This one is... complicated. At a hefty length and with a lot of complex, moving parts to the story, there are some really strong and weak aspects to this audio adventure I feel I need to unpack.

On the one hand, I like this complex, sophisticated story. There's a lot of different plot lines and timelines going on, our TARDIS team of the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough, and Nyssa all have interesting moments in the sun, and the story is both a sequel and prequel to The Talons of Weng-Chiang, which feels very Doctor Who. It's weighty and even kind of stands alone, but between its ties to Talons of Weng-Chiang and the heavy reliance on the already established TARDIS team to drive the story, it really feels like this one is particularly prohibitive to newcomers.

I, with enough background knowledge that I should have been able to get through it no problem, still struggled with this at times. Taking place in the far future of Earth, The Butcher of Brisbane is full of great ideas and cool concepts, perhaps to a fault. It is trying to do a lot and ends up often giving some of these ideas too little attention. A car with a human brain in it, a war-torn Earth struggling through an Ice Age, or Greel being this infamous dictator are all cool concepts that I feel suffer from being underplayed a bit at times.

Other aspects of Butcher of Brisbane, like Tegan and Nyssa's roles in the story, I think fall a little short. Nyssa marries Greel while acting as a spy with Turlough, but she also has some sympathy for him even though it feels like she really should know better. Tegan feels like she falls into old habits with the character where she is there to whine more than do things, and even the Doctor feels like he frustratingly lacks agency in the story more than he should, which mutes Davison's performance a bit here. I think it is telling that some of the actors in the production interviews felt a little unsure about the story and didn't necessarily follow all of it themselves.

Performances are a bit inconsistent, perhaps as a result. Greel's actor feels like he has the stage presence required for the character, but for whatever reason, I just didn't feel a sense of intimidation from him. It's a real shame too, because while stuff like this collectively holds the story back a bit, the special effects of the production are remarkable. The audio tracks are excellent at establishing ambience and early on got me really excited about this unique setting for the story.

In spite of some severe limitations, I did enjoy Butcher of Brisbane. It's cool to have a full team of a Doctor and three companions, all straight out of the show, and all getting to be a little more active and polished than their time with the Fifth Doctor back in the Classic TV era. One thing that I feel is explored well here is the Doctor's relationship with history, as this audio adventure does a good job at showing how engrossed and present he is across our timeline while also questioning his role in it. That stuff goes a long way in preventing a bad rating, but it is a dense piece with a lot of ups and downs that definitely wouldn't be my first Big Finish recommendation.