I'll be honest, I was pretty skeptical going into Death and the Queen.  I knew this was fairly well regarded among the fan community, so when it starts with Donna engaged and the Doctor in full Mister-Grumpy-Pants mode (a trend that weirdly seems to plague the character in Big Finish), I thought I was going to have to get a bit contradictory.

Things didn't look much better when a big head in the sky showed up and wiped out an entire army.  Donna having to explain basic compassion to her new fiance Rudolph had me very confused as to the purpose of this audio and what we were going for here.

Yet it ends up being a fascinating story with a lot of these plot points proving essential in setting up a very interesting second half to the story.  Donna ends up having a dance with Death while the Doctor uncovers a scheme by alien con artists to gobble up a soul.  I really like the detail that the aliens are not that interested in the Doctor, instead valuing the love and sacrifice involved in taking Donna much more.  It was interesting, and the audio does a great job of evoking these powerful visuals just through speech, sound effects, and music alone.  That's kind of the whole point of Big Finish, sure, but I can appreciate when a story does it as well as this one.

What this story, and this boxset, has captured perfectly is the dynamic of Tennant and Tate - the stories utilise their chemistry perfectly, to ensure that the stories are exciting, and flow. Their performances are, similar to their TV series, a highlight of what are already well paced, well conceived, enjoyable stories. This story particularly was a lot of fun - it captured the comedic elements that these characters excel at, in a story which was already well layered, and a fun romp. The supporting characters weren't quite as strong, but were still developed nicely to bring me into the world we were exploring. It captures some of the best components of Doctor Who - bringing in some dark horror concepts, coupled perfectly with the lighter comedic elements. A great story!

Death and the Queen - 7/10

The final story of this boxset was certainly a pleasant end to this run of stories, while it's not the greatest it's definitely the funniest.

I had a lot of fun with this story, it is some of the best comedy i've experienced in a Big Finish so far - it is almost entirely Tennants performance that secures this for me. I love every scene with him in this story it's excellent.

The plot is good and provides an entertaining hour, there's a few twists and turns which are all done well too. I particularly enjoy the giant cloud talking - its an amusing image to say the least.

The entire cast of characters in this story are brilliant, I really like them all but in particular Hortense. Donna and the Tenth Doctor are characterised well here and bounce off each other wonderfully throughout the story I think - they have some great moments.

The setting is super fun too in the fictional empire of Goritania, without giving anything away its an unusual place that even the Doctor himself has never ever heard of.

Overall Death and the Queen gets a 7/10 and is a very solid final story for this boxset, I do have to say its inspired me to want to listen to more of this range.

Saindo um pouco fora de minhas preferencias, decidi ouvir “Death And The Queen” um dos áudios mais aclamados e bem avaliado no catálogo do 10° Doctor na BIG FINISH. Estive diante de uma história que segue perfeitamente os padrões de composição e de comportamento de roteiro bem característicos da era RTD no New Who, dinâmico, frenético tendo como seu maior destaque pitadas certeiras de humor – No papel o enredo parece ser bem estupido flertando até mesmo com um tom cômico que gosto de intitular como "pastelão", mas na prática e a forma como foi entregue e muito bem reproduzida, nos proporciona uma das histórias mais engraçadas da BIG FINISH. Toda a sequência inicial que nos mostra como a Donna se envolveu com o Rudolph e sua preparação para se tornar realeza, suas reações, as mordomias exageradas recebidas, é incrivelmente hilário e muito engraçado com direito aquele tom ácido humorístico característico da companion. É interessante notar que inicialmente temos a “Morte” sendo uma figura totalmente amedrontadora, um provável vilão implacável, mas conforme o tom cômico surte efeito e atinge o antagonista, acaba tornando sua postura maléfica em um completo estupido constrangido – Um bom exemplo disso, é quando o 10° Doctor afronta o vilão pedindo a justificativa do real motivo de sua presença. Em resumo, eis aqui um ótimo "estupido" passatempo com uma excelente performance de todo o cast envolvido, David Tennant ainda em forma e Catherine Tate dispensa comentários. Tenha certeza que vai se divertir muito e tirar muitas risadas se entender a real proposta cômica de Death And The Queen...Caso contrário, ainda vai achar estupido, mas não no bom sentido.

Obviously Ten and Donna have a lovely dynamic in this, all the comedy works very well. Overall, really solid characters and a creative plot that very well could have been a TV episode.