So heartwarming. I LOVE THIS TARDIS TEAM SO MUCH. Please Jackie write another 13 novel I am begging you

SACK RUSSELL T DAVIES

SACK JANE TRANTER

SACK PHIL COLLINSON

Billie Piper: 😐

It’s sooooo ironic that I decided the day I’d spend listening to all of Fallen Heroes after watching Interstellar Song Contest. Both stories attempt “morally gray Doctor” but only this one is obviously really great and really earned. I love Daisy Ashford’s character a lot, she was really compelling. It just goes in at 11 and astonishes me with a brilliant premise of a murder mystery in a quiet town but they don’t have time. It unfolds really well into a pertwee era homage, but there are a lot of fun twists, especially the cliffhanger in episode 2. The third act is a bit strange in its quaintness and its pointedness to really get under the skin of the war Doctor. This is the best war Doctor story, along with Engines of War and He Who Fights the Monsters. I feel like big finish is just putting out a lotta bangers recently in general, I definitely enjoyed this more than anything I’ve seen on tv recently

Just like that one episode of Phineas and Ferb

I’ve definitely recently been in the habit of putting on an audio from my backlog and I’ve been getting through a lot of really quality stuff, but a lot of the tame, milder, more forgettable stories are the “worst” of big finish outside of a few outliers like a Nekromanteia. Especially when big finish costs this much, it’s a real shame when a play is in one ear and out the other. I got this on sale last week and it’s really nothing special. I like the foreshadowing and it’s a Cybermen story that’s a meta homage to the Cybermen, so like, that’s neat! But I gotta tell ya, I’m not going to remember this play.  I’m going to remember feeling excitement and comfy but couldn’t tell you much else, but for plays like this one, I find it really hard to critique or remember. I had a great time listening to it, as I always do listening to big finish, but I doubt I could ever hold a conversation about the secrets of telos (or 50% of big finish I listen to). I am casting this review out into the ether as the only proof that I ever even thought about the secrets of telos. 6/10

I want to talk about the Threshold arc in general, so this is more of a review of Ground Zero through to Wormwood. This was designed not around the new doctor, as Scott Gray says in the behind the scenes of Ground Zero, but rather an attempt to turn the DWM comics from supplementary material to the show/novels into its own serialized story. In essence, the Threshold were created in order to make DWM readers excited to tune into the Doctor's adventures month to month, rather than something to read quickly after reading the rest of the issue. Gray does this with the help of Alan Barnes, who wrote a lot of this arc, Gary Gillatt, the brand new editor for the comic strip, and of course the brilliant Martin Geraghty, who does the pencils for the majority of stories in this arc.

I guess that's the first place to start- the art is simply phenomenal. Geraghty proved he was able to capture the likenesses of characters throughout classic who previously, which climaxes in Ground Zero's phenomenal art, in which Seven is portrayed with all of the grit, anger, and maturity that he has in every fan's brain. Dare I say, perhaps with more nuance than Sylvester himself has ever depicted with the character. The Threshold themselves are such an interesting design, becoming even more visually interesting as the arc progresses. By Wormwood, they feel just as frightening, and are now accompanied by the Pariah, a terrifying creation of Rassilon himself. In Fire and Brimstone the Daleks are an excellent throwback to their look in the 70s while still capturing the appropriate scale that Gray, Barnes and Gillett are trying to capture with this brand new era of Who. In Tooth and Claw, the atmosphere is dripping with gothic imagery and danger. I like Izzy a lot, though design-wise she doesn't stand out, Fey does. She has one of the most inspired designs, and where her arc eventually ends, fusing with Shayde, it is all the more satisfying by the way that both characters' designs and personalities mirror each other's.

In The Final Chapter, though still written by Alan Barnes, this version of Gallifrey feels different from the Big Finish series, or even from its depiction in the classic series. There is a certain mysteriousness and gothic quality to the setting that hearkens back to The Deadly Assassin, yet is not burdened by that story's budget constraints. This was also the first run of stories to truly depict the Eighth Doctor. It's amazing how much they understand him from the get go. His compassion is endless, though he still has a sort of rage bubbling underneath. For Izzy, he is a friend and a magician. For Fey, he is an ally, but for everyone else, he is so menacing and threatening. That romantic quality is only there when he is with Izzy, but he can be remarkably cold. Similar to Seven, he is not afraid to trick his friends and put them through hell to gain the upper hand against his enemies, hence the first half of Wormwood, in which his companions believe him to have regenerated into Nick Briggs.

Yeah, I'd say they succeeded. This new take on the comic strip is exciting and artful. Because of Gray and Gillett, the comic strip is always the first thing I turn to when I open up a new issue of DWM, and it hugely influenced the direction Big Finish would later take with Eight.

Listen, I know we don't like Gareth Roberts and the plot is thin at best, but I had a completely s**t day, like I wanted to rip my hair out. And then I came home, took a bong rip and looked at those cows on the moon and it made me really giggle. To martin gehraghty, if you're reading this I want to thank you for these evil cows.

You could play big finish bingo with part 3. If it stuck the landing I think this second series of Dark Gallifrey would be as impressive as its first. But instead we get a cop out ending, a fake doctor, two leads who have no chemistry who each appeared in only one episode of their original series, a generic villain, and flanderizing all of the characters they adapt. Aside from the return of the cowardly TARDIS from episode 1, you can skip part 3 of the Dark Gallifrey: War Master

I love stories that remember that the time war was so bad it forced the Doctor to abandon his morals. The War Doctor series is a little reticent about portraying such a character, but they shine when showing the horrible things that completely broke the Doctor. Lies in Ruins and He Who Fights with Monsters are other great examples. At the end of this story the worst possible thing happens to McGann’s Doctor.

The Doctor is unconscious so long this might as well be a Companion Chronicle. It’s dreadfully boring for most of parts 2 and 3, but it has a fairly strong beginning and end

So the sequel to The Masque of Mandragora wound up being the most invested I’ve been reading this range front to back since the early stuff. It has a really compelling take on 7, which very much justifies this story for me. Ace is also great, and since this is technically an event I guess, the stakes do seem appropriately grand. I would unfortunately say the ending is a major cop out, but for the most part this story is great.

Platt has lost the sauce apparently because this is so boring

I would do anything for that whifferdil. I’m gonna miss him

So, everything that goes on in the A plot is peak Chibnall and if I don’t think about the direction this arc is headed, the Fugitive Doctor is an effective reveal and greater still are the scenes where the two Doctors just get to play off each other. The B plot has aged insanely poorly, both because of the allegations and because of hindsight. The entire thing is worthless, it adds nothing to the plot and is purely nostalgia bait and directly tell the audience what is gonna happen in the finale. Stupid. Relegates Graham, and in the second half, Ryan and Yaz, to the bench this adventure.

Best of the season so far but in part because it feels like a series 11 episode. The fam have nothing to do, Tesla is interesting when playing off Jodie. Edison is obnoxious but not for the right reasons. The Skithra are so basic they forgot that they already did the Racnoss. There’s nothing wrong in this episode that isn’t also recurring throughout the era.

A very, very odd piece of Who when looked at out of context. It is a pure historical, with the only anachronistic elements in the story being the Doctor and the TARDIS. He meets a Japanese soldier, who gets a very heartfelt arc, but the depiction is very dated and pretty problematic. This story is also very nihilistic, and up to this point feels like the culmination of Steve Parkhouse’s Doctor Who. Even The Tides of Time is  very intense for Doctor Who, being much more mystical and abstract. This is a very sharp departure from the Mills/Wagner run, which is more akin to shonen. This comic takes itself very seriously and touches on dark subject matter. There is no monster for the Doctor to fight.

An abysmal episode of the show, and honestly deserves the reputation it has. I think a lot of the Chibnall era isn’t as bad as they say, but this is like a bottom five episode no problem. The Dregs are the most obvious problem. They look like s**t and are are not compelling whatsoever. Every shot is either a Dreg that looks like it came from a ps2 game, or a basic corridor except the color of the light is going crazy for some reason.

The twist is really basic and brings nothing new to the table. 13 and the fam are not on top form either. There is a little good stuff with Ryan, but it’s only like one scene where he’s trying to flirt with a girl who can’t act. The “Benni” line has been memed to death but again, it’s warranted. It’s very grating on the ears and it never succeeds in making me care about these two because that old woman can’t act. And then she dies for absolutely no reason.

Overall this is completely skippable. It tries to be an homage to JNT Doctor Who, but doesn’t have any fun with itself. It’s a bore and an annoyance.

Excellent from beginning to end. Easily one of the best uses of the celebrity historical, and Bruce played phenomenally with 13 and Ryan. There are so many moments in this strip that just exude “cool” in the most satisfying way possible. The villain is awesome and this story shows off the unique setting really well. Scott Gray please come back to DWM!

At this point I’m not really looking forward to the influx of Jamie Magnus Stone directed episodes over the next two seasons, and the direction in this episode in particular is exhausting. I feel like the common complaints people have with this era’s closeups, wide lenses, light being far too colorful/distracting, etc, are really laid bare in this episode. No framing/blocking decisions felt motivated at all, and it leaves me as an audience member bored visually and wanting more from the script as a result. And there’s not much to that either so this episode upon rewatch was kind of a dud.

O as the Master is something I became very excited about when I watched this on broadcast. I like him a lot in this episode. Sacha Dhawan’s ability to embody the Doctor’s arch rival. There’s a moment where O tempts Graham to learning more about the Doctor, and talking about her contradictory experiences, very clearly setting up the finale. But I think it’s Dhawan’s subtle Masterisms breaking out that makes the scene interesting. Other than the performance, there is not a single clue that O is not who he says he is. On a screenplay level, it rings very hollow on rewatch, and even Dhawan’s performance ended up being pretty tiring as the show went on from what I remember.

The fam are now structurally not a new family anymore, they’ve been family for a while now. I don’t think this is intentional but there are several scenes in this episode where two of the four talk and it’s always revealing how these characters have very little intimacy and yet we feel like the characters are subtly wanting closer connection. Pretty much every relationship between these four has an unspoken awkwardness to it. For example, when Yaz comes back to the mortal world and Ryan comforts her after abandoning her. He apologizes and pats her shoulder and tells her he’ll never let that happen again and Yaz turns and cries. Now there’s no romance there, it’s just two people who are not intimate with each other, and he can’t help her at all because a closer friend or a significant other would be able to understand Yaz. But instead there’s this underlying sadness that this fam will never be a fully happy family, and they’re all happy together because of shared trauma. I know the mixture of unambitious writing and sincerity of the show is likely the cause for this subtext, but the subtext is there.

I like a lot of what’s going on here though. The globetrotting identity of this story works very well in my opinion. The final fifteen minutes are fantastic. The Kasaavin are neat if not a bit generic. Thirteen has a good moment playing against Lenny Henry, which is probably the highlight of the episode.

I would absolutely call this the best Doctor Who novel that I have yet read, and it’s a major highlight of the 13th Doctor era. It combines a breakneck pace with unsubtle yet biting social commentary. The supporting characters are a product of this, but they are also very great characters. The fam all have moments where they individually shine. Juno Dawson’s writing is awesome

To be honest I can really not tell if this comic is trying to be funny or if it’s intended in earnest. Given the context it was released in, Im guessing probably the latter, but it’s so genuinely funny and entertaining it’s hard to dislike Abslom Daak.

One of the show’s most successful instances where it took the rules and flipped them completely on their head. From the opening that is surprising for how unusual it is, to part 3, which erupts into camp chaos. The Romans is, in my opinion, the absolute standout of the Lambert era, and is unlike anything that Doctor Who has ever done. I always forget how genius this TARDIS team is, and splitting up Ian and Barbara from Vicki and the Doctor is really smart, because William Russel and Jaqueline Hill have tons of charisma together, as do Maureen o’Brian and William Hartnell. I wish Doctor Who could have the guts to be playful with the regular formula to this extent again, which, to his credit, Moffat would often attempt. This is Doctor Who at its funniest.

Holy s**t??? The Dalek capture the Doctor and just lets him get off with a warning? The lore implications within this projector slideshow is insane!

I’m am so impressed with Scott Gray’s run of DWM 13 comics. These four stories are some of the most cohesive and compelling Dr Who I have ever seen, and I will be revisiting it many times I believe. This finale story, Mistress of Chaos brings it all together. I do believe Yaz gets a little sidelined in this adventure, but it’s such a big one with so many moving parts. If THIS was on TV, I know it would be beloved and 13 would be remembered as one of the greats, because her Doctor in particular really shines. We see her very darkest hour and how she can flip on a dime to become the Oncoming Storm. The villain reflects this brilliantly, and is now one of my all time favorite Who baddies. I don’t know, I could gush all day long. I had so much fun with this story, and I could not recommend it enough to anyone who can get their hands on it.

Without the lost memory hook, I’m afraid this adventure would be left feeling a little weak and standard, and since that hook becomes less relevant as the story goes on, so my interest declines slowly. I will say though, it is a very intriguing story at first, and the Doctor and her fam are all written great by Jody Houser yet again