It’s funny how, as fans, we tend to label stories in our heads. Often these labels rear their heads in online discussions where people defend or attack various stories based, not on a considered opinion of what’s under discussion, but on gut feelings, half-remembered scenes and our emotional reaction to the story. Very often, this isn’t fair to the story and if fans took a step back a lot of arguments online could probably be avoided.

I’d labelled The Roof of the World as ‘dull and frustrating’ in my head. I remembered it as a story where not a lot happened and it’s ‘monster’ was ill-defined – almost obtusely.

As I’ve found time and again during this marathon (so much so, you think I’d have learned by now), returning to stories I’ve mentally dismissed often yields happier experiences than I expect. The Roof the World is another of these.

The Doctor, Peri and Erimem pitch up in Tibet in 1917 and head off for a cricket match. It’s the height of the Raj and I’m not sure we meet a single native as the guest cast is populated by British gentry, journalists and dead Pharaohs. It feels a universe removed from the 1917 we left Indiana Jones surviving. The Great War seems a distant event which is having no impact on the lives of these explorers and their desire to conquer the mountains of Tibet. After a few months absorbing the horrors of the First World War, it’s seems very odd – almost disrespectful – to stop here for a spot of cricket.

The cricket, though, is soon forgotten as a dark cloud descends on the hotel where everyone is staying. The cloud seems alive, kills people and seems to have a strange relationship with Erimem. The end of episode 1 cliffhanger leads into an unusual episode 2 which finds us solely in the company of Erimem – supposedly dead. This episode allows Davison and Bryant, in particular, to flex their acting muscles. Erimem is presented with situations where the Doctor and Peri taunt her, scold her, die in horrible ways and generally push her towards accepting the deal the entity in the cloud wants her to take.

The start of episode 3 reveals that all of episode 2 has occured in the few moments of the episode 1 cliffhanger and we find ourselves back in the midst of the action with the Doctor trying to ascertain what the cloud is and what it wants.

It transpires that the cloud is a manifestation of the Old Ones. Back on my first listen this was an aspect which frustrated me. The background of the Old Ones is never really explored or explained and it’s odd that Adrian Riglesford, the writer (yes, that Adrian Riglesford of the notorious factual error-ridden books from the 90s and The Dark Dimension), doesn’t tie them in with the Great Old Ones which have, for quite a few years, been established and developed in the Doctor Who expanded universe (The Great Intelligence, the Animus, Fenric etc, and tying them in with each other as well as with HP Lovecraft’s writings). These Old Ones, what we are told of them, seem to have a very similar modus operandi and it makes for an odd feeling of them not being the same, whilst being very similar. I imagine for those not steeped in Who lore, particularly that explored in the New and Missing Adventures, that this isn’t a problem but it seems odd for Riglesford – who was an active Doctor Who writer in the 90s – to not even hint at a connection with his creation. That said, TARDIS wiki, links this story in with all the other ‘Great Old Ones’ as there’s nothing particularly contradictory about making these the same.

The Doctor and Peri go on a mission to rescue Erimem with the aid of General Bruce, an explorer, and his personal assistant/correspondent John Matthews (played by Big Finish favourite and alumni of Young Sherlock Holmes, Alan Cox). Matthews makes a good addition to the team and has some great interplay with Peri. There’s also the almost traditional 5th Doctor trope of showing the locals the inside of the TARDIS. All this gives the last couple of episodes some fun scenes and despite my recollections from my first listen, I found myself rather enjoying it.

Historically, as I say, this is a weird one because it feels so removed from the events in Europe so far depicted in Young Indiana Jones and the smattering of Doctor Who stories such as The Weeping Angel of Mons and The Great War. It’s a far gentler visit to this period of Earth history and gives an odd perspective that not everywhere in the world was consumed by the ‘world war’. There is a reference to Bruce receiving permission to travel through war zones but that is about it.

The Roof of the World isn’t as bad as I remember it. It isn’t going to be a Big Finish classic but there’s strong stuff for the regulars to do and the guest cast integrate well. The ‘monster’ is a little frustrating but overall this works well on building a bit of Erimem’s background (although it does rely, again, on the oft used trope in this era of audios where the possibility of Erimem leaving happens almost every story).

Things make a lot more sense when you realise this was written by Jim Mortimore, who also wrote BF's 'The Natural History of Fear'. A lot of it is just... atmosphere. Nightmare vibes. Complex questions are presented, pushed around and not really answered, the setup makes less and less sense as more is revealed, and I'm not sure any of the characters really learned much of anything. Mixed metaphors, the book. A lot of the discussion is based around life and death, responsibility, and parents and children. The paternity/maternity bit was, for me, used interestingly to explore Sam and the Doctor's relationship. 

Well, the more I think about the book the less I like it as a story, but, as I said, vibes. I liked the vibes.

Sam was a whole character for most of the book, until she's possessed once more, and it's revealed she had actually been used by the aliens even before that. But in the beginning of the book, probably up until she gets the first telepathic message, it was all Sam acting on her feelings. 

Sam and the Doctor's first conversation in the TARDIS beach already starts setting up the question: does Sam want children? She's always tried to act more mature, capable, wiser than her age, and now she really is an adult; it makes sense for this idea to start popping up. She's still a very young adult though, in the threshold between fully mature (which in her mind is connected to being responsible for another's - a child's - life) and being a child herself. She wants maturity, respect, but is scared of responsibility. She wants to be done with child Sam, Sam who needs rescuing and protecting, but she does need rescuing and protecting a lot of the time. Obviously, the Doctor is her opposite: he has the age, the wisdom, the capability. He can handle the responsibility (we know this, Sam knows this), even though she sees him as irresponsible. He acts like a child on purpose ('a rich kid with too much money and no common sense, abandoned by irresponsible parents to amuse himself at the expense of the local townsfolk'), but he is, for all intents and purposes, her dad: the one responsible for her, the one who will come to her rescue, the one that will fix things for her. She knows he often sees her like that, like a child he's taking care of, raising, even, and resents him for it, because he's not her dad. 

Their relationship ping pongs between so many things between these books. They are friends, she had a massive crush on him, but it's now a platonic love with a smudge of 'if he ever wants to, I'm game'; he's her father-figure, her tutor, showing her the Universe so she can grow up and learn. She wants to be on a more equal footing, more like a team of two adults, and he does play along a lot. However, it can come off as patronizing, and it just makes her, immaturely, lash out like a kid. Their messiness is what makes these companion relationships interesting. All that being said, though, it does feel out of place, like it should have happened before. People say she’s acting too much like a teenager again in this book, but I don’t think we saw her as a grown up much after ‘Seeing I’ anyway. However, yes, I do believe this type of story would have worked better if it was right after 'Seeing I', or 'Placebo Effect'. Maybe even before the ‘Lost Sam’ arc? Not sure.

Sam has even more going on, though. She meets Saketh, a guy that can’t die and can make you also not die if you participate in a literal perversion of the Holy Supper (‘eat of my flesh and drink of my blood’). She also meets Delani, who’s a priest for a death worshiping cult. The question of choice and the role of religion is brought up a lot, along with the role of religion in shaping people’s choices and beliefs. So we end up with this theme: when you accept responsibility for someone, you are held accountable for the choices you make for them; what right do you have to decide if they should live or die based on your own beliefs? This comes to life quite clearly in Sam's nightmare where she runs over a child, who dies because her father, a Witness, does not allow for a blood transfusion. When Saketh offers her eternal life and his power, she’s terrified: it’s the ultimate position of responsibility for another’s life. She can save everyone if she accepts, but it will take away their right to choose. Sam herself fights the whole time for her right to choose, it’s one of her defining traits (one of the few, thanks to the way she’s characterized in these books). In the end, she accepts the power, and uses it to its max. This is when I get a bit lost: at what point do the nanites, the alien source of Saketh’s power, take over? How does that undermine her choice? 

The Doctor is turned up to 11 in this book. Literally, actually: he is acting a lot like Eleven at his ditziest, most manic. Flanderized, really, like Bugs Bunny or something. Not that Eight isn't flighty, he is, but he's usually more contained, a lot more refined, more logical, less of a babbler for the sake of babbling. He is entertaining, I’ll give you that, but the Doctor in a situation where millions of people will be saved if he can get to the TARDIS will make his point very clearly and seriously to get people to help him. Why on Earth did he let that nurse sedate him??? Looney Tunes Doctor was a weird choice, given the mavity of the situation the Bel system is in, another case of “Our Star is being Weird”. 

Like Sam, he’s faced with the morality of choice in the form of his right to interfere with alien affairs. Should he decide for these alien races what the right thing to do is? Again, there are billions of lives at stake, including the life of the baby planet thing and of the ancient Hoth. To explain the situation to him, the aliens (the Hoth, I think? This was a bit confusing) send him a telepathic dream as well. In the dream, he’s pregnant (wowzers), gets a C-section (wowzers) and the baby is put in an incubator that is a star. This scene altered my brain chemistry. He says ‘love you’ to the baby??? He wakes up completely disoriented asking where his baby is? Holy crap. Anyway, people are dying by the billions in this book because the sun is an incubator for a gigantic alien planet baby. It's a 'Kill the Moon' scenario, except it's the sun, and there are a lot more factors to consider. 

At this point in the story he’s calmed down a lot from his Looney Tunes antics in the first part of the book, which I appreciated. He just wants to get Sam and get the hell out. Sam’s corrupted by the nanites, “saving” (infecting) everyone she comes across. They talk, the Doctor and this Sam-shaped vessel for the nanites. He decides in the end to not interfere, to let the nanites try to do their plan: let the baby planet be born, use the gravity stabilizers he built to stabilize the star afterwards. There’s just too many races with their own reasons and rights for him to be able to push them to any decision that isn’t unilateral, and really, physically, there’s nothing he can do anyway. He just asks for Sam back; she is, after all, his base responsibility. If he can save only one person, it has to be her. The ending (how did they get to the TARDIS, I wonder?) is quite ambiguous. He’s moody, Sam’s not sure if she’s back to being herself or not. A lot of people died, but not everyone, and that’s that.

Structurally, this book is a mess. Characters teleport from place to place, there are way too many planets (if I might add, it's impossible for 23 planets in the same star system to be in the habitable zone). But I was engaged from start to finish. The dream sequences were fantastic, and the moral questions were compelling. Sam, while maybe acting too young for her 21-22 years, got some emotional development. It’s one of those stories where the Doctor doesn’t really “win”, because there is not an easy solution. In the end, I did like it. It was trippy in the way Doctor Who can’t afford to be on TV, and that’s why I’m on this ride.

I'm really glad this story exists.

That doesn't mean I liked it - I found it interminably tedious - but the great strength of Doctor Who is the range of ideas it can cope with. Year of the Pig is certainly a novel approach to telling a story.

Unfortunately, it really didn't work for me. There's a lot of irrelevant details, and while I usually like a good dollop of worldbuilding, the first part is 76 minutes long. I had to stop and restart several times as I kept losing focus or falling asleep.

The plot is paper-thin - there's probably more sentences describing food orders than there are progressing the plot - and the central premise is simply to fantastical to keep me interested.

I really hope it finds an audience. But sadly, it's not me.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Grand Betelgeuse Hotel

If there's one thing that this set of short stories has been, it's consistent. This one is just as unremarkable and uninteresting as the last two. The only thing going for this was the ending that tied together all the stories.

Next Story: A Life of Crime

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Come Die With Me

Not much better than the last one. Short stories feel like they should be a place for the writers to showcase really interesting ideas that just can't be dragged out into a full story. This one doesn't really have an interesting idea, it just feels like a waste of time which is quite possibly the most damning thing you can call a short story.

Next Story: Dead to the World

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: You Are The Doctor

I don't even remember what happened in this one and I listened to it yesterday. A really unremarkable short story

Next Story: The Grand Betelgeuse Hotel

This was a fun one. Raine is an unexpected addition, but the the team with her 7, and Ace is great to see in short story form. The idea of a massive sci-fi video game replicating what it's like to hack computers is a novel one. I only wish we'd actually met the villain.

A very strong return for the Vasta Narada, somehow they just *work* in the deep dark depths of space. I think the very ending turns to camera and gives a little too much exposition, but up until that point I was impressed at how fluid and visual a story this was.

MR 077: Other Lives

A comedy of errors (and fetishes) as the Doctor and friends get up to some hilarious hijinks! Well, more like get caught up pretending to be other people.

They go to the grand Crystal Palace exhibition, a huge international exhibition of technology in London in the mid 1800s. The three get separated through a series of hijinks. They told C'Rizz to stay in the TARDIS, but he didn't. Charley meets the Duke of Wellington. And The Doctor gets caught up in an assassination plot against the French ambassador. An assassin tries to shoot the French ambassador and his wife outside the TARDIS, the Doctor pulls them in then goes back out himself, and then the French ambassador and his wife accidentally take off in the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor there without his ship.

The story doesn't really go into detail about where they went. I think they were supposed to have just time traveled directly to the ending, but that's not as fun. Where's the French ambassador and his wife spin off series where they go to a pink planet or something?

C'Rizz naively follows a man named Mr. Crackles who... proceeds to kidnap him, turn him into a slave, put him in chains, forces him to strip naked, and then puts him in a thong. So, you know, super fetishy. He runs a freak show and C'Rizz will be the star attraction. No, not that kind of freak show! The kind where you put people who look weird in cages and point and laugh at them. What did you think I meant?

Meanwhile Charley wanders around on her own and gets mistaken for a prostitute. Yet again, another fetishy thing. The man who thinks she's a prostitute is named Rufus Dimplesqueeze. No I'm not making that up. She ends up sleeping on a doorstep at night and then goes to the Duke of Wellington's house after they shared a nice moment in the Crystal Palace exhibition the previous day.

Might as well do another fetishy thing with the Doctor, although this one isn't so much. The Doctor gets mistaken for another man named Edward who has been traveling for a year. His wife tries to get the Doctor to believe he is Edward right up until the point where she realizes that he couldn't be Edward. Her husband needs spectacles to read the newspaper whereas the Doctor does not.

All three of these characters just exist in these plot cul-de-sacs for awhile. There's not really much of a point to the story here, just allowing the characters to exist and see how they react to living these other lives, hence the name. It's nice. Charley hangs out with the high and mighty, the Doctor has a nice time in a high class house, and C'Rizz gets to see the worst of Victorian London. Seems like he got the short end of the stick here to be honest.

Their plots finally coincide when Charley notices C'Rizz on the freakshow advertisement posters and she has the Duke go rescue him. They then need to impersonate the French ambassador and his wife because everyone is going to think they've disappeared. Which will spark a French revolution in the UK maybe? Kind of a bad look for Charley to be fighting against democracy and upholding the monarchy, but sure. It's not really the main point. The main point is that we get more hijinks as Charley and C'Rizz try to impersonate the French couple, but don't do a very good job of it.

The Doctor then has to impersonate Edward to please his doppleganger's uncle who is none other than Rufus Dimplesqueeze???!!!?!?!?! Yes, we get a nice little "I'm actually him, trust me, lol" scene where they convince Dimplesqueeze that the Doctor is Edward because his wife will lose the house if Dimplesqueeze is not convinced. Yes, I just like typing the name Dimplesqueeze.

The Doctor then sees that the French ambassador and his wife are back in the newspaper, but it's actually Charley and C'Rizz impersonating them at the Crystal Palace. He thinks this means the TARDIS has come back, so he heads off. Only to find that coincidentally the TARDIS has just arrived here at this exact time, fast traveling to the finale with the French ambassador and his wife none the wiser. The end.

The interesting thing here is when C'Rizz is freed, he goes back and cripples and blinds his slave master. He could have killed him and the voices in his head told him to do it, but he didn't. I guess being unable to walk and blind in the Victorian era is punishment enough. Fate worse than death probably.

And that's about it. It's pretty much just fluff, but enjoyable fluff. Except for C'Rizz who has a horrible time. I just don't have that much to say about it. Very cute story.

I'm gonna go ahead and say it: Option Lock is mid. There are definitely worse entries in this series, but this book struggles with many of the same issues.

The most notable one for me is the lack of focus on the Doctor and Sam. There are many moments in this book where I felt like the author wanted to be writing literally anything but a Doctor Who novel, which is a shame, because their stronger moments are what save this book from a lower rating and weeks of frustrated reading for me. While Pickering was an interesting and well-rounded character, and Sargent had his moments, I felt that most of the side characters were fairly one-note - not to mention that there are far too many of them.

Another recurring issue in this series that this novel struggled with is the pacing. This book spends so much time describing the minutea of the American political and defense system, the way every little thing about launching missiles works. It strikes me as a very odd choice to feature and name a president of the United States in a British sci-fi novel. It's possible that I just don't enjoy war stories (which I don't), but the way tense and initially fast-paced moments ground to a halt to explain things really grated on me.

Then there are other, more minor things. Aside from Vampire Science and maybe Genocide, this series has a bad track record with its treatment of women, and this book is no different. It also relies on the secret society controlling the world, a pretty well know anti-Semitic trope, made worse by the imagery of the Khameirians. It just left a veneer of bad taste over the entire book that I couldn't quite ignore.

That's not to say it's all bad; I already mentioned that I liked Pickering, and his and Sam's relationship is really wonderful. There's also more of Sam and the Doctor interacting the way I like, and the Doctor's terrible driving is a highlight. The concept of the Khameirians is interesting, if a little underdeveloped.

Then there's the stuff that's neither here nor there. The writing is pretty solid; some of the descriptions are vivid, but some are a little sparse and left me confused. Other than the military stuff and the first quarter of the book, the pacing actually wasn't too bad. The epilogue is good, though I know it's unlikely to matter.

At the end of the day, I think this book just isn't really for me. I understand why it's generally considered one of the better books in this series.

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“THE HELLWOOD INHERITANCE: GHOST SAFARI GONE WRONG”

The Hellwood Inheritance takes a classic ghost story and fuses it with a Jurassic Park-style premise, throwing the Doctor and Leela into a spooky safari park where the ghosts are all too real. A young earl returns to his inherited estate, joined by his stepmother, to transform the mansion into a tourist attraction featuring supposedly harmless spectral illusions. But the Doctor soon discovers that the park's ghost machine isn’t just a trick – it’s creating apparitions by pulling real souls from the past, in a process that involves actual deaths.

The setup is eerie and atmospheric, fitting the Doctor Who era of Seasons 14 and 15 well, but the slow build-up lessens the impact. While the concept of ghosts created through past executions is chilling, the danger feels muted for much of the first half. The ghosts appear sporadically, yet the tension never quite escalates into true horror.

TIME TRAVEL, TREACHERY, AND WITCHES

The second half shakes things up as the Doctor is transported back to the 16th century, meeting the first Earl of Hellwood and the infamous Dark Mistress, a feared witch of legend. Meanwhile, Leela remains in the present, battling the ghostly forces and holding her own against Lady Ellwood, who is revealed to be scheming for control of the operation. The narrative deepens with the revelation that the ghosts aren't just echoes of the past – they’re direct victims of the machine's grim process.

Despite the strong premise, some of the performances fall flat. Tom Baker, while still a commanding presence, occasionally sounds less natural than usual, and both Edgar and Lady Ellwood lack the energy needed to fully sell their roles. The tension in key scenes, such as the Doctor and Leela’s initial encounter with the ghosts, is undercut by performances that don’t quite match the dramatic weight of the story. Even the grand reveal of Bonaparte Baptiste and Stone as the villains feels predictable, largely because Baptiste’s name alone screams “bad guy” from the start.

📝VERDICT: 5/10

A story with an inventive concept, The Hellwood Inheritance combines historical horror with sci-fi intrigue but struggles with pacing and performance. The ghost machine’s twisted mechanics provide a morbidly fascinating mystery, but the execution (pun intended) doesn’t always land as effectively as it should. The eerie setting and the Doctor’s time-traveling detour keep things engaging, but a lack of urgency in the performances weakens the overall impact. A solid idea, but not quite a haunting classic.

this has NO GAMEPLAY

you wait. to click a button. and it says. do you want to spend money. and then when you click the button. it says. do you want to spend money. and then there's a pop up. and it says . do you want to spend money.

occasionally there's some attempt at telling a story but the fact is that these stories have no momentum because you can spend days trying to complete an objective. an objective which can only be achieved by 1. waiting or 2. spending money. I don't get this.

This game inspires in me such apathy that I don't even care about insanely exciting prospects like Star Trek crossovers and Shalka Doctor's first mainline appearance in millennia. It's just simply that poor.

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“THE LAST OF THE KALEDS: A DIPLOMATIC CRISIS WITH A TWISTED DALEK EXPERIMENT”

The third Susan’s War box set kicks off with The Last of the Kaleds, a tense and complex tale that sees Susan, the War Doctor, and Cardinal Rasmus travel to Kaledon. There, they encounter the supposed last survivors of the Kaled race—now a peaceful and sophisticated society—who have drawn the attention of the Time Lords. But beneath the surface of their utopia lurks a dark secret, one that threatens to upend everything.

A MISSION OF DIPLOMACY AND DECEPTION

The story sets up an intriguing premise: the Kaleds of Kaledon have not only survived but have seemingly built a thriving, civilised world, free of war and violence. Adding to the strangeness is the presence of benevolent, weaponless Dalek decoys—an unsettling image for both the Doctor and Susan, given their history. From the outset, The Last of the Kaleds is very much Susan’s story, allowing her to take the lead in diplomatic negotiations while the War Doctor operates in the background, keeping a wary eye on proceedings. Their contrasting approaches—Susan’s idealism versus the War Doctor’s hardened pragmatism—add a strong emotional undercurrent to the plot, particularly as tensions rise between them and Rasmus.

As the trio infiltrates Kaledon’s hidden depths, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems. The society’s apparent harmony masks an iron-fisted rule under the Duke, a man whose paranoia and ambition threaten to drag his world into the Time War. But the real twist comes in the revelation that the Duke and the enigmatic Mechanic are one and the same—a split personality, with a Kaled and a Dalek consciousness battling for control in the same body. This duality makes the Duke one of the most fascinating antagonists in Susan’s War, a tragic figure reminiscent of Two-Face, caught between his warring selves.

POWER STRUGGLES AND POLITICAL INTRIGUE

The story thrives on political manoeuvring and betrayal. The Duke’s paranoia and desperation to secure Kaledon’s future lead him to consider an alliance with the Time Lords—only to ultimately turn on them in a bid to strengthen his people’s position, even if it means throwing them headfirst into the war. His manipulation at the hands of the Mechanic, who exploits his insecurity, is a well-executed arc, culminating in the inevitable disaster when the decoy Daleks are weaponised against both Time Lords and pure Daleks alike.

Opposing him is the sidelined but more just Countess, who seeks to prevent Kaledon’s descent into chaos. Her dynamic with the Duke adds an emotional layer to the conflict—there’s an unspoken tension between them, as he clearly harbours feelings for her even as he imprisons her and undermines her authority. She’s also one of the most enjoyable characters, confident and composed, with a hidden ace up her sleeve: an army of robot nuns. Unfortunately, she’s pushed to the sidelines in the latter half of the story, which is a shame given her potential. But at least we get a brief, satisfying sequence of her robotic warriors effortlessly cutting through Daleks.

SUSAN STANDS HER GROUND

Susan shines in this story, and Carole Ann Ford delivers a commanding performance, highlighting her character’s evolution. She’s no longer the wide-eyed girl who once fled Gallifrey with her grandfather—this Susan is shrewd, fearless, and willing to stand her ground, even against the War Doctor. Her final confrontation with the Duke is a standout moment, as she taunts him to buy time for the Doctor to sabotage the Daleks. Her scathing remark about how this Dalek/Kaled hybrid is no better than the original Daleks drives home the central theme of the story: no matter how much they try to break free, the Kaleds are forever haunted by their past.

Jonathon Carley continues to impress as the War Doctor, balancing weary cynicism with flashes of the moral fire that still burns within him. His uneasy relationship with Susan adds an extra layer of tension, especially as they clash over strategy and ethics. Meanwhile, Rasmus remains the ever-pragmatic Time Lord, a figure whose methods constantly teeter on the edge of acceptability.

A BITTERSWEET RESOLUTION

One of the story’s strengths is its commitment to fully exploring the aftermath of the conflict. Too often, Doctor Who stories wrap up moments after the climactic battle, but The Last of the Kaleds takes its time to depict the fallout. Kaledon’s fate is neither triumphant nor catastrophic; instead, it’s a bittersweet conclusion that underscores the cost of war and the impossible choices forced upon those caught in its path.

📝VERDICT: 8/10

A strong opening to the third Susan’s War box set, The Last of the Kaleds delivers an engaging mix of diplomacy, deception, and tragedy. Susan takes centre stage, proving herself a formidable force in her own right, while the War Doctor’s presence adds weight to the proceedings. The Duke’s dual identity is a fantastic twist, and the political drama keeps the stakes high.

The sidelining of the Countess is a minor drawback, but the story compensates with a gripping finale and a satisfying exploration of its themes. With excellent performances across the board and a compelling resolution, this is a solid addition to the Time War saga.

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! 

“CASTAWAYS: A TIMEY-WIMEY MYSTERY WITH A GHOSTLY TWIST”

Big Finish’s The Death and Life of River Song returns for a second volume, this time pairing River with two of the Doctor’s most iconic companions: Ace and Tegan. The box set kicks off with Castaways, a story that plunges the trio into a Victorian mystery laced with spectral apparitions, memory loss, and time-twisting intrigue.

A MYSTERIOUS REUNION IN VICTORIAN LONDON

Ace and Tegan find themselves stranded in 19th-century London, investigating eerie hauntings along the railway lines being dug for the Underground. They don’t remember how they got there or why, only that something strange is happening. Enter River Song, an enigmatic figure they don’t recognise—but who knows them all too well.

From the get-go, River exudes her signature femme fatale sass, making a grand entrance by stealing a highly advanced spaceship originally meant for a corrupt royal family—because why not? She’s less interested in the ghostly apparitions themselves and more in the puzzle of why Ace and Tegan are even here. While she takes a more direct problem-solving approach, Ace and Tegan handle the investigative work, each following separate threads before eventually converging.

What makes this premise particularly engaging is the timey-wimeyness of it all. River appears in Victorian London seemingly knowing the score, while Ace and Tegan are already embedded in the era, navigating the society under assumed identities. The story wastes no time getting into the mystery, establishing an effective hook—why are these two former companions here, and why can’t they remember? The apparitions, described as "ghost dragons" by terrified workers, add an eerie, supernatural flair that complements the setting perfectly.

FAKE IDENTITIES AND FAMILIAR DYNAMICS

Though this is technically River’s story, Castaways belongs just as much—if not more—to Ace and Tegan. These aren’t their younger selves fresh from their TARDIS adventures; these are their older, more experienced counterparts from modern-day Earth, with lives, histories, and memories outside of their time with the Doctor. Both Sophie Aldred and Janet Fielding deliver fantastic performances, capturing the essence of their characters while showcasing how time has shaped them.

The chemistry between the two is delightful, and they quickly fall into a natural rhythm despite their initial confusion. They assume undercover roles—Ace as “Professor McShane” and Tegan as “Lady Jovanka”—complete with fabricated backstories and posh accents. The playfulness of this setup adds a layer of fun, even as the story delves into darker territory. Honestly, the two work so well together that they could (and should) have their own spinoff series!

Meanwhile, River remains her usual cryptic self, weaving in and out of the narrative with her own agenda. There’s an intriguing tension between her and the others; while she clearly respects Ace and Tegan, she also keeps them at arm’s length, aware that their pasts (or rather, their futures) are tangled up in ways they don’t yet realise.

ATMOSPHERIC SOUNDSCAPES AND GHOSTLY VISIONS

One of Castaways’ strongest elements is its sound design, particularly when it comes to the "ghosts." Every time they manifest, there’s an eerie, otherworldly quality to the soundscape, creating a sense of unease. The blend of Victorian London’s grimy, industrial atmosphere with these strange, spectral disturbances makes for a compelling backdrop.

The pacing, however, is a bit uneven. Much of the story revolves around repetitive scenes—Ace and Tegan digging for information while suffering from inexplicable headaches and memory lapses, River doing her own thing, and the ghosts appearing periodically. The story takes its time unfolding, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does feel like it’s spinning its wheels at times.

A PUZZLE PIECE IN A LARGER MYSTERY

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Castaways is its place within the larger narrative. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Ace and Tegan’s predicament isn’t random—someone or something has pulled them here, their timelines collapsing in on themselves. And while they don’t remember it yet, they have met River before, during their travels with the Doctor. The story hints at these past encounters but leaves them unresolved, setting the stage for the rest of the box set to fill in the gaps.

In that sense, Castaways isn’t a standalone adventure so much as the first act of a bigger mystery. It raises questions but doesn’t offer many answers, with the real resolution seemingly reserved for the final story in the set. The ghostly apparitions, while a compelling concept, ultimately feel like an afterthought—a narrative hook that takes a backseat to the overarching time-travel puzzle.

📝VERDICT: 7/10

Castaways is an intriguing opener that sets up the dynamic between River, Ace, and Tegan while weaving a compelling mystery around their fragmented timelines. The Victorian ghost story premise is atmospheric, the performances are strong, and the timey-wimey elements add a layer of complexity that keeps things engaging. However, the story itself feels more like a prologue than a complete adventure, with a slow-burn plot that leaves many threads dangling for later resolution.

While the ghostly apparitions could have been explored more, the strength of Ace and Tegan’s dynamic—and their interactions with River—keeps things enjoyable. If nothing else, this story proves that Sophie Aldred and Janet Fielding absolutely deserve more Big Finish stories together. Now, onto the next piece of the puzzle!

A base under siege story featuring 5 and Nyssa, with an unremarkable alien threat and pacing. Nothing particularly surprising happens. However, the characterisation was pleasant; 4 out of the 5 human side characters had more than one dimension and the one who didn't was at least fun to hate. The sound design was also pretty vivid. I also enjoyed the inclusion of Silver Crow and how his Sioux background is important to the plot. Other stories would have villified the Whitlocks for bringing Silver Crow to England, but I thought it refreshing that in this story Silver Crow seems to have chosen to come himself and that he and the Whitlocks are on good terms.

A perfectly pleasant way to spend two hours, but not much more than that.

A fun story. Unlike new who were fictional characters sometimes turn out to be real, here they're written and controlled by the Master (not thee master). We also get Jamie played by another actor as he has a face change for a short while. But Troughton is the stand out as always. One of my favourites of his tenure.

Tarie walked over to the window. All she could see were the hundreds of spaceships and the marvellous, swirling majesty of hyperspace.
Though I don't like Jonathan Morris' overreliance on that line from The Aztecs about not changing one line from history, I think the first story that he used this trope (as far as I can tell) is one of his best. In fact, I think its one of the best Fourth Doctor novels in general. It's able to match the tone of the latter half of Four's era while also having a very good plot and putting in some menace and even making me feel for quite a few of the characters. I might put Managra or Krikkitmen over this one but it is very very good. Highly recommended.

this one really sneaks up on you, with how good it is

at last, a film in the series which is actually comprehensible! ironic that its the amnesia one. this is almost decent, possibly because it was written by nick briggs. who knows at this point

Sat with this a bit defo a good start to this set excited where this will go

Just a fantastic story, and it's so much fun having old Jo traveling with the Doctor. We meet a little sick girl who is being helped by 'angels', and it turns out that those 'angels' are actually Cybermen. Well, that's awkward. Some serious dark moments that push this TARDIS team to the absolute limit.

I just really loved this story. The audio design was completely on point, I got into the different layers of the plot, and the Third Doctor and Sarah were perfectly realized. The 3DAs are almost all bangers, no different here.

Sadly this release didn't quite live up to the promise of being a blockbuster six-parter. There are definitely some cool moments in this one, but the plot just never really exact grabs you. It should've been a lot more exciting, but it feels like there's a lot of wheel-spinning. Here's hoping that Hooklight is better.

Protect and Survive features another Big Finish original companion, Thomas Hector Schofield, or Hex for short. His story goes back before the character was even introduced and started way back with the Sixth Doctor. During his travels with Evelyn Smythe, the Doctor met a woman named Cassandra Schofield who had run away from her life to work at a casino in the hopes of earning enough money to provide a proper life to her little Tommy. Unfortunately, the casino she worked at was run by vampires (it’s a mistake anyone can make) and she ends up infected. The Doctor and Evelyn take her Norway and promise to return with a cure. By the time that happens though, they find her working as an agent for the Forge, a secret British military organisation that investigates and fights aliens “for king and country”. Basically Russell T. Davies looked at the Forge and said “I wanna do that!”

Cassie spent all the time the Doctor was away being brainwashed and used as a killer by the Forge’s leader Nimrod, who then kills Cassie when she breaks her conditioning and tried to save the Doctor and Evelyn. Cassie’s death and the Doctor’s alien manner towards it causes a rift between him and Evelyn that according to the Seventh Doctor, she never forgave him for, even when they mended their friendship afterwards.

At the same time in the Seventh Doctor audios, they introduced a new companion Hex, a nurse working at St Garts Hospital who gets caught up in a mission by the Doctor and the “pretty young lady in HR” Ms McShane to foil the Cybermen. Hex went on to join the Doctor and Ace and it wasn’t until a year later they decided to tie him back to Cassie and make him her son.

Hex’s whole deal as a companion is not exactly having the best of times travelling with the Doctor; on top of having a crush on Ace that he’s never able to admit and is never reciprocated, Hex is more averse to the Seventh Doctor’s secretive and manipulative tactics that Ace by this point has gotten used to. This leads to several outbursts and confrontations where he feels the Doctor doesn’t trust him enough to be more open and honest about his plans. It gets worse later on where he finds out in the worst way possible what happened to his mother, the Doctor’s role in that and the fact that he knew all along and never told Hex about it…. oops.

Hex’s story and how far back it goes chronologically is the sort of thing that’s theoretically possible to do in the show, but it would require years of planning, forethought and an agreement between showrunners to commit to it. It’s a unique take on a companion who experiences travelling through time and space with the Doctor in a more harrowing way than how others experience it. When you first listen to some of his stories he can come off as a bit whiny but when you learn more and more about his story and his ordeals, it does feel justified, also no spoilers but it doesn’t end well for him.

Protect and Survive takes place during his later travels and the climax of a long running story arc that started pretty much at the beginning of Big Finish’s audios with Seven and Ace. Starting from The Fearmonger onwards, the Seven and Ace audios present themselves as a direct continuation of the show after it was cancelled where we gradually see the two evolve; Seven gets more extreme with his schemes and Ace starts to mature, even briefly discarding her preferred name for her birth name. Partway through Hex joins the team and their story goes on, we have the fallout of Hex learning the truth about his mother and now we have the Seventh Doctor embarking on his biggest crusade yet, hunting down and destroying the Elder Gods one by one over the course of several stories.
Hex and Ace finds themselves in a TARDIS out of control as the Doctor has gone missing (in reality Sylvester McCoy was away in New Zealand filming his scenes for The Hobbit). They end up in the English countryside outside a cottage owned by an elderly couple preparing a fallout shelter for the forthcoming nuclear war!

Protect and Survive is a story in two halves, the first half is a brilliant, depressing and horrifying apocalyptic war story as Ace and Hex are trapped in this world where history’s gone wrong, being forced to live out World War III and a nuclear holocaust. It pulls no punches with how eerily close to reality the setup is with the events going on in the outside world before going full blown horror with the effects of a nuclear bomb and the futility of hoping to survive such a holocaust. A good prerequisite I recommend going in is to look up the actual Protect and Survive documentary, it’s one of the scariest real things to come out of the Cold War and this story relies heavily on it for its setting and theme as protect and survive plays a huge role in the ending and how Ace and Hex manage to escape. This story is a favourite purely for that first half but given the way things are in the world right now it may be a bit too much for some people.

So that’s the first half and Christ what a first half it is!!! The second is a bit more conventional as we learn more about what’s happened and where the Doctor’s disappeared to. It does admittedly go off the rails a bit in part four, but the second half is still a strong act in its own right. Despite being away filming The Hobbit, we do get a short section with the Doctor carrying out one of his best schemes to date as he effortlessly averts the nuclear war and traps those responsible in an endless time-loop experiencing the agony of a nuclear apocalypse for all eternity!!! I’ve often considered the Seventh Doctor and Ace to be the original Walter White and Jesse Pinkman but in this case the Seventh Doctor isn’t just Walter White, he’s full-on f**king Heisenberg!!! It’s such a brief but such an awesome sequence.
Protect and Survive is an outstanding listen but I should warn you, if you’re unsettled by certain events and concerns happening right now in the world, this is just gonna make you feel worse!

A rare example of absolutely adoring a sequel to a story I'm not that big a fan of. It's helped in part by it's novel approach of being written in the style of a Shakespeare play. I'm usually not keen on reading Shakespeare's works, I've tried a few times and it just spirals into complete gibberish after a few minutes. But this one is much easier to follow, with nods some of Shakespeare's iconic plays and bizarrely is also a sequel to The Happiness Patrol of all things. Lot of fun reading this short story