The Necropolis Express - 7/10

Another good entry to this series! I have to say I’m impressed by the rapid jump in quality from this series so far.

The plot to this story unravels wonderfully, there’s lots of fun elements (in a morbid sense) and really interesting concepts too. The atmosphere is really well crafted and creepy, the setting works very well throughout I thought. It’s a story I feel didn’t actually get enough time to fully flesh itself out, but what we do have is a really solid story at its core.

The antagonist being someone Litefoot was already acquainted with was a nice twist that was played out well, I do also like that his story is wrapped up into this one adventure. The story gives you enough to figure out your own just how strange everything is which leads to the reveal of Sanders still being alive at the end to be very satisfying as a mini conclusion. I’m enjoying the overarching story so far too with the Ellie elements of this story gripping me I must admit. The concept of trying to reverse death is wonderfully used here too and J & L respective reactions are wonderfully done.

The performances in this story from the regulars are once again wonderful, Jago & Litefoot just don't miss! I love how the villain is played in this story too with the right amount of creepy and smart mixed together.

Overall The Necropolis Express gets a 7/10 because even though I feel it wasn’t as good as the previous story it was still a super engaging listen and a fun story!

Litefoot and Sanders - 7.5/10

Even though this story wasn't the best I've ever heard, it was however an immense improvement compared to the last series opener.

The plot of this story was satisfactory and delivered well, I enjoyed the twists and turns too! It felt like an improvement over all previous instalments of this series, I’m not too sure what it was exactly but it just felt like a higher calibre of story.

The character of Gabriel Sanders is the best part of this story, he’s quite enchanting to listen to. I love the drama between Litefoot and Jago throughout too and it’s lovely when they become friends again near the end of the story, honestly their chemistry is just so damn enjoyable to listen to. The climax in the warehouse is really well done, I’ve struggled with some audios to follow scenes that involve a lot of action but this story perfectly depicted that scene in particular. The ending of Ellie being ‘dead’ is something I did not expect at all!

The performances in this story are stellar from the entire cast, with Litefoot and the villain of the story having stand out performances. That’s not to say Jago didn’t excel in this story as well because he most definitely did.

Overall Litefoot and Sanders gets a 7.5/10 because I honestly thought this was a really solid story, nothing spectacular but enjoyable nonetheless. This series is definitely improving and I can’t wait to listen to more!

(A little personal note here: I’m really starting to enjoy audios now, it took me a while to properly get into them but I have to say they’re a lovely experience even if I’ve not been blown away by a story as of yet.)

The Similarity Engine - 5/10

The final story of series 1 of Jago & Litefoot wasn't the most exciting but it did wrap a lot up which I did enjoy, and it connected lots of little plot points from throughout the series.

The plot of this one underwhelmed me quite honestly, I don't know what I was expecting for the series finale but I do think it was something more than what we got. I enjoyed the tying up loose ends portion of the story for sure but frankly that's where the enjoyment stopped

Tulp comes back as the main antagonist here which is really great but it fell flat for me, with the whole similarity engine just feeling bland. I don't know it feels very harsh to say that because it is a cool idea. I do think the most interesting part of the whole story is the fake Jago that tries to kill Litefoot, its convincing and confusing in a good way.

The performances in this story like the rest are great especially J & L themselves, they always capture my interest no matter the story! The villain has some great moments too, a lot of emotion coming from the actor.

Overall The Similarity Engine gets a 5/10 from me because while it does do things right, on the whole it bored me in places and just didn't satisfy as a series ending - very in the middle.

Series 1: Thoughts

My Favourite Story: The Spirit Trap ~ 6/10

My Least Favourite Story: The Bloodless Solider ~ 3/10

(As a mini overview of my thoughts for the first series as a whole: id have to say even though at no point was I blown away by this  had a great time nonetheless. At the end of the day it's just more Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter which is honestly just so much fun! I did enjoy the nice plot threads leading to the finale even if it was a little underwhelming. I will definitely be picking this up again for series 2 at some point that for sure.)

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.

The Land of the Dead - 5.5/10

This story gives an adventure that for me was my first experience of big finish being that little bit more brutal that Doctor Who would ever be.

I enjoyed this stories concepts a lot more than the actual story I think, and the main concept that intrigued me was definitely the Permians. The idea of these creatures being around before the dinosaurs is a very fun thought - and then on top of that the fact that they are bone creatures is fascinating to me, the audio does a great job of giving these creatures presence.

As much as its a tiny part of this story I always adore when these stories fit nicely into the continuity.

The actual plot itself works for the run time but is ultimately quite forgettable overall, i'm also not the biggest fan of the dynamic that happens between the natives and the 'White man'.

The characters were all fine but Monica is a character I genuinely really enjoyed, I think she was probably the fill in for Tegan but  she carved her own personality out by the end of the story.

Overall The Land of the Dead gets a 5.5/10 because like I say I do enjoy some of the concepts here but the story falls a bit flat by the end of it in my opinion.

Wink - 8/10

The final instalment of this set is definitely the strongest of the lot and I have to say I really dint expect to enjoy this duo as much as I did!

The biggest take away from this story for me is just how comedic 6 and 10 are together, genuinely some laugh out loud moments from their back and fourth. The Weeping Angels as monsters have always been one of my favourites because I find them quite fascinating to be perfectly honest.

The plot here is masterfully crafted by the writer (Lisa McMullin) and the way it ties itself up is really cool in my opinion. McMullin writes a very atmospheric story here mainly because of how claustrophobic it can feel at times, this is because our side characters don't have the sense of sight and the planet we're on blinds the Doctors throughout the story which is fun. The city of mirrors as an idea is really interesting to me because id never really thought of trapping Angels by making them look at their reflection although this is where one of the very few downsides to this story appear - the Angels being stopped by their own reflection feels too easy part way through the story but I understand why it is written that way.

The two side characters worked really well in this story and enjoyed the rapport they created with the Doctors, their species not having the sense of sight and having elevated senses in general provided them with some extra personality and made for a more interesting listen - especially the scene in the 'art' gallery.

Overall Wink gets an 8/10 because I really did have a blast with this story, its definitely one of the more atmospheric stories I've ever listened too. But once again its the same story throughout this set the biggest enjoyment came from the two Doctors chemistry together.

The Gates of Hell - 6.5/10

The 5th Doctor, the 10th Doctor and the Cybermen. What's not to enjoy?

The second story from the Out of Time set delivers quite a different story from the first. Well I say different it is still all about messing with time but the Cybermen feel a lot more involved in this one I feel than the Daleks did in the previous, maybe its just because I prefer the Cybermen as monsters in general. Although I will say their stealth abilities are shown off nicely in this story which is always good to see.

The chemistry between 5 and 10 is wonderful to experience on audio, and reminded me of course of the minisode Time Crash from 2007. I really enjoyed how they bounced off each other each other in this story.

The setting of having different time zones is a familiar one for this set and here there's the use of France in the 18 and 19 hundreds. An interesting addition to this story though was a time agent who played a decently big role here and worked well with the plot. The actual plot itself suffices for the run time but it was just a little underwhelming for in the sense it didn't give me any wow factor like other stories have.

Overall The Gates of Hell gets a 6.5/10 because while it was definitely good it just didn't reach any spectacular heights through its run time for me personally, but 5 and 10 are still a delightful pairing.

Out of Time - 7/10

This was my first experience with the 4th Doctor on audio and its definitely got me excited to experience more, besides that though this story is quite fun.

The actual plot itself works fine for what it is and as much as I feel like a lot of enemies could have filled the role the Daleks play here I still think they were the right choice. What I will say though is that the whole thing felt quite short but that is very possibly because I've been listening to the first stories of the main range which double this in length most of the time I believe.

The characters all work here none of them were particular memorable but that's not their fault as David Tennant and Tom Baker working together is absolutely wonderful to experience.

The setting of the cathedral provides an interesting backdrop to the story and gives some fun moments at the beginning of the story.

Overall Out of Time gets a 7/10 because I honestly just had a blast with it, story aside Tom and David are brilliant together and made this story just an all round good time for me.

Whispers of Terror - 5/10

The idea of the enemy being purely audio is a very intriguing idea and this story feels like the best advert for Big Finish there could be, that being said the actual story itself didn't blow me away but that's not to say it was all bad.

I still haven't got heaps of experience with Big Finish in general so the audio format is still quite odd to me, I do however believe Colin works wonderfully in it and has clearly adapted almost instantaneously to the format.

The story itself is quite interesting playing into themes of corruption and faking evidence, the premise of it is actually quite relevant today with the rapidly increasing power of Ai forging evidence and audio is easier than ever before. The plot works fine, but there was something about I just found quite dull and boring while listening to it if I'm honest.

Im still struggling to not get lost in these audio stories at the moment and I do have to say its getting better with this one feeling a lot more cohesive than the others have done.

Overall, Whispers of Terror gets a 5/10 because while I do think the idea of the story is novel I found it in execution to be just be boring at times, I enjoyed the Doctors performance but personally the side characters left a lot to be desired. For my third ever audio adventure at least I can say I feel like the quality is improving.

Phantasmagoria - 4/10

I did in some ways actually enjoy this story as you can argue its the first 'proper' Doctor Who Big Finish story as Sirens of Time was a multi Doctor adventure.

I don't really have a lot to say about this story: I listened to it, I took it in and then it ended. I don't know if that makes much sense but I just didn't get that immersed within the world this story tried to build up around itself.

On a more positive note I thoroughly enjoyed both Davison and Strickson's performances and they really do feel like the characters they were playing years prior. I said this in my Sirens of Time review too but I love having Doctor Who stories to experience that I know absolutely nothing about.

The setting is something I also quite enjoyed as historical settings to me are always my favourites.

All the other characters just passed me by in this story too which I found to be quite disappointing, side characters in Doctor Who stories always bring some of the best moments (a very random but favourite example of this is Irongron and Bloodaxe from The Time Warrior who provide some of my favourite scenes from the show together).

Overall Phantasmagoria gets a 4/10 because I really just didn't care for the plot that much at all (apologies for the lack of nuance here I'm just really struggling to put my thoughts into words about this story), its not one I can see myself going back to in a hurry.

Mother Russia - 6/10

I listened to this for no other reason than the fact I love Steven.

I have to say I seemed to enjoy this story more than a lot of other people did but in fairness I always love historically set stories more than most do. The setting of 1812 Russia is definitely an interesting one, the invasion of Russia by the French is something I've vaguely studied before so I got excited purely on the grounds of it being set then, and provided opportunity for some great moments à la the burning of Moscow.

A shapeshifter is always an idea I think deserves more stories in Doctor Who because there are so many possibilities when your villain can be literally anyone or anything.

Peter Purves does an excellent job performing this and did not disappoint at all for me.

The whole story went by pretty quickly in all honesty and didn't leave time to bore me personally.

Overall Mother Russia gets a 6/10 because while I did enjoy this story and its setting it certainly wasn't amazing by any means but once again I have to say Peter Purves is amazing and I love him.

Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child - 5.5/10

This is the first ever target novelisation I've ever read and I did quite enjoy it.

I don't like An Unearthly Child on the best of days but I do have to say this target novel helped me see it a bit differently and for me personally gave those episodes 2-4 a little bit more character to them, which they desperately needed.

The only thing I can say when comparing the tv story to this is that the tv story's episode 1 is undeniably better than the retelling in this book, as it is what started it all and to this day is one of my favourite 25 minutes of television I've ever sat through.

As previously mentioned I don't really like the story that much to begin with (well by that I mean episodes 2-4) but this novel did try its best to make it entertaining at least, when reading 80 odd pages about blokes arguing over fire its admittedly a difficult task to achieve.

While the regulars can feel strange at times I feel the way they're written is faithful enough and isn't egregious at any point (at least not that I noticed that is) and they work in the story as intended.

What I will say in its praise is that the character of Za definitely felt fuller if that makes sense, the caveman setting was also well realised and made for some decent description to the environment throughout the book.

Overall Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child gets a 5.5/10 because while an improvement over the tv story in some ways I still don't have a love for this story much at all. Well except for episode 1 that is.

The Sirens of Time - 3/10

This was my first ever big finish experience and I can't say it was all that exciting.

It made sense that the first big finish story would be multi doctor but then only having them together for the final confusing part of a very confusing story (especially for a first time audio drama listener) is just disappointing.

I haven't got an awful lot of thoughts to get down as after the initial excitment of hearing the doctors voices in a story I knew nothing about had worn off I was left with a very confused hour and half in all honesty.

I liked the performances though all of the doctors transferred to audio brilliantly and I really could picture it all happening and their mannerisms along with that, however what they were acting just didn't grip me whatsoever unfortunately.

Overall The Sirens of Time gets a disappointing 3/10 because honestly I didn't really find any enjoyment, I hope to one day in the future re listen to this adventure and really try to understand more. This however hasn't put me off big finish at least and I'm interested to explore further!

The Mahogany Murders - 6.5/10

This story is undoubtedly a great reintroduction to the duo of Jago and Litefoot, it's also wonderful to hear that they both enjoyed this so much after both being away for over 30 years!

The plot is straightforward yet very effectively conveyed, I haven't listened to much big finish yet but I do have to say this is one of the clearest stories I've listened to and in general I found it ver easy to follow. The idea of wooden (Mahogany) dolls not only coming to life but containing the spirits of dead criminals is wonderfully grim. The tales told by the pair also intertwine quite wonderfully with the interruptions of comedy being very welcome throughout. There is an absolutely terrifyingly gruesome moment when one of the criminals describes being back in his dead decaying body scratching at the lid of his coffin, describing his fingers to be splitting from the decay and his hands full of splinters paired with the smell of his own corpse - truly stomach turning description. I don't have any glaring issues per say about this story I just don't believe its of a quality above the rating I've given (that sounds really pretentious but I don't know how else to phrase that I just didn't think it was better).

The characters of Jago and Litefoot work as brilliantly as ever during the story and honestly I don't think I could fathom a complaint about either performance, I loved Jago doing the voices of the characters in the story (especially when he told Litefoot off for his attempt to do the same). As this is a companion chronicle I don't believe there really are any other characters if note as the villains are all performed wonderfully by the pair themselves. The barmaid is the only other 'Character' I suppose and she works fine here.

Again I haven't actually listened to much big finish yet but I'm really quite enjoying the experience so far.

Overall 'The Mahogany Murders' gets a 6.5/10 because I did enjoy this story it just wasn't anything mind blowing to me, the best part easily being Jago & Litefoot themselves!

Battle for the Moon - 4/10

As a conclusion I've experienced worse but this was undoubtedly flat.

The Daleks 'agree' to never leave Skaro again and to have peace with the solar system, but like always they don't actually mean peace.

Our three protagonists than expect the Daleks to be on the moon.. which they are. we then learn that earth has dumped all its atomic bombs into a moon crater which Is pretty insane especially considering this was written at the height of the arms race in the Cold War.

The Daleks plan to use a solar eclipse and a device which will funnel moon dust to earth and suffocate the planet, decent enough terrible Dalek plan and the best part is how they're going to get all the moon dust - yes they're going to explode all the nuclear bombs in the crater.

The resolution comes in the form of blowing up all the bombs before the Daleks can which seems somewhat problematic but hey-ho. Anyway besides the issues with the plan there's a really weird line written as the characters escape where one of the brothers says "Women drivers" referring to Mary because she took off quickly to get away from the imminent nuclear explosion, I- yeah there's no words for that and it puts a big dampener on the conclusion to the book to be honest.

Overall the Dalek Book has been an interesting read but I wouldn't necessarily call it enjoyable, by the end it was most definitely a slog to get through. id give the book on a whole a 3.5/10 if I'm being kind

Break-Through - 2/10

This was a very dull part to the story, full of a lot of bloated dialogue which is impressive considering the short length.

The whole story is about the Daleks placing a forcefield around their planet to stop the space army invading and destroying them as they had been before. Our three main protagonists are all massively bigged up in this story too, made out to be tactical geniuses with various anecdotes.

The whole resolution of this story is that the humans trap the Daleks in the forcefield and threaten to remove all the air.. unfortunately this resolution falls flat for my modern perspective on the grounds that I don't recall the Daleks needing air. Either way I'm not a huge fan of the concept or execution of the plot. Further side note this story also gives a material for what the Dalek casings are made out of which has also been retconned since.

The story also isn't helped by the fact 80% of it is a conversation in a spaceship, I get its a short story but the best ones I've read in here have definitely been the ones with a quicker pace, so to speak.

Overall I really didn't enjoy this little story unfortunately.