?’
‘Each German death brings us one step closer to finishing this business off!’
‘Could anyone look down at a sleeping baby, cover its mouth and nose with its hands and watch it wriggle until it was cold and dead?’
‘Compassion isn’t a weakness! It’s a strength!’
‘A human life is not a resource!’

Great Ideas: Whilst more lives were lost in the Second World War and it was all played out on a larger scale I felt more frightened for our heroes when I realised they had landed in the first world war – for some reason I find it is depicted far less glamorously and more violently with dirtier, more primitive and more terrifying weaponry. Four years and eight million people killed in the most brutal of ways. What sort of hospital keeps the doors locked? One that doesn’t know which side you are on. The Daily Hate – the Lieutenant-Colonel likes to remind the men of who the enemy are to keep them focussed, listening to phonographic recordings of racist propaganda and gets them to fire blank rounds on dummies wearing enemy uniforms – that’s terrifyingly xenophobic. The Doctor, Hex and Ace have been sent by Her Majesty’s Army to investigate a crime that hasn’t happened yet, a murder. The Doctor and Ace have rat nailed to the door of their room. The urge to find safety is very strong during wartime. Wood turns out to be the murder victim, stabbed several times; the first aimed with precision and punctured the heart and then stabbing wildly. The orders they received to investigate the murder weren’t a time anomaly but a cry for help, written on Private Taylor’s typewriter. A soldier without a moral compass to guide him is one of the most frightening things in the world. They start with the medical records, probe each soldier until they find their doubts and fears and then exploit those fears and change the way they think, making them stronger at a terrible cost. The power to manipulate minds has the most awful consequences, pushing them to breaking point. There never were any Germans in the church; Wood’s men turned their weapons on each other. Brooke was working for the Forge, not for the Army.

Audio Landscape: An unforgettable opening of screams of ‘Diediedie!’ whilst somebody is shot to pieces, wartime music on a scratchy gramophone, crackling fire, people laughing, chatting and coughing in the foreground of dialogue scenes, marching soldiers perfectly in time, playing cards, birdsong, trees swaying, ticking clock, screams and murders of English women and children as they are murdered by the Germans, church bells, bashing at the typewriter, rain smacking into the forest, a bi plane breaking through the clouds, gas bombs, squeaky door, breaking a window, escaping on a motorcycle, dogs barking, wind whistling through the cracks in the building, church bells, the grinding car engine.

Musical Cues: Simon Robinson’s bare and strident, inharmonious score would probably feel out of place in any other story but its discordant sterility really matches the uncomfortable material. He chooses some very recognisable wartime music to having playing the background. There’s a very oddly placed beat boxing sounding theme that plays between scenes.

Isn’t it Odd: The first cliffhanger is oddly placed, rather than closing on Taylor’s sleepwalking attack I would have found it far more disturbing to end on Hex’s psychological and physical torture. After opening with a gripping, in your face first episode the second episode quietens down a little too much as soldiers reminisce – I would have liked that dangerous edge to have been maintained throughout the whole story. The third episode sees Ace and Hex walking into a trap of gas bombs and bullets but the story fails to make anything of this – there was a similar trap laid for Ace in Colditz and it was subject of an almighty will she or wont she die cliffhanger. After the brilliant first cliffhanger its a shame that nothing is made of Hex's treatment - it would have been very nice to have seen him trying to cope with murderous impulses.

Standout Scene: It takes a long while to get there but when the men finally shoot Brooke and go rogue you are suddenly thinking ‘oh shit’ because they are psychologically unstable and have no authorative structure to keep them in check anymore. As they blow the crap out of each other you realise this is the consequence of pushing the mental boundaries of soldiers.

Notes: The final revelation that Brooke was working for the Forge might not mean anything to Hex now but both the organisation and his mother who he discusses here would come back to haunt him in Project: Destiny.

Result: No Man’s Land contains many elements that are very good but it doesn’t quite come together as it should. The first episode is very good indeed and drags you kicking and screaming into the psychological horrors of the First World War but then the story runs on the spot for two episodes with only the murder of a particularly unlikable character enlivening things. The last episode takes another upswing in quality with an unexpected revelation about the massacre in the church and the truth behind Brooke’s terrifying mental improvisation coming to light. I remember an episode of the New Avengers that dealt with this sort of mental conditioning in war with far more aplomb, creating an independent army of psychotic soldiers through a rogue commander and as much as this piece tries to stick to its guns and make the situation as realistic as possible I felt it could do with a little bit of that melodrama to spice it up a bit. The performances are extremely strong and Sylvester McCoy and Michael Cochrane butt heads with real style but I did find the music and sound effects a little scarce in places. Interesting but only intermittently required listening: 6/10

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

Memory Lane written by Eddie Robson and directed by Gary Russell

What’s it about: No summer can ever quite be as glorious as the ones you remember from when you were young, when a sunny afternoon seemed to last forever and all there was to do was ride your bike, eat ice-lollies and play with Lego. Tom Braudy is enjoying just such an afternoon when the TARDIS lands in his Nan's living room and interrupts her in the middle of the snooker. After they've apologised, the Doctor and his friends soon discover matters of far greater concern than the fact that their time machine is blocking Mrs Braudy's view of a thrilling century break. The street which Tom happily cycles up and down appears to have no beginning or end, and every single house on it is identical. Is this the future of suburbia, or something even more sinister? Why doesn't Tom look as young as he behaves? And can anybody remember which house the TARDIS is in?

Breathless Romantic: Much like the opening to Carnival of Monsters where the third Doctor’s piloting ability is questioned by Jo (he thinks they are in the Acteon Galaxy whereas its clear to her that they have landed on Earth on a sailing ship…when it fact they are in the Acteon Galaxy inside the Miniscope!), Charley and C’rizz jibe at the Doctor’s flying skills at trying to reach Lucentra but landing on a regular Earthy street. I was happy to see the Doctor say I told you so when he is proven right! The Doctor wants a Sky Ray Rocket Lolly! He laughs outrageously at the terrible joke on the lolly stick and it reminded me that we haven’t heard the eighth Doctor laugh like that in the main range for a long time. The Doctor finds it morally wrong to have your self-awareness taken away. He has to take time travel requests on a case-by-case basis. He refuses to simply free Tom because he cannot be known for making unauthorised prison breaks! The Doctor finally gets to meet Lady Louisa Pollard in a roundabout sort of way and he is very pleased to do so. The Doctor goes round and round in his nightmare of losing the TARDIS and cannot fathom how many times he has been through it.

Edwardian Adventuress: Roast pork and all the trimmings is her favourite. For a while you think this is going to be another Something Inside and Charley would be forgotten in all the plot mechanics (just visualise her trapped between words on a page screaming ‘I don have a character!’) and then her mother phones her from within the scenario! It comes entirely out of nowhere and reminds you that this woman has left a family behind on Earth! Suddenly Charley is talking in a childish voice and lives on the street that they live in and she rushes off home to her mother! The faster you get somewhere the more time you have to have fun when you get there! She’s been making a model of the R-101 with Tom! When Charley wakes up she suddenly realises she is in her childhood home and states that every time she sees her mother these days it is always an illusion. Nice one Charley – the Doctor tells C’rizz not to mention to Kim that the TARDIS is a time machine because he will want her to take him back and in bumbles Ms Pollard: ‘Oh Doctor I just told Kim that the TARDIS is a time machine! Have I put my foot in it again? Doh!’ Charley is thinking again, conjuring up the plan to make the prison take on her memories and if she doesn’t struggled they will be able to escape far easier – even the Doctor is impressed! Charley creates a composite setting, her childhood but without the war hanging over her (the 1920’s in the peaceful 1910’s!). Other girls are quite capable of having fun quietly and not falling off things but not our Charley! It’s a very revealing story for the eighth Doctor as he is trapped within a cell at the end of episode three which takes you to a place where you are most happy and he is back in the TARDIS being congratulated by Charley and C’rizz for foiling the latest dictators scheme in some devilishly brilliant way! Gets all excited when she is given the choice by her mother of where to go on holiday and she starts spitting out trekking through a jungle, walking along the Great Wall of China and Egypt! She stills her fake mother it was super to see her and she hopes it isn’t too long before she sees her again.

Chameleonic Rogue: C’rizz lacks explanations because he won’t understand the cultural references. He orders Kim to let go of her gun or he will break her wrist and given his activities in previous stories you jolly well believe him! C’rizz knows he is rude and he doesn’t care – just because somebody is real he doesn’t have to like them. I rather enjoyed Crizz’s chemistry with Kim, its not even love/hate its pure hate/hate and yet they still have to work together. All the time they spend together he is absorbing her personality like a sponge and he’ll have to carry her around inside him forever. If the prison tries to get inside C’rizz’s head it will get quite a shock with all the victims inside his head waiting to pounce. It tries to worm its way inside and please all of his desires but it didn’t quite bet on having so many desires to please.

Standout Performance: Loved Nina Baden-Semper’s accent – I have a friend who sounds very similar and I could listen to that heavy Jamaican accent all day! It’s fantastic to have Anneke Wills back as Lady Louisa Pollard, a lovely touch of continuity in one of Charley’s last stories with the eighth Doctor.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘The TARDIS has been stolen…by an ice cream man!’ – surely one of the weirdest cliffhangers for a while to top of a tasty episode full of mysteries.
‘Until some alien cracks the pod open and munches me down like some Pepperami!’
‘I suppose you’d call that cell division!’

Great Ideas: Sometimes it feels as though Eddie Robson has been rummaging around in my head and brought out lots of elements of my childhood – I loved custard creams and Blur Ribbond’s – and I was always fobbed off with fish fingers and chips! A little boy playing with his models and riding his bike tuning into a station that sees him grown up and in panic stricken life or death situation. A street that goes on and on. Materialising the TARDIS in a living room and unfazing Mrs Braudy but when they returning she thinks she has never seen them and the TARDIS isn’t there. The same person lives in every house, opening the door and claiming to have never met them. Loading the TARDIS in the ice cream van and stealing it! Kim tried to warp jump her ship out of here and ended up in Mrs Braudy’s attic by mistake! The whole street is a prison cell and Kim has been trying to broadcast messages into the TVs of black box footage showing a Marmadon (foul creatures that live in deep space) killing one of the crew. The crew went into cryogenic sleep for a mission to Jupiter and there was a system failiure, the ship drifted off course but they didn’t wake up. More than 100 years later the Marmadon broke in to loot the place and then they woke up. They got back to Earth 227 years after they left, after being considered long dead. Imagine going back to Earth 200 years after you left – everybody you know is dead, technology has moved on in leaps and bounds…how would you adjust to that? Prisons on Lucentra where the prisoner doesn’t know he’s a prisoner, he regressing to safe happy time in his life so that he’s docile. Mrs Braudy is shot on the kill setting and just gets up and carries on – Kim admits she has shot her several times out of frustration in the past couple of weeks! The Doctor and Charley once spent a day placing bets on dinosaur fights – I would love for that to be part of a story! Not satisfied with turning peoples memories into a prison they then violate those memories and turn them against people.

Audio Landscape: An ice cream van that immediately brings back memories of running out of the door on summer afternoons trying to grab the change from me mother, snooker on the TV which reminded me of late night sleepovers at my nans who loved watching the dullest sport on Earth after midnight (!!!) – a very reminiscent first scene! Making the tea, the buzzing of the Mr Whippy maker, sucking on their lollies, the ship screaming into orbit and approaching the Earth, ray gun, the space shuttle crashing into the house, rubble falling, a lovely scratchy old gramophone, delicious summery birdsong as the Doctor leaves the TARDIS (its divine), the ice cream van jingle in the TARDIS, the cloister bell, Morvik’s insane voice, the TARDIS freefalling and the Doctor screaming as she does so, the voices inside C’rizz’s head breaking free.

Musical Cues: The music bubbles along accentuating the mystery of the story in the first episode – it sounds strikingly like the music in the new series episode Fear Her which is ironic considering the similarity in the stories setting.

Isn’t it Odd: Here I go, comparing stories again – if you’re bored of me doing this then skip this section. In its most basic form Something Inside and Memory Lane are both exactly the same story – the Doctor and co trying to escape from a prison. Except one story works up a clever mystery, juxtaposing anachronistic elements and whipping up an air of tension and fantastic imagery before even revealing it is set in a prison and the other tells you in the first scene it is set in a prison and the plot doesn’t progress much further than that. You try and figure out which is which. There’s a wonderful concept thrown up in this episode to do with C’rizz about him absorbing the personalities of the people he meets – what an awesome idea and this could have been explored in some very funny and dramatic ways. What a shame he’s leaving in the next story, this is a case of too little, too late.

Standout Scene: My favourite moment in this story came towards the climax in a story where I thought C’rizz wouldn’t be given the same superb treatment as the Doctor and Charley and then Eddie Robson goes and does something very clever with the voices in his head that doesn’t involve him killing somebody again.

Notes: I always feel that this story is the equivalent of Frontios for the eighth Doctor main range stories – one last gasp of greatness before the subsequent adventures write out each of the regulars. The parallels don’t end there because with the 5th Doctor, Tegan and Turlough and the 8th Doctor Charley and C’rizz you have in both cases a potentially great Doctor that has had a few moments of greatness but has overall been underwritten and handled badly, a hanger on character who simply will not go away and has started to become more than a little irritating and a male companion where they have tried to do something a bit different and failed miserably. A brilliant cover, a spaceman holding out an ice cream with the Doctor reflected into his visor and the moon dominating the skyline! Mention is made of the Phobos mission which would be followed up by Eddie Robson in the eighth Doctor and Lucie adventures. Charley’s mother tells her she can go to the kitchen and have Edith make her a jam sandwich which is a lovely touch of continuity back to The Chimes of Midnight.

Result: Welcome to Big Finish Eddie Robson! Any writer who can take the bottom of the barrel combination of the eighth Doctor, Charley and C’rizz and whip up a brew this intoxicating gets my vote! His handling of both the Doctor and Charley are masterful and C’rizz is not far behind and all three get their best material in an age. The first two episodes are exceptional, building up a great mystery with lots of quirky moments and having some very satisfying answers when they come. The latter half of the story doesn’t quite have the same sense of magic but it still manages to conjure up some great surprises and gives us some rare insight into the most vacuous of regulars. The whole piece is superbly directed by Gary Russell who handles the atmosphere of the piece very cleanly and not leaving the audience behind for a moment. A quick mention for David Darlington’s superb score and sound design – this guy has done a lot for Big Finish audios over the years and his name rarely gets a mention. Memory Lane gets the range back on track after The Gathering sunk to new depths and provides an entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable ride. Lets have Robson back for more: 8/10

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