The villains trilogy begins with "Omega" and it's absolutely brilliant. The story greatly expands on Omega's character and backstory, while cleverly still leaving some things unclear, his characterisation is fantastic and Ian Collier, reprising the role from "Arc of Infinity", plays omega brilliantly. Peter Davison is given a lot of interesting things to do in this story and his performance is brilliant.

The story is fantastic, it keeps you second guessing until the very end, and has several incredible twists, the main twist of the story in particular was genius and is one of those twists that changes everything. This story is a must listen, as is the whole Villains trilogy.

Perhaps the moral of this story is that you should never meet your heroes. Or maybe your heroes should never take your corporeal form?

This story provides a great example of a world that would be difficult to show on TV but which works well on audio - it’s hard to imagine how they would have visually represented The Doctor’s conversations with Omega.

Most of the awkward comedy of this story lands well. The fact that The Doctor you've been following through the first three parts of the story is not the real Doctor is quite a monumental twist! But the complex plot is quite hard to figure out without rewinding back some key scenes. To the point that towards the end a character essentially turns to camera and explains what's going on.

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

"Omega: A Tale of Time Lords and Betrayal”

The Fifth Doctor encounters the legendary Omega once more in this audio drama, the first in a trilogy of villain-centric stories. Set against the backdrop of a peculiar historical tour, the narrative explores how fictional reenactments blur into reality as Omega manipulates events to facilitate his return. His earlier, ambitious scientist self takes centre stage, offering fresh insights into his tragic fall from grace.

The plot’s strength lies in its character dynamics. The relationship between Omega and the Doctor is richly layered, with parallels drawn between their shared Time Lord heritage and contrasting moral choices. This nuanced exploration of the Doctor’s darker tendencies is rare for pre-Time War incarnations, making it a standout element.

Professor Ertikus, a delightful addition to the cast, provides both comic relief and intellectual sparring for the Doctor. His enthusiasm for uncovering Omega’s truth mirrors the eagerness of my favourite, Chronotis from Shada, and adds a touch of whimsy to the story. His untimely demise at Omega’s hands in Part 3 is a poignant moment, further raising the stakes.

Ian Collier reprises his role as Omega from Arc of Infinity, delivering a performance brimming with menace and pathos. While he doesn’t match Stephen Thorne’s operatic intensity, Collier’s portrayal brings a quieter, more introspective menace to the character, making his desperation and manipulation deeply compelling.

The story shines brightest in its final act, where a clever twist reveals Omega’s use of the Doctor’s biological imprint to frame him for murders. This revelation reframes the entire narrative, injecting tension and urgency as the real Doctor only steps into the spotlight in Part 4. However, the climactic stretch, though impactful, feels overly drawn out at 40 minutes.

Omega’s supposed marriage to Sentia offers a darkly humorous subplot, though its absurdity recalls the twisted dynamic of the Master and Lucy Saxon in The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords. The closing moments, featuring an agent of the Celestial Preservation Agency, add a surreal but intriguing coda, hinting at the Doctor’s enduring legacy among the Time Lords.

📝Verdict: 7.69/10

Big Finish celebrates 40 years of Doctor Who with a tale of twisted history, dark reflections, and a renegade Time Lord's desperate bid for freedom.

Omega is a slow-burn exploration of the titular villain’s psyche, balanced by strong character interactions and a late-game twist that revitalises the plot. While the pacing sags in parts, its introspective tone and compelling performances make it a worthy addition to Big Finish’s celebratory releases. 

Random Observations:

• It's weird how the Doctor claims he is pushing 900 years of age here, which would mean he’s barely aged between his fifth and his ninth incarnations.

I feel like the odd ones out here, because some of the criticism I hear are some of the strongest points for me. It’s definitely much more flawed as a Story than the other two that follow, but, and this is a big “but”, as BF goes for that time period, I think they nailed it (for the most part).
Especially the first Half of the Story is incredible. Ending with such a good Cliffhanger Ending, easily one of my favorites. The second half loses some of its focus and at times can be frustrating, still the good outweigh the bad for me.

A Highlight here is easily Ian Collier, who returns from Arc of Infinity and while there is a point to make that every time Omega returned, they didn’t nail him as they did the first time. For me while weaker, it’s still an improvement over Arc and gives Collier more quiet Moment, which he works much better than the more shouty approach we are used to Omega. Some Exploration of Omega was done rather well, I thought, even if at times it fell into the trap of the Timelord feeling too much like human society. They are at some of their best, when we get the more alien aspects to them.

Davison gives here a stellar Performance, the other Voices do a solid job and nobody fells too out of place.

As far as a first Who Script goes (Fountain apparently wrote a Benny Short Story before, but this is its own thing entirely), I think it’s marvelous, despite being consumed by some of its ambition.

This was a very interesting but uneven audio.  There's parts I really like about Omega.  It feels like Davison and Collier don't get a ton of time together here but when they do it's memorable and often quite interesting.  For plot-relevant reasons there's a clear comparison drawn between the Doctor and Omega.  I feel like that aspect was done quite well.  I also like the angle of Omega's history being viewed through a historical tour.  That made for a fun setting and a very unique (but welcome) take on Time Lord society.

There's also a really cool scene that stuck with me for some reason.  A medical droid witnesses his patient being strangled.  Practically panicking, it tries to stop the altercation verbally before suspending its "Hippocratic protocols" and knocking the assailant down.  It's just some nice, clean writing that adds some colour to the world and some character to what would otherwise be a very neutral figure in the story.  Little touches like that, I think, inform the better side of Omega as an audio.  As a villain, he also gains quite a few dimensions.  His feelings around a supposed genocide he committed are very interesting, getting outright violent and angry when his girlfriend brushes aside the severity of his crimes.  Yes, it is weird Omega has a girlfriend here.  Let's get into that a bit.

Because Omega is kind of a slog.  Aside from some memorable aspects, details, and scenes in the audio, the actual, overall experience is pretty middling.  Omega has this relationship with a character named Sentia and it didn't really work for me.  I really struggled to take her character seriously and just wasn't having fun with her.  All I get from Sentia is that she's in love with Omega and acts increasingly unstable about it.  It makes for a terrible villain and a flat, undeveloped character.  Omega's also got this whole possession thing going on too, there's a murder mystery plot, and it's doing all those other things mentioned above.  The story often feels bloated and unfocused, with too many lacklustre characters and ideas getting in the way of the solid potential otherwise here.  A lot of scenes worked for meIt does hold together overall though.  There's enough sense of structure I was entertained most of the time.  It just feels like Omega could have been a lot more.

That genocide bit felt undeveloped, for example.  It turns out this was actually one of the Doctor's memories that slipped into Omega's mind.  Fine, but we learn about this last minute near the end, so all that stuff just feels like it blunts the whole point of that side of the story up until now.  Then Sentia warps herself and Omega back to the Anti-matter universe.  The status quo is returned, and I am left feeling thoroughly underwhelmed.