Even if it takes a little while to get there, I enjoyed seeing the Ninth Doctor display his manipulative (if well-intentioned) side. I feel that Big Finish often lean on his sillier, sarcastic nature, and don’t explore his darkness nearly often enough, but this story manages a good balance of the two.

The Bleeding Heart is fine but nothing particuarly special. The impressions are good, as is the narration. However, the plot itself isn't anything too special. I find it quite forgetable. I also found myself starting to lose interest towards the end.

There's a lot of aspects to The Bleeding Heart I found quite memorable. The idea of this planet where people are forced to feel peace on a spa is interesting enough, and has some layers to it I quite enjoyed. This felt like the right kind of sophisticated for Doctor Who - full of weird alien nonsense but also a lot of fun ideas, creativity, and different alien races.

I am mixed about the story ultimately being a thing with the Time War. On the one hand, it's nice to have fallout stories like this and what was done more recently with the Ten & Classic Companion set. However, I feel like it blunts the mystery of Adrianna slightly, who remains a pretty fun and great one-off companion.

Where it is weaker is in performances. Claire Wyatt's Adrianna elevates things a bit, but Briggs as the Ninth Doctor is pretty rough. I didn't mind it as much with The Other Side, maybe Briggs refines his impression slightly over time or just works with the presence of someone like Bruno Langley from the original show returning, but either way I found Nicholas Briggs much less reliable here as the driving force of narration. I better see why people aren't so keep on it.

Still, I enjoyed the story more than I didn't. The writing salvages what could have been a pretty rough experience, especially since some of the sound effects were a little much for me and didn't add things in what I would consider a positive way. A very average experience overall.

This story is just ok, it’s a decent foreshadowing of how 9 and 10’s adventures tend to go and how the war has affected them

Honestly the bad thing about this story is just how bad the voice of 9 is, it sounds nothing like him and it’s distracting

The Ninth Doctor #1

'The Bleeding Heart' (2017) from The Ninth Doctor Chronicles.

After only one televised season and being bound to Earth and its orbit that whole time, having Nine's story begin on a big alien planet was quite fun go experience. I really enjoyed the storytelling and Briggs performance in this - I think it's my introduction to him as well? The reporter companion is nice and has some good moments with Nine. As the plot goes on, however, I began to lose a little interest in what was going on, especially with Rassilon being brought up and everything, but perhaps on a future revisit it'll work better for me there. Not sure if this really served well as a "first Ninth Doctor story" chronologically, but it's a good enough time nonetheless.