The Box of Terrors

Gosh, I just loved the Box of Terrors. This is a very... we'll say fan-friendly story, featuring two Doctors, two Sarah Janes, Omega, the Eleven, the Rocketmen, AND two Masters, this is the sort of story that basically wouldn't work outside of the form of an audio novel. There's so much going long that if it were any shorter, the story would surely feel overwhelming, but I feel overall a good amount of justice is done for all the aforementioned characters and more, including a couple of other Time Lords that stood out a bit in the story for me.

The most impressive aspect of this has to be Jon Culshaw. I knew he could do a good Third Doctor, but had no idea how effective he could be as the Fourth Doctor, Omega, and even the Geoffrey Beevers Master. He really brings the characters and story to life through his narration and it is nothing short of exceptional, however, I do feel the impressions he is good at are so strong that when it comes to characters he doesn't really have a good voice for - namely Sarah Jane or other female characters - come across as comparatively much weaker.

Honestly though, the minor quibbles I have about this audio here and there are just that - minor. By and large, this story was thoroughly entertaining and I just loved it. This works as a great pseudo-sequel to the Three Doctors while also introducing an interesting new setting of this strange, hellish prison planet of sorts called the Sand Box. It brings in enough Big Finish ideas that it does feel a little niche, but if you know what the story is talking about and going for this is fabulously entertaining. For a 60th anniversary project, it feels very appropriate, too. We've seen many Doctor crossovers by now but this one feels fun and fresh. The Third and Fourth Doctors are fun together but also have a lot of good moments with the two Sarah Janes - and I think the latter is really interesting of an idea - with one character more mature than the other, and listening to them puzzle through this and eventually working together was great. Sarah launching around in a jet pack felt quite fitting for her. Aspects of all this are a little clunky and the ending feels slightly underwhelming because of continuity needs to basically reset most of the characters, but the journey to get to this ending makes it more than worth it.

I definitely enjoyed the audio and would recommend it as a purchase, especially if you can get it for a good price!