📝8/10 → VERY ENJOYABLE!

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

THE FINAL ACT, or A GLORIOUS DEBUT!

The Final Act is truly that—it sees the Fugitive Doctor sent out on a mission to take down the Doctor after his various meddlings throughout time and space in the previous parts. This sends the Doctor, in his War form, to find allies who will fight for him. Benny gets involved by bumping into Fugitive, looking for the Doctor. There’s certainly an aura of Big Finish Dartboard here again, but at least this is a pretty fun mix of characters.

Vienna and Queen Elizabeth are the only characters whose inclusion isn’t really justified.

The audio taps into the different nature of both War and Fugitive while placing Benny, who is very experienced with most incarnations of the Time Lord, in between them. We explore Fugitive and how she differs from the usual Doctor, together with Benny, and the story also draws comparisons between Fugitive and War. Sadly, there's not a lot of time devoted to actually pitting these two extreme reincarnations against each other before the story requires them to cooperate against a common enemy (which includes some of that tropical banter we get whenever multiple incarnations of the Doctor meet).

The Doctors go head to head on the planet Coda—giving the name of the release a bit more weight. Most of the first half sees the two Doctors preparing for the battle to come, so there’s certainly a feel of a series finale here. Some of the scenes presented here, of the armies gathering and fighting and of the sky dragon attacking, are pretty vivid, thanks to Tim Foley’s writing and the sound design.

I cannot quite express the sheer joy and excitement of hearing Jo Martin in Big Finish's story at last. It's similar to the glee I felt upon finally hearing Chris Eccleston return as the Ninth Doctor. Jonathon Carley is also flawless as the War Doctor, and I love how he perfectly sells the idea of this incarnation, borrowing Queen Elizabeth's army to fight against another incarnation of himself. And Lisa Bowerman is as sassy as ever as Benny; the best scenes in the audio are the ones where these three leads are interacting.

Imogen Stubbs is such a perfect Queen Elizabeth.

The Voord are an odd, and not entirely justified, addition to the story, but having them join the Fugitive’s side in the fight is certainly interesting.

I love that they even bring in a proper dragon!

The tail end of the story explains the entire Once & Future story arc—it’s quick and simple and not explored to its fullest, which makes me suspect there’s more to come. And then they hit the big reset button at the end again, which makes this entire series moot.