Reviews

I love Remembrance of the Daleks, so naturally it follows that I adore Counter-Measures. This series is the brilliant idea of taking the three secondary characters from Remembrance and putting them in audios. Though this is a concept that has variable success in Big Finish's endless spinoffs, C-M is very much worthwhile.

This is also just an excellent opening episode to a series. The story is engaging, rattles along at a great pace, and gives all our four characters a great deal of depth - more than Remembrance could ever have afforded them. We get a great sense for Ian and Rachel, and it's easy to forget that Toby was never on TV at all. But it's Allison that I love most of all, and so I am of course delighted that she is well served by this episode. It would have been so easy to make her Rachel's little assistant with no brain of her own, but she crucial to the narrative in this story, and cements her place as a vital member of the ICMG.

This story is kind of spooky, with alien possession and a horrid old doll, but it is very compelling, and the sound and music design is wonderful. It's easy to get lost in the atmosphere of it all, and easy to love our characters. Fully reccommended.

If you're making a plot-relevant, arc-concluding entry into a series, the least you can do is make it good

The Ancestor Cell is frequently over-written, incapable of being normal about women to the extent of undoing character development, and the occasional interesting idea has usually been done better somewhere else. I also didn't like one of the main twists but I acknowledge that's a more personal issue

Only Human is often called one of the best NSAs.  

Well, I disagree. 

The author is a problem, but not the reason I dislike this book.  

I just find it uninteresting. I was glad to finish it.  

It’s not a fun or exciting experience. Far from it.  

The concept is rather nice, but it’s just a boring story. 

But I do recommend you try it for yourself, because I can see why people would like it. 

📝8/10

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

THE FIVE COMPANIONS, or HEY, YOUR FORGOT ABOUT US!

The Five Companions is the second of two subscriber releases not originally available to the wide public but later freely handed out as gifts. Big Finish gave this story away to celebrate Doctor Who’s 61st anniversary.

You’d think that a story titled Five Companions that takes place during The Five Doctors would see companions from each of the first Five Doctors meet and interact, but that is not the case. This is Five meeting up with four companions from his time as the First Doctor (Ian, Steven, Sara Kingdom, and Polly). Nyssa joins him to make up the fifth (and current) companion.

THE HIGHLIGHTS:

• The story takes a good opportunity to let the companions catch up with the Doctor through meeting Five and learning more about him and the Time Lords—while also talking about how they’ve been doing since they left the Doctor.
• The plot here is pretty nonsensical, but it moves briskly and contains a lot of action and fun character interactions, especially between the Doctor and the companions.
• I’m happy that the story allows the actors to play their older selves, rather than trying to sound like they did in the 60s. These are companions of old meeting years later, as they’ve grown old and grey.
• It’s enjoyable to hear these companions meet up and slowly work out where they are and why while surviving encounters with Daleks, Sontarans, and dinosaurs.
• Sara Kingdom and Polly make for an effective pairing, and both Jean Marsh and Anneke Wills sound like they have plenty of fun together.
• Ian gets to playing Dalek again and calls one Dalek Fred, which are lovely callbacks to The Daleks and The Chase.
• I also like how the story uses the Daleks and Sontarans, as both are trying to kill each other while also having a go at the Doctor. The two races eventually decide to work together to take down the Doctor, and it goes about as well as expected, with similar results as to when the Daleks and Cybermen work together in Doomsday.
• William Russell is wonderful here. All companions are well written, with their characteristic qualities allowed to shine.
• Overall, The Five Doctors has a sweet, easygoing, celebratory feel to it, and it’s a fine companion piece to The Five Doctors.

THE LOWLIGHTS:

• Sadly, Sara’s role in the story remains fairly minimal.
• Peter Purves doesn’t quite sound like he is in the game.
• The Daleks are pretty screechy here, which can turn somewhat grating on the ears.

An inventive monster in the bookworms which feed on time chaos, an interesting setting in the monumental library and a sweet conclusion, which should be heartwarming to anyone with a passion for reading.

I much prefer these 5 page comics when they are expanded out into two parts as it gives them a much better opportunity to go somewhere substantial with the story.

So the sequel to The Masque of Mandragora wound up being the most invested I’ve been reading this range front to back since the early stuff. It has a really compelling take on 7, which very much justifies this story for me. Ace is also great, and since this is technically an event I guess, the stakes do seem appropriately grand. I would unfortunately say the ending is a major cop out, but for the most part this story is great.

Wow this short trip is an absolute banger Sarah and 4 have never felt more alive in my marathon so far and might be my first 4th doctor 10/10 so far

My enjoyment of this story was limited by the fact that I simply do not see The Doctor as cruel enough to treat another person so poorly, even if they are an invasive reporter.

A strong theme and message behind this story, which plays on elaborate nature of modern art. Its a cute one shot, with a nice surprise as The Doctor finally arrives at his intended destination!

A pretty cool and interesting look at the Dark Times through the perspective of the Ninth Doctor.  It's really neat seeing this early version of the Time Lords and I, at least at first, was intrigued by the conflict with the vampires.  But in three parts for the Doctor Who Magazine, this comic basically amounts to a single issue's worth of content, and that's very, very short for a very, very big idea.  As such, everything feels truncated.  Rose gets kidnapped and turned into a vampire.  The Doctor teams up with an ancient Gallifreyan but eventually he dies.  The First Rassilon hunts down the Doctor and vows to find him one day.  It's all perfectly serviceable stuff, but none of these plot ideas get anywhere close to enough expansion to have any kind of emotional pay-off.

So the art is good and the dialogue is fine, just don't expect much out of this comic.  It's interesting more for the novelty than the storytelling.

I've found listening to the audiobooks of the novelisations has helped me focus some of my thoughts about this story. I've always enjoyed it in the past and was of the general opinion it wasn't as bad as received wisdom suggested and that it had lots of good elements.

I was hoping my Peladon-centric rewatch would confirm this but sadly, I found myself a bit bored this time round and I've been pondering why whilst listening to the audiobook (which so far is a scene by scene retread of the TV version with nothing added, as far as I can tell, so far).

The Monster of Peladon is, sadly, a pale retread of Curse for the simple reason that it takes the setting, the characters and the atmosphere of Curse and dispenses with every single interesting aspect.

Curse has various alien delegates bickering and scheming. Monster kills the most interesting one off before the first episode has finished and just leaves us wih Centauri and Eckersley.

Curse has Centauri being a prissy, yet effective poltician. Monster has Centauri being a quivering nervous wreck, even more easily pressured into making bad decisions than it was in Curse. It also - bizarrely - has a worse 'costume' (the thickness of the curtain makes Centauri look clunky).

Curse has the glorious twist that the Ice Warriors are goodies. Now obviously that couldn't be repeated here but just making all the Warriors baddies is hugely lazy. Why not have a contingent of 'good' Martians turn up and discover a faction of bad Warriors and have the conflict between them - rather than stupidly-haired miners doing the same thing episode after episode - attack the armoury, run through the tunnels, get killed by the Aggedor ghost, run through the tunnels, get angry and cheer, run through the tunnels etc. Imagine the Warriors discovering a traitor in their midst in league with Eckersley. That could have been much more effective than what we got.

Curse has a brilliant role for Jo with her relationship with the King. Monster has Sarah bouncing between the control room and the tunnels with alarming repetition, being taken hostage by a succession of characters and believing the Doctor to be dead more than across the episodes. The glimmers of good stuff for her are in her throne room scenes - realising how they can get rid of the Federation troops and, significantly, giving Thalira a pep-talk about women's lib. Her role in the story - and Thalira's for that matter - could have been hugely improved by pairing them off and having them drive the plot in the palace while the Doctor was focussed on the efforts of the miners and the mystery of the Aggedor ghost. As it is, Sarah does very little in the story and isn't aided by being written as quite unpleasant in some parts (such as her reaction to Centauri).

Monster really does seem lazy and repetitive both of Curse and within its own episodes. There is good stuff and some great performances - Rex Robinson is good and Nina Thomas was better than I remember but it is definitely a step down from The Curse of Peladon.

The more I think about it, the more I think I need to drop my rating.

I felt that this was quite good. It started off really strong, with quite an engaging premise. The protagonists are instantly likeable while the protagonists are instantly dislikeable. The writing felt increadibly competent and I also like how it is shot and directed. My primary critiques are that I feel some of the adult material doesn't really add much, and also because I felt that the ending was quite weak and abrupt, like they didn't know quite how to wrap it up.

This is one of the most evocative comics strips I have ever read. It’s bold and “dark” but in a camp and cartoony way. It represents a significant quality jump from the last story!

Absolm Daak is a magnificent creation and the team have done a fantastic job of rekindling his flame here. He is another protagonist who stands tall side by side with The Doctor, but one who has a totally opposing approach in how to deal with the Daleks.

The art here rivals the best of any comics I’ve ever seen. The glint in Absolm’s eye when you first set eyes on him, the murderous rage, paired with a dramatic, moody narrative voice. The sight of him slicing a Dalek in half from top to bottom is wild. He wanders into an echoing chamber, is confronted by a Dalek before ripping its sucker off and staring straight down its lens.

A great start to the series! I didn't mind the bit of kid cheesiness to it,but actually thought it was very mature story telling. I also loved her reflections on the Doctor,and all the easter eggs.

I watched the telesnap recon without knowing a bunch of uni students recreated it themselves, which is a shame because I miss moving images

Anyway! Absolutely no sign of the TARDIS team, and all the main human cast die horribly after failing to achieve anything. Interesting in terms of Doctor Who history, but it didn't quite do it for me. Maybe I'm just a Dalek hater

You can't hate the gold and white Daleks design, my personal favourite, good story Ace just beats a Dalek up with a baseball bat.

It's the first Nuwho Dalek episode. Pretty cool, the classic Cyberman head tease kills me knowing how the Cybusmen look. Testing on the Doctor is a pretty normal response to being told that they're an alien.

As predicted the Daleks kills everyone, great episode.

Galaxy 4 tried to do something with the "the ugly terrifying alien robots are actually the good guys!" but unfortunately it suffered from being boring as hell

May not be Moffat's first episode but it is his first Nuwho episode and it is great. This would scare an unsuspecting child. Honestly the best episode of Series 1

It's definitely cool and always a treat to have Benton and Yates back, especially with the actors returning.  Coupled with Kate Stewart and Osgood, it is a great experience having old UNIT meeting with the new.

Unfortunately while the cast and their character's presence here is a memorable part of the audio adventure, Call to Arms is kind of a boring affair overall.  I really wasn't drawn into the Silurian side of the plot here.  They aren't very compelling as foes for UNIT and I wasn't left excited for the rest of the UNIT: Assembled box set.  In this audio they are depicted as hunters, eagerly howling as they pursue their prey.  It was interesting at first but got annoying pretty quickly.  Jastrok, the leader of this batch of Silurians, did not connect with me as a character at all - he just feels like a generic villain.  And while that box set would go on to have at least some impressive moments to it, I feel like we start off in a pretty rough and underwhelming place here.

Still, in spite of this story not leaving much of an impression on me, the cast and recording is of a good enough quality that it wasn't too hard to listen through Call to Arms, either.  To its credit, it is far from a miserable experience and a reasonable way to get into the larger story going on with the Silurians.  It is cool seeing how UNIT has learned to deal with and monitor the Silurians since their early encounter with this species.  I did also like Bessie's surprise appearance near the end, that did make me smile.

First things first, Twin Dilemma is peak fiction nothing you can say to convince me otherwise. The doctor is now insane, Colin Baker and is trying to deal with Gastropod Mestor who kidnapped two twins, what a dilemma.

Kinda underwhelming, but they were uncertain about the show's continuation which shows during the episode, especially the cliffhanger ending.

To think, without this there is no Doctor Who as we know it. Terry nation created such a banger, saving the show and creating Dalek mania.

📝5/10

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

THE HORNS OF NIMON, or A BULL TO THE EYE!

Season 17 officially concludes with the final Doctor Who serial of the 1970s (and the first of the 1980s!). It's written by Anthony Read in his first and only solo script for the show, having previously co-written Invasion of Time in Season 15.

THE HIGHLIGHTS:

• Ahhh, pirates! Doctor Who has a rocky history with the lot; look at The Space Pirates or Curse of the Black Spot. This story takes a bunch of spacefaring human traffickers and throws them into a Doctor Who take on the classic Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

• The “You meddling fool! You shall die!” cliffhanger of Part 3 is funny. Bad, but funny.

• Soldeed’s final moments in Part 4 (including the classic “My dreams of conquest!” line) are another example of a sequence so bad it’s good.

• Romana continues to prove her worth by actually crafting her own sonic screwdriver and fiercely opposing the idiots around her. Good girl! Plus points for that fancy red coat!

• Malcolm Terris provides the most enjoyable guest performance as the wonderfully eager and comically evil Co-Pilot.

• So the Nimon are an interesting concept on paper, but their effectiveness is reduced by their shoddy realisation. They have worked much better in their EU appearances.

THE LOWLIGHTS:

• The mix of sci-concepts with old legends brings to mind Underworld—and that’s not a flattering comparison to make!

• Even the cliffhangers feel like parodies of the most barebones Doctor Who cliffhangers!

• Something’s off with both Tom Baker and Lalla Ward here. Both of them come across as disinterested and a bit tired.

• This is the final time we hear David Brierley as the voice of K9—thank goodness for that! I miss the jolly charm of John Leeson, who’s back for Season 18! The robot dog itself goes back to being barely utilised in the narrative.

• Soldeed is another villain on the level of Zaroff from The Underwater Menace or Victor Kennedy from Love & Monsters; bombastic, ridiculous, and so badly performed that the character turns enjoyable. Graham Crowden goes all in on the performance: he happily chews the scenery and steals the spotlight multiple times, even from Baker himself. This should be commended.

• The bunch of Antheans destined to become Nimon food are completely forgettable characters who spend way too much time following Romana anywhere but don't actually get anything interesting to do.

• This story has one of those ugly, grey, lifeless set designs that I’m not particularly fond of. Add to that the bizarre costume design of the supporting characters and the laughably bad monster costumes on the Nimon actors, and you have a production disaster.

• The comedy bits don’t sit well at all—the scene where the Doctor performs mouth-to-mouth on K9 (a moment ad-libbed by Baker) is mostly just awkward. Then there’s the weird cartoon sound effect in one scene inside the TARDIS in Part 2. A lot of this serial could be described as campy, and not in a good way!

• The Horns of Nimon suffers from a lack of tension and an empty and boring narrative—coming from the weak characters and the shoddy production. The weakness of the script and performances goes to show that there was very little faith in this serial, and this has been confirmed by producer Graham Williams as well.

• There is a bit more action in Part 4, but by that time I have lost most of my interest, so it doesn’t help to improve the overall experience.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• The Antheans sleeping inside pods in the ship bring to mind the sleeping Cybermen in Tomb of the Cybermen.

• This is a story of lasts—the last story where Tom Baker wears his original outfit and hands out jelly babies; the last story produced by Graham Williams; the last story using the classic diamond logo and the tunnel-style opening title sequence as well as the Delia Derbyshire theme tune; and the last story script edited by Douglas Adams and composed by Dudley Simpson.

The Fifteenth Doctor #06

'73 Yards' (2024) from Target Books.

Expands upon the original episode somewhat by just feeling a little less break-neck speed pacing-wise, and lets you follow Ruby's slow self-journey rather nicely. The Roger ap Gwilliam plotline is still nauseating and on-the-nose but the rest of the adventure is a decent time.