A refreshing change of pace from the previous story, in Alien Arena there's actual conflict, in interesting hook that's used as more than just a backdrop for the choose your own adventure, one that make your decisions feel like they matter.

I have no idea if there are actually any 'bad endings' in this story, but the thrill of the choices I made certainly made it seem like there could be.

Most importantly of all though, in this book the choices that you make are actual choices that your character makes, not just random things that happen in the world around you. It's the bare minimum for a choose your own adventure, but this one does at least manage that. All the choices that you make also actually feel like they'd be impactful, whether or not they actually are is another matter, I'm not sure on that, but here at least I wasn't frustrated enough with any choices to check and realist they weren't.

Unfortunately the ending I got here still feels rather abrupt, and you can get through it in like 10 minutes making it feel like more of a short story than a novel, but it's my short story, and that does give it some points.

Weapon of Choice - 7/10

I'm not grabbed yet, but I am intrigued.

I'm a big fan of these types of sci-fi or fantasy political dramas, so already got me on that front, and I think that it's done really well here. The idea of a 'rubbish bin' of all unlicensed time travelers is a fun setting, it's a bit of a shame they don't do more with it, but it's not really the focus of the story so it makes sense.

The opening 10 minutes especially is a great hook into the rest of the story, and it's nice that they give that sort of opening that works well regardless of any prior knowledge of characters or setting.

That said, that's the main complaint I have so far, the characters all seem interesting, this is my first real Brax story and he's great here, but it just sort of puts you into the middle of things on this one without you getting as much of a chance to know the characters and I'd hope for. Granted with the inquest into Romana II coming up I'm sure that's something the rest of the stories do, and they likely just wanted something a bit more thrilling to hook people in, which makes sense.

The ending also leaves a few different plot threads open which all intrigue me, and I can't wait to listen to the rest!

In a word, disappointing.

The Spaceship Graveyard consistently promises to be more interesting than it is. The eventual setting, we find out, is a graveyard of spaceships that have had their energy drained to prevent the planetoid from falling into a black hole. It's a great setting that ends up mostly just being a backdrop for your meaningless decisions.

When I say meaningless decisions, I thoroughly mean in, multiple times two decisions lead to exactly the same result, and then same next set of choices, which makes the choose your own adventure side of this feel underwhelming. Additionally, the vast majority of decisions made in this book aren't decisions made by you, they're decisions about the world you find yourself in. Does the corridor open into the captain's quarters or the bridge? What do I know, why do I care? That's not something my character should be able to control.

The most frustrating part is that all the endings you can reach are nearly the same bar two, and the only way to get onto the path that leads to those two is one of those decisions that your character should be able to affect.

On the one hand, there's only so much you can do with a book in 100 pages, let alone a choose your own adventure book, but this ends up failing as both a story and a choose your own ad venture story (the latter in multiple ways).

I really like it when we get a non-western historical, and it's done really well here. There's definitely a fair bit of playing into the martial monk stereotype, but I think at least with the reveal it definitely works here.

Generally this was a really fun story, the idea of sontarans using post hypnotic suggestion to make monks killers and take over the world does feel a little outside their normal wheelhouse, but it's explained in the comic itself that they're unable to clone themselves, so it works, training people to kill (though killing most of those they train themselves in the final battle), so that they can rule does work pretty well, and I love that it's genuinely a surprise when they show up, but one that still works.

I also really like K9 using a recording to turn off the 'kill switch' at the end, it's a fun use of K9's abilities and one you wouldn't think of at first when reading the comic, but makes complete sense as a counter in retrospect

Now this is another just delightful story (provided you don't think too hard about the villian having gone through an eternity of torment and just take the comic's word that she must've been evil enough to deserve it.

The idea of a 'blank universe' where anything you think gets created is great, I've seen similar things before but how it's done here is delightful. The back and forth conflict between The Witch and Four almost reminded me of The Oldest Game from Sandman. The ending with Four tricking her into imagining her imprisonment, trapping her again, is inventive and works really nicely.

Sharon again doesn't get too much to do here, but is at least present which is a change from the last one.

The very end of the comic does feel really weird though, aging Sharon up from 16 to 20 is... an interesting creative choice. I'm a little worried for what it means of the future of the comic, are they going to give her romantic interests and that because she's still mentally just 16. It's a really weird thing that is just kind of glossed over

Sharon, our new companion, get her first outing here and gets to do..... absolutely nothing, it's like they just forgot she was there.

The wereloks are fairly bog standard monsters, but they're pretty fun for what they are and there's some good moments with them. Their initial attack infecting some people who they let get away to turn when they're on the inside, and I think the highlight of the story was Four's turning into a werelok for a minute. I like how he uses the TARDIS as a lab, it taking three months to make the cure, but him them coming back in 10 minutes real time. That whole sequence of the monster within destroying the equipment to stop him while he's fighting for control, K9 zapping him when he goes too far, is great.

And then there's the Daleks..... Their plan here just feels really off, they're using the wereloks to clear the planet, reasonable so far, but they want to turn it into a breeding ground? It's never really explained why they want to use New Earth for it and not anywhere else, if anything there's reasons given that it might not be a good idea with new Earth being smaller than Earth. Also like, is there anything wrong with Skaro at this point in continuity? And then on top of that, they want to take parts of other creatures and add them to daleks to make them even more sly or cunning or whatever they're taking, which like, goes against the entire point of the daleks?

The hypnotised werelok also just didn't work for me, he keeps too much of his personality and that to feel like he's just been hypnotised, it feels like they wanted to use one as a temporary companion, but didn't want to have to introduce a good one because that goes against them too much and so they just did this which ends up feeling a little lazy.

There's a bit more flair put into this one than most others, but it still ends up mostly falling a little flat for me.

The kids all playing parts as they're doing the investigation is pretty fun, and it starts out realistic enough, but when Jorjie and Starkey get involved suspension of disbelief is taken a little far, then again, it's later revealed that the villain saw through the disguises so I can't really hold it against the episode if it knows they're not believable and uses that.

I like the idea that The Department want K9 for his regeneration abilities, it's a fun change on Drake's wanting K9 because ???????

Unfortunately the rest of the episode is a little weak, the clown robots are just sorta there, and the ending being that the plan fails because K9 is nigh indestructible just undercuts any tension there ever was, because the evil plan was just never going to work no matter what.

I'm not the only one that was reading Taphony and Jorjie as gay for a minute right?

Regardless, this is a genuinely pretty solid story, the chemistry between Taphony and the rest of the main cast is great, the scene where they're all playing catch and Taphony is messing about with her time powers is really fun and helps to endear her to the viewer.

Speaking of that scene, these are some of the best effects the show has had, both visual and practical. The makeup and prosthetics on Jorjie and Gryphen respectively are great, and I really like the snappy movements for Taphony's powers.

It has a good lesson too, teaching kids about friendship is great, and even if it all got undone, it's still heartwarming that at least K9 remembers.

Also god damn it, they're doing the thing again where they're just so incredibly close to good world building!!

Gryphen was part of a human experiment that The Department did on a child!? What the f**k, that's insane in the best possible way, and I'll never be able to see this character in the same light again.... and it's never going to be addressed again, ever.

I rated Little Rose Riding Hood as a fairy tale not a story, so I'm unfortunately going to have to do the same here.

As a story, I loved this, Two dropping in on a space station that protects the galaxy from Cybermen, it's crew distrustful of him, and him ending up Pied Pipering the invading Cybermats off the ship, what's not to love?!

As a fairy tale though... Firstly, again, I find it hard to believe Time Lords would tell Fairy Tales like this about The Doctor. The Doctor as a ghost story sure, but why tell stories of The Doctor as a hero? This also has too much dialogue for a fairy tale in my option, and even ignoring that dialogue it's written more like a kid's short story with a twinge of fairy tale, than an actual fairy tale.

Most frustrating to me though is the art. Now, the art in the series is absolutely beautiful, and here's no exception, but there's a big problem with it for me. At one point in the story, there's mention of one of the Cybermats having it's antenna shot off, but the Cybermats depicted in the art are the Closing Time Cybermats, which don't have antenna. It might be nitpicking but I don't know, especially in a kid's book, it feels like the art really matters.

Again, rating this as a story, much higher, but rating this as a fairy tale, it's not the best.

I can see this being told as a fairy tale to time lord children, it's basically just a retelling of Hansel and Gretel, and this time the Doctor Who twist on it still feels more fairy-tale.

Sure it's an alien planet, an alien threat, and there's technology mentioned, but the core of it is still much the same, and the Krillitane is seen as much more witchy through the lens of a child, which i think works to this story's benefit!

If I could give this a 6.5, I definitely would.

Comparing this to the TV story that adapts it is a real struggle, I think the plot itself is better here, but because of the format it does lose out on some of the charm, and this is the first of the Doctor Who Magazine comics where I feel the art is really working against the story rather than adding to it.

The Meep looks as cute as he can with the art style, but I can't help but wonder if a different style would be able to create an even better contrast between him and the Wrath Warriors or even just both sides of him.

I also think the Doctor Who comics are at their best when telling stories you can't imagine being done on screen (or at least not at the scale they're done on the page), and nothing here particularly stands out as impressive for me on that front here, I could definitely see this being a story they tell on TV, not only because of the obvious, but even just, I can imagine them telling this story on TV back with Tom Baker.

Overall, this is a strong 6/10, but it doesn't do enough for me personally to push it over to a 7/10

Honestly this is half for that first part alone, that's genuinely haunting, it's like The Happiness Patrol dialed up to eleven.

The worldbuilding and haunting imagery that comes with it would already be enough for this story to be great, The Doctor bringing emotion back to an emotionless world is a great premise, but then it goes and does even more with it than I'd expected.

The ZEPO are admittedly a little silly, but Doctor Who is at it's best when it's silly, and I think they're a really interesting part of the story. A people who've been forced to live without emotions, knowing that they want to feel, but not understanding how to, so each of them choosing just a single emotion to take on and keep alive. It's a great bit of worldbuilding that paradoxically makes somehow makes the resistance feel even more real through how cartoonish they are.

And then they use this as a commentary not only on the need for emotions, but the pain they can cause to others as well with Big Hate releasing essentially a biblical plague on the city out of frustration towards the moderators. The Doctor gives people back their emotions which conveniently stops it, but in that attack so many people are killed, there's a haunting panel showing how for some it came just too late, a man violently squishing the bugs as his wife's skeleton is covered in them in the background. Imagine your first emotion being that mix of grief and rage, it's just brilliantly written.

The black and white art style as well works perfectly, I've had a quick look at some of the colourisations, and while I think it adds a little to The Iron Legion, it just takes away from this story, the almost clinical nature of the monochrome art adds so much to the world of the story.

Also couldn't find anywhere else to mention it, but the designs of the Brains Trust are just so good, I love it so so much.

I'm immediately in love with the art here, that '80s (I know it's '79 but close enough) black and white British comic aesthetic is great, and it's put to incredible use here depicting the robots and future tech of this parallel Rome.

The Iron Legion leap out of the page from panel one, giving an incredible Judge Dredd/Warhammer 40K vibe, and I loved the art for every single panel. Specific kudos to the horrifying image of Tom Baker from the final part.

Unfortunately though, despite absolutely adoring the art, I found the story itself a little lacking. The cliffhangers every four pages weren't the worst most of the time, though there were a few times where it felt just very jarring. The plot itself also felt a little lacking, almost emulating the classic-who runaround, jumping from one location to the next in this parallel world, but you don't really get the chance to rest and take in any of the locations which is a real shame.

The ending also fell a little flat for me, I mean they did basically have only three pages to do it, and I think they did well with what they had, but that doesn't stop it from being a shame.

So, I'm not sure how to rate this at all. I've chosen to rate this in terms of the prose and as a fairy tale, for which I'm giving this a 7/10, but honestly it's kind of baffling.

The story itself is pretty simple, it's just a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, casting Rose as Little Red, Nine as the Woodcutter, and a Zygon as the Wolf, which makes enough sense.

For a fun little doctor who reflavour of a fairy tale, it's great, I think I prefer it to Cinderella and the Magic Box on that front which does a similar thing.

What baffles me though is what I'm meant to make of the story. The conceit of this book is that these are fairy tales that Time Lords tell to children on Gallifrey, which is something I just absolutely can't buy for this one at all. I also just can't believe that this is an event that happened either though, it's not like they're mind wiped at the end, Rose and her grandma sit down and have a talk about what happened over tea, so like? I don't know? What am I meant to make of this story?

This feels like a fairy tale, and one they'd tell on Gallifrey at that, which should be the bare minimum but Frozen Beauty didn't.

There's some interesting worldbuilding in there about the planet of Winter, and I love just how fairy tale the place is made to sound, the descriptions are excellent for this kind of tale, and the story itself while simple is very fun.

Not too much to say, just a nice time, I'd read this to a kid before bed which I think is the highest praise I can give these.

I think this is the first episode where I've actually noticed the cinematography, and I mean that in a positive way. There's a few shots that really add to the tension being built here, weird angles and lighting and it just works.

Taking out two members of the main cast is also great, the kids aren't exactly the best actors, so getting to focus on the adults here works wonders, especially the scenes with June, Thorne, and the Little Green Men guy.

The setup also gives me Dr Wondertainment vibes (for any fellow SCP fans), both with the initial threat and the way the offices are set up, the rooms of pure green, black, and white add a certian atmosphere to this story.

That all said, I find the actual alien presence to be this episode's weakest part, it's another 'last of their kind, bent on wrecking the world to find more of them', I think you can maybe get away with that once a season, and Aeolian already beat them to the punch. Sure they're very different ways of going about that basic premise, but when you main crew meets too many lasts of their kind, it feels less special.

The resolution here is another 'power of love' type thing which has been done before and much better in my opinion. The alien prothetics look great, but don't give much ability to act, which means they can't sell the change of heart all that well, I do like the alien de-saturating as it dies though, it's a small thing but a neat touch.

Also it's a tiny thing, but the last shot is completely unneeded, there's a nice line from June about how Jorjie is home, which I think was a great moment to end the episode on given the alien wanted to be home too and she's what gave it that change of heart.... and they then have a shot of Jorjie with Gryphen saying "here she is" or something and then awkwardly cutting to credits? Just completely unneeded and makes the ending worse.

Have I mentioned how much I really like the CCPC designs before? Ignoring the voices, they're just the right blend of goofy and threatening, and I'm so glad we get an episode devoted to them here.

That said, they have no idea what the word cyborg means, I have 0 clue what they're trying to say with it having a human brain (do they mean it's literally now part organic because if so that's horrifying and not touched on at all), and you can tell that JJ's new friend is going to go away by the end of the episode as soon as he shows up.

Also wow, this really is a dystopian dictatorship and they just don't talk about it, "The power to enter your home without permission, the power to search without a warrent, the power to make the world a safer place for everyone that isn't guilty".

The ending is also a bit meh, like, how long can that CCPC actually survive on his own without being reported, they just ditched him and made it not their problem which, not great.

And then there's the finalie

An appropriate wrap up for a celebration of Doctor Who like this, and one that wraps up threads from earlier stories well.

The Autons from Facades come back and are now used as an attack force to take down the Eleven Doctors, making up a little for their mostly just fanservicey appearance in that story. And then serving as an army to get taken down by every doctor and every companion all at once, it's like the scene at the end of Journey's End on steriods

And then the person that saves the day, stopping the companions from getting blown up, and subsequently freeing them too is Frobisher. Not only a companion, but a companion that represents Doctor Who's Comics which is perfect for this.

Adam's change of heart is a little sudden given how on board he was for killing the doctors companions, fully aware of the ramifications it could have on time, but I do guess destroying the universe is a bit much, and I like Nine being the last one to give him the pep talk he needs to do it, and he finally understands what being a companion means at the end.

I'm glad they get that start over with quickly in The Choice, they know you're here to see Adam, so they get right to it.

We get a fair bit more expositing of Adam's motivations, but here we can see how it actually affects Eleven, we can see that, well, it's not that Adam's right, but he does have some point. He was also a companion briefly, but he got completely left behind, never cared for, never checked up on. The Doctor can claim to not have favourites but he at least has some he cares less for (at least, you can see how Adam gets that).

And all that comes to a head with a spectacular cliffhanger. The spread of all the companions in cells is lovely, and Adam making Eleven choose just one to save is just a brilliant final moment

Quiet on Set sees the return of The Quarks which is already lovely, but then you also get a fun look into the 50's movie scene, and a really sweet moment of Ten showing Martha Gallifrey through a telescope (as the light from it is still reaching earth despite its destruction). I'm not sure if that should quite work given how The Time War works, but hey, it makes for a sweet moment.

The Adam appearance is sudden at the end, and he just sort of shows up and leaves, but it makes sense for his character now that The Doctor can sense his appearences. It's also nice that it then leads into Ten's recording of the message that Frobisher saw back in Facades.

Another 7/10 from me

And with Mystery Date things start to come together.

Unlike The Body Politic where the overarching story felt sort of crammed into the story, here I think it really works.

We start off with just the most magnificent establishing shot of the grave of an extremely rich person, who isn't dead and kidnaps Rose. We see that person's side of things, talking to Rose about how great he is and everything he's doing while Nine makes his way down.

You get the establishment of Nine's distrust of others and his 'No second chances' principle in play, you see his care of Rose, you see another figure's obsession with Rose who's seemingly getting on well with her until Nine reveals the sort of person he really is.....

And then the mystery kidnapper is revealed to be Adam.

And everything comes back to you.

Hearing about the reveal without the context of the story, it sounds stupid. But somehow with the context of the issue leading up to it, they manage to make it actually work. The monologuing his backstory is a little silly, as is that backstory, but I don't know, it still works surprisingly well.

A 7/10, but a very strong 7/10

The Body Politic is another story that's a little weaker for me. Partly I think due to the companion of choice, partly because of where it sits in the overarching narrative.

Grace is a great character, but for a series that's not only a celebration of Doctor Who, but a celebration of Doctor Who comics, it's a bit of a shame to not have some of Eight's comic original companions here, instead pulling in Grace, who was never really a companion in the way many others are (at the very least, she's less a companion than Wilf), for a one-off adventure in the TARDIS so she can get kidnapped. I just don't buy that of all Eight's companions, someone who's going and kidnapping them all would choose Grace.

And as for it's place in the overarching story, here tensions are starting to ramp up, The Doctor has a man on the inside, we know the enemy is a future companion (or at least future for Seven), we know The Master's involved... and here we just get a fairly middling story about weird alien politics where a culture is overthrown in half an issue. There's the bit at the end where The Doctor sees the kidnapper coming, and we get a little motivation, but it's not much, not things we couldn't've already guessed.

Ace wearing period clothes with the jacket over them is iconic and I need more of it right now.

This story does feel like it fits in Seven's era quite well, the mysterious and gothic vibe especially almost reminding me of the setting of Ghost Light (or what I remember of it).

We get some more insight into what's going on behind the scenes here with The Master saying he's been working with one of The Doctor's "future companions", giving some actual reason for his appearance in the previous issue other than fan service.

And again Facades is another delight!

Six, Peri, and Frobisher is just wonderful to see, the idea of a gentrified future antarctic is an interesting setting, and generally it just all works for this TARDIS team, bit of a shame there's not more done with it though.

And the Ainsley Master showing up, and working with Autons too!! A reference to Houdini is also always fun. It's a shame that The Master and Autons don't really get all that much to do here, but their appearance is appreciated, and the twist at the end with Frobisher getting captured as per Ten's plans, so he can sneak around and see what's going on with the captured companions is just so so fun!

In Their Nature is back to just being solid fun, not as reference heavy as the first three, but getting to be on the front lines of a Rutan/Sontaran skirmish is great, and the TARDIS team getting caught by both sides in turn is just classic Classic Doctor Who.

Honestly the more I see of Sontarans in the expanded universe, the more I'm starting to really like them, their sense of honour shines through here, and Five comparing them to the tale of The Frog and The Scorpion is a really interesting view of them that I like a lot.

Also get to see more of what's going on in the bigger picture of things which is fun!

A Rare gem was the first disappointment of the series for me. It feels like a bit of a weaker 4th doctor TV story, not the Love Letter to the era that the three preceding it were.

Seeing Leela and K9 fighting Judoon was fun, and I did like the bits with Four in the cave, figuring out what had happened with the theft, but overall, yeah this one just fell a bit flat.

No references or specific love for the era really. Like it's not awful, but coming after three incredible stories that all felt not only like love letters to the show, but love letters to their respective eras, I was hoping for just something a bit more.

In With The Tide has me sold by the first page, this series is just showing itself as a love letter to Who, and what better way to bring together Three's era than having Sarah Jane and Liz together, with the latter calling Three in to help.

Everyone has been, but Three and The Brig especially are written so well I can't help but hear Pertwee and Courtney when I read them.

This issue just perfectly captures that UNIT era charm, jeeps driving through the rain, Three cooking up a gizmo to stop the alien threat, fistfighting aliens, messaging about the climate and nuclear weapons, THE WHOMOBILE SHOWING UP?! The only thing it's missing is Delgado and swapping this Paul guy for Bill Filer.

The art here is also great, I love the effects when Three uses his device, very much reminiscent of the sorts of effects you'd get in his era, and Three looks incredible, his dress sense is just on point.

Again, I'm just loving this series

Bazaar Adventures is another 8/10

White Robots and Ice Warriors?? I love the references in this story, and that's just the start!

This really is just a love letter to Doctor Who, so many references that you're bound to miss loads. I absolutely love the wide shots, so many alien races in there from Slitheen to Sontarans to Alpha Centauri! So many references to all sides of the universe, you've got to love a Happiness Patrol pink TARDIS in the back at the very least!

And then the story itself doesn't disappoint either, it's fairly simple but there's heart to it. The enslaved people having no hope anymore as they've been captured, too beaten down to rise up even when Two frees them initially, but being shown the way by the Ice Warriors assistance.

I also love how the TARDIS team are utilised here, Two is definitely the head, but Zoe gets to unlock a door and show off her future knowledge a bit, and Jamie makes for some wonderful bait!

All in all, just such a fun story

Starting things off, Unnatural Selection is just so fun.

A 'celebrity historical' with the First Doctor, bringing light to a lesser known historical figure, and a perfect one for this TARDIS team. Seeing Ian and Barbara's excitement to meet a historical lecturer while Vicky thinks it's a bit lacking being from the future is fun.

And then the return of the Zarbi! They look a lot better on the page than the screen (speaking of which, the art is a little odd in places but expressive in a way I quite like). The return of the Animus too, and it being defeated by Ian driving a train into it?!!? Incredible!

The Cliffhanger is also really interesting and sets up the overarching storyline at play, and I love that the final panel is in greyscale, adding to the emotion, and also just being a fun nod.

It's also the only place in this issue that One gets Ian's surname right, which I think is sweet, him getting it wrong throughout the issue shows off his mischievous spirit, but he does know it, and he does care a lot.

Overall it's fun but not incredible, just some quickly resolved light fluff, but with some fun small character moments for all of the gang.

A lovely insight into The Doctor's mental state post-Season 4, the way Gabby talks about The TARDIS and how you can tell what mood she's in is also just lovely (and I always love the art style of the sketchbook pages). The aliens have a pretty fun design, and for a place that only appears once in all of Doctor Who media, The Key has a ***really*** nice logo.

The highlight is absolutely The Doctor visiting his past companions though. Saving Martha from a robot while she's working at UNIT, the fear on Ten's face when he hears Donna's voice (and you just can't help but read her lines in it too), and then just the grief, falling to the floor as he visits the Powell Estate. It's just lovely.

I'm not the biggest fan of the main art style this issue, but while it doesn't work as well for Ten and Gabby, it does wonders for the aliens and Crossland, the panels of Crossland standing in the Doorway with the monster behind him especially

I'd seen *that* infamous shot from More than a Messiah, and because of it I wasn't really expecting much from the script but that was genuinely just so heartfelt and well acted, with some interesting sci-fi concepts in there too.

Baker and Bryant are great (not technically but lets be honest they're actually just) returning to their roles, and Aldred is great as the planet's consciousness, I love her interactions with Baker here. I also think the side-cast is pretty solid too, you've got a believable 'villain' who eventually ends up seeming like just a mentally unwell older man.

There's a lot of heart to the story, and it's one of those wilderness exploits that I've surprised myself by how much I've enjoyed it

So bad it's good.

Unlike When To Die, this is one I can actually reccomend watching to laugh at because it's just so so funny completely unintentionally, and it's mercifully short.

Baggs can't act, and unlike the other case files where the format at least slightly hides that, it's just on full display here. Another thing on full display is that Baggs wrote this as he has the only other actor they could get to star constantly complimenting and flirting with him.

Speaking of constant flirting, the other character that's doing that flirting is Solomon, who viewers of previous BBV work may recognise as the true name of The Stranger, is here seemingly doing his best Captain Jack Harkness impersonation, at least I think that's what the character is meant to be. I've only seen the first episode of The Stranger so far, but it's a very far departure from how he was characterised over there. I mean, sure there's a lot of difference between Hartnell and Ncuti's doctors, but this is just even moreso than that.

And then there's the production..... Bad effects (some solid ones and some where they've masked it by making the image quality flicker when they happened which was a fun workaround, but mostly just awful), clear use of stock photos and videos (two times there's a call from someone and it's so obviously a video playing on a stock photo), poor location scouting/shooting (It's set in london..... but there's a 'Missing Cat in Southampton' poster very clearly readable in frame), 0 care for props (Solomon is just using a literal smart phone, and they expect you to pretend it's future tech) and the shot continuity is awful (there's one point where Baggs is trying to get into a building and getting frustrated that it's locked... and in one shot it's just open behind him)

Other fun things to note, Baggs tries to imply that PROBE has contacts at Torchwood 3, and I can't for a second believe that Torchwood would take PROBE seriously, especially the season 8 team, and also there's one bit where the alien impersonates Baggs to get at Solomon (because they couldn't get more than those two actors), and Solomon says "Clever, disguising yourself as someone I care about" when they literally met like 20 minutes ago.

All in all, go in know it's bad, and just laugh at it.

2/10 for quality, 8/10 for entertainment

It seems to me that the library isnt' really all that lost?

Some very fun sci-fi concepts in here though, almost reminds me of Braniac and The Phantom Zone from DC comics. Thorne's first real appearance is a suitable one for his level of villainous bureaucracy, the idea of turning this library card into a new kind of prison is an idea that's very believable, and I like his bouncing off the main cast. He's not got the camp of Drake, but he's more than a worthy replacement.

The alien design is fun if a bit weird, the makeup and headpiece look like they're meant to match but it's absolutely not seemless, mostly I was making negative comparisons to Chantho with it. It's also a bit strange that they showed up there but not to the department, and the romance(???) with Gryphen was a bit out of nowhere, but hey, those can be easily forgotten or handwaved away.

They also seem to be just pretending that Thorne was here the whole time, and no acknowledging that this is is real introduction, but I can definitely accept off-screen adventures having happened.

Overall..... I think I'm actually starting to really enjoy watching K9

A fairly tropey time travel story, complete with Marty McFly-esc dissappearing, overall this really was just some dumb fun.

I like that it's 1963 for the fun little Classic Who reference, and everything that this is setting up actually seems pretty intriguing with them recognising one of the spies looking familiar (sidenote - most obvious spies I've seen, even in Kids TV), and the russian spy stuff seeming like it'll have an impact on the present day of the story (is the reason the present day stuff is like it is because of USSR Spies???)

I like the kids not knowing about the past so they're learning as they're there, I like the opening scene with Starkey being serious talking about needing to destroy K9 and then pulling back for it to be a chess match, I like the misdirect where you think they've send Darius back and then find out that it's his great granddad (spatial genetic multiplicity?), and I like Gryphen and June's interactions back in the future.

There's some things that don't really make sense: If the people they proved Darius' Great Granddad's innocence to were both Russians, why did they let him go after they left? How did they not have any impact on the future with everything they did? But eh, it's small things I'm not too fussed about and could be explained away easily, doesn't take away too much from an episode I really enjoyed

Old Girl - 8/10

Old Girl is really fun if you read it just completely without the context of Empire of Death, in that context it brings up some funky continuity issues, but yeah, without, it's really fun.

I loved how well they show Sutekh's power here, the two Sutekhs from different points in his life, the earlier controlling Anubis, is a great way of showing the characterisation, and the ease with which he destroys antagonists from earlier in the run shows his power extremely effectively.

The moment where he destroys the King Noctune is great for both showing his power, taking down an enemy that's repeatedly caused trouble for The Doctor a couple of times, and doing so with a moment that shows the character really well, talking about how he hates music as it's full of life. And then fairly easily taking down a Death Lord (which to be fair we don't know much about), a God of Ragnarok, and imprisoning The Destroyer to stop his return to the vortex is also a great show, the line in the fight about them being gods and still no match was great.

There's some really fun character stuff generally here too, and seeing the alternate(?) early Gallifrey is really interesting (especially the robots), hoping that comes back. I like that Cindy gets a lot more to do here, I like the moments of her doubting her place on the team and then feeling a bit better as she's listed as a companion, I like her confession to Gabby. That stuff's just great.

On the one hand it does almost feel Sutekh is taken down too easily at the end, but on the other, there's established reason for it working the way it does, and it comes at the cost of a character sacrificing herself to do it in a way only she could, plus the events of the story effectively kill Anubis, sure Newbis is there, but he doesn't remember anything at all.

Overall, a much stronger end to this year of comics than the previous

Another Life has a great start, but it just slows down to a crawl and there's parts of it that really don't work for me. Everything to do with Second Reality just has that vibe of people who don't understand online culture trying to write about it, seriously, an in game item that reveals the real names and emails of people you look at in game, that's an extreme privacy violation. Also while I can believe Tosh using alien tech to make things more high-res for Owen, no way would it work for other people who use an an item Owen owns.

There is some really great character stuff in there, especially towards the start. The chapters from the Alien's POV give great insight into how it works and what it's thinking which I really love, and there's a great moment at the beginning where Owen is getting at Gwen for caring about people who die.... but it all falls flat later.

For a story that's meant to be focusing more on Owen, the elements you learn about his backstory don't quite gel with what you see on the TV show. To be fair, my main problem is with the idea that Owen was always like how he is now, running from a relationship because he didn't want to commit, which isn't the fault of the story because it was written pre-fragments when you see more of him pre-Torchwood, but it's an element that doesn't really work now. We also don't get enough time with him at all after Megan's death, which is a real shame given how much focus she's given in the story.

The ending also felt a little weaker for me with the use of Second Reality to stop Owen, and Jack's immortality stopping the alien (somehow?) (it's not really clear why the alien couldn't just stay in his body as he comes back?).

But overall, there was enough enjoyable here for me to give this a 5/10, I like a lot of the character stuff, and the mystery is pretty fun, but yeah, overall mostly 'meh'

An interesting look into the backstory of the episode.... or it would be if it weren't insistent on jokes that mostly didn't work for me. it's funny the first time, but telling the same joke over and over again looses the humour, and I don't think it's a story that really wants humour added to it, at least not in this way.

Some of the most fun Delgado gets to have all season, and that's saying something given he's in everything.

Generally just a really fun vibe for this story, putting the doctor more on his own for most of it with the Brig and UNIT reinforcements trapped outside, aliens that inspired myths are always fun, and I love the contrast between the dark underbelly of cults and magic run by the master vs the quaint little village over on top, especially when the latter gets to influence the former as the story progresses.

If I didn't love Bessie before I absolutely would now, this story cements her as a brilliant part of the UNIT family, I especially love The Master trying to get away in her and then being slowly driven back.

The effects also surprised me, Azul isn't the greatest effects-wise, but he's not too bad either, and UNIT showing off the heat barrier was some great practical effects.

All in all just a brilliant story!

Mythological innacuracies (or at least weirdness), everyone's out of character, completely baffling worldbuilding, dreadful CGI, plenty of strangeness and things that just don't really make sense, an accent so dreadful it took me out of it, and "The London Museum"???

If you mean The British Museum, say that, if you mean The Museum of London, A) say that, B) Why does it have information about Nottingham??

Loved Drake having a minor problem then immediately giving up and deciding to just blow everything up though.

I'm always a sucker for this sort of character driven piece, when you boil it down, this story is essentially just a 30 minute conversation between The Master and a Kotturuh woman, but in reality it's so much more.

We get to see a calmer side of the Tremas Master that at least I've not experienced much on screen, he tends to be a lot more high energy, actively scheming rather than here where he is, but he's a lot more subtle about it.

The worldbuilding here is also great, I love how much detail you get about the Mungello and their society, the slower pace really helps you feel a part of the world as you learn more about it, and the ambiance really adds to it.

Plus, Jon Culshaw's narration is just great. He really does such a great job with The Master here, you can really tell their mood which is great, and his voice generally is just perfect for this slower paced, almost soothing story.

Another just fun story, it feels less like a fairy tale more like a story that a parent would make up at bedtime for a child to fall asleep to, but it captures that essence perfectly.

It does strike me as odd as to how none of these fairy tales seem to be about gallifeyans, given that's where they're meant to have been told, but eh, they're still fun!

A fun take on The Three Little Pigs that instead of teaching about building materials, teaches about battle strategy. This is definitely something I can see being a fairy tale told to time lords, and I like the way they've twisted a classic here.

I like this one a lot, and it's definitely the sort of fairy tale I can see being told to Gallifeyan children, it does have a happy and hopeful ending, but it paints the outside world as dangerous, and Gallifrey itself as a place of safety, where you can life comfortably even out in the woods.

I think as a fairy tale there's maybe a little much dialogue, but eh, I'm nitpicking.

I really don't have all that much to say about this one, where The Garden of Statues was an original fairy tale, and Frozen Beauty was taking inspiration from the fairy tale to basically tell a new story, this is effectively a retelling of the fairy tale with a Doctor Who coat of paint.

It does strike me as weird that one of the Time Lord's fairy tales involves The Doctor as a heroic figure (the Eleventh Doctor at that), but here I can overlook that a bit more. Also the perfect choice for a Doctor to tell a fairy tale about, given a lot of his stories very much feel like them.

Ah, so they're doing the 11th Doctor comics thing again where one story is apparently split into two?

This story is definitely the stronger part, the characterisation you get for 10 and Gabby is great here, especially with Gabby's character growth. and I'm excited to see how that continues going forward.

Here at least not having Cindy do anything kind of works, in that it's setting up conflict between her and Gabby going forward which I'm excited to see.

That all said the way they beat the monster (ignoring the sacrifice) is very much just kind of 'meh' to me. With a stronger antagonist this story could be great, but as it is, it's fine.

A bit of a hard break in the story after so much action, I think this would potentially be better if you were reading month to month or binging it all, but having taken a break just before this it doesn't work quite as well.

Also yet again, Cindy hasn't really gotten the chance to do all that much since joining the TARDIS. Here she falls in love with a guy, but that's kind of all she gets to do in this story which is a real shame.

The callbacks to The Singer Not the Song were appreciated though, it's always nice to see stories lead from one to the other, here in a weird out of order sort of way.

It's probably the weakest music/sound based story from the 10th doctor comics so far, a low 6, but still a 6.

A great start to the collection, this is exactly the sort of thing I expected from doctor who themed fairy tales. Children facing monsters, a lighthearted and warm start, it gets spooky and dangerous in the middle, and a twist end that's bittersweet and has an air of nostalgia.

The only thing missing is a moral, but I guess 'Avoid the weeping angles at all costs' is good enough (plus there's a lot of fairy tales without them that are just there to spook kids.

Honestly, this doesn't even feel like they tried to make it a fairy tale (at least past the first page), they just decided to take the very basic premise of sleeping beauty, and tell a new story around it.

It's still well written enough and written in that sort of style that it could probably be higher, but like, you can't just write your own story about the wirrn and call it a fairy tale, much less a 'Time Lord' fairy tale. Why are the Time Lords telling this to their young? It's better than 90% of other things things I've put at 5/10, but I don't think I can give it higher because of the framing device.

More a teaser trailer than anything, listing the different groups you can expect to see from the event and how they fit in.

I do like the details they retcon in here though about how the other peoples we know of from the dark times fit in here, how the daemons fought, the eternals fled, the racnoss hid, and Sutekh and The Great Vampires made a deal.

There's that thing you get in a lot of stories where to show off how big and strong a new threat is, you have them come in and easily beat up the old threat, and that's basically what this is, but with some fun worldbuilding. I always love it when the whoniverse deals with death as a concept and I think it works well here

James Goss starting us off is always a good sign, and this story, while short, is a great start to the event.

The imagery and intrigue pull you right in and definitely make you want to see more, and for how short the story is and how alien everyone is, the characterisation is still really good.

Goss takes everything I loved about the televised story and dials it up to eleven, bringing his own charm and fun to the story in a way that would never work on the screen.

The extra elements of play that have been added are all extremely fun, the choose your own adventure section in the Toymaker's domain especially (I managed to get a bad ending at first). The added characterisation for The Toymaker as well is a highlight for me, you get to see how cruel and sadistic the character is, even moreso when coming from his own mind, and there's a bit more in there about the fates of people which are left offscreen, and of the backstory of some of the toys. There's a few other moments of charactersation for other people as well that works great here, a moment I wasn't a fan of on screen, Shirley's saying that 'absolutely no need' for an apology for Kate's ableism without the Zedex on, works a lot better for me here with the addition of four words: 'a little too brightly'.

Another thing that really worked was the formatting, they somehow manage to make the game of catch more exciting to read about than it is to watch, which is extremely impressive.

Overall a fun read, and a definite improvement to a TV story I already loved

Moffat manages to take everything you know and love about The Day of The Doctor and dial it up to eleven (pun intended).

The extra characterisation is incredible here, the small glimpses we get inside all the characters heads, what they were thinking about, it's just so good, especially seeing the dungeon scene from multiple perspectives, each adding their own context to keep you on your toes, and the moments before The Moment, knowing what each doctor was thinking about before they almost do it.

The comedy is also incredible here, jokes never fell flat for me and Moffat always knows when to place them.

And then there's the added drama, I got goosebumps from the "be a doctor" like it was 2013 all over again, the added line about how after so long The Doctor was finally back in the room sent chills down my spine.

It's incredible and I highly recommend reading it, there's so much I haven't even mentioned here like Osgood's sections and everything about The Brig, I could go on for ages.

Immediately the use of 6 and 7's umbrellas tells you exactly what this story is going to be, just some fun references and great characterisation.

I love 12 using the username JohnSmith12, I love the blathereen being there because of course why not, I love that Iris is betting on the TARDIS to get spare parts, I love 'Planet Wet', I love that they use Rels for time measurement because this type of megabuisness is inherently evil

All in all, just a fun story to end on, and just fun is just right for this.

Another *super* short story but another fun one, an interesting bit of worldbuilding with the future of London/reference to the Dalek invasion, and I always love the use of the TARDIS as a symbol of safety and stability wherever she goes. Opening her doors here to a lost child on the run who's been able to take refuge there for a while before recovering The Doctor who in turn saves the boy.

Clara having a fear of heights feels a bit out of nowhere, don't think it's mentioned in her TV stories (though I could be misremembering).

Other than that weird point though, this characterisation for Clara is great, it's really a shame we dont' see more of Teacher Clara, especially towards the start of her teaching tenure, most of what we do see is from when she's already well settled into it.

Seeing how she views the kids is great, she really enjoys teaching and sees something in these kids that she wouldn't've without The Doctor. It's just really sweet, and the kind of thing that really works in this collection of kids stories.

This suffers a similar problem to Mission to Galacton, it just makes the monster it's representing feel far too weak. Admittedly here the cyberman has just been fixed but it's still beaten by two kids and a model train set.

There is the threat of the children being upgraded, but the cyberman itself is still treated too robotically for me, being pieced back together and then repairing itself when it is.

That said, for a kids story, it's fun, I like that both kids get a bit to do as well and that they chose the girl to be the one that's more technically knowledgeable.

I didn't twig that this was the same person as A Good Man Goes to War until the mention of the Gamma Forest near the end.

A fun little bit of backstory for that character, but it's too short to really make much of an impact, tied for the shortest in this collection. That said, seeing the impact The Doctor has on people through their eyes is always nice, so fun to have some of it here.

Honestly not all that much to report here, it's the origin story of the Cult of Skaro, pre-time war. We get to see Sec's victory over the mechanoids that shows why he's chosen to become Sec, we hear The Emperor's reasoning for creating the cult, him giving them each names, generally just some fun stuff there.

Also learning that Sec's casing is a reinforced but expensive version of dalekanium answers some questions as to why he looks like that (though admittedly also brings up a lot more generally about why no other daleks do).

I've also realized this is the last story with The Cult of Skaro I hadn't seen, and their only appearance outside the TV show which surprises me, I know The Emperor has been touched on in other media but not The Cult?

I guess there being a straight line from The Doctor finding out about them through all their appearances until they all die is probably why, but still, absolutely *nothing* more done with them surprises me

The shortest of the short stories so far (and presumably the shortest overall), this is a very fun little tale that I don't really have much to say about. It's enjoyable, I like the concept, the idea of a train saying it's coming in 50 years is a funny mental image, and generally the underground is a fun setting.

Still has the same thing where it feels like the story is quite dumbed down for children as Amy's Escapade, but seeing this side of the story is quite fun.

Rory is written a lot less out of character (I don't for a second believe that Rory wouldn't've been able to recognise Amy in the shop though), and seeing the other side of the events is nice. This side of things also ends a lot less abruptly as well, and the joke that 11 was the one who took the doughnut in the first place is a nice note to end on.

Again, Amy is written pretty out of character here. It's what a little girl would imagine Amy's character to be, so I can understand why she's written like that but like, it's still bad.

The adventure as well feels quite childish and it's wrapped up incredibly quickly.

Generally this works for what it is, but I can't exactly give it any more credit than that.

Now this was fun, giving you a glimpse into the mind of a sontaran as well as having a scared little blind girl for the kids to identify with.

Unlike the sycorax story as well, here everything just feels perfectly in character, the sontaran may end up helping the girl, curing her of her blindness, but he does so that she can avenge her parents, aid the quest he's on, and of course, show glory in battle. It works brilliantly.

I also love what they do with the rutans here. The idea of them being able to transform given some genetic material but their transformations being imperfect giving the misdirection of the girl being the rutan in disguise, but then it being revealed that it's the other sontaran, caught out by lack of knowledge on how the sontarans view their scars, it's great.

Just when I was talking about short stories not feeling like they talk down to their readers. Some of this definitely feels like talking down or dumbing down, some of it is fairly generic haunted house but actually space type-deal, and some of it is just the characters acting pretty out of character.

Again there's the thing of a few lines here and there where I don't believe characters would say that like that, and while it's not major it's enough to take me out of it. And then the ending with The Doctor re-trapping the villain in permanent conscious stasis forever... I mean sure he's done that kind of thing before (Family of Blood and Rogue come to mind), but there it's given appropriate weight, here it's just sort of glossed over.

Another just fun and solid story. For how I was talking about the last one avoiding death being a kids book, I really didn't expect the next one to be all about someone wanting to die.

Characterisation is on point here, I especially enjoyed

> ‘Imagine it – a creature that can live for centuries, maybe thousands of years. And the one person it really cares about, won’t live nearly that long. It can’t bear the thought of outliving its friend. A bit like …’ His voice tailed off.
> ‘A bit like,’ Donna finished for him, ‘Puff the Magic Dragon.’
> The Doctor nodded. ‘Exactly what I was thinking,’ he lied.

Donna crying at the second half of the music as well really works, reminds me of Planet of the Ood, and generally this kind of short story works great for a short, it's been written with the format in mind, and it doesn't talk down to it's audience like some of the earlier stories in the collection felt like they did.

Another fun little character short. I like that this is clearly mid-torchwood Jack, but they don't mention that explicitly because it's a kid's story. Another magic show where they tell you how it's done, less clever here than Disappearing Act, but I think the rest of the story makes up for that.

It following a kid with these powers who's clearly not had a great life and then Jack comes and rescues him, then seeing that he's had a nice long life in the end while reinforcing Jack's Immortality (but without killing him because again, kid's book), I just think it's done well for what it is.

There's something that I really like about stories about stories, and this does just scratch that itch for me. Sure the idea of a 'medium monster' has been done before, but as with a lot of these shorts there's a certain charm to the way it's done here.

The inciting incident is a great way to bring us in, especially being about the medium it's a part of, and the fact Donna briefly gets sucked into the monster's power as well gives us a chance to see what impact the creature can have on others from a first person view (if the descriptions of rotten fruits weren't enough).

And again, the ending, beating the creature with a happily ever after, and 10 reminiscing on how that used to be how things end is really nice and does bring you into the emotion.

A fun and interesting use of the ood's telepathic powers, showing how a single ood can be controlled by someone with some abilities, not just a hoard controlled by an extremely powerful entity.

Magic tricks are always fun, especially for me if you know how they're done, and in this case it's explained brilliantly without all that much technobabble at all. It's the sort of thing you could easily see happening if those powers existed.

The ending is also fun with 10 using his own abilities to let the ood speak a little more freely and condemn his slaver.

A great bit of worldbuilding, a terrifying concept for a 'monster', a quick environmental message, and a beautiful ending. This is just a really great short story, the kind you could read a kid just before bed for them to doze off to the end of.

The characterisation is solid here too, especially for 10 who tends to get the short end of the stick in Martha stories (presumably given how he treats her for a lot of that TV run which is understandable), but that last moment here with his is just lovely.

Some very fun little character stuff here, references too with mention of pyramids and the Mary Celeste.

I love the way the TARDIS is used here too, appearing briefly every so often to take screenshots and collecting a timelapse an order of magnitude greater than anything we could ever do.

And then the twist at the end with stonehenge being created around the TARDIS because the TARDIS is showing up there every so often, it lining up with the solstice because that's when The Doctor thought would be a nice time to take the picture, just a great little twist for a story like this.

Well that was just beautiful, heartbreaking and beautiful.

Finally a framing device/format change that really works for me, seeing the world through the eyes of a deteriorating K9, seeing Sarah Jane growing older as K9 only sees snapshots of her, hearing K9's assumption that he's been put in a box and forgotten.

> This unit is in a box.
> This unit has been put in a box and abandoned.
> This unit… has failed and been put in a box like old junk.

My heart.

But despite it all he still protects Sarah from being robbed, and he just about catches her calling him "A Girl's Best Friend" (love the reference).

And then the ending where you see inside K9's head at his thoughts on seeing The Doctor again.

Just so sweet, all of it

More light fluff but light fluff I *really* liked. The idea of aliens disguising themselves as little old ladies because all little old ladies look the same is great, some fun technobabble on how their knitting is making energy for their ship, and the plot being foiled because the needles touched is the right amount of silly.

The characterisation is also on point here, Martha gets to save the day on her own, and 10 mostly ignores her, so yep, got their season 3 dynamic down perfectly.

I also like the ending with 10 cooing at a baby, and that last line about all babies looking the same is a fun note to end on with just the right hint of creepy for the kids at home reading it.

A fun look into the kinds of things Mickey's getting up to post-Aliens of London, Pre-School Reunion. Keeping an eye on alien things, meeting up with people who might have news about The Doctor or UNIT, etc. There's some fun characterization for him too with the offhand mention that he likes to play football with the kids on the estate.

The alien threat here also just works for this kind of story, someone looking for The Doctor, knows he goes to earth, and realises Mickey has a connection with him to tries to use that. The alien kids are also pretty charming and Mickey's able to use that connection to trick them into letting him out which works for his character.

Nothing special or standout, but fun.

Another story of fun lighthearted fluff. This story wouldn't feel out of place in SJA I feel, if SJA did one parters.

I like Rose wrongly assuming a safety guy is a Slitheen, in previous Slitheen TV stories all the plus sized characters were Slitheen, so I'm glad to see they do something here to help show that assumption to be wrong. Mainly so very kids don't just assume people are Slitheen and we get more fatphobia from there.

I like how they initially seem to characterize the Slitheen as good as well though, again, more just showing characters harmful prejudices can be wrong. I mean, it's not in that case, but you think it might be for a little. Plus the hunt thing they do is just a fun visual, chasing a person through a fun fair, especially I like the detail that it's slowing down and guiding Rose, wanting the hunt to go on longer (which is inevitably it's downfall)

I want to love the Sycorax, they deserve a great story at some point. This isn't it. The repetition of of 'Sycorax rock' just feels silly, the whole tone feels off. Like I do get that this is for kids, but even then this feels strange. It doesn't match the vibe we get shown of the sycorax in The Christmas Invasion, at least for me, like there's some of it there but not at all to this extent.

And again, the framing device doesn't work at all, it's meant to be a ship's log, and it works fine as that at the start, but eventually it's recounting the events of The Christmas Invasion as they're happening, so is he writing the log while the events happen?

It just doesn't work for me.

A bit of a history lesson disguised as a story, that's exactly what I was expecting from these short stories for kids and I think it's brilliant. Well, brilliant at that at least.

It makes sense they'd use this framing device for this story, and the ending which makes use of it is fun, but I don't really think the actual story itself works great as a letter, and some of the writing feels just a bit out of character for Rose (mostly just a choice of phrase here and there, but enough to take me out of it a little).

Also the fact they pretty much gloss over the guy who drowned in ink at the start isn't great. Even if they were possessed those workers are going to have some trauma that they did it, it's just a bit of a strange thing to include.

On the one hand, the daleks are super threatening here, ultimately it comes down to a single damaged dalek destroying an entire planet..... on the other, a whole squad of them gets destroyed by some random mindless rock monsters and that's most of the story.

Nothing much to write home about here but as a short story for kids its got a certain level of charm. It absolutely feels like the sort of story Rose would make an offhanded comment about happening offscreen in Boom Town or School Reunion which is really enjoyable to read as one of these shorts.

The couple of times 10 says 'best in the known universe, well, half the unknown universe too' is also just a fun little phrase that I love from the doc.

Overall it's lighthearted fluff and not much more, but that fluff is fun fluff.

I'm a sucker for a time war story, and this definitely is one, but without all the complex trappings that you often get. I like the idea of a late-war doctor coming back to the early-war and seeing what people's thoughts about where it'll go and how long it'll last contrasted with the the doctor's knowledge.

Daleks are fun here, definitely more threatening and that than I thought they would be. Being a collection of mostly shorts aimed at children I didn't expect to be about attempted mass child murder. I think it's probably helped by the fact they're not given much 'screen' time.

The characterization of War here is also interesting, you can tell how late in his tenure this is and it's great, especially in how he deals with children. He's grizzled, but it's gone on for too long, he's lost too much, and he just wants to be a doctor again.

Seconding what other people have said, this really is peak comfort who. Colin is in his element, Evelyn continues to be utterly delightful, and Nicholas Courtney steps so effortlessly back into the role it's like he'd never left, once the brig, always the brig.

The actual plot of this is pretty enjoyable too, but mostly it's those characters that bring this up for me, and I do love how much this setting gives everyone a chance to shine. Evelyn doing her research and talking to contacts in oxford, the Brig still kicking even in retirement, and the semi-globe-spanning nature of the story giving him a chance to call in those UNIT connections, and of course, the alien itself giving the doctor a lot to do, both with explaining the myths of the area and with the psychic abilities which gives him a chance to use his. That final scene too, character driven and oh so sweet, the sort of ending I love for these sorts of stories.

Overall a very solid 8/10 from me, and a main range story I could definitely see myself coming back to.

Again, this feels like just more setup, and I don't think the main plot is enough to really justify it here. It not only is short, but it feels short, in a way the other single issue stories haven't really so far. Also not sure where the end is going given the end of 10's first year, but we'll see I guess, it's just more setup for now.

5/10

Definitely interested to see more of what's going on with Gabby. The conflict between Gabby and Cindy doesn't really feel like it gets enough focus here, and Cindy doesn't enough for her first adventure. Generally it's just a bit weaker. There's some hints at future events though which I'm definitely interested in with the fortune teller and origin of the witch.

6/10

That was pretty fun, I liked getting more of Cindy’s perspective, and while the alien aspect of Medicine Man didn’t quite work for me, bringing it together here with the team from Cleo and the Magic Sketchbook did. It’s got good emotional weight, I love Cleo’s character, and honestly I’m just a fan of Jack.

7/10

For what it is... eh well the pacing is still a bit weird, but it's nice to get adventures with 6 and Peri The Stranger and Miss Brown

There's just really not much to say about it, there's some charm to it but it's trying to tell a full classic who style story in 30 mins which doesn't quite work

5/10 for me

It's just another trailer, but what ti's advertising isn't worth it and costs like £12

1/10

Brigadier, Faction Paradox, Cyberon, Zygon, the PROBE films, and now The Stranger....

Case Files Volume 2 is basically just an advertisement for all of BBVs other stuff that costs money on its own

I think I've been forgetting that in writing these reviews, but yeah, this is just a £3 ad

1/10

On location filming, and half decent editing and effects (the effects seem to be clips from something else, but still used to good effect here)

Story is meh though and because it's recorded on the underground some of the audio isn't the best

3/10

This is basically just a recap of The Zero Imperative, and makes me just wish I were watching that instead

2/10

Origin story of an alien joining the probe team and it's thoroughly meh

3/10

This is just a not-so subtle ad for BBV's Brigadier adventures

Knowing some of the behind the scenes legal issues around that range makes me already not a fan of this, talking so highly about the character but not paying properly to use him, and then on top of that, this is just another talking to camera

1/10

A really interesting plot, showing the human side of encounters with Faction Paradox and giving some idea as to how they operate and what they want, it's just let down by (say it with me) Baggs' bored sounding narration

4/10

Back to having some art of characters, but none of the glitchy effects that add to the atmosphere, some characters have photos not art which is inconsistent and weird

I think this might be better for having seen Cyberon beforehand

Baggs can't get the emotional side of this story across at all. I mean he can't for any stories, but this is another which really needs it

There's also one image they use which has a transparent part, so you can see Baggs' hair and wall in the back which is very funny

Some of this script also doesn't work as a report, or at least it's phrased weirdly for something that's meant to be one

2/10

An interesting monster, vampiric film reel defeated by the sun as both reels and vampires are

Fun use of public domain film to make watching it more interesting

That said, some of the photoshops are just awful, and reusing the same clip of film reel gets old after a while

4/10

Tying back into previous BBV things is pretty interesting, didn't realise Cyberon and Zygon were the same person though (I've only seen Zygon and you don't get the sense at all that it's connected)

Interesting but strange to give some more aftermath to Zygon

More lazy pictures, and nothing on location this time

Lauren joining PROBE feels a bit weird, but I can see it making sense

4/10

Another case file that starts by implying some harmful conspiracy theories are true

Again no art, still bad sound levels

The middle of an electrical blackout looks very much like there's still lights on in the other buildings

Hey, at least there's multiple locations in this one, that's something

A fairly interesting story though with half decent editing

4/10

HE'S NOT JUST TALKING TO CAMERA?????!!!

Definitely at least a bit different that he went out on location, at least for the start and end.

Seems they've given up using traced art for people and are just using pictures, don't even have the fun glitch filter things over it.

The story itself doesn't really do anything to grab you either, it's just meh.

3/10

Sound levels continue to not be great with sound effects.

This one does something interesting with the format though, rewinding the file and starting it again a few times due to Faction Paradox's shenanigans, with multiple versions of the same events.

Some of the art is reused from previous Case Files so feels a bit lazy.

Overall though a high 4/10

Yeah this is a trailer, not really anything to say about it, it's a narrative trailer, and not really a very good one, but it's just a trailer.

3/10

Okay wow, starting right off implying covid is a conspiracy and there might be "something sinister going on under the guide of lockdown"

There's one point where there's a split in recordings and when it comes back the quality is worse, but also it was just a really weird place to start a new recording narratively speaking (given the latter one is talking about what happened back at base after the former)

Some of this also comes across as a bit fanfictiony, with the established character telling the OC that he's doing a great job and she knew he could do it (as if making him head of PROBE wasn't enough of that already)

2/10

Bit of a funny commentary about the missing episodes of Doctor Who. Actual acknowledgement here that he's recording it but probably shouldn't be.

They really need to work on sound levels, the glitching was definitely too loud.

Overall though pretty interesting, hopefully setting up a recurring mystery? We'll see.

More than just the talking to camera in this one though which was nice!.

3/10 given the sound stuff, but a solid 3/10

An interesting premise (and a change of background), and then he brings out a ballpoint pen and any sense of intrigue is washed away by laughter.

3/10

Baggs' acting really doesn't work for this kind of story and the royalty free music makes this this feel like a cheap YouTube video (which I guess it was).

The plot moves at a breakneck pace which I guess it intended but just doesn't work for this style of storytelling, and this doesn't feel like something that'd be recorded for PROBE's case files (at least not the first few clips).

That said, it does give us the quote: "I don't know how it happened, it turns out Stathy- Stacy was a Love Wraith from the planet Succuba." Which is solid gold.

But yeah in all seriousness, 3/10

An interesting bit of supernatural horror storytelling, ghosts that aren't ghosts, and seem to just watch without doing anything, and then the clip at the end leaves the implication that there's something they want, something with people?

Baggs storytelling style, well, it'd be a push to say it works here, but it doesn't hinder this story as much as it has all the others so far.

A low 5/10

Baggs really can't do emotion well and this case file depends on it. He's trying to talk about the sorrow of losing Archie, of trying so hard to bring him back only to keep failing and he just can't make you believe it.

The story itself is pretty good though, and I could see this being so much better with a different actor.

4/10

A very paint by numbers ghost story, Ouija board and all.

Baggs continues to show approximately 0 emotions in his voice while reading off the script.

3/10

This is the first of the case files I've felt was actually worth watching, then again, as they all seem to be just Baggs talking to a camera (this time with some graphics) it felt like it could've been an audio short rather than a video. The art is nice though, and the style helps bring you into the vibe of PROBE quite well.

4/10

On the one hand it's mostly just Baggs giving an overview of what PROBE is, reading off a script to a camera, but there's some actual effort into the editing and a nice opening piece with Liz.

That said, they still can't make me believe that's Liz, and the shots from other shorts just make me wish I were watching those instead.

2/10

Somehow Baggs manages to sound even more dull in this one than the last, and he's just standing against a wall this time instead of actually interesting background, and with a worse filter.

The car horn sound mixing is awful as well, really should be quieter, I nearly jumped out of my skin

1/10

Bill Baggs dull-ly reads off a script to a camera for 3 minutes and then put a filter over it, great, 2/10

Directing, acting, special effects, shot continuity, audio effects, casting, scripting, shot composition, props...

Apparently 20 years is how long it takes to lose all film making skill. I'm trying to think of a single thing that this film did well, and I'm coming up completely blank.

Where the previous four PROBE films had a cast that brings you in, well built suspense and horror, some great shots and effects, this film surprises you by doing, well, not that.

The best moments were the most emotionally important parts of the film because they screwed them up so badly you just couldn't help but laugh. I'm sure this would be a great watch with friends and some beers, but for actually being a compelling story...

1/10

Okay so they decided to so The Devil of Winterbourne, but without the bits that were actually interesting, and retconning the main thing I liked about it.

I mean, generally this was pretty fun and I enjoyed watching, usually I'd give a 7/10, but the fact it makes The Devil of Winterbourne worse in retrospect is just really frustrating.

It also doesn't have the moments that really make The Devil of Winterbourne work like the scarecrow there, so it just falls a bit flat.

I like coming back to the location and seeing the repurcussions of that first film, but overall it's just fine.

The audio mixing isn't the best on this (though might just be the version I watched). The plot's fine but less interesting than the other two and unfortunately it felt a little predictable, I saw the twist coming a mile away. Now the effects though, there were some gruesome practical effects in this which I loved, one near the start where a yellow sludge seeps out of a person's eyes really stood out to me, as well as the moment where someone gets their heart torn out of their body.

Overall though, this didn't reach the atmospheric peaks that the first two films did, though it's at least more consistent then The Zero Imperative.

Worth a watch for the effects though.

Also unrelated but it's Criminal that Liz isn't on the cover of more of these, because the cover for this one is just awful.

Halfway done!

This episode had some really solid acting from Jorjie, and Darius was pretty alright too, unfortunately that side of the episode was let down by a rather lackluster script. You can tell where that conversation is going, but hey, it's still performed pretty well and the acting gets you invested with the characters (even if this relationship drama is a bit silly and I don't get Jorjie's attraction to Starkey at all). Nice that there's some series spanning plot going on even if it is this.

The science I don't think *quite* works with reality, but hey, it's fun, and leads to another surprisingly fun monster design. I'm not sure the world needs to be in danger every time there's something like this, I think keeping the stakes more localized would have been just as if not more effective, but hey, it's fine.

I also quite like the interaction at the end when everything's wrapped up with K9 asking what love is. It's not a big moment, but it's fun and feels real.

Another 6/10

The Devil of Winterbourne - 8/10

When I saw that runtime, I really didn't expect to enjoy this at all, especially after the pacing issues in The Zero Imperative, but wow did this surprise me.

The pacing felt noticeably better here, there's some really gruesome imagery in there too, I'm especially thinking about the [spoiler]skinned dog head scarecrow[/spoiler] nearer the beginning. There's familiar faces from classic who, but none of them take away from the driving force of the actual plot itself like they did all too much in The Zero Imperative.

Liz gets more time to actually shine here, and you're immediately more invested with the potential of P.R.O.B.E. getting shut down. Also on thinking more, I like that P.R.O.B.E. sets itself apart from U.N.I.T. by being UK government based, rather than UN based.

Mark Gatiss' acting in this is really bad though, with his character's stammer. For the most part it's alright, but there's one scene where he's talking to Liz, and Mark seems to almost keep forgetting that his character's meant to have a stammer. There's a few characters who are meant to be like 17 or so as well, and the actors clearly aren't which takes you out of it a bit when they mention it, but isn't too bad.

As for the villain... At first when the villain was revealed I had an immediate ick. Great, a gay murderer, it's not inherently bad to do that, but it's definitely a harmful trope that's usually not great. The more it went on though, the more I actually really liked the choice to make the character gay. The murder isn't actually haunted by some devil, but he's a guy who's been convinced he's the reincarnation of this famous occultist.

If it were a straight adult man who'd been convinced of it, it'd still work, but making that person a gay teen, someone who's still growing up, who doesn't yet understand his place in the world, who probably feels othered from society even more than others his age due to his sexuality. To take a person like that and tell them they have a place, that they matter.

It just works so well, and honestly made me feel a bit emotional thinking about it.

TL:DR: I highly recommend watching this, of all the wilderness years things I've watched so far this is by far my favourite.

Didn't expect to be hit with the professor being transphobic in the first 4 minutes (/j to be clear, he just a comment he makes about Jorjie's singing saying she should try voice training that took me out and had to pause for laughter)

I ended up waiting about an hour or so after watching the episode to write this review, and I've already forgotten a lot of what happened. Good aliens was a nice change of pace and made me realize that we've had surprisingly few of them for how much The Department is meant to be villainous.

The aliens themselves were kind of interesting, and the effects weren't half bad this time. The acting unfortunately still very much was.

Overall, 4/10

Now this would be a fun monster for a TTRPG game.

I don't understand at all what they're talking about when they say someone must've tampered with the machine, this thing practically goes off on it's own every other week. The character stuff with people blaming Starkey was ridiculous, they can't keep getting away with this being the plot to every episode.

The backstory stuff with Starkey though was interesting. On the one hand, I wish they'd built it up a little over the season and hinted at it before, on the other, I get they want to keep each episode self contained.

The monster is one of the better ones so far, the concept is interesting and I feel a little mad saying it but I think it's one of the better looking ones of the show, even being bad CG.

The resolution was pretty sweet, and I think I'd be giving this story a better grade if it didn't come immediately after another story where people aren't trusting K9, but because of that (and the weak acting), I have to give this a

4/10

K9 does really only seem to have two plots: Something comes through the portal and causes chaos, and everyone doubts K9 because something happens and he can't remember his past.

I'm being a little reductive there, some don't quite fit into those categories but most most of them do, and while the first of those can have a lot of different twists, the latter.... doesn't. How much can we really doubt K9 when this keeps happening and keeps being proven good, this is the third time it's happened in 6 episodes and while it was kind of fun the first time, and I think done pretty well the second, the third time.......

Even the admittedly pretty fun costuming, makeup, and set design can't make up for doing this **again**.

3/10

Another pretty solid episode. I think what they did with the camera work and colours being different in the dream and reality was really fun. The costuming was great here. Honestly they seem to do really well with these more horror/spooky focused episodes because I've liked all of those they've done so far.

Bit of a missed opportunity with Darius' nightmare being clowns and not expanding more on the fear of small spaces they established before but meh. The tinfoil hats thing was pretty funny and I quite liked the conclusion.

Overall pretty alright.

5/10

The first part of this story with Munmeth is honestly just really charming. A medicine man who's also an artist, seeing a modern day take on neanderthal life and cultures with Gabby's interactions with him, the way even with the telepathic circuits there's still some words Munmeth can't understand and the way that's shown to the audience.

After the sci-fi side of the story starts to rear its head though, that charm starts to be lost somewhat. Especially when it's revealed they're slavers from Gallifreyan myth, I'm sorry, I just can't buy that. That works when they're something that feels old or threatening without that, in those cases saying that can make something more threatening. These guys though, sure they're evil, but they're bog-standard evil, not mythologically evil. I don't believe for one second that they're the cruelest race teh time lrds worked with like 10 says here. The thing about them capturing people for The Death Zone is interesting, but they should've left it at that.

Sidenote, the doctor says he's doing Venusian Akido but he's fighting with a spear which just isn't how Akido works

5/10

I really loved these cutaways before, so a story that focuses on them is incredible. I love the insight it gives into Gabby as a character and her reading of The Doctor. The age to his eyes she mentions and the page where it's different sketches of him is really nice.

I also love the line about travelling in the TARDIS being somewhere between fear and euphoria (conjuring memories of [An Awful Lot of Running](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAi4izfvXo4) for me), and the mentions of Turlough and Sarah are really sweet.

I loved Cleo from what we saw of her at the end of 10's last year,so nice to see her again and nice to have a bit more of the aftermath of that (too often these massive events just get ignored after they happen). Confirmation that Hanif and Erik were gay is nice, but also makes that more sad.

Ebonite is very interesting and while it's obviously not intentional, this side of the story does give major Pantheon vibes in terms of feeling a bit more mysterious and fantasy than Sci-Fi which is really nice.

And that last page reveal?? On I'm excited to see where this goes now.

8/10 for me

Really enjoying this right off the bat, I love when the TARDIS is used to just show off the worlds, and this setting is really fun (also music entity is very gender). The use of Synesthesia as a method to communicate with them is really cool.

I do think a little more could've been done like how they did in Echo with the onomatopoeia, but generally I think the story and setting here are a lot stronger (I've moved Echo down to a 6 from a 7).

I love the fact that we're also seeing more different art forms through the 10th doctor's run, it's just really nice to go through them all with an artist as a companion, something I see will continue with the next story.

Overall a strong 7/10

Again, not a bad episode apart from the fact they keep forgetting to have a first act. This show really would serve well from just an extra 5 mins at the top of each episode. I liked The Professor in this again, and I think Drake and Darius' interactions were pretty fun. The more I watch the more I'm starting to like those three... and it kind of makes me wish for a series without Jorjie and Starkey.

There's a couple plot beats that just don't quite work for me, overall though, yeah, this was pretty fun.

A low 5/10

First real Bernice story I've listened to (not counting a couple shorts and minisodes) and really like her character, also love Iris in this again and I think this does a good job of wrapping up plot threads left dangling.

That said, otherwise, I'm pretty meh on this story, it's fine, dont' get me wrong, but I wasn't quite as invested as Dawns or Rising, and I didn't find the worldbuilding to be as interesting as Decays. The answers for the plot threads are nice to have and it'd be weird not having them, but they're also not anything especially gripping to me, and they don't really tie all that much into the rest of the series so (like @deltaandthebannermen said on the forum) it feels more like a sequel to Dawns than part of the series.

A high 5/10 for me, but if you ask me a different day it could be a 6.

This was enjoyable if a little run of the mill. Anthony Head continues to give a great performance, and McCoy is brilliant as ever. I think the plot here is a little on the weaker end, but I think the worldbuilding and ideas on display here bring it back up.

It's very rare you get the more mythical in Doctor Who without a technological explanation, and it's nice to see that not only do they not explain the relic or the spiritual aspects of this planet in this final(ish) part of the saga, but also I really like the use of souls as almost fuel(ish) here is interesting, almost reminds me of Class.

The implication that The Doctor had been going around without his soul (or at least without all of it) for at least one full regeneration is something, not sure what the implication there really is, but the way Greyvorn then uses that to draw on The Doctor's knowledge is fun and making him a more deadly enemy. I also like that you get a bit of The Doctor dealing with the destruction of Excelis, not much, but it's there at the end which is nice.

Overall a 6 out of 10 for me.

I really like the way this follows on from the last part, it feels like a natural progression of the world, Anthony Head continues to give a great performance, and this time he get a lot more of an interesting part to work with.

The interplay between Six and Greyvorn is really fun, both of them trying to figure out exactly what's going on with the other, it's a fun murder mystery, and the worldbuilding you get is especially intriguing and makes me interested for the rest of the saga.

Overall an 8/10 for me, definitely closer to a 7 than a 9 though

First time I've listened to anything with Iris (though know about her as a character from being in fandom spaces and watching things that talk about her). Katy Manning is a delight, and you can just tell from the performance how much fun she's having playing Iris.

All the cast in this are incredible to be fair, Antony Stewart Head plays Greyvorn spectacularly, especially in the scene where he sees the future of the planet, and of course Peter Davidson always knocks it out of the park with the scene of him and Iris talking about Adric's death being a highlight.

It's also interesting some ideas that it brings up that then get used by the new series, especially curious to me is what The Doctor says about being in the death zone with older versions of himself. I think the implication is meant to be that he's just talking about the events of The Five Doctors, but the fact he mentions that he was with himself "four, five, six times over" (where he'd only be with himself three times over in The Five Doctors), him talking about how they all looked older than him as if they'd kept on going, and him mentioning it after talking about the fourth doctor's regeneration leads me to my own personal headcanon. That being that he's talking about the Fourth/Fifth Doctor's versions of the Guardians of the Edge, and that when The Fourth Doctor regenerated, the version of the edge he saw took on the form of The Death Zone and he saw his previous regenerations as if they'd kept going (possibly including pre-hartnell ones given how many times over he mentioned seeing them).

Not sure if that headcanon really works, but hey, it's a fun one.

Overall though, the story itself was enjoyable and while i like the character stuff a lot, I don't think anything really leapt out as ***really*** good to me.

7/10

Red dawn is pretty fun and I like the characterisation it gives the ice warriors, probably the most interested I've been in them from anything I've them in seen yet (only revival who). That said, this feels kind of pain by numbers. Not bad by any stretch of the imagination, just kind of meh, not something I can ever see myself going back and relistening to.

If this is what the ice warriors are like on big finish (or in classic) though, I understand the hype for them and wish they were used better in the revival.

Overall a solid and high 5/10.

Honestly, you'd think with all the other things that have managed to come through, he'd've learnt to take the device down when not using it by now.

That said, I'm glad he didn't, because it gave us an actually pretty compelling story. We get a little more about Gryffen, we knew his family had gone, but he gets some solid character moments. We get an inkling of his past with Darius and the other characters get to learn about his family. We get a pretty funky haunted house story, the best looking aliens in the series so far (because it's people with makeup but still). The characters here actually feel like people and not just like they're just pieces of the plot.

It's a low 6, but it's a 6 for me. Tempted to go lower because K9 loses at chess, but he is on a team with Darius who probably just ignored what K9 said.

6/10

Wow, that was a better boogieman than Series 1/14 /hj

In all seriousness, this is a fine story, I like the mini character development for Darius (I remember his name!) in having a fear of enclosed spaces, which is very fun put next to The Professor having a fear of the outdoors. The stuff they did with Drake as well was pretty neat to see (is this the reveal of his robot hand/arm, or am I not remembering it before?)

The main issue is that while the central thread should work in theory, a robot learning emotions, it doesn't really work with K-9 specifically, and K-9's fear doesn't seem believable for the character. Also, they forgot the first act? I mean it was there, but it was like 3 minutes of the whole episode (including the intro)

4/10

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed that, or, well, the second half at least. The first half of the film tends to drag a bit, and I feel it could probably have been better if they cut it down to 40 minutes and focused more on the more horror aspect of the second half rather than the 30/40 mins of setup.

When they do get to that god part though, it's really good! I knew the cast were going to be fun to watch, being mostly former doctors, but the cinematography was great, especially some of the lighting at the end.

An 8/10 film brought down by messy plotting, a first half that drags, and a bit of a tonal shift with in jokes for the audience in the first half being a bit jarring compared to the ending.

Note: This doesn't contain spoilers for the story, but may include minor spoilers for the live show, if you're going on the 15th, wait until you've seen it

While I think the story itself is a 7 or so out of 10, the experience really did just make it a 10 out of 10 for me.

The live foley art, the biscuit, the cast acting their hearts out live, McGann in full costume, the audience participation at the end, the cheers, the whoops, the clapping.

The atmosphere was incredible, and I personally can't give it less than a 10/10

This was fine, barely featured K9 and the plot felt a little contrived with using the weapon at the start then being the same material as the mind control, probably didn't need that opening at all, but hey, Girl gets some character stuff which is nice I guess. It's not a bad idea for an episode, it's just not executed well.

4/10

I really liked this, and reading it after the series’ leading up to it this time instead of on it’s own without context for the new companions made me like it even more. I love the touching on the time war and how it affected other species, the new Voord designs are a real treat. The glimpse we get of War is very fun to see, and that moment at the end with 9 is just fantastic.

I also love seeing more time war tech here, the idea of a bomb that rewrites your history to make another universe possible is great, and I love the glimpses it gives up into these possible realities where our doctors failed, all of them in such different ways (especially 11 and 12). The Voord 12 is a really fun villain, harkening back to classic who which feels right for something like this, while at the same time being and feeling like a big enough threat as well.

The character stuff is a treat, the companions interacting with each other is great, and I love all the moments of the three doctors saying 'We need to…" (or something to that effect) in unison, before all shouting different ideas.

If I had any complaints it would be with the art, I think some characters look a bit off at times, mostly Cindy and Clara can be a little hard to tell apart in some shots, Cindy looks a bit off a lot actually, but still really fun.

Some very fun ideas here, but this felt like two separate episodes to be completely honest. The idea of The Department faking things for publicity is a fun idea and could've had a whole episode about it, and the Bounty Hunter with K-9 worrying that he's murdered someone was also a fun idea, they get sort of smushed together though and the episode really does suffer for it.

The costume for the Korven itself is pretty laughable and I don't for a second believe that they're as deadly as they're meant to be, but this was the most fun episode so far. The Professor actually gets some character moments, and we see how Boy 2 (still can't remember any names) cares for him. The set up with k9 heating beans earlier and then using that 'power' to defeat the alien threat is fun, and the setup of Boy 2 inviting Girl to stay at The Professor's house, which she then uses to invite Boy 1 to stay there got a chuckle out of me.

Not incredible by any means, but I'm happily giving this one a 5/10

I loved this story, I don't think I've actually watched any pure historicals (at least, if I have I don't remember them well at all), and I've occasionally wondered how exactly they work compared to the the usual sci-fi fare

This flawlessly showed me how they work, just spectacular, The Doctor interacting with the court and era was fun, but Evelyn Smythe is undoubtedly the star of the show here. A perfect introduction to an amazing character, I love her back chatting the doctor, I loved her having favourite historical figures, I loved her love of coco, all just spectacular

That was really fun, the view to a fascist future with The Doctor struggling against it is great, especially seeing how that sort of future makes monsters out of the good intentioned rebels, and how opportunistic it makes people as well with the rebels secretly siding with those in power.

Also the character stuff with Ace and The Doctor, especially that last part with Ace having the monster inside her, but believing it’s in The Doctor, just great. Also a perfect monster for this sort of story, and a story that’s ever relevant, some things mentioned just feel so real, you could tell me this was released 24 days ago and I’d believe you, but it’s somehow 24 years??

Actually as I’m writing this, I’m upping it to a 9, originally had it as an 8 but that fact of just how it’s more relevant now than ever, and it was written nearly a quarter of a century ago, yeah it has to be a 9.

I've seen people here talk about the colouring being a bit weird and off with the yellow bloom, and sure compared to the other Titan comics it definitely is, but for me it just adds to it feeling more like a season 1 story, I mean, compare it to some season 1 screenshots.

As for the plot, I think it's interesting to see more of the fallout from the time war, we don't get enough of that in the main show outside dalek stories, there's a few references to it, but having it be the setup for the full plot here, people trying to take over the power vacuum left by the time lords, is pretty interesting.

I also really like some of the ideas and worldbuilding implications, the black market bazaar on a world under a held back supernova, the nods to the time agency and the idea that while they're doing good, they're small fish in a very big pond, the brief looks at the doctor's past with the time war and Jack's picking up on some of the doctor's comments about it, talking about Jack's future, etc.

The character interactions are also just perfect, I love this trio as a tardis team and I love that expanded material can give us more adventures with them. It's especially fun seeing Jack clearly early on in his adventures with the team compared to Boom Town when they've been traveling together a while.

For all the praise I'm giving it though, I do think the storytelling itself is a bit weird in places, a lot of fakeout deaths that don't really go anywhere, a lot of exposition, and one thing I've found strange with a lot of the comics, the designs for the aliens don't really feel all that Doctor Who to me.

Overall though, I feel comfortable giving this a 7/10, and I'd definitely consider adding it to a Season 1 rewatch.

To be fair, it didnt’ help that I knew in advance Arc was joining the TARDIS, I think if I didn’t I’d like it more, but yeah, I really like ARC’s introduction here.

Not sure why this is split into two stories, haven’t read the next part yet (as of writing the review), but yeah this is definitely just part 1 of 2, it sets things up well, but can’t give more than that

Interesting way to introduce a new companion(?), I like the setting things up here a lot as well, just hope they don’t do what Moffat did with 11 and it actually pays off

Fun setting, nice set up, decent plot, nothing too much to write home about. I do like that it’s doing more with the the new companion, showing her skills and more contrasting her depression with surroundings, also some fun set ups. Do wish it was a longer first story too though

A great companion introduction for Alice. Her contrasting 11 brings out a more emotionally mature side of 11 we dont’ really get to see all that often and I really like it.

Fluff, but solid fluff. I like the way the noise is shown with different styles for the onomatepia, and it’s not something that’d really work in another medium (at least in the same way) which is nice

Yeah Weeping Angels of Mons is just as good as I remember, solid 9/10, I think I’m not as big a fan of this art style generally, but it does really work for this specific story generally just being darker

Don’t have much to say other than yeah, really liked it

I guess they wanted a big climax for the end of the 10th doctor’s first year, but it didn’t feel needed at all, and I’d’ve much rather something smaller scale and character driven like they seemed to be setting up with Cindy’s return and generally lower stakes of the first part

oh well, still enjoyed it, it’s a missed opportunity, but what they did was fun enough

A slightly disappointing continuation of a story I was really liking, it becoming a sequel to pyramids of mars starts to lose me a bit, and I don't think it needed to become this large scale epic they ended up trying to make it

I really liked the character stuff in this story, but unfortunately being part one of a 3 part story, it's let down by the other two parts

Fun story, but nothing particularly grabbing, but hey, what can there be in a 22 page free comic book day issue?

I don’t remember it too well tbh, I liked it well enough and the Evil Doctor was very fun

Also a fan of what the companions ended up getting to do in this one

Okay I liked this a fair bit, the doctor’s plan of becoming majority shareholder is an easy one to see, but it’s still very fun, and a lot of the breadcrumbs we’ve gotten have finally started coming together, learning more about the talent scout, ARC, etc.

That cliffhanger is also very fun

Apart from the openning, this could’ve just been on another planet, setting it over Earth was a mistake imo. It’s got some nice character stuff, more building up overall mysteries, and I liked the openning with Alice’s expectation for The Doctor’s reaction vs the reality. Overall though it feels like just another story, if that makes sense.

I don’t really have all that much to say here, it’s the first part of a multi-part story so can’t give full thoughts, but this issue alone is… well… kinda meh, there’s some more arc stuff going on (meaning both the character and wider story) that’s intriguing, but past that, nothing to write home about.

There’s a weird subplot(?) about jones getting fatter, which is just really weird and takes me out of it a bit, and I’m generally not the biggest fan of stories where the doctor goes back to modern day earth and then there just happens to be a big planet-wide alien event going on. It can be done well if we have time to spend on the doctor’s reactions to it or the wider whoniverse’s response (e.g. I like army of ghosts, aliens of london, and the christmas invasion), but here it just gets glossed over really quickly

I love format screw-y stories and this one is definitely no exception, it takes advantage of the medium really well, and I like the quick fix the doctor comes up with. That all said the actual resolution feels a little weak, the B-plot isn’t too strong, and it was a bit hard to get into at the start, I want to give this higher than a 7 because I love it in theory, but the actual execution is a little lacking for me. Definitely a fun one off story though and another great showcase of why I think comics are just such an incredible medium for Dr Who

I like the resolutions to all the characters stories, but the core plot itself feels a little weak to me. I do wish the Talent Agent was just a bit more interesting, I don’t know, generally I liked it though, and I prefer this finale to the 10th doctor’s first year

A very fun second to last story, I really liked the cybermen, even if it wasn’t them converting people, the entity still converts humans to join in with their cause. The peak into a slightly darker doctor that you get sometimes with 11 was here and was really good to see, especially seeing Alice and ARC’s reactions, and the sort of hopeless end leaves me wanting more.

Interesting to see the Talent Scout and ARC’s origins, but the main thing is the art style and the format screw they do. The 10th Doctor comics did a good job at showing what Doctor Who would look like as a comic, mostly the same as the show but doing a few things they wouldn’t be able to like the notebook sections. The 11th Doctor comics on the other hand really play with the medium and do things that you couldn’t do in any other format. Almost reminds me of 11’s era a bit, playing around with a bit more high concept sci-fi in a fun way, it’s just a shame the story isn’t really much better

I love the idea of free comic book day being used as an invasion. Objectively I don’t think it’s an 8/10, but I’m biased towards this story for one main reason; When I was still in London for free comic book day (2017-2019) I used to go to the London Forbidden Planet Megastore and well…

That’s just a really really fun little reference

Fully admit this one is biased by my own gender-f**kery I’ve got going on. I like the setting, the diary sections are brilliant, I love the insight it gives into Gabby as an artist, in terms of her art, her self image/insecurities, etc. It also expands on the relationship between her and Cindy which I like. I know about future things that at least one of them is gay for the other, can’t remember which, but this is definitely either showing that Gabby is or why Cindy would be, and I like that. I also really enjoyed the apprentice and Zhe’s gender f**kery, one being both, one being very fluid, which as a queer person with a lot of gender f**kery going on, was really nice to see.

Relatively simple, but thoroughly enjoyable, will say I wasn’t 100% convinced on a modern day american companion at first, but Gabby ends up being great and completely disuaded any fears I might have. One thing that I really appreciate about the RTD era is how human companions feel, and how you get a peek into their home life, and that’s done here really well. Her conflict with her family is there and is a big part of things, but you can still tell how much she loves them and I love how the resolution to that ended up tying into the plot’s general resolution.

Also having an artist as a companion for a comic is a really fun idea, and while they get more into it in The Arts in Space, I do love when they do here as well.

Half way between a 6 and 7 to be fair, if this were a televised story I think it’d be a 7, but the art and quick jumps in places bring it down a bit for me

Interesting to see that it’s a story with a pre-established companion this time instead of a new one for the comic, being published just as season 8 was ending it makes sense given still with Clara for another season, but with the way it ends they could’ve done a new companion if they wanted

Exploring different cultures, showing their past and a future based on them, time travel as a big part of the plot, gay people, great art, what more could you ask for?

Well, apparently cultural sensitivity and more interesting villains, but can’t have everything I guess

Read this a month or so back and not gone back to reread it now, but I remember thinking it as fine. The other free comic book day stories were fun in showing some of the downtime for the doctor and doing a story related to free comic book day, this is just a doctor who story but in 20 pages, it’s solid for what it is, but it’s limited by it too.

Feels straight out of season 8, not just in terms of the timeline with the Coal Hill stuff, but also the doctor’s characterisation. The story itself I think is a bit on the worse side but it’s still solid, but the main thing is I feel this could fit very easily into a season 8 rewatch, setting up 12’s involvement with UNIT, hinting towards the actions Clara takes in Dark Water, and the character stuff for 12 is on point for his arc that season trying to figure out what type of man he is.

I’m wondering if there’s some rules against Titan using certian real life figures, first Jones, not Frankie Seneca. Choosing to just believe that they are the figures they’re meant to be instead of strangely renamed versions.

Generally though I really liked this story, A gang story with 12 isn’t something I thought I’d see but I’m glad I did, love the history here, love the general vibes, and some fun and funky worldbuilding (I like the reference to the first of 12’s comics, the new aliens are fun, and the time gun of Rassilon is so so stupid I can’t help but love it at least a little).

Solid story that I could definitely see being at home on screen, gave me Tooth and Claw or Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror vibes in terms of being a fairly standard but still fun celebrity historical, just a shame it’s as short as it is

Interesting that somewhere in the middle of this comic they flip from mid season 8, to mid season 9 (given Danny was mentioned before, and now The Doctor is taking up the mantle of president of earth again after Death in Heaven). Not sure why Kate’s drawn with grey hair, that was a bit weird. Overall I quite liked this, it felt like a good climax for 12’s first year, and… wait there’s one more? Okay then? But yeah, the Hyperion are a fun returning villain, one that you could imagine on the show, but probably wouldn’t get for budget reasons. I liked the characters in this as well, and the ending worked really nicely for me.

I do agree that the constant end of the world stakes do feel not great when we’re getting them so often, but still very fun

Now that was fun, short but sweet but it really works. Bit out of place to be reading this in August, but I could see myself coming back to it for Christmas
Fun characterization for The Toymaker and I like that take on The Doctor’s relationship with him.

Also feeds even more into my reading of 12 as ‘The Endgame Doctor’, a lot of his stories involve him reconciling with his oldest enemies or wrapping up plotlines (until they inevitably come back of course), but yeah, I like how they do that with The Toymaker here.

Another just very fun story, gave the cast a lot to do and let people play roles they wouldn't normally which was super fun to listen to. Evil Sylvia was incredible

Great hearing Tennant at the end, knowing he was in it I was worried it'd cheapen the ending somewhat but it really didn't and just ended up feeling like a fun little treat for listening.

The talk about how Donna would be great at UNIT was very fun coming from 2024 when it's happened, and the lines about memory being something we need to hold onto was heartbreaking (though a little less now).

Overall solid, 7/10

A fine enough story, but so far this feels like the least neccessary, the story is alright and characters are fine, but overall it's not as good as the first two and feels like they just wanted to have a story set in the past on the set.

As part of the set it's fine, but if I were to go back and relisten to an arthurian comedy, I'd go for Lone Centurian 2 anyday, 6/10

Donna doesn't get too much to do here until the end, but the rest of the story more than makes up for the comparatively less Tate.

Alien invasion by PR is a great concept and executed really well, 8/10

Interesting point to set these (just post Forest of the Dead)

I wasn't sure what to expect from a Donna solo story, but I'd probably've guessed something like this, great cast, fun plot, Cathrine Tate is always great.

Overall solid but nothing too much to write home about, 7/10

3/10

0 plot and there's an ood standing in the middle of the story so it's hard to read, and and the slant makes figuring out the order of the text a little tricky too

The gist of what you can read is nice, and appreciate the pun of 'where there's a kill, there's a way'

7/10

A solid finalie to the boxset, I especially enjoyed Guinevere in this one. A little weaker than the other two in the set I feel, but that's mostly because of how much I liked the other two. I wish there's been a little more explanations of some things in the end, but that could've taken away from the comedy, and there's stuff left open they could explore in future sets (that I really hope are coming)

8/10

I'll admit, I wasn't completely sold on this comic retelling of the story of Sir Gwaine and the Green Knight at the mid-point, thinking the story felt a little generic, but the end completely turned me around. Rory's reactions all through the quest are all great, and generally just found the story very funny/

8/10

The Lone Centurian continues to be comedy gold. Rory fits surprisingly well into this reimagining of camelot, and while all the supporting cast are a little predictable after a scene or so with each of them, it's only done so in a way that makes it all the funnier, and they never get grating or the like.

Highly reccomended listening if you're a fan of Rory.