Coda – The Final Act

A lovely introduction to Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor on Audio, the final installment of Once and Future keeps the dartboard approach that has characterised the series so far, but manages to balance all the moving parts well.

The final scenes with the Voord and Queen Elizabeth give me hope for the upcoming Fugitive series.

Overall, despite not being the strongest of Once and Future, it manages to be on the stronger side, and I would recommend it to anyone who is even vaguely familiar with the set up of Once and Future

Around the time of the first Out of Time multi-Doctor story I saw a fan coin the term “popcorn Who” which I think neatly fits the description of this audio. It’s a lot of fun, and more story led and substantial than some Big Finish throw-a-bunch-of-characters-together efforts.

Oddly its Bernice Summerfield who steals the show through the sheer force of Lisa Bowerman’s charismatic performance, and how she bounces off of the two Doctors, who have been pitted against each other.

The only thing I could have totally done without is the on the nose descriptions the Doctor’s give of each other: “capable of dark decisions”, “the one who has lost their memories”, “the one who has had a great lost”. I think given the audience’s familiarity with these characters they could have gone a bit further with building out their characters and how they interact with each other, which was pretty paint by numbers.

Easily the best of the bunch. Foley has GOT IT, he can GET IT, it is GOTTEN ever more. It felt like a celebration of the Wilderness Years, having that sort of weird ambitious vibe. Unlike the other Once and Futures, it took its characters on journeys and did interesting things with them; I especially liked the Vienna bit, doing something different with BF's best character.

Also, the teases to the future were genuinely hype. It's very thrilling seeing the writer weave such a tapestry across his work.

Oh this story was actually so much fun dare I say the best of once and future

definitely a more fun, and less intense ending to the once and future range. despite me thinking initially the range of characters in this would be too much, a lot of it was just cameos so it didn't feel crowded. the interactions between benny, fugitive and war were great and a real treat! it did feel like a set-up in some ways to the fugitive series, and i for one cannot WAIT for that to come out!

That was fun.

The story does feel more standalone from the story arc, but I ended up having a good time anyway.

I wish they addressed what happened to the Master, but eh...

The interactions between characters were great - War and Fugitive being manipulated into fighting each other and Benny not having a clue who is who is so fun.
For some it might seem that there is a lot going on, but in my opinion it doesn't feel overloaded.

*The Union* is still my favourite out of the bunch, but this one wasn't as bad as it could've been. I had a good time.