The Ninth Doctor #6

'Ravagers: Sphere of Freedom' (2021) from The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Series 1.

A really, really wobbly start to the Christopher Eccleston Big Finish run for me here. The non-linear narrative I found to be exceedingly confusing, especially as this three-part story goes on and becomes more and more convoluted. Reading over the wiki plot synopsis, it's making more sense, but personally as a whole the entire project failed to grasp me narratively, likely due to completely refusing to hold my hand through the storyline. Maybe this is a me problem, but I felt a big disconnect as a result of this. As for this first episode itself however, I can commend Eccleston slipping straight back into the role nicely, and Nova is... okay? She's introduced neatly enough and performed fine, but nothing that stand-out as a companion introduction. Similiar to The Bleeding Heart, it does take some getting used to having Nine in a big maximalist science-fiction planet setting after his Earth-bound Series 1 run, and while the immersive gaming set-up doesn't really work for me, nor make it's way into the story even that much, it's nice to imagine The Doctor in these new overwhelming settings some more.