The final volume of the Eleventh Doctor Chronicles is the perfect cap to one of Big Finish's all time great projects. For a range that had previously been decent at best and really only existed to add extra content to the Modern Who Doctors when the actors themselves were unavailable (why else did they sit on the second Tenth Doctor box set since 2020 till the one year David Tennant wasn't recording anything), this run of adventures between the Eleventh Doctor and Valarie Lockwood somehow manages to surpass almost every Modern Who release Big Finish have done. With the reboot of the Ninth Doctor Adventures and the beginning of the Thirteenth Doctor Adventures coming up, time will tell if they've learnt anything from this cos this really should be setting the standards for their Modern Who releases. The Last Stand of Miss Valarie Lockwood serves as the penultimate episode where the Doctor is brought to his ultimate low-point by his greatest enemies, desperate for any solution and the trauma of the Time War weighing more heavily on him than ever before.

This final box set in general does a perfect job addressing the flaws carried from the Eleventh Doctor era and how they handled the Dalek stories which have since carried over to the rest of the show and the Daleks just haven't felt the same since. The Daleks rebuilding their race after so many years of almost going extinct should've been treated with much more weight than how the show handled it, and now the Daleks are at the height of their power, but it's not something that's just told to us, we get a proper showcase in this box set of just how powerful the Daleks truly are.

This episode is mainly Valarie's story as the Doctor leaves her behind with Roanna in a final desperate attempt to stop the Daleks at the cost of his own life. Together Valarie and Roanna share a final moment of love between them as they improvise a marriage before even further heartbreak happens. What follows is one of Safiyya Ingar's best performances as she completes the circle that began all the way back at the series beginning with a shocking reveal as to the true identity of who's been orchestrating the events of the series. There's a bit of a time paradox deal towards the end that some listeners may get confused by but it does help set up the finale and shows that Valarie's story is not quite over yet. Jacob Dudman once again does Matt Smith justice with the final scene giving the Eleventh Doctor his own "No" speech similar to the Ninth Doctor where after two absolute downer episodes with our heroes in the most hopeless situation possible, the Doctor's about to come back with a vengeance!

God, where to even begin.

Lets start at the beginning, I guess that makes sense. Eleven bringing the daleks to the Darinthian System, trying to use the virus to wipe them all out in a final, last ditch attempt only for it to fail really sets the tone of this story incredibly. Roanna finding the wedding rings and Valarie asking her to marry her despite knowing her fate, despite the world collapsing around them, it's just beautiful. The fact they wear the rings despite the blight as well, their love being more important than the pain, the proposal including asking her to divorce her to protect the web of time, it's perfect.

And then we move on to two other last stands, Eleven locking Valarie and Roanna outside the TARDIS as he goes to confront the Daleks, knowing that his success would ensure his death, and Roanna's death holding off the daleks as Valarie makes it to Tim. I love the bit we get of Valarie and Eleven communicating after Roanna's death as well, just before he's set to be sent and killed. It really does fully convey that hopelessness, you can't see any way that the daleks could be defeated here, other than Tim's plan, killing himself to give the surge to Mrs Hendricks instead of the blight.

I also love how again this is building on the lore established in the eleventh doctor's TV stories, an exploding time machine being something that can allow paradoxes to function without issue, and the way it's used here, instead of following the plan having Valarie be the one on the phone, essentially causing her mother's death, having her then come back to the start of the story and unmake the deaths of Roanna and The Doctor, giving them knowledge upcoming events so they can take The Doctor's plan and make it work. God, it's so good.

And once again, one of my favourite parts of this series is when the characters can just sit and talk. Valarie and Roanna's proposal the second time round is just as good, especially with the added weight, the doctor and valarie's conversation about her doing what she had to, especially with this being a pre-Day of the Doctor Eleven, still feeling all that Time War guilt, still choosing to ignore it, it just works brilliantly here, and Eleven taking this Valarie back to Chicago, the fact it means that at least one of her can get the happy ending she deserves, and how it means she can still live her life with both Hayden and Roanna. It's so so good.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that ending. Eleven calling the daleks to let them know that the predator of the daleks is on the prowl, leading into the next story. just, god, everything about this story I absolutely love.

Blightedness

Prerequisites: The previous 11DC audios, and Series 7 of New Who

The Last Stand of Miss Valarie Lockwood is amazing, and easily one of this range's best stories. It's epic, bombastic, and manages to both tie up a number of loose ends from the previous boxsets while also teeing up a great finale to follow. I absolutely adore a lot of individual moments here, but my favorites have to be the very beginning and end. Dudman's performance in both is extremely good, and it just elevates great writing even higher.

MY HEART IS FUCKING SHATTERING

The Last Stand of Miss Valarie Lockwood is the superb penultimate entry in the Doctor & Valarie series. This story is a great first part of a two part finale, and ties up a lot of loose ends to the series as a whole. As a story in its own right, it works very well, with enough twist and turns to keep you guessing. There were a lot of surprises that I didn't see coming, which is hard considering that the series so far has set a lot of pieces in place for this ending. Safiyya Ingar is the MVP of the cast, with a great performance which will wow most listeners. They embody a companion so well that Valarie Lockwood is now up there with my favourite companions from all of Doctor Who.