Possibly the most I've ever been genuinely unsettled by a Big Finish piece thus far. Grounded in reality, outright horrifying, and little depressing. The writing in this is absolutely excellent, performed by a cast all at the top their game. It is the War Master range at its darkest and most mature, it is not one I would play in front of little ones. Big Finish are exemplary of how well the horror genre can work in the audio medium when fronted with dark, twisted characters such as The War Master. Superb story.

📝6/10 → ACCEPTABLE!

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

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: “THE SITTER”

The Sitter is an intimate and eerie little character piece. It’s another story told by the War Master in his secret chamber, but this time, we follow parts of the story through the characters, Dorothy Stubbs and her sitter Marina, who are plagued by a strange being coming to visit every night. Derek Jacobi's voice is such a delight to listen to, and the performances enhance the key aspects of the narrative.

All three main performances are flawless, and the simple sound design and beautiful music help to build this calm but creepy atmosphere. The story occasionally veers away on tangents, but it maintains a certain level of tension through its ghastly mystery and tragic turns. In the final third, it turns gradually darker and more intense.

A pitch perfect ghost story that the War Master regales us with. Genuinely creepy, and Jacobi is such a delight to listen to, he always is and elevates lesser stories, but this is such an stellar script for him to work with. Having the Master manipulate events by seeming an innocent, sweet old man is territority this series has well tread, but with the right execution, as this story is, it can still be used to excellent effect. All the other cast put in excellent performances too, Annette Badland giving a great performance as usual, and Maya Saroya playing the unfortunate protagonistic pawn in the Masters scheme. The ending maintains the threat of menace and makes this another stand out in an already quality range.

He's sitting there... menacingly!

Prerequisites: None needed

The Sitter is easily the strongest story in the boxset so far. I'm still not a huge fan of the whole 'The Master is telling stories' structure, but this particular story is great. It's actually creepy, features some great performances, and is quite well paced. Plus, the ending is super good; really, this is back to the normal level of quality of what I'd expect from this range.

I finished this last night and physically had to sit with it for a while like WOW JUST WOW MS HOPLEY MORE SCARY PLEASE