Unlike the Eighth Doctor's previous story I went into this one knowing absolutely nothing about it and that is perhaps one of the reasons I enjoyed it just as much. Its a completely different beast, as whilst Chimes of Midnight takes place entirely in one location, Seasons of Fear is a rollicking adventure yarn. Its also the first Monthly Series release I've listened to which uses it's individual parts in an interesting way by having large parts of each one set in a different time period.

The set up with the villain (Grayle) boasting, with traditional bad guy arrogance, that the Doctor has already been defeated sets up an enticing mystery for the rest of the episode, and interactions between him and the Doctor are some of the most entertaining back-and-forth's of McGann's tenure up until now. Grayle is a really fun villain and its interesting to see his change to over different points in his development.

We are also treated to the Tardis getting a good run out. It spends most adventures sat in whatever corner it happens to appear in the first ten seconds of the story, so it's nice that it gets utilised. Multi-period stories should be more of thing in my opinion (maybe they are, I've only listened to a fraction of Big Finish releases).

If I had one complaint it would be that I think the elements of the wider ark could have been incorporated slightly better into the story, but this is only a minor issue in what amounts to the second fantastic story in a row for the Eighth Doctor.

A fantastic villain, which is explored and built really well in a story which uses time travel really well. Love the format with the storytelling, framing the story.

i mean. its fine. but i really dont get the hype surrounding this one, each part barely feels like they connect at all

What can I say, I just really really like this story. Fun time travel, fun Eight and Charley moments, fun magical sword, fun villain, fun everything. Not a single dull moment. Zagreus mentioned! 'Doctor who?' asked!!!

An overlooked, stellar early audio. Sebastian Grayling is a sensational villain, so well established that I fully anticipated that he would be in one of the stories that followed - you really get inside his head. (It would have been great if he was the big bad in ‘Neverland’).

Why aren’t more people talking about this?