just sorta feels like someone’s writing in all of nine’s lines and catchphrases but his character is absolutely static. nova is about an unoriginal of a name as anything in sci fi

Unfortunately, I wish I had heard of the more common advice that it is better to start with the second volume of Ninth Doctor Adventures. Having found Sphere of Freedom a little disappointing, Cataclysm feels like a step down from even that.

I feel like the story has some neat ideas but we are constantly derailed by pretty boring dialogue and other stuff that get in the way of a potentially more interesting story with Audrey and time doing weird things. It just feels almost like a trivial part of the adventure, though. Really though, it feels like this didn't need to be three parts, and I might argue even one would have been too much. I'm just not a big fan of Briggs' script here.

Still, there was one great part I definitely appreciated. The doctor flirting with the guard and the whole thing around his use of psychic paper was both very entertaining and pretty well written. Cataclysm has its moments, and is competently acted and edited, yet nothing really feels like it is pushed into anything special. The music is fine but not amazing - on the other hand the acting does have its moments. Eccelston does get to shine, especially near the tail end of this story, basically letting Audrey make a mistake in a pretty cool moment I wish the rest of the audio better lived up to.

The Ninth Doctor #7

'Ravagers: Cataclysm' (2021) from The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Series 1.

Continuing my confusion from Sphere of Freedom, and the wiki plot synopsis struggling to make me follow the narrative all the better, it's difficult to summarise my feelings on this part of the story. Audrey is somewhat interesting as a character, but the collapse of time and the universe à la The Big Bang amongst other Eleven-era stories is just too much for me a lot of the time, especially in audio format where I don't have visual cues to follow the events. I did enjoy Nine and Nova's relationship developing more here, the prison scene in particular. Aside from that I maintain the feelings I outlined in my previous review in regard to part two here.

I enjoyed this a fair amount more than 'Sphere of Freedom'. It feels like an actual story relying less on gimmick. There's fun intrigue, and i’m enjoying the character of Audrey, especially that she's not quite what we've assumed for quite a considerable portion of the boxset so far. All that said, it's still a little lacking of much heart or substance and I'm really not won over by the character of Nova but eccleston really holds the boxset together