The guilt of the Time lord

Is It Worth It?: Absolutely. For $10, this is an excellent story.

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

Broken Hearts is frankly exactly what I love about the best Doctor-Companion relationships: it examines deeply the conflict that sometimes arises between them. Here, McMullin takes us on a journey that thoroughly explores both the Doctor and Valerie after their traumatic adventure in The Curiosity Shop. Both give fantastic performances, and I love almost everything about their conversations (or arguments, I should say). Even the setting is amazing; I love how they stumble across a random planet that was besieged by the Time War ages ago (and in an actual Eighth Doctor audio), and I love how that informs their dynamic. This is a supremely satisfying and emotional story, and I love it. In a way, this is the Eleventh Doctor's Scherzo, and that's a huge compliment.

You hurt me...

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

Curiosity Shop is an excellent finale, and frankly the best 11DC yet. The concept is simple: the Doctor has lost his memory and Valerie tries to get him to remember before time runs out and the world is destroyed. The execution, however, is fantastic. Goss demonstrates an innate understanding of the Eleventh Doctor as a character, as his unconscious plan puts Valerie in harm's way and he seems to not quite understand why she's hurt by it. That last ten minutes is excellent, and really Dudman and Ingar act their hearts out (Dudman's impressions of previous Doctors are also pretty good). It's so refreshing to see genuine, well-written conflict between the Doctor and a companion, and have the build up to that conflict be so good. I can't wait to start the next audio here.

Lions, Tigers, and Yearn

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

The Yearn is notable for being far and away the lowest rated 11DC story. I was pretty curious to find out why, and the answer is that this is just a pretty basic base-under-siege tale at its core. Honestly, that's mostly it. I do have a few actual critiques though, mostly concerning the Yearn themselves. The idea behind them is cool, but frankly I found the explanation behind their motives and history to be way too abstract and full of blatant exposition for me to really track it. That scene was certainly not helped by the sound effects behind the alien voices, which were particularly difficult to understand. Other than that though, I liked this story well enough. The side characters are pretty good, Valerie's new romance is cute, and as always Dudman and Ingar are amazing together.

We're all stories in the end, eh?

Prerequisites: New Who Series 7 and the previous Geronimo! boxset.

All of Time and Space is an odd, if pretty great, introductory audio to this boxset (also confusingly titled All of Time and Space). I'll admit, it took a while for me to totally get on board with the entire meta aspect of it, but by the end I was fully invested. While it's true that this story feels like a worse version of Deadline is many ways, being worse than a Robert Shearman audio is nothing to be ashamed about. This is a very admirable foray into the meta-fictional, and I really like the last ten minutes of this. Honestly, this would make for a great episode of the show proper, which is an accomplishment in itself.

I'll have been dead by now yesterday

Prerequisites: Series 7A, and the previous Geronimo! audios for context.

Geronimo! ends off with a rather great story, even if it is a bit overrated. The End features a pretty unique structure, having two concurrent timelines of the same events, with either 11 or Valarie being the one dying. It's remarkably easy to follow, and the tension is suitably brought up. The side characters are fine, although the Time Spiders are a bit boring to be honest. They just seem too similar to other "ancient creatures the Time Lords thought were dead" we've seen. The climax is actually very well handled, featuring a phenomenal scene as 11 accepts his own death for a moment. Other than that, yeah this is a good one.

Robot Riot

Prerequisites: The Inheritance is needed, if only for context as to who Valarie is. This boxset is set after the events of Series 7A, so make sure you've seen that.

The House of Masks is another great entry in this boxset, giving us Valarie's first actual TARDIS trip. Dudman's 11 is as impressive as ever, and his chemistry with Ingar continues to shine. The basic plot itself is really nothing special, but the dialogue is truly what feels notable. There are a lot of actual fun quips that these two have, and I have to give props to Georgia Cook here. As others have said, the villain is actually a bit weak, but what really pulls this audio from good to great is the ending five minutes. Here, we get (to my knowledge) one of the only acknowledgments of the trauma caused by the Time War that Big Finish has produced, and it works really well. Dudman sells the self-loathing stupendously, and it caps this adventure off nicely.

It's all about the money, money, money

Prerequisites: The first half of Series 7 is basically required to understand why 11 cares about who Clara is, but other than that there's no hard prerequisite.

The Inheritance is overall a very good audio, especially considering the somewhat dodgy reputation that most Doctor Chronicles boxsets have. Luckily though, this is a great start to Geronimo!, and it works well on a number of levels. To start, Dudman's 11 really is that good. It's not perfect, but you can quite easily zone out and forget it's not Matt Smith you're listening to, which is a win in my book. Ingar performs Valarie solidly as well, and she and Dudman have great chemistry. The plot itself isn't anything crazy, but it features some truly fantastic emotional scenes with Valerie and her family. It's also got a number of really surprisingly great scenes featuring the darkness that 11 harbors during this time of his life. Overall, I'm quite satisfied, and I look forward to the rest of the set.

This is some fun stuff! Obviously there's not much actual plot, but as a series of short vignettes about the Doctor looking for Clara, this is pretty charming. Dudman's 11 voice is spectacular, and this is a good start to this boxset.

The Last Great Theatrical War

Prerequisites: While everything is technically explained, I'd really recommend being well-acquainted with New Who Time War lore, specifically The Day of the Doctor.

War Stories is a very solid Short Trip; kudos to Patrick Ross! The prose here is nice and pleasant, and Cox's narration is buttery smooth (his Doctor and Bill impressions are fine but unremarkable). The concept here is creative; it immediately strikes me as something that the show itself could do. I also like how this story explicitly acknowledges the grey area in which the Doctor both did and didn't destroy Gallifrey. My only substantial critique here is that the villain here is defeated way too easily, and by merely waving the sonic around. This isn't quite a bad a resolution as The Power of Three, but I wouldn't call it fleshed out. Accepting that, however, this is good stuff. The rapport between Bill and the Doctor is nailed especially well, which I appreciate given the lack of proper Twelfth Doctor content from Big Finish.

Snake Oil

Prerequisites: None needed, although there are some references to the Mara from other stories

The Gloaming marks a decidedly mediocre story to end this boxset on. Nothing was terrible here, but frankly I just wasn't that interested. While I haven't seen the Classic Who serials featuring the Mara, it seems pretty un-engaging as a concept. Maybe it works better given the longer format of Classic? Whatever the case, here, I didn't quite buy it. The side characters are unmemorable, and it's all wrapped up in a basic moral against capitalism (which has been done much better before). Admittedly, there are some bright spots: the Doctor reminding Charlie of their adventures together was a nice moment, and ending the audio on a conclusion that Dekkar was simply too stupid to be possessed by the Mara was pretty funny. All in all, forgettable.