The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles #3.1 - "The Inheritance" by Alfie Shaw

There are a lot of Big Finish ranges that get a lot of love, but I don't think there is a series I have seen as much love for as Series 7V. With one story dipping below a ridiculously high rating, I decided that, with great excitement, I'd jump into Geronimo! as my first Big Finish boxset and boy am I excited for the next few. This story feels like I just fell back into 2011 and Matt Smith is still on screen, Moffat's still the show runner, and the show isn't a joke yet.

Plot:
Valarie's one of the top cybernetic engineers on Rig-6, good thing too, since a mysterious virus that's infecting people's cybernetics and killing them very, very painfully has taken over the world. One night, whilst trying to have dinner with her mother and friends, a stranger holding a bomb shows up at the door. His name's the Doctor, he's been asked to cure the world's deadliest virus and he's about to fight capitalism.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

I was pretty blown away by how accurate this felt to the show. Alfie Shaw genuinely has just put another whole season of the Eleventh Doctor in the middle of Series Seven and managed to throw me right back to early Moffat Era Who. The first thing I need to talk about it the performances, which are easily the best I've heard so far in Big Finish. I've heard Paul McGann despair at the universe, and seen Maggie Stables break down at the revelation she couldn't save a woman's life, but Jacob Dudman and Safiyya Ingar manage to, in an hour, have me immediately won over to their portrayals of the characters. I think Dudman has the ability to steal people's voices, because it was hard for me not to imagine Matt Smith reading the lines, and Ingar manages to be likable, badass and heartbreaking in the space of one story. This is also because Shaw manages to create one of the best character introductions I have seen in Doctor Who; I already know Valarie's going to be one of my favourite companions ever considering she already has all the traits of my other favourites and the story synopsises further down the line seem to have the Doctor absolutely traumatising her, which always ends up with a great companion.

The story itself wasn't much to write home about but it did manage to have that manic, break neck tone of the Smith era that was oh so enjoyable there and is oh so enjoyable here. Unfortunately, this is both a blessing and a curse, as the story manages to move along way to fast, having the pacing be completely out of whack and having the story reveal things too quickly. I think Shaw tried to pull off a plot twist revealing Hendricks to be the villain but having the big, world-owning pharmaceutical company to not be the villain would be surprising to say the least. As an audio, I don't think the story managed to do a great job at visualising itself. A great audio script won't resort to just describing what the characters see but it'll also give you a clear image of what's happening, which I find The Inheritance fails at a ton.

I'm already in love with 11 and Valarie and the idea of a virus transmitted through money is absolutely genius but a plot that feels rushed and a script that doesn't always work out its kinks bring the story down a bit for me. However, it is impossible to state just how excited I am to experience the rest of the Series 7V.

8/10

Pros:
+ Dudman and Ingar deliver some of the best performances I've heard on audio
+ I am immediately in love with Valarie, who I can't see not being one of my favourite companions ever
+ Loved 11's characterisation in it, it really captured the angry demigod thing he has going on
+ The story drops you right smack bang in the middle of the Eleventh Doctor's era and its tone
+ The idea of a capitalism virus and how the story uses that is ingenious.
+ The scene where Valarie's mother is killed by the plague was not only the highlight of the story but one of the best showcases of sheer acting talent I've seen in Big Finish
+ Very excited for the series arc, some of the things set up in this episode are incredibly intriguing

Cons:
- Pacing feels rushed and a little all over the place
- Felt the central mystery to be resolved far too quickly
- The twist of Hendricks being the antagonist was both predictable and weak
- Hendricks herself isn't a very interesting antagonist until her last scene
- The script is very bad at visualising things

Series 7V | Ranked:
14.
13.
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1. The Inheritance by Alfie Shaw - 8/10

Overall - 8.0/10