I have heard bad things about this story, but the unusual format intrigues me, and I'm trying to go in with an open mind. Trying something different with this review - this is more of a liveblogging type thing, my thoughts as I listen. Skip to the end for an overview/summary. (2/5 - barely.)

White disc
Immediately, the story feels... Incoherent? I'm not sure how to describe it. It's like, a thing happens, and then another, and then another, and it doesn't give you any time to get used to it or contemplate events... It's just... Strange. The premise of the planet that was attacked by aliens who rendered the surface uninhabitable and the Doctor/his companion being assumed to be spies for this enemy alien force feels like it's trying to emulate "Creatures of Beauty". I doubt it will succeed.

I'm sorry, these humans are... Not holding grudges, and... Trying to bring about... Peace??? Humans??? If there's one thing we know about DWU humans, it's that they always want revenge. I just can't buy this. It feels beyond unrealistic.

Something about the oppressive regime effectively suppressing Christmas and then the last hope for peace and salvation being dressed up like a Christmas tree while one of the pacifist members sings a hymn... I wish I could take this at face value and assume it's going to be a story about the horrors of suppressing people's faith (and their hope), but bitter experience (and the warnings I've been given about this story) make me fear otherwise. Alarm bells are ringing.

It feels like the Doctor and Mel are just there to hear the drama.
Oh no, the time field is highly unstable! I'm so scared! /Sarc
Honestly, nice use of time travel. I wish Doctor Who did time nonsense like this more often, it's always so much fun! Shame it's ruined by this "this and then this and now this" nonsense style of writing.
Oop they ded
Why is the only woman in a position of power in this story (so far at least) a manipulative cheater.
EVERYONE GIVES IN TOO EASY. Humans are not really like this. Has this writer never met a human.
"The ends justify the means." And that's bingo!

Ah okay, here's the racism - yep, this is. This is not good. Basic respect towards immigrants framed as a bad thing, with the immigrants as evil invaders... Yeah, this is. Why was this story made. There's something about the blind aliens acting as helpless victims who can't do anything without the humans... This audio is awful.

Okay, this bit is actually quite good - the way Reed and Stewart are disgusted by their alternate selves' own actions, the way people become so different depending on the situation... I am a big fan of the idea of an adventure taking place during another adventure - that's very fun.

Mel's role seems to be just to ask questions (and accidentally give away information) - while this is a common role for companions, I can't help but feel like she should be Doing Something in the story. Ah well, maybe that'll change in black disc... Though, I don't have much hope given the story so far. The fact that the events in this story couldn't have happened if it weren't for the Doctor's arrival (because the TARDIS was necessary) is good, I like that - it's always annoying when the Doctor is just kind of. There. A bystander with no real role to play.

Black Disc
OH HELL NO. The immigrant aliens who are "taking over", who have their culture taught in schools... They don't celebrate Christmas (with an emphasis on "Christ"), and so they're ordering it cancelled. Read that again. This story has immigrant aliens who do not celebrate Christian holidays, and are oppressing the Christian - sorry, I mean human - population. My anti-Semitism bells are ringing. I feel disgusted. This is feeding into every stereotype and right-wing conspiracy about immigrants (and with the big noses on the cover, especially Jewish immigrants, although this could just as easily apply to any non-Christians). "Thanks to positive discrimination" all the humans are slaves... I need to lie down.

Okay, here comes the cool time travel/character stuff again. The original Reed and Stewart were going back in time to save Bailey, and this time, they're going back to kill her. It's gorgeous, it's perfect - if only it was happening in a story that wasn't so incredibly racist. This whole story is just "Christianity is dying. Because of Woke" and I want to scream. Why was this made. Why was this written. Why was this ever allowed. It is horrible to know that this came out of the same company who has done such wonderful audios as Creatures of Beauty and Jubilee. I just can't comprehend such variety in quality.

Ooh okay, another interesting concept being touched on - free will. "Pre-determinism is merely a philosophical abstract, and the physical reality of the universe is one in which all potential actions are permitted, including those whose effect is to cancel out their own logical cause". That line should be required reading for anyone trying to deal with paradox nonsense and fixed points. It's put very well.
Ah, finally, answers to questions raised by the white disc!
This is interesting - the whole time travel thing means that the Slithergee never commited that act of war, never assassinated Bailey... At least, in the original assassination attempt. Of course, the one thirty years later is quite a different story.

Wait, so, the Doctor knew to confess to being an enemy spy because he'd heard that he had before... grandfather paradox nonsense fr. Also, ngl I'm getting confused by all these different sets of Reed and Stewart/the Doctor and Mel. I've lost track of how each set know what!

"Why isn't there another Doctor and Mel here?" Ooh, are we finally getting an explanation? Nope, it's the same as the bit from the first disc. "Too dangerous, too risky, and far too confusing" oh, how ironic that to avoid confusion, you've made it more confusing!

It really does seem like there are just two versions of Mel and the Doctor running around now. It's not like they exist in alternate timelines - after all, the entire point of the ending (both of them) is that there is another set who might solve everything! And it's a key plot point - there have been times where we had both sets on the same version of Puxatornee at once! Very confusing. Am consulting canon-welding-current-spoilers in the big server for this one (will update if we figure it out).
EDIT: I FIGURED IT OUT I AM A LIVING LEGEND I'M THE SMARTEST PERSON ALIVE (see below)

War timeline = the one where they went to war, appeaser timeline = the one where they didn't. War!Dr+Mel arrive in the War!timeline, go back in time, create Appeaser!timeline where Appeaser!Dr+Mel arrive just as War!Dr+Mel come back (and quickly leave to make way for their new counterparts). Appeaser!Dr+Mel then go back in time and change history, creating the War timeline. They then return to the future in the new war timeline, just as War!Dr+Mel arrive, so they leave to make way for them. It's a paradox! It's a circle!!!! Even though multiple sets of Doctor+Mel shared timelines at the same time, they left in different timelines!

Summary
Well, uh, just as racist and awful as I was warned. Jeez. It did have a coherent plot that was easy to follow (most of the time, anyway), and the voices were clear and distinguishable. Fun use of time travel, and innovative story structure/presentation - shame it was wasted on such awfully hateful slop. I could give it anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 stars and it would feel fair - if it wasn't for all the racism, it would be a good 4.5 or so, but the nonsense really tampers down the score. Giving it a hesitant 2/5, because I have to concede that it would have been a very inventive, interesting story if only listening to it didn't, you know, feel like being hate crimed.

Just before starting this story, I mentioned that this was next up on my listening order in the Guide server, and all the Project: Lazarus haters crawled out of the woodwork and told me how awful it is. Now that I've listened, I have to say - I can't agree. I largely enjoyed this story (although I can see how it might not be for everyone), and am giving it 4 stars. Spoilers throughout.

Loved this line from Evelyn: "Just trying to lighten the mood. It's what I do!" It was a great little nod to the role of the companion, but especially of Evelyn's role in darker stories. The "Sixth Doctor" (Lazarus)'s unsettling loyalty to Nimrod and insistence that he wouldn't lie to him... This is some toxic parent/child relationship material if I ever saw it... Gonna go see if I can find any fics about this hehe (UPDATE: there are only four (4) fics on AO3 about Nimrod. Someone needs to go fix this immediately!!) Also, that line about Evelyn never forgiving Sixie for what happened to Cassie, "right up to the end", nearly gave me a heart attack - I rushed to tardis.wiki to make sure this wasn't her last story! Cassie's death here felt brutal and out of place - which brings me to my negatives.

There is some quite gritty and disturbing stuff that doesn't really go anywhere - it's not bad, persay, and I don't dislike it, I just feel like this all could have been done with a little more purpose. Similarly, the idea of "just following orders" crops up - the Forge is a military operation. It has soldiers, including one (Frith) who would make a great focaliser - why didn't they go harder on the nazi comparison? The whole thing just feels like a missed opportunity. Also, we never get to hear the Huldran's side of things - they are a silent victim, never allowed their own voices. This is I think my biggest problem with the story. Half the story is supposed to centre around them and their war with the Forge, and yet I barely know a thing about them! The story also  occasionally suffers from "telling" instead of "showing". Usually it doesn't damage the story, but when Frith died and the only way we knew is because the Doctor said (rather too casually), that he must not have made it into the lift, that really took the story down for me.

Creating the world of the Forge has been done really well, with the relationships between the characters being believable and making sense in a way that makes me feel for every one of them. Well, almost... I admit, I cannot wrap my head around Nimrod. I'm not sure I want to. There's a nice use of time lord telepathy. And, oh... raining again... Nice use of weather and circularity there. Ooh - "Maybe it's time I went home..." HELLO???  Foreshadowing at the end there, liked that - the story isn't over.

Despite it's flaws (the telling instead of showing, the lack of purpose to it's violent themes, etc), I enjoyed this story overall. It never lost my interest, and made good use of some of my favourite concepts (especially around themes of the self). 3.5-4/5 (averaged to a '4').

Two of the same gd arguing until they were forced to learn to share in order to save Christmas was the story I didn't know I needed - a surprisingly sweet, non-horrific Auteur! Makes a nice change from the usual scheming and trickery of everyone's least favourite skeleton (though I suppose it helps when the skeleton isn't actually present). Lovely little piece!

I was having a bad day.

I was having a very bad day, the kind of day that starts with an hour-long phone call to a government agency (with about forty-five minutes of that hell being serenaded with hold music), and doesn't really get any better from there. So, I decided I'd take the plunge, and finally read The Story. The one I've been hearing about for months. The one consistently described as brilliant; the one with so much hype that I was scared, I really was, that after I had read it I would never find anything as good ever again, and reading would be ruined for me forever; go home everyone, no one can top the Murder Llamas!

Ordinarily, it may seem strange to mark this as a spoiler in an already spoiler-warned review, but you have to understand, given the nature of the story - well, perhaps you don't. Perhaps you haven't read it yet. If that is the case, do yourself a favour and read it read it read it right now (https://www.arcbeatlepress.com/news-and-updates/a-christmas-codex-our-gift-to-you) - it cured the pain of dealing with the government! What better accolade could there possibly be?

one billion out of five (but I gave it five stars because the site can't handle the true majesty of the Murder Llamas).

A truly joyous story that has a brilliant balance of worldbuilding, emotions, references, plot, and Llamas.

Never has there been, and never will there be, a villain that can top this creation. An invention to rival the Noodle Man - antagonists with just the right amount of build-up so the reader doesn't feel they aren't living up to the hype. They are everything you could ever hope to see from such a beast; invincible, but in the way of an ancient eldritch monster from a fairytale with no end, rather than a superhero. A natural fact; unbeatable, a statement. The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. There is something about the balance of cruelty and dopey-ness - the blank Llama stare contrasted with the malicious, telepathic spark behind the eyes... and of course, the concept itself! I do not think I can say anything further that can do these beings justice. No words can describe the true terrible sublimity of the Murder Llamas.

I also think it is worth noting that, Plum having sadly missed the wonderful (I'm not biased, hush) Coloth anthology the year before, s/he more than made up for it with this decidedly Coloth-y story. The flavour of the thing feels right - as in, the assignment has been understood. I can easily see the same Callum and Maritsa I've grown to adore from The Book of the Snowstorm (not that this was their debut; just the first time I'd come across them) in this story, taste the dust of the same Library - this is not only an excellent story, but an excellent Coloth story.

The bleeding plant was a very visceral image, with the importance to Coloth's home and backstory meshing well with his new life with high-strung Maritsa, her emotions around giving him a perfect Christmas feeding into the very plant that is key to her plan. I'm a sucker for emotions having an impact on the physical world, causing changes that can't quite be explained in the purely physical realm, so this plot felt made for me. This, combined with the hilarity/terror of the villain, and the lovely smattering of nods to other parts of the Whoniverse, settled nicely with the holiday theme to create a wonderful story that I would happily recommend to anyone who stands near me long enough for me to get out a sentence.

Here's to hoping that the writer never finds this review - I worry that her ego would become unbearable, perhaps swelling to the point where it overtakes all of reality, and Plum subsumes the entire universe, much like what I'm sure must be becoming his most infamous creation - the Murder Llamas.

So bizarre that I just have to love it!

An excellent story, 4/5! Heavy spoilers throughout.

I'll start where my heart lies - with the thoschei content! (Okay, and my general Master character thoughts, but, you know, thoschei!!)

The Master gave a very convincing performance as the Doctor; if I hadn't known MacQueen was in this and pretending to be the doctor before I begun listening, I would have believed he was the doctor, 100%. I like how the characters themselves pointed out that the fact that the Master was so good at pretending to be the Doctor, pretending to be good, that this goes beyond deceit - some of it must be real. Admiration, connection... love? Specifically where Klein pointed out how much the Master enjoyed helping UNIT, not just faking that enjoyment... yeah, that was the stuff right there. She gets it. I do genuinely love when we have characters within the story who are doing the same thing as the audience, expressing our feelings for us - it feels interactive. Usually characters' decisions and observations invoke feelings in their audience, but this time, it almost felt the other way around - or as if we were having a conversation, sharing our ideas. I suppose that's what comes of a story written by fans!

When the Master reveals himself and is taunting the Doctor after not killing him, his voice goes soft, almost purring... Thoschei fans stay winning (: loved all the nods to RTD-era thoschei too! The way 7 growls the Master's name is so many levels of insane. Plus, the classic "Join me, let's rule the universe together" offer my beloved!
"My dear dear dear Doctor" eeeeee us Thoschei fans really were fed with this one! A little fanwanky, but hey, that's what I'm here for. Despite all this, there was a line implying that the Doctor and the Master were brothers. It was very jarring amongst what did seem like an intentionally romantic depiction of their relationship, but I suppose that it's likely that as a thoschei fan, I was reading that into the audio more than was intended.

Now, let's give at least a little bit of this review over to the other characters and the plot - as much as I'd like to, I can't only talk about the Master!

Despite not knowing anything about Raine, I found it easy to understand her personality and motivations. I feel like I should have listened to more Klein material before this, as there were definitely a couple times where I felt I was missing references, but I still understood the story perfectly well. Generally speaking, I found myself caring about even the most minor of characters - I started crying on the tube when the Tolian attacked Sylvie, I was so attached! I do get more invested in the emotional side of stories than most people, but I still think anyone would enjoy the level of thought and work that has been put into developing each and every character in this story.

This audio uses UNIT very skillfully; we are really made to feel for the soldiers, actually form relationships with them as an audience - not something the TV show usually succeeds at doing for one-offs. In the interviews, they mentioned that they tried to make this not just a doctor/master story, but specifically a UNIT story, and I think it shows. They did that well.

The interviews were great fun to listen to, I do recommend them. Loved Maynard's actor giving a shout out to all the ensign expendable UNIT soldiers who've died over the years, and people talking about how lovely Sylvester is to work with, including of course his spoons!

Over on the plot side of things, I was not very engaged by 7 and Raine's parts in the first couple discs, as I often felt that the characters were giving us the information rather than us learning it ourselves. It was as if this was written for a visual medium, rather than a purely auditory one. I especially noticed this when the giant floating heads came into the story - it just did not feel like something that had been written to be heard, rather than seen. However, the plot and characters were strong enough that this did not bring the audio down as much as other audios written this way, which is why I only dropped one star off the rating for this.

The general shape of this story was quite similar to sound of drums/last of the time lords - the master disguises himself as someone else, recruits a dying alien species he somehow "saved" turning them into weapons to be his army, and begins taking over while keeping the Doctor prisoner and threatening his companion. It's a little derivative and a little fanwanky, but I did enjoy it a lot. I am very much a fanwanky person - I enjoy shout-outs and namedrops and nods and references and shipping fuel. It can sometimes overwhelm a story and take away from the plot, but I am just one of those people who really likes that kind of stuff, so it does not take away from my rating at all. I can understand how people who aren't in it for the references would be rolling their eyes in this story, though.

(As an example of a reference that got me squealing, when I heard "Terserus", I went "omg!!! Planet from my Curse of Fatal Death!!!" (Not realising it's appeared in other Who media too)).

There was never a point where I was bored - the pacing was good and I stayed engaged in the story without feeling lost at any point. This was something I was quite worried about, considering the unusual length, but they really pulled this off!

Overall, a wonderful story that definitely lives up to the hype with commendable development of even the most minor of characters. An incredible introduction to a brilliant Master that well deserves those four hours, and those four stars! I recommend this to anyone with a long car journey coming up who needs a good way to pass the time! I promise, you won't regret it.

A quick one today - I found this a real mixed bag. Kind of fun, but lacking quite severely in certain areas (spoilers ahead) - 3.5/5

I'm going to start with my biggest criticism of this story - why was it Jane Austen? She is a character who crops up quite a bit in the Whoniverse, and in the real world was quite an interesting person. The space she took up in this story could have been filled by anyone. They really didn't do anything with the fact that it was Austen - her existence in this story was pointless.

My other big gripe is that Ippolito, or as I called him in my notes, the sword guy, was just not an intriguing character. I could not get invested in him at all, and did not really get what he was doing in the story. What was his motivation? What role was he supposed to be playing? It was not very clear to me, and I definitely feel like that lack of development of his character lost the story something it really needed.

However, it's not all bad - they did a fantastic job telling a story like this with only two voice actors, and Vicki doing the voices of the Doctor and the others was great fun! Also, the gradual reveal of who Vicki was talking to was done really well - we were given just the right amount of information to figure it out ourselves, but in a way that it felt like it dawned on me without feeling like it was too obvious. The audio maintained a creepy tone with those sections that I really enjoyed - there was never any sense that this was 'getting old', for example. It made me feel uneasy in the right amount, the right way - those sections especially were very well written and performed.

So, this one wasn't for me, but that doesn't mean it didn't have some good elements, or that it's not worth a listen.

Well, here we go - probably the second worst story I've listened to so far. Listened to this last year, if I remember rightly, but then forgot all about it until I was going through my notes folder yesterday and I found this review, so, that should tell you everything you need to know about this truly boring story. 1/5, general spoilers all the way through.

'Mission to Magnus's commited the worst crime a story can - it was dull. The music was good and the quick mention of TARDIS sentience was nice, but otherwise it was just. so. boring. Everyone's words were too stilted, Sil really had no point being in that story, and Six and Peri felt quite out of character. It was 80% exposition. From what I've heard about the book it is adapted from, I do not think this is entirely Big Finish's fault.

The ice warriors' plot felt tacked on at the end, like this could have been done with any monster. Martin said afterwards that the ice warriors bringing about climate change is relevant to today, but quite frankly I don't think the climate change element was done in a way that reflects real world politics or problems.

The ending hammered home the terribly sexist messaging of this story. The great revelation... was women taking their 'rightful place' and submitting to men. Anything but equality. Martin may have thought he was simply reflecting the battles of the sexes of the 80s, but to me it simply read as sexist, and as a misunderstanding of feminism. As the actors made clear in the interview, this was very dated - at least they were aware of the story's problems! Now, if only the writers had the foresight to actually fix them...

The interviews at the end were interesting and may be worth a listen - as a disabled person, I especially found Shaban's part fascinating, and both his fanboy past and desire to see disabled people like him cast in key roles very relatable. I have heard people say that this need for representation is a "new thing", but this interview really hammered home that we have been asking for representation as long as there has been media for us to be represented in. Martin and the actors talking about the cancellation of the season - and of the series - was also interesting and worth listening to if you want to know about that era of Who, as was the talk of how an audio is made from the actors' and writer's point of view. (To be clear, the interviews had no bearing on my rating of this story, just thought they were worth mentioning.)

So, overall a dull story with backwards political messaging that I strongly do not recommend. I could see how this story could make someone lose faith in Big Finish. One star, do not listen! (Except to the interviews. The interviews were good).

A lovely little story with a, to borrow a word used in several of the other reviews, charming explanation for why the Doctor came to Earth! Although I will always believe that Susan was the one in love with the planet, this is just such a lovely backstory that I can't help but adore it. Great artwork, and a sweet little piece all around! 5/5, one of my favourites (:

Lovely artwork, the Doctor doing something sensible for once, really in-character mannerisms of speech (I could definitley hear 15's voice saying honey!), and a truly terrifying villain. An engaging story with a good pace that I very much enjoyed - 5/5