The Union (if adjusted, extended in some ways and unextended in others) is probably what the anniversary as a whole should have been for Big Finish. The cast they chose for this one is excellent. Paul McGann is the Big Finish Doctor, in a way, and so it makes sense for him to finish this off. Coupling him with the most famous Doctor, Tom Baker, is a smart move. Another smart move is having this story involve the Doctor's family, Susan and River Song. And yet another smart move is having the villain be played by another Doctor Who alumni, Maureen O'Brien, whose performance as the titular Union is the highlight of the release.

The story gets unwieldly though when they try to fit all eleven or twelve or whatever doctors into the narrative. Some of the appearances are quick and irrelevant, and others refuse to go away when they have nothing to do, including, weirdly, Jacob Dudman's Peter Capaldi impression, who takes center stage in a way that is a little embarrassing. I could not tell it was supposed to be Twelve for quite a few minutes.

Anyway, despite all that fandom rubbish, this was nearly good. Some sections are superb. If this was  focused more in the right places, this could have been one of the best anniversary specials. But Once and Future in general is a series of "oh, I wish they did that instead..."

This was just alright.  I had some moments with Once and Future - including Past Lives, The Artist at the End of Time, and The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50, but the rest, including the Union, felts a lot more mediocre in comparison.

I'm not sure what the missing ingredient is.  The Eighth Doctor, Susan, and River are all fun, and each get little moments that stay with me.  I love the scene between Susan and the First Doctor who emerges in a brief moment.  In fact, this audio has a rather impressive number of cameos and appearances in a way that definitely makes this audio feel special.  Maureen O'Brien playing The Union was a lot of fun.  However, I hadn't heard Dudman's impression of the Twelfth Doctor and uh, yeah, I can't say I'm a fan.  I couldn't even really tell it was him, to be honest.

Yet it all felt so... unimpressive.  I kept feeling like I was waiting for the story to really dig into something - the Union's mindset, the Doctor being challenged in some way - anything, really, to give this story some weight and meat to it.  Instead it feels like a whole lot of build-up for nothing.  I didn't really get a satisfying pay-off to the degeneration plot line, it feels like it all just sort of lined up with the Union being behind everything, without any real surprise to anything.  If anything, the audio makes it clear that the story didn't really matter at all - nothing of significance happened and nobody is going to remember anything.  That's deeply unsatisfying in a way the better chapters of Once and Future manage to at least dance around even if it is true of the whole range that the stakes are quite low overall.

The writing felt like it was just kind of lazily checking off some boxes - wrapping up the loose plot threads around degeneration, the Monk, and such, in a relatively straightforward way while giving us some crowd-pleasing moments with all the big cameos and stuff.  The Fourth Doctor gets to show himself quite a bit here and that's not objectionable, or even a complaint, but it does feel like it is just there because it can be.

In the behind the scenes content, Nicholas Briggs mentions that this will be the last big Doctor Who crossover he will spearhead creatively, and I found that very welcome news.  Once and Future wasn't bad or anything but stuff like The Union made it feel tired.  The novelty of crossovers and characters meeting like this has long worn off, and I now expect the story to actually do something fun, or really dig deep a little bit.  This crossover event's best part by far was when they put Gomez and Tennant in a recording together and just let them dig into their characters and improvise a little bit.  There's room for new direction in this franchise, but I definitely think Briggs stepping aside a bit, and letting some newer talent take charge of it for the next big anniversary event, will be absolutely necessary if Big Finish is going to pull it off at all.  And I do hope that is the case.

Also, we need more stories with Missy and the Tenth Doctor.  Or maybe Missy can meet the Fourteenth just to leave continuity alone.  That stuff was magic, I still can't get over it.  The Union feels like a footnote in comparison.

Since writing all of this, BillFiler did point out that there is a pretty firm, well-written through-line of the plot where the Doctor really learns to accept himself and his identity.  I've bumped up my score overall a little bit because of that, as it is a part of the story I hadn't really considered in my original review but absolutely is something there and I did register as a listener.  It doesn't change the sour note all the memory stuff generates, or any of the other problems I talked about either, but it's something.  The Union winds up being better than some of Once and Future, but still feels pretty average overall.  It's probably worth a listen (at an affordable price) but nothing I found that special.

A pretty exciting conclusion to the Once And Future arc. Although the answer that the Eleven was responsible for the degeneration weapon isn't too surprising, there are some fun callbacks to the Doctor's 1963 origins here, with the Doctor and Susan during caveman times at one point in the narrative, and references to Ian and Barbara.

It is also nice to hear Susan and River interact, given that they are technically family. It gives The Union a sort-of "Lost In Space" feel, with the Doctor, Susan, and River basically being the TARDIS team of this adventure.

I am still disappointed that it was Jacob Dudman voicing the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors, as opposed to Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi. He does do a good job with Matt Smith, but you can really tell that his Peter Capaldi isn't the real deal.

Nice if not surprising that it was the War Doctor who was hit with the degeneration weapon. It ties in thematically with the idea of the Doctor's incarnations being mostly united, and the War Doctor being the only incarnation they openly reject.

I had fingers crossed after miserable *Time Lord Immemorial*... AND THIS SURPASSED ALL MY EXPECTATIONS!!
First of all, I recently listened to the 8DAs, and it was nice to hear Susan again after such a sad note. God I love this character.
I know that River is the Doctor's wife, but I hated when in some of the episodes she was there just for the flirting jokes. Yet here she is greatly written and helps to move the story forward.
Paul McGann is amazing as the Doctor - Eighth is so good. And all the other Doctors here got time to shine, even some who I wasn't expecting at all.
The Union's reveal was good. I predicted it, but it was good. Maureen O'Brien was good as the Union.
The one was a great surprise for me. Probably my favourite part is when one characters shows up and makes the story go full circle.
And the plot itself actually makes sense, so this one didn't feel disjointed with other crucial parts of this anthology.
I'm excited for Coda.