Torchwood One: Nightmares: My Guest Tonight

(Yvonne, Tommy and Ianto)

What a start to this boxset, all I can say is a f**king stunning story

10/10

The Daleks made doctor who what it is. I seriously do not think we would have any doctor who today if it wasn't for the Daleks. It's a fun story, Ian in the Dalek case will never not be funny to me. Such a good intro to the biggest DW Villain

Torchwood One: Nightmares: Lola

(Yvonne, Tommy and Ianto)

I enjoyed this so much

9/10

Wasn't bad but doesn't really add anything like I had been hoping

Torchwood One:Nightmares: Less Majesty

(Yvonne, Tommy and Ianto)

This was a brilliant story, all the dark humour

10/10

Was so confused, Seriously I thought I put the wrong episode on with how little is explained, the plot makes no sense and maybe It was the site I was using but sound quality was terrible!

Torchwood One: I Hate Mondays: Dinner With Yvonne

(Yvonne, Tommy and Ianto)

This story didn't give me much to work with, damn shame

5/10

Torchwood One: I Hate Mondays: By Royal Appointment

(Yvonne, Tommy and Ianto)

This was not interesting

2/10

Torchwood One: I Hate Mondays: Nerves

(Yvonne, Tommy and Ianto)

And this ended with a whimper

2/10

The Eaters Of Light is a really good version of a somewhat underrated 12 episode by the wonderful Rona Munro (I’ve always loved Survival and its novel), it’s a pretty straightforward story of a hungry creature from another dimension escaping a gate during a battle between Romans and essentially Picts in second century Scotland, it must be herded back in and the gate must be sealed for good. But Rona does have a lovely way with her prose, she especially likes describing the community of birds in the air, and she takes every opportunity to expand our understanding of both the surviving Roman legionnaires and the surviving Picts, the characters are very fleshed out here. It also emphasizes for me just how much I love the 12th Doctor, he’s outwardly one of the most intense and severe but inwardly one of the sweetest and cuddliest, he’s done very well here, as are Bill and Nardole. Love this TARDIS team so much, I’d love further novels from this series, Oxygen would be amazing, I think we’d all love Steven to do World Enough And Time. I read this one more slowly than some of the others, it’s nicely written. 4/5

Such a fun audio story! Was really excited to see Leela and River have an adventure together. I feel Louise and Alex bounce off each other so well! a bit disappointed we didn't get to see Romana in this since River was using her name, but still had a good time. Story was fun, I could see the plot twist of the twins pretty early on but still enjoyed the journey. The ending was a gut punch too I did not except more tragedy for the girls. Would def recommend to any River or Leela fans

Really loved this one. had to contain my laughter while at work multiple times when I listen to this. Really great emotions in this one too.

While The Zygon Invasion kind of feels like it mostly exists to get us to the real juicy bits of The Zygon Inversion, both parts are essential in enjoying what is good about this story.  And there is a lot of good here.  After their big return in Day of the Doctor, the Zygons get a proper story focused solely on them.  I love how The Zygon Invasion really explores the consequences of Day of the Doctor.  It gets a little bogged down in the reveal around Clara here - you expect twists like that in a story all about shape-shifters so it's never going to come across as all that significant, but it is in the service of a thoughtful story that's only going to get better in its second part.

What an absolute mess this has made.  I was quite enjoying Season Two, at least up until a certain point.  We were having some very fun episodes, the mystery around Belinda was intriguing enough without ever getting too intrusive, and I was ready to optimistically hope for something a little more thoughtful in a finale with The Reality War after The Empire of Death was such a disappointment last season.

Sadly, though, in a lot of ways The Reality War isn't much better.  I'm hesitant to join in with the chorus of people decrying this as the worst finale ever.  That simply isn't true.  It has some very thoughtful, interesting, and intriguing moments.  That part where only Ruby can remember Poppy was genuinely haunting.  It left me thinking a lot about loss, grief, and the nature of memories.  There's something very interesting and cool in a story desperately trying to break out.  The moments with Jodie's return and Ncuti's regeneration were great - bittersweet in that both moments kind of feel like they represent missed opportunities for both of these Doctors, but entertaining moments just the same.

I can't defend the frankly embarrassing way the Rani and Omega were handled.  Even setting aside all the precedent and weight of the franchise imposing some reasonable degree of expectation on some level of quality control on these characters - if you had never heard of any of these stories before this would still be a tremendously disappointing take on any kind of villain.  Omega looks like a terrible CGI monster, is barely in the story, and brushes away Rani's character like the pointless distraction she always was this season.

It sucks.  As much as I can see the potential of the Reality War, as much as I feel this might be the best depiction of the 13th Doctor to date, and as much as I weirdly think the Conrad content was thoughtful and kind of well-written here - none of these things can make up for The Reality War stumbling on even the most basic beats of its own plot.  It's embarrassing, and could very well be what kills modern Who for good.  I don't want that to happen, but gosh is it hard to generate enthusiasm for this franchise when it puts out content like this.

Cold Equations is another of the more impressive Companion Chronicles.

I really like the story behind Oliver and connected with it. That his "big secret" is kind of mundane and a nothing burger to both the Doctor and Steven amuses me to no end, but is also touching. It leaves me wishing there was more of an arc and story to Oliver, I'm not sure if there is space for more of him, but perhaps it is best he is remembered for cool stories like this.

Oliver alone wouldn't be enough for a 10 score, though. He and his story were really nice, but everything else is largely working for this audio, too. I love the SFX and music in Cold Equations. It expertly sets up this sense of unfeeling tension - appropriate for space. The setting feels relevant to our modern world - where many scavengers have to carefully navigate Earth orbit around a large field of space junk. There's a good sense of tension here, the spirit of the First Doctor era is captured, yet a modern story is told through that lens the original series would have never been allowed to do. Plus, Steven actually gets to show off his intelligence and origins as a more futuristic companion. Peter Purves is absolutely remarkable as the narrator and the Doctor, giving a remarkably thoughtful performance.

What I find most artful about Cold Equations is how writer Simon Guerrier was able to specifically model the arc around Oliver around an actual film from the time of the First Doctor dealing with gay rights. It's a rather brilliant execution, if you ask me, and I dare say this audio is somewhat underrated.

“There’s this emperor, and he asks the shepherd’s boy how many seconds in eternity. And the shepherd’s boy says, ‘There’s this mountain of pure diamond. It takes an hour to climb it and an hour to go around it, and every hundred years a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on the diamond mountain. And when the entire mountain is chiseled away, the first second of eternity will have passed.’ You may think that’s a hell of a long time. Personally, I think that’s a hell of a bird.”

This is most definitely in contention for my favorite two-parter. Not only does it introduce us to River Song (one of my favorite characters) but we also have an atmospheric and wildly creative monster in the Vashta Nerada. Donna and the Doctor are instantly on alert, investigating and subsequently wary of the archeological crew. Once again, Donna goes to show her endless empathy with Evangelista. Things begin to get sinister after that, including some poignant creepy imagery such as the concept of “ghosting”. The simultaneous plot of CAL is purposely confusing but makes all the more sense as things ramp up. A real great first part.

One of the rare second halves that manages to be as good if not better than its preceding episode. The action adjacent sequences of escaping the Vashta Nerada are wonderfully balanced out by the mystery surrounding Donna. And the relationship that gets tactfully built between River and the Doctor is masterful, making Song’s death all the more impactful. So many excellent touching moments and genuinely intense scenes, you can’t help but love it.

Fun episode with androids in a medieval setting and shenanigans with body doubles

It starts off pretty cool but I think it ultimately gets boring by the end.

Honestly the plot and characters are pretty weak but I have to give them points for probably the best giant monster encounter in the classic series thus far

So peak. Canon precursor to Dalek.

Better than the last one at least. But still not anything special

So??? They realised the mirrors were dangerous, put them all in the castle but left the castle door unlocked???????? Sure whatever

This episode really always will hold a special place in my heart. Say all you want about pacing or bad cgi -- this episode is beautiful. It handles Yaz's feelings for the Doctor so gently and respectfully. I will always wish they gave us a thasmin kiss, but I understand it didn't make sense for the Doctor's characterization.

I also really think it gave the Sea Devils such justice. And I can't wait to see where it goes with the new Unit spin off!

And omg Zheng Yi Sao!!! Madam Ching is my FAV female pirate and they did her so well.

I'm going to keep this short the moonbase might be a simple base under siege story but it's THE base under siege story. the plot is simple, so what makes it a great story is really how the characters get along and the mystery of what's going on that's why i feel the final two parts are the weakest because after part 2 it just becomes a tenth planet clone ben and Polly get to do something at the cost of Jamie being tossed aside for most of the story 2 gets some great moments it's not his usual act of silly lines he is much more calm which seems to be what Patrick went for when he played 2 in season 4. though it's not the strongest cyberman story of this era it's still worth a watch if you have the time