The Spirit Trap - 6/10

This story is definitely more of what I was expecting from this range, it was insane in the best way I feel.

On a whole I will say I did enjoy this story, for the most part it was an engaging adventure with an intriguing premise. Seances have always peaked my interest, especially Victorian ones, because of their mystique and the techniques used by the people who performed them were marvellous. I enjoy how this story touches on that mostly through Jago as he lets his scepticism out in entertaining ways.

The actual plot line was fun even if I would say it dragged at points but not badly by any means. The 'Spirit Trap' itself is a wonderful plot point, that is quite a scary concept all things considered.

The best part of this story is undoubtedly the characters though, Ellie, Jago & Litefoot were all brilliant in this. The side character - Toby was also great but the villain Mrs Vanguard was superb throughout. The Spirits themselves were an interesting villain with a confused motive and a lacklustre presence, they really let the story down unfortunately.

Overall The Spirit Trap gets a 6/10 because this is the J & L I've properly enjoyed excluding the Mahogany Murders, I hope to hear more stories like this going forward.

The Fearmonger - 8/10

This is a wonderfully written story, which in all honesty is terrifying due to the fact it is still so relevant today - 25 years later!

Like I just mentioned is absolutely terrifying that this story is still so relevant today, with the current state of politics I feel it was a really good time to experience this story for the first time. The entity of 'Fear' is wonderfully personified throughout and the sound design on this story really helps that.

The plot itself is thoroughly engaging all the way through and had me hooked the whole time, the political party in this story in many ways is far too real but thats a good thing because it shows just how insane it is.

The characters in this story all work well together and create a full feeling world, if that makes sense. I think another benefit of the characters in this story is that they all feel very real - which is a very common theme for this story.

The Doctor and Ace work great in this story too and the climax of this story is brilliant for both their characters.

Overall The Fearmonger gets an 8/10 because this is most definitely my favourite main range story so far and I cannot stress enough how scarily close to reality this story is 25 YEARS later!

Merry Christmas Doctor Who - 4/10?

it feels a bit silly writing a review for 1 minute of footage that isn't really relevant at all.

Overall Merry Christmas Doctor Who gets a 4/10? I put the question mark there because I don't even know how to rate something like this but there's my best attempt. if you haven't watched this, I would because it is only a minute and it might even make you smile.

A Fix with Sontarans - 1/10

The fact this has Jimmy Savile in it just makes it so uncomfortable to watch.

The actual little story that happens here is nothing special and it's just a nice thing for Gareth Jenkins but the ending to it - it's just simply disturbing. The fact Savile has been on a TARDIS set angers me so much and this minisode will always be remembered for the fact.

I will say the Season 22 boxset re edit with the demon removed is nice but me personally, I can't shake the feeling that surrounds this little adventure.

Overall A Fix with Sontarans gets a 1/10 not because of the story itself really, it is just the aptly described 'monster' that appears at the end that makes it so intolerable. Maybe one day the connection to that awful man will be fully separated but as of right now I just can't do it.

Rot in the Deepest Darkest Corner of Hell Jimmy Savile.

The Bellova Devil - 4.5/10

The second instalment of the Jago & Litefoot series is an improvement but not by leaps and bounds.

There was definitely enjoyment to be found within this story, its plot is murder mystery and the premise of the suspected murderer being dead already is a new one for me. That plot line progresses healthily throughout the story and for my money comes to a satisfying conclusion overall.

Jago & Litefoot themselves have another decent outing with Jago definitely being my preferred character at this point, I do enjoy Litefoot but I can find him a little drab at times. One of the final scenes with Jago in this story is very amusing to listen to.

The other characters In this story mostly serve their purpose but none of them particular stick in the mind, there is a mention of Tulp again which definitely seems to be the series arc.

My main problem here is that it just didn't interest me all that much as a story, like I said all the elements are there they just didn't work well together for me which led to a very lacklustre story once again for Jago & Litefoot.

Overall The Bellova Devil gets a 4.5/10 because its not a story I can ever see myself going back to, furthermore for me it simply didn't work all that well when put together.

The Bloodless Solider - 3/10

As the first story of the 'proper' Jago & Litefoot series this was a disappointment in all honesty.

My main and biggest problem of this story is the fact that sometimes its just downright difficult to follow, I found during some of the scenes it just felt like a kerfuffle of noise instead of a story - but in fairness that probably due to the snarling from this story's monster.

With that said it certainly wasn't all bad. The actual plot itself was alright, but a criticism I will bring is that without any other knowledge of this series (which I didn't have at the time) it didn't grip me as well as it could of. But now in retrospect after listening to the entirety of series 1 this story feels a lot more full I think, with that fact in mind I would say the rating would probably increase a number or two (retrospectively).

The setting is brought to life very well here though with this idea of Victorian London feeling very alive and real. I enjoyed a lot of the atmosphere of this story but yet again this story does benefit with looking at it after listening to the whole series which I really can decide if that's a positive or negative thing (in all honesty it s probably a bit of both).

Overall The Bloodless Solider gets a 3/10 because as an opener its weak. However it does definitely benefit in retrospect after listening to the whole series - and in fairness it didn't put me off so it can't of done too much wrong can it. Jago & Litefoot were wonderful together as always.

Death and the Queen - 7/10

The final story of this boxset was certainly a pleasant end to this run of stories, while it's not the greatest it's definitely the funniest.

I had a lot of fun with this story, it is some of the best comedy i've experienced in a Big Finish so far - it is almost entirely Tennants performance that secures this for me. I love every scene with him in this story it's excellent.

The plot is good and provides an entertaining hour, there's a few twists and turns which are all done well too. I particularly enjoy the giant cloud talking - its an amusing image to say the least.

The entire cast of characters in this story are brilliant, I really like them all but in particular Hortense. Donna and the Tenth Doctor are characterised well here and bounce off each other wonderfully throughout the story I think - they have some great moments.

The setting is super fun too in the fictional empire of Goritania, without giving anything away its an unusual place that even the Doctor himself has never ever heard of.

Overall Death and the Queen gets a 7/10 and is a very solid final story for this boxset, I do have to say its inspired me to want to listen to more of this range.

The Crash of the Elysium - No Rating 

This live show experience is something that has Intrigued me for a good while so I decided to do as much research into it as I could. As I didn't experience this back in 2011 or 2012 I felt it would be nice to give it a five star rating as it hasn't even had enough ratings to give it an average. (Also as I will talk about it seemed pretty damn good).

As far as I can find there is little to nothing of any showing of this experience on the internet - which is a shame but I suppose it made it even more unique for the people who did experience it. What I did find was some behind the scenes footage of the cast talking about the experience and a lot of interviews with the people who took part, and there was also a small 13 second clip of the Eleventh Doctor that was used as a sort of teaser for the experience in which he exclaims

"Hello? Hello, if you can hear this please listen to me it's about time and how very little of it I've got left. Everything that happens next depends on you."

its a nice little teaser for the show in all fairness even with its short duration.

The thing about this experience that made it so unique was the claim that 'no two show would be the same' , which as far as I can tell was correct - how drastically the shows differed is hard to know but I don't imagine it was massively. The experience on its original in 2011 was marketed as just for 6 - 12 year olds but due to popular demand there were session for 13 and overs to attend while the show was on. That being said a majority of the interviews were with children after they experienced it and they all seemed to have absolutely loved it and even said it was quite scary at time, which is wonderful to hear as they were the target audience. If any of the children became scared at any point a cast member would let them get outside as an 'evacuation' while still in character.

The company who put the show on 'Punchdrunk' are a theatrical company formed in 2000 who specialise in 'Immersive Theatre' (the idea that no two audiences have the same experience). They've ran a multitude of shows with this Doctor Who one being no different to their usual formula of immersive theatre in which there isn't really a stage and its just an environment for the audience to get involved in and to decide what happens in the show. I can't say I've ever heard of shows like that but it does sound quite interesting to say the least (especially if its Doctor Who).

The Crash of the Elysium show itself consisted of a plot line in which the group advance through the Elysium spaceship which had crashed and come face to face with a Weeping Angel inside (again i'm very unsure on how much this changed between audiences in the grand scheme of things). The Weeping Angel section is the bit the interviewees described to be the 'scary part', the scene entailed an Angel being discovered and advancing on the group in flickering lights (which if I was 6 - 12 would probably scare me too). After being taken by the Angel and thrown back in time they'd attempt to get into the TARDIS with the Doctors permission but fail, which then would prompt the Doctor via radio to tell them there's a Vortex Manipulator and a fez waiting for them to get home. The Angels advance again but the group escape back to the future, there they defeat the Angels once and for all - saving the day. Overall though the plot seemed like a good mix of Doctor Who themes and a fun run around for the kids. As a side note the kids who went to one of the performances in the afternoon of July 15th were lucky enough to meet Matt Smith in person.

This is undoubtedly the weirdest "Review" I've ever written if you could even call it that but if you have read all that I do hope its proved interesting, this show is quite forgotten at least to me as id never even heard of it until I saw it on here but either way I thought id write this for anyone interested as the what the hell this was. (if you want more detail the best place to look is the TARDIS fandom wiki page for the show).

Time Reaver - 7.5/10

the second instalment of The Tenth Doctor Adventures delivers such an interesting run around on a superbly realised alien planet

I really loved this story, there was quite a lot of moving parts and they all worked wonderfully together. My particular highlight was the villain, he was easily detestable. He provided quite a sense of menace and terror throughout the story. (I've seen a few people complain about the voice changing effects on him but personally I had no trouble with them).

The plot itself suffices for the run time with some great stand out moments littered throughout. The actual titular item itself has a vital role to the story and is well built up to be a huge deal by the Doctor which makes the ending all the more satisfying.

The setting is wonderful and the idea of a whole planet space port isn't new but its done masterfully here I think, the Doctors enthusiasm for the place is also a lot of fun to listen to.

Overall Time Reaver gets a 7.5/10 because I genuinely really enjoyed this story start to finish because of how good the world building is I think. Also the continuity at the end pleased me even if it is just a few lines of dialogue.

Technophobia - 5/10

I won't have a lot to say about this one I feel, I did enjoy it - I just didn't get into it as much as I thought I would I suppose

A friend suggested this story to me when I asked about good places to start big finish and so I listened. I was still very very new to big finish and really didn't know what to expect from a modern Doctors adventure.

Both Donna and the 10th Doctor do work in audio form but it took me a little while to get used to it I have to admit.

The plot was a super interesting concept and I think it worked well on audio, but my problem with this story is while the concept is good not enough was done with it - maybe its just the run time felt short and I expected more but either way the story did not grip me at all.

The setting was good with Donna experiencing it as a near future story works well with the whole evil technology themes throughout.

Overall Technophobia gets a 5/10 because to me it's just middle of the road not bad but not great - it was okay.