Wow. Just wow.

Disassembled is a masterclass in this form of storytelling, I absolutely adore it.

Last time, we had 'what if Gallifrey were capitalist', this time it's a classic 'what if they were fascists', and in the Spirit of Inferno, you can't help but love to see what our core cast would become in that environment. Seeing these time lords being fully in on intervening is terrifying, the story opening on just such casual use of the De-mat Gun really does just set the stakes for this story, and the danger our core cast are in.

The alternate versions of cast we see as well are just great. Our Romana has had moments where it seems she might take the darker path, but she never quite falls to it, and even when she does, it's always done with the best of intentions, meanwhile the one we see here has fully fallen into the 'ends justify the means' mindset. Our Leela was able to find a home on Gallifrey as herself, the Interrogater General modifed her life on Mordee so that she fit in better here, while no longer a 'savage', her actions are more savage than our world's Leela ever was.

And then there's Lord Burner. I love the misdirection we get with him initially helping our crew, finding his way back to the Axis. The fact we think the paradox is happening from the Interrogator General being in the Axis alongside Narvin, whom she killed on her world (which is another thing they do that I love), but then the eventual reveal about what the title of Lord Burner truly means, Brax confiding the history of the position of Romana, and the lore implications of what he says. I absolutely adore that Brax was the burner, and I love his mention of the refusal to kill The Doctor, instead killing the president and making it look like an accident. Brax has already somewhat been built up as this all powerful all knowledgable figure, but this moment really does just bring it to the forefront, and makes you question the danger a person like him could pose.

I also love Brax and Burner's confrontation, Brax's line as he falls into the portal paralleling The Master in Planet of Fire, with the implication here being very clear. And then the bit at the end, with Brax meeting Benny for the first time (in his timeline) makes me want to listen to her stories more than I think anything else I've seen her in has done.

Overall, yeah, this story was incredible, and once again I'm so so glad I started listening to this series.

Deadwood is... well, it's fine.

To be completely honest, deadwood feels like what the Case Files should have been from the start of things. Honest to god short films which, sure, aren't anything to write home about, but you can feel the appeal, fan-films born out of a love of the series and a desire to have fun with it, rather than push to put content out to get money and stay relevant.

That all said, because it's coming after the other case files, where it is so clear that they're not just made for the joy of it, it just doesn't work for me as well as it should.

Watching this story, as much as I'd love to be coming at it from the perspective of it being a fan film, seeing the fun that people are having, laughing with it at moments that are unintentionally funny, I'm coming at it from the perspective of it being a case file. I'm not laughing with the story when things are off, I'm laughing at it, I don't see the actors having fun, I see Baggs wanting to get paid. There's a whole four actors in this thing, and unlike other fan films where I wouldn't give a second thought to that, I'm shocked that Baggs actually (hopefully) paid three other people to be in this.

The plot itself is fine, nothing to write home about, but there's some nice nods to history, and I can appreciate what it's going for, but that's kind if where my appreciation ends.

I think when you have more to say about everything surrounding the story than the text of the story itself, there's a problem, and unfortunately all I can think to talk about with the case files is the real world 'story' surrounding them.

Reborn is a spectacular start to Gallifrey IV!

This story almost reminds me of some of BF's later output, specifically Stranded and The Dimension Cannon, though with the focus here being on alternate Gallifreys rather than alternate earths, it's done in a way that, despite being older than the aforementioned series', feels so much more fresh and unique.

This alternate Gallifrey where futures are used as currency, and the high council is selling Time Travel for profit is beautifully bleak. There's many a dystopian story featuring an Earth that's fallen to a similar fate, but seeing it here happening to one of the most powerful peoples in the universe is something else. We don't need to hear the consequences this would have on the world, we know it from how we've seen the Time Lords avoid doing just that in the previous three seasons.

The heart of Gallifrey however is, and continues to be, our core cast: Narvin, Leela, Romana, Brax, and, of course, K9. Each and every one of them get something to do here and it's all brilliant. Leela becoming this world's leader, though more so she can be used as a scapegoat than for anything else, with K9 as Castallan (which was absolutely hilarious). Romana and Brax visiting this world's Romana, an excellent chance for exposition and character exploration, and even more than that a beautiful excuse to get Mary Tam back. And Narvin, poor Narvin, seemingly having his future regenerations stolen from him. You really feel for him, especially the way his story ends, the others not knowing what's happened and mocking him as usual, things being different this time, but he can't bring himself to tell them.

The villian here, Antonin, is the unfortunate weak point of this story for me personally, his links to Romana are interesting and bring about some great character moments for her, both of her, but overall I was personally much less interested in him, and more in everything that was going on in the rest of that Gallifrey. Still, his motivations, what he'd sacrificed for his place on that world, was interesting to hear.

Overall, sure I've got a minor gripe, but even then I overall enjoyed that bit, and even with it, this season has started off with a bang!

This was again just such a delight to read.

The worldbuilding here is really interesting, it's great to see the PROBE side of the DWU fleshed out a bit more, the PoV character being not only someone who was infected with Cyberon (a character from a previous Arcbeetle/BBV short story collection), but also being a member of the JDS, an organisation described as US PROBE. None of that world building feels forced, as I could see it being in a story this short, it's just naturally integrated in a way that works.

I also think the connection between our two leads is really interesting to see, Maxie obviously not being of this world, though not having told her colleagues and unable to talk about it freely, and Brittany being not completely human anymore with the cyberon infection. The way they talk, both clearly closed off to the rest of the world, but able to open up to each other about everything is just really sweet, and again, I think focusing on character is the best way to write these shorts.

As for the actual plot and threat, it's exactly what it needs to be for the story. I think the amount of detail of the backstory messes with the pacing a tad, but other than that the general vibe of it really works, almost a spy thriller short with alien aspects. While the resolution does also seem to come a little out of nowhere, it's also using the entire mcguffin the plot has been centered on, so it doesn't feel like a Deus Ex Machina.

Overall, yeah, just a fun little romp which I found great!

Maxie is absolutely my favourite member of NuPROBE, and this story does a great job on showing why.

Once again we've got a more character focused piece here, Tasha and Maxie out on their own investigating a forest that makes people come back different. It's a classic setup, but the execution here just makes it work really well.

The idea of this place that knows what a forest is meant to be, but can't quite replicate it is great, the visuals of grass not moving when you step, or an old well not leaving any grime on your hands, are a brilliant way to lead you into the idea that something's wrong, before you're then thrown things that are increasingly out of place, the giant cliff, the ship, the burning house, everything being strange and out of place, and the way that it's slowly built up just adds a certain vibe to it.

I love the idea of the forest preying on people's worst days, and that we get to see what that means for Tasha, not only hearing some of her past, but seeing it. I love that the solution is acceptance, going back into the woods and facing what really happened. And I love the ending, the idea of something not being able to work on an alien is one that's been done a lot in the past, but cliche as it can be, it works for me really well here, it was set up previously to be fair, with Maxie quoting back exactly what was said to her about 'the human soul'.

Focusing on character in these sorts of shorts tends to work best for me, and here I think it's done really well.

Another story focusing more on the side-cast of the PROBE team, and I love it.

This take on PROBE sort of starts to show some more signs of what Arcbeetle would do later with SIGNET (at least what I've heard of it). The alien here very much being a threat, we see as much in the story's opening, giving us its PoV really helps you understand the danger it poses, but it's also out of place, not misunderstood, but misunderstanding. PROBE here want to protect people, yes, but they also want to figure out a way to help the alien as best they can.

The previous few stories have show monsters that can't be reasoned with, or forces from beyond this world that we can't begin to understand, but here, it genuinely feels like given time, and were what ends up happening not to have happened, they could have forged a connection with this alien.

Dalek War has been a pretty bumpy road overall, hell, Dalek Empire so far has been, but there's one thing that's always kept me coming back to this series (apart from the TARDIS Guide Clubs): Karlendorf.

Here, Karlendorf truly comes to center stage, we learn more of his motivations, his reasonings, he's never presented a bastion of morality, but his morals are clear and unshakeable. Honestly from the way he's presented, he sometimes feels more like a force of nature than a character, an oncoming storm, if you will, and the way this story is told, being uncovered by historians as a tale from thousands of years ago just adds to that larger than life character he builds up for himself.

Albie's death here surprisingly kind of just doesn't affect the story, almost proving how much of a secondary character he really was in Dalek Empire. It's almost a shame, but also yeah, I just don't really feel anything about it at all.

But back to Karlendorf, I think the two best scenes in this story are him talking to the leaders of the two dalek factions. His conversation with The Mentor especially is really interesting. The way The Mentor is characterised here, not as a good dalek, still a monster in the way that she and her daleks have treated planets that didn't join the war, but still somewhat reasonable. There's a cruel logic to her actions, and you can really see how the differences between her and davros ended up creating such similar yet different daleks. Her and her daleks, to me at least, feel like what you would get if you replaced the rage and fury of N-Space's daleks, with a cold pragmatism. I love that they choose to leave, not because they think they'd loose, but because they can forsee that the conflict would lead to death for everyone, and that Karlendorf would let that happen rather than give in.

And then the final confrontation with the Susan-Emperor. The tale that the historians are telling in the future of the story that inspired Karlendorf, Karlendorf's plans all coming together, forcing Susan to the forefront and using her connection to the emperor to the daleks, to kill them all in one fell swoop. Karlendorf killing countless millions of lives, dalek and otherwise as all dalek technology is destroyed. Where the Ninth Doctor refused to kill all people on earth to wipe out the daleks, Karlendorf doesn't hesitate to wipe out solar systems.

Victory or Death.

How else was a Dalek War meant to end, I suppose.

A spectacular finale to the series, and I'm so glad I stuck with it for that.

A beautiful little bottle episode that I don't think could have been made at any other point in the show's history.

Firstly, I want to praise the episodes titles, The Edge of Destruction going into The Brink of Disaster feels very Revival Season 9 to me, and in the best way possible.

This story is just so strange and I kind of love that, there's a real sense of tension and building dread. These characters the audience would've been coming to get to know and love over the last 2+ months are now trapped together, and the worst is being brought out in them. I've seen others comparing it to Midnight or Class' Detained, and I absolutely agree that this feels very much like a precursor to those, but I love that here, unlike Midnight, The Doctor is almost the antagonist of a lot of the story here.

When I say that it's a story you couldn't tell at any other point in the show's history, The Doctor is the main thing I'm talking about, he's brash and rude, and even effectively threatens to kill Ian and Barbara at one point. This story wouldn't work with any other doctor, you just wouldn't believe that he'd do that, but here, where the character's not fully formed yet, where he's still a mystery, you really don't know what he's willing to do.

It's also a great story to help showcase the wide variety of stories that can be told with the show. Often-times the new series will start with a trio of episodes, one in the past, one the present, one the future, and here, The Edge of Destruction finishes out that trilogy that the first two eras of the show tend to do. An Unearthly Child shows the past, The Daleks shows the future, and The Edge of Destruction is more of a 'sidestep'.

The character acting here is also great here, I especially love the way The Doctor uses a light to explain what happened to Susan, or the moment where he admits to Ian that they only have five minutes, and they both sort of share a moment.

The only reason this isn't higher is that, where other stories are somewhat let down by the stylings of the time, I feel this story is really let down by it. I think different camera angles, or more use of darkness could have really improved this story, but of course that wasn't the done thing at the time.

So the last thing I want to mention then, it Barbara. The way she stands up for herself against The Doctor, how she's not taking any ■■■■ from him, even when Ian is so ready to forgive and forget, she's not, she needs to hear that apology, and she can't move on in their relationship without it, it's a great point of characterisation which I just adore, and absolutely moves Barbara up my companion ranking

I think more than any other story in the collection so far, this is the one that's suffered the most from the limited page count.

Unlike the other stories so far that have told stories of more small-scale or personal conflicts, while on the surface The Last Few Pages seems to be doing so with Agamya, the level of stakes that are being dealt with here are much higher, and, unfortunately, don't get as much time to be explored. Everything we do get with Agamya, from her lying to Az, to her response to seeing her family, to the very end with her confrontation with Giles, is great, but it feels somewhat overshadowed by the extreme stakes, setup for future stories, and callbacks to older ones.

Erasmus Gretorix is a really interesting antagonist, and I think does a great job of paralleling PROBE itself. PROBE as an organisation are frequently in over their heads, barely making it out by the skin of their teeth, and Erasmus here is very much the same, dabbling with powers far beyond him, and unlike PROBE, he doesn't make it out.

In short, I like pretty much everything this story has to offer, but I just wish we were able to have more time with everything. Each part of this story deserves just a little more to really flesh it out, and the medium it's within just doesn't give it that space to breathe unfortunately.

Now this is a story I really enjoyed.

I'm a big fan of Arthurian legend, so this, bringing characters from legend into the present, dealing with the repercussions of events from years back, and then also introducing new characters in the modern day, a half-dead hacker who tries to cultivate an aura of mystique but in reality being a ray of sunshine, it's just a really fun story.

I really like how the flashback sequences are interspersed with the main story, and some of the descriptions of the monster are really interesting. The way it's defeated as well I think is a really fun twist and makes it all the more unique, it also ties in thematically to the ideas of myth and legend that the story's already playing with, which is another thing that just makes it work.

I also really enjoyed the epilogue, using The Doctor while legally not doing in that way is just a lot of fun, and I think the characterisation here is pretty interesting!