I was not a fan of this one, and gave it a 2.5/5. Minor spoilers throughout.

I found the parody to be veering between fun and mean-spirited and the attitude of the audio felt rather nasty towards Star Trek and the other parodied shows and events. I am not sure if that was the intention, but it was how it came across to me. However, it was easy to listen to/follow, the pace wasn't too fast. I found the critique of technobabble surprisingly engaging, though it sadly didn't last long.

The murderer was very obvious and, as the mystery was all there really was, it left the audio a little empty. Still, it was fun to listen to, so still worth it I suppose. The ending that was supposed to be a twist was also very expected - though, the Earth national anthem being I Will Survive was a stroke of genius. Lovely ending for Eleanor!

I can understand why some people like this audio, but it really wasn't for me.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Terror of the Sontarans

After the brilliance that was The One Doctor I was really concerned that the next comedy wouldn't be able to live up to it. Well I was right, it didn't live up to it... it exceeded it. I'm impressed that this story seems to get such a marmite reception because it's utterly hilarious. While the last one was a direct parody of Doctor Who, this is more a parody of things like Star Trek and Space: 1999.

The Doctor and Mel arrive on a shuttle that's immediately blown up. Luckily they're beamed out of there just in time. The catch is they're believed to be the replacement Commander and shuttle pilot for the ship. This is a brilliant opening and paves the way for a fairly unique structure. It reminds me of The Curse of Peladon with the Doctor immediately being trusted as an authority figure.

Speaking of the Doctor, McCoy takes on the role of the Doctor taking on the role of the Commander brilliantly. He's a great Doctor to put in the detective role of a murder mystery and hearing him boss about a bunch of annoying aliens was fantastic. I also think the supporting characters, while sometimes grating, were great. Particularly Geri, who acted in a similar way to Alpha Centauri, also from The Curse of Peladon.

I'm a sucker for a murder mystery and I always love the scene where the detective gathers everyone into a room and reveals everything. I absolutely loved the way it was done here with all the twists and turns. Listening to this entire story was a roller coaster, normally in murder mysteries you sus out who did it pretty quickly so long as you don't fall for a red herring. I genuinely had no idea at any point. Of course, in hindsight, it makes a lot of sense.

I'm sure I could go on about this story long enough to fill out the runtime of of my own Main Range story but I think I'll put a pin in it here and say this is a fantastic story if you love something silly that doesn't take itself seriously in the slightest while still forming a really compelling and interesting story. Really great stuff.

Next Story: Flip-Flop

This one is quite fun! Doctor Who does EuroVision and it’s pretty entertaining. With a story like that you need a good cast of characters and I think we got that here. I think especially Bonnie gets great material here, and it’s a nice change of pace, having a much lighthearted Seven yet again. Overall, I think it feels like a refined Story that could come from Season 24 (if they had a bigger budget), which I quite like.

Ao se deparar com toda uma tripulação morta, o Doutor e a Mel continuam o curso da nave até a estação Dark Space 8. Chegando lá os dois são confundidos, todos acham que o Doutor é o comandante e a Mel era um dos pilotos, depois disso acontece um assassinato assim se iniciando uma longa investigação para descobrir quem é o causador de várias mortes. Meus amigos pensam em um áudio com uma narrativa que te prende do início ao fim com várias pitadas cômicas, eu ri muito kkkkk. Todo o passo a passo da investigação é muito perfeito e bem executado, os personagens são ótimos, vários momentos você suspeita de uma pessoa, depois de outra, depois “não...não, é ela”...“não, é ele” kkkkk. E foi exatamente nesse ponto que eu comecei a gostar da Mel (digo na BIG FINISH é claro, na série de TV ainda mantenho minhas críticas). Literalmente salvaram a personagem, ela é outra companion muito bem inserida nas histórias sendo útil e tendo até seus momentos de protagonista. De verdade, eu amei o divertido “Bang-Bang-a-Boom”.

📝8/10 → VERY GOOD!

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

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: “BANG-BANG-A-BOOM”

As was radiation for Big Finish in their Main Range, the last release of each release was meant to be a light-hearted or fun Christmas special or parody. Bang-Bang-a-Boom! parodies the Eurovision Song Contest and the Star Trek franchise.

What we get here is Seven and Mel arriving at a space station and encountering dead bodies, all the while the three-hundred-somethingth Intergalactic Song Contest is underway. The political tension between two participating neighbouring worlds causes stir-up and conflict behind the scenes of the production, so the Doctor gets involved in trying to solve the problem.

The writers know their Eurovision and write a fantastically sharp political satire that perfectly mirrors a lot of the political shenanigans involved with the real-world contest (especially so in recent times). Seven and Mel are also the perfect TARDIS crew to get involved with such a story, especially since the Doctor’s decision to impersonate a spaceship commander further complicates things. 

Sylvester McCoy goes all in on being light-hearted and fun here, and it’s a nice change of pace from the manipulative and sinister Seven we so often encounter. Bonnie Langford is wonderful, especially when paired together with the intergalactic pop star Nicky Newman (Anthony Spargo), who is delighted to meet someone who has no idea who he is.

The Star Trek elements come from the science-y and space-y stuff that both sound believable but also so out there that it's impossible to determine whether it's realistic or not. The cover art also mimics the poster for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

And there’s the murder mystery element here as well, which is nothing new to Doctor Who. That makes this something of a The Curse of Peladon or The Robots of Death parody as well, or even a twist on a classic Agatha Christie-style whodunit.

The supporting cast is colourful and fun. Angvia is a fun character, exaggerated and romantic, with an East-European accent; Geri is a rodent character with a cute voice (she sounds distractingly like Alpha Centauri; both are voiced by the inimitable Jane Goddard); Loozly is a hot-headed interpreter; and Dr. Harcourt is a medical officer working closely with the Doctor. David Tughan’s Logan the Commentator is also a very fun character and a parody of typical Eurovision commentators.

One gripe I have is that the individual episodes are all over 30 minutes in length, making this adventure a tad overextended.

The music is nice, especially some of the dramatic musical cues whenever a dead body is discovered. Which happens a lot, by the way.

The constant small twists and turns keep the story fresh, even though there isn’t a whole lot going on. There were so many twists that I couldn’t keep up with them all the time.

The strange romance subplot between Angvia and the Doctor is bizarrely funny.

The dialogue is frequently funny and over-the-top, with the cast delivering them in a way that makes them even more amusing. I found myself giggling more than once while listening to this.

Part 4 finally offers some “performances” from the Intergalactic Song Contest, and they are horrible and funny. It also features one of the funnier takes on a classic “murderer reveal” I’ve heard. The entire episode is the strongest part of the story and one of the best single episodes I've heard in the Main Range.

I love the little fake-out ending before we get the real reveal of the killer. And how the Doctor inadvertently wins the contest for Earth.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• I adore the continuity announcements by Nicholas Briggs at the start of every part. Feels like a nice callback to the TV days.
• They finally begin using era-appropriate theme tunes from this release onwards!
• The title of this adventure is a play on Lulu’s song Boom Bang-a-Bang, which won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969 for the UK.
• It took me a bit too long to realise that Angvia is a deliberate anagram of a different word (it begins with a “V”).