A Timelord solider is being debriefed, her latest mission was to rescue a Tharil prisoner named Biroc, she thought it was a solo mission until another timelord showed up: the Doctor.

I’ve said before that the War Doctor audios haven’t really been for me. Listening to the Doctor playing solider boy isn’t really my cup of tea. I’m watching The Deadly Assassin at the moment, seeing these old, dodgery, stick-in-the-mud people and then hearing these soldiers, hell bent on winning the war is hard to reconcile.

I also feel that the Doctor shouldn’t just be a pawn in the game and should just turn up and do what he believes to be the right thing. In this he does more or less do that.

The addition of Biroc - the Tharil from Warriors Gate is a nice touch but adds little to the plot. You feel that maybe there's a point to it, that there’ll be a reason for his inclusion but none that I can remember.

As with the previous episode, Light the Flame, the Doctor it seems, is doing something that he would never do. Commodore Tamasan - the debriefing office takes great delight in the fact the Doctor ‘has changed’ and hammering this home to emphasise the nature of the war Doctor is just too much, no subtlety here. Its almost treating the listener as stupid, in case they don’t get the point. A minor spoiler maybe, but it doesn’t happen, all it really proves is the war Doctor is the Doctor, and rather than showing what a different person he is, it clearly shows the Doctor hasn’t changed at all.

As I’ve said, war films, solider stuff doesn’t really interest me. I was driving when I put this on and had to re listen to the start, but I enjoyed it to a point.

Not bad but has its flaws.

I first heard Jonathan Carley as the War Doctor in the Once and Future Coda. I didn’t realise it was the war Doctor at the time, but hearing him here it is quite a good voice likeness.

For me this was an odd decision, I wasn’t keen on the War Doctor audios. The War Doctor and the time war were not depicted as I had imagined so I always felt a little let down by them, but as it was on sale so why not?

I do tend to jump in to audios without doing any research and its not always the best idea. This continues almost directly on from the TV minisode, where the Eighth Doctor regenerates, so it very much helps to keep that in mind - I did go back and watch it in fact.

Its set on Karn and the war is getting nearer, the Timelords are pleased the Doctor has joined the cause and plan to upgrade the TARDIS but that’s not all they’re after.

It is very talkie, its almost half way through before anything really starts to happen. The war Doctor is whiny - a trade mark of his character it seems.

There’s the use of ‘flashlight’ and I find it jarring using American expressions in a British production.

The Doctor does get to a point where it seems as if he’s actually going to live up to the idea of making unpleasant decisions in order to shorten the war, and do something that goes completely against who the Doctor is, and give reason fo why he’s not 'The Doctor". However it doesn’t happen and its a little disappointing.

I said the war Doctor isn’t quite how I imagined. I’d of preferred more action, battles, rather than a lot of timelords arguing.

Romana and Narvin arrive on the planet Unity and meet an old friend: Leela

Leela herself has a family of sorts, but is she ready to rejoin Romana?

Its not a bad story, one of Leela associates is ill and needs medication, Romana and Narvin have other plans though. With the TARDIS being stolen and the Daleks alerted to its presence, there is some peril. The real interest comes torwards the end with some desperate measures considered.

There does seem to be a bit of history repeating itself with this set, once before Romana and co left Gallifrey. This is perhaps the least Gallifrey related set so far not to mention a little removed form the Time War.

Its enjoyable but not outstanding, its the last ten minutes that anything worthwhile happens.

Overall an enjoyable set.

The return of Leela! it feels a long time since she was lost to the vortex.

Here Leela finds herself on Nateus, where apparently shes been all her life, she has a son and there is a plant entity called the Trell, which has the properties to hide the planet. Whats more she finds herself shifting through time.

With Romana and Narvin on their travels in the last couple of episodes, this is a bit of a change, as they don't make an appearence here. But it is interesting as the fate of Leela has been in limbo for some time, and the mystery of where she it and whats going on keeps you hooked.

It is one of those stories where you piece together whats going on from the bits you're given. But whats interesting is Leela, though she knows this life she find herself in isn't her life, is how attached she gets to it.

A good audio.

The Gallifrey series has seemed to come full circle a bit. I listened to the first 3 series when they came out but didn't get round to 4 until 4 years ago and have slowly caught up. At that point (series 4) Romana had left Gallifrey and was travelling, now it seems shes done it again. I'm reminded of the K9 and Mistress audio that BBV did quite sometime ago.

Romana and Narvin have set their sights on Leela and her trail leeds them to the planet Njagilheim. The readings for Leela's boidata seems to come and go, and they find refuge in a village thanks to a woman and her husband. The oddity of the readings are not the only issue and both Romana and Narvin seem to hear different things, and is someone following them?

I enjoyed this adventure, though I feel that its perhaps more along the lines of Doctor Who than the Gallifrey series which might account for that. Its a nice setting, there's mystery, a sense of something 'other' and the small cast means its not as heavy going as when events are set on Gallifrey.

There is mention of the time war, and it was something I'd forgotton. Really this could have a companion chronicle without the time war being part of it - an observation rather than a point.

We begin with Romana and Narvin onboard a TARDIS needing spare parts. Surounded by wrecks of a recent battle; one ship might just have what they're looking for.

The biggest distraction here for me was the repeated use of elevator in place of lift, but I won't go over old ground.

Its been a year since I listened to the last series and I had forgotton what had led upto this point. But it wasn't necessary to enjoy the story. In case you're wondering Rassilon had taken over Gallifrey, Romana and Narvin were exiled and fled in a TARDIS.

The ship they travel to has problems of its own. They meet Trellick the only survivor, Trellick is at the mercy of Qatal, who can manipulate time and keep her prisoner for... well who knows how long. The ship hold secrets of its own, with evidence of experiments on the Sicari.

I enjoyed this audio. Its limited cast of characters and (mostly) self contained plot, means that you don't really have to had kept up with lots of previous story elements to understand whats going on. In fact Romana and Narvin are not really the main focus of the plot. It would have been interesting to had the whole story of Trellick and Qantal played out.

A good start.

Arriving on a planet, the TARDIS crew investigate the new world - a beach, cliffs, but this world is not like other worlds…

The Seventh Doctor, Ace and Mel arrive on Earth in the future. And the two major power blocs are on course for war. Is this the chance for the Silurians to claim back their planet?

This felt much more of an early Seventh Doctor story in Sylvester’s delivery. I had expected the Doctor to have more gravitas than the comedic feel to his early adventures.

As for the plot… well it took a lot of time to really work out that there was one. For the first couple of episodes it didn’t feel that there was actually a narrative. There’s an encounter with a dinosaur, robot helpers/killers and the idea of Silurians. I say idea because it took a while for them to really enter the proceedings.

There were parts that didn’t seem to quite reconcile with the current TARDIS team, or came a little out of nowhere. Some of it felt like it been done by numbers, ingredients lifted from other stories and cobbled together without real thought into the point of it.

I did lose track of what was was going on by the end, but it didn’t seem to matter as there was little point or artistic value in any of it.

Its an enjoyable tale. I have heard audios that have been pretty dreadful and never want to go back to. This isn’t bad but just doesn’t really do anything despite having the opportunity to.

I had meant to listen to this in December but opted to go for an Eighth Doctor and Charlie set instead. I do miss stand alone episodes, being able to just put on a story and not having to know what happened in all the previous ones first. I started this but found that I hadn’t really taken it in so again, listened to something else.

Picking up from the Bloodchild Codex, (which I missed to write a review for, so can’t refer to my notes). The series arc - that of the events of Talons of Weng Chiang now seem to be coming to a head.

I found similar issues to previous attempts about getting though it. Just generally being a little lost. With elements such as Mr Sin and the time cabinet, it feels that this should be somewhat epic or at least live up to the highly thought of TV story. But early on Jago’s theatre show appears to be higher on the list of priorities.

I didn’t get a sense of urgency, or real peril, and I lost interest. I’m not saying it wasn’t enjoyable, it has nice moments - Ellies comment to Litefoot ‘You and Mr Jago really know how to treat a girl’ on finding she may have to swim the Thames. References to popular names of the sixties, Tony Hancock, Syd James etc. The crystal they picked up on Venus - which is quite satisfying if you’ve been following their adventures.

I said I started this towards the end of last year and it would have been better if I’d of listened to the set in one go, but the fact is it isn’t epic, doesn’t live up to Talons, and after finished it last night, I remember little about the plot.

Average.