"Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Sand to sand."

I am frankly unsure where I begin with this one, especially considering I am still in an emotional state after hearing it, but god damn. This story was absolutely brilliant. An excellent use of narration as the framing device, which really helped me immerse myself into the story even more.

It's an utterly heart-breaking ending for Nyssa, though. She sacrificed her own freedom to remain in E-Space, a now dying universe, so that another planet didn't have to go through what she did with entropy causing a planetary extinction. It's bittersweet, and just that final scene alone broke me completely. Writing a letter for her son and daughter that they'd never get to see, but she's doing for peace of mind anyway? I think it's a beautiful exit for the character as a whole, but I do not think I will forgive them for the emotional damage. 

I'd say overall, it was an absolutely brilliant story. Well and truly deserving of those five stars, entirely because of the way it concludes this series of Older Nyssa stories. It absolutely belongs in a hall of some of the best later Big Finish stories produced.

Jonathan Morris, if there is a very slim chance that you're actually reading this, you will be paying for my therapy.

I was really not going to bother with this story, considering how I utterly despise The Talons of Weng-Chiang, though I thought it best to at least try and get it over with. My expectations were considerably low, and I actually came out somewhat surprised!

I think it's fairly obvious we don't have to go through the obligatory condemnation of what the original story included in a disturbing abundance, but one thing I am relatively disappointed by is the fact that they were still insistent on including Mr Sin. He was one of the many racist aspects of The Talons of Weng-Chiang, and I don't necessarily think he was mandatory to involve in such a way as this story presents him?

However, to reach the reasons why I became pleasantly surprised by this story, I found the political aspects all quite fascinating. Things such as these warring states, and a further insight into what the Earth was like during the 51st century. We know about some of this stuff, primarily from the likes of Captain Jack and such in New Who, but to have a story that greater details it kind of had me excited.

I do also appreciate the fact that, while you would anticipate that this would be a more Tegan centric story due to it being set in her home city of Brisbane, it's actually much more in favour of Nyssa. She is sort of the catalyst for some of the events, throwing herself in the line of fire by marrying Magnus Greel himself and we get to see her intellect and cunning that's so rarely used outside of this story.

Anyway, overall, I am rating this 3.5 stars. It's an enjoyable enough story, and some of the political intrigue had me quite hooked. All three companions get something to do in equal measure, which Marc Platt seems to be good at doing in these audios.

What with this story featuring one of my favourite TARDIS teams from the 1960s, I was bound to enjoy this at least in some capacity. It's a pretty fun story, written by Steve Lyons, who I often find delivers fantastic stories. Just recently, I finished Killing Ground, which is an absolute must-read (not before Time of Your Life, of course!). Lyons, in my view, always has interesting things to write about regarding these big baddies that reappear throughout all iterations of the franchise.

What I appreciate here though, is the fact that it does clearly take on a more Steven-centric narrative. There are snippets of how he came to be on the station to begin with, of course, though it sort of begins to highlight a small dynamic between himself and Chayla that elevates the story for me. There's a moment midway through the Dalek attack, when both he and Chayla are hiding, where he begins to tell her that nobody survives these events. Steven, in a moment of empathy, suggests that he could contact his younger self who's currently on desk duty in the middle of the Dalek War and send more quicker reinforcements. However, he quickly counters the point by remembering the whole "laws of time" and whatnot. That, and the fact he doesn't recall ever receiving such a call to begin with. I think it does tackle some of the morality behind these laws of time interestingly, but it's not exactly a profound or in-depth exploration either.

Another thing I liked about this story is that the Daleks don't necessarily overstay their welcome here. Yes, they feature in the story, but it's less focused on them. I didn't get a headache after listening, at the very least.

Overall, I would give this story 3.5 stars. I really appreciate the focus on Steven, though some moments are a little predictable and the interesting moral bits aren't as in-depth as they could've been.

A story featuring a weirdly characterised Romana who has an underlying distaste of fat people apparently. Welcome back Jonny Morris.

Okay, so to start off this review, I suppose I will start with what I enjoyed.

Starting with Daisy Ashford herself, the current voice of Dr. Elizabeth Shaw on Big Finish, and also Caroline John's daughter. I think that she's really on the mark with her performance as Liz, and with each release that comes out, I feel like it just keeps getting better and better. You can really tell that she loves playing the role, and handles said role brilliantly (unlike a certain other impressionist in another range!).

I also feel like Tim Treloar's performance is improving too, although I would beg that they never make him sing again after Poison of the Daleks... (sob emoji I can't use on desktop)

I would also like to point out how it has a decent enough atmosphere surrounding it, especially in the first few parts, though this is also where I feel it begins to fall apart as well, especially with the aversion of going into any sort of depth with these mythical creatures appearing around the grounds of Benbrannon Castle. They didn't actually feel remotely important to the overall plot, or relevant at all, to the point the inclusion just feels odd and rather silly as a bland, surface-level mystery.

As for the dementia subplot, which I feared would very much be handled tastelessly, I kept my head held high in those first couple of parts because there were genuinely quite a few touching moments between Linus MacLeod and his mother, Abigail MacLeod, reminiscing upon the loss of the late Peter MacLeod, father of Linus and husband to Abigail. Peter was one of the head researchers of this project, to try and find some cure to Dementia, but sadly fell victim to the condition he fought, in an act of cruel irony.

However, as the plot begins to progress, it feels as though they slowly drift further and further away from the humanity of all this, and how truly disturbing it is to watch someone slowly succumb to such a debilitating condition, we're back to the very bland, surface-level stuff, this time all about this dull alien masquerading as Peter in order to fool Linus.

This continues on for basically the entire story, as well as a few strange writing hiccups, like an emotional beat between Peter and Linus being repeated twice for some reason, almost word for word too.

However, I haven't exactly reached the part that I think truly drags this down to a measly half-star. It's not the fact that this alien is just incredibly dull and basic, but rather the fact that in the closing few minutes, they seem to outright state that this alien of the story was responsible for both Peter and Linus' suffering of dementia, the latter who received it after the alien's defeat had completely fumbled his memories. It's truly bizarre that this was included at all really, because to me that just screams as shallow and tasteless writing? "Aliens caused the dementia!" is seriously the ending we went for? I have relatives who've suffered from this same condition, and frankly it really boils my blood that they'd take such a childish angle with a condition that's still extremely prevalent in today's society.

I don't know, that's really lowered my view of Briggs, and hasn't inspired hope for any future stories penned by new writer Richard James either. Hopefully he gets a story to his own, then I can judge properly by those standards.

Solid 1/10, for me.

Second in my long journey to go back and review the Doom Coalition stuff, we have what's possibly my favourite story of the entire series, as well as my favourite companion introductory story, The Red Lady.

Here, we are introduced to possibly my favourite Eighth Doctor companion, Helen Sinclair. It's one hell of an explosive story, in terms of just how well we actually get to know her character in this hour, and the plot itself too. We're shown Helen's struggles living in the 1960s, facing all manner of prejudices and misogyny from her older male colleagues, though she finds comfort in the presence of her boss at the National Museum, Professor Walter Pritchett.

Helen's initial encounter with the Doctor and Liv is also quite funny, as they exchange in an awkward back-and-forth after she finds the pair had broken into her own office in search of something that had caught their eye. It doesn't take her long to be taken in by their antics though, as she's soon aware of a dangerous artefact, the titular Red Lady, donated to the National Museum from a blind art collector's vault.

In a sense, this story is also a set-up for the wider scope of Doom Coalition, as the Red Lady does come into play later on in the arc, much in the same way that the likes of Padrac and the Eleven do. And, of course, it's where our new long-standing companion comes in, that plays another rather large part in the proceedings of this story.

Overall, I would say this story deserves a full five stars. It's just completely flawless to me, I adore it.

Finally getting around to doing reviews of all the Doom Coalition audios that I've been going through recently, on a big marathon. I skipped Dark Eyes for reasons I won't get into here (I think it's a huge bore), but regardless.

This will now be me trying to recall my scattered thoughts and what I thought of these stories, as I took a few months' break between the second and third boxsets. Anyway, time to begin.

First of all, I do think that The Eleven is a very good opener for the series as a whole. It sets up what the main premise is obviously going to be about, and who the primary villain of the series will be, although I do think there's barely much of a plot to it. There's fun side characters, who annoyingly get killed off, but it doesn't have a lot of meat to it. Instead, we're introduced to Padrac who becomes much more prominent later on, and of course, the Eleven. Mark Bonnar gives his all in every performance of this character, and it is thoroughly entertaining to hear, to be honest.

In comparison to the likes of Their Finest Hour, the opening story of the Ravenous series, this one is much more successful in introducing us to the recurring cast of the series. I'd give it a solid 7/10.

9/10

Okay, now I continue my reviews of the short story anthology Dead Men Diaries. I’m clearly on a short story binge at the minute.

This one is sort of a pretty unique and fun(ish?) take on a grim Christmastime story, and it’s typically dark as one would expect with a Bernice Summerfield story. I do think that it gets a little bit too graphic in some places, but also again I don’t think that really surprises me at this point, lol.

It’s about the story of a young man, Tony, who was on an expedition to the planet Anibus with several of his classmates and his best friend, Steven. However, as a small joke on his friend and knowing how serious he was about technology, Tony sabotages Steven’s equipment while anticipating that he’d at least check it beforehand. It doesn’t go as planned, and while crossing a huge crevasse, the technology falters and Steven falls to his death.

His funeral is being hosted on the Braxiatel Collection where he studied, and Tony is obviously wracked with guilt as one probably would be if they were stupid enough to pull something like that.

However, midway through the funeral proceedings, Tony suddenly becomes terrorised by Steven’s spirit in the gnarled, grotesque form they found his body. It leads to him fleeing the funeral, and after realising nobody is able to help him, he resorts to attempting suicide by jumping off the clock tower of the Mansionhouse.

Bernice obviously stops him, as well as Steven’s girlfriend who was led up there by… another spirit of Steven?

Yes, it soon becomes apparent that Steven’s girlfriend, Vivian, had stolen an object from the native Anibusians that was used in their funeral traditions: a memory stone. They were often left with the corpse (in this case Steven) and a wearer of choosing, so that the wearer can grieve the loss peacefully. However, it had a very adverse effect on humans, which manifested the malevolent spirit that haunted Tony.

Eventually, the stone is smashed, and an inquiry is made into what happened on that expedition, but the whole event only reiterates how much Bernice hates Christmas.

It’s a very interesting addition into the anthology book, and also a little weird, but between this one and Step Back in Time, there’s been a pretty good streak of stories so far!

Next one,

The Door into Bedlam by Dave Stone.

7/10

I would like to start off by saying that I really did enjoy the general concept of this story, and some of the imagery was also quite lovely. I love the depiction of a more Medieval Gallifrey, with the Capitol replaced by a huge and imposing castle, as well as the core Gallifrey cast portrayed in relevant roles: Romana as the Queen of Gallifrey, Narvin as a knight, and so on.

I also really enjoy the way that we’re shown little depictions of how each character has a core trait about them which remains consistent throughout every universe. In every universe, Leela is a warrior and Braxiatel is a hoarder. We get left to our own imaginations on what the rest would be, but it’s fairly simple to grasp.

I think the main bulk of the plot didn’t interest me that little though, but I gather that it’s mainly the character interactions that were supposed to drive this one which I can appreciate and definitely understand because these two writers, Fio Tretheway and Georgia Cook, basically carry this series by also being one of the biggest fans of these characters.

After fighting the Lord Burner in the Gallifrey But More Evil™️ timeline depicted in Disassembled, Braxiatel is quickly thrusted into this Medieval Gallifrey where he’s sentenced to punishment by Queen Romana, and led out into the wilds of Gallifrey.

We learn that Narvin’s wife was Leela, who was unfortunately slain by this huge and imposing dragon that sits within a cavern in the wilds. However, in a twist, we learn that this dragon is actually the universe’s Braxiatel. It’s a bit of an odd twist, but also I don’t really mind it. It’s funny, and kind of silly.

He’s hoarding a stash of temporal devices, remarking on how every Gallifrey has at least one idea of temporal theory, and the objects have been hidden inside of this cave for so long that they’re turning unstable.

Two Braxiatels in one place, obviously being a paradox, allows the human Braxiatel to touch the dragon which allows a huge spark of temporal energy to rip open the spark and then mortally wound the creature.

Knight Narvin then inquires to Braxiatel about his wife being alive in his universe, mentioned earlier, but is talked down from trying to follow him. It’s a very bittersweet sort of ending, and I do like the way that Braxiatel seems to address this version of Narvin throughout the story. It’s in a typical condescending Braxiatel way, because of course, but I live for Narvin.

It’s a very nice little story, mainly driven by the characters of whom it features, and Miles Richardson does a good job of narrating it. I’m really enjoying this short trips set so far, and hope they do more in future!

Next one,

In Search of Lost Time by Una McCormack.

I found this story to be a rather neat little opener for the whole set of anthology tales of Gallifrey’s history, and it’s certainly an interesting taster for what will inevitably be playing out in the final story.

So, the story opens up in the Capitol on Gallifrey. CIA Coordinator Narvin is overlooking a dark, stormy night that’s lashing out across the Wildlands outside the dome. He’s stood outside of Inquisitor Darkel’s office, where he’s eventually greeted once more by the Lord Matthias who’s just returned from an audience with her. Darkel has reminded them that they must act in Lady President Romana’s favour, but the looming threat of the Free Time Movement still unsettles the Coordinator. He’s reminded by the Lord Matthias that it’s entirely his problem though, and nothing to do with anybody outside the CIA, as he walks away.

Narvin then receives a communication from Cadet Kransa, one of his junior Time Lords of the Patrex Chapter. She annoys Narvin quite a lot, though he’s reluctant to show it. She informs him that Chancellor Valyes wants them both to enter Sector 72 immediately, though Narvin is aware that it’s only him that that Valyes wants to investigate. He agrees to her request, and soon they are both down there.

Narvin then meets Valyes down in Sector 72, along with Cadet Kransa, who Valyes is surprised to see. He convinces the Chancellor that she is meant to be down here with him, and he reluctantly decides not to challenge him. Narvin is then informed that children from the Academy have been going missing somewhere down here, after investigating the Untempered Schism. Most have been found, though there are still missing children.

Valyes directs them into the catacombs, where these students have allegedly disappeared. Kransa breaks the perception filter on the gateway, and then they both enter, where Narvin sets up a homing beacon in this ghostly realm to guide them all back when they both find the children.

Narvin eventually learns that Kransa comes from East Gallifrey, in the Red Forest Conurbations. She is not actually from any Great House, though still managed to earn a place in the Time Lord Academy. After an accident at her father’s manufactory mill, she moved to the Capitol.

Narvin soon begins to doubt how real his surroundings are, unconvinced by the walls and such, and recalls tales of conceptual environments that felt real but didn’t actually exist. As he continues to think through all of these thoughts, theorising that this could very realistically be an extension of the APC Net, Kransa pulls him from his train of thought. At the foot of the steps, five children stood motionless.

A seemingly disembodied voice tells both Narvin and Kransa that the children are all frozen in time, and that they should not be here. They make out a headless figure in the dark, of somebody in a golden uniform, that was absorbing the light around it. Then it freezes Kransa.

This creature then addresses itself as the Shade of Portent, which Narvin acknowledges as one of the legendary Time Shades of fhe Rassilonian Era. It informs Narvin that it’s been awaiting his arrival for many years, telling him that he is a pivotal figure in Gallifrey’s time. He is drawn into the Shade’s presence because of the future, and now it is here in order to feed him information of this future so that he will take the correct, predetermined path.

Narvin is then shown images of his future, parallel universes, planets being burned, thousands of Daleks, himself in a leather jacket, a destroyed Gallifrey, and him being blamed for the destruction of the planet.

The Shade of Portent then tells him that there is a price for all of this knowledge, but when Narvin is pulled from the trance, he no longer acknowledges the Shade. Instead, he rushes all the children back to the entrance of the catacombs, and back into the corridor of Sector 72. He forgets Kransa however, deliberately for whatever reason, and is then made to completely forget everything that occurred down there, except for the glimpse of a burning world, his future now all subconsciously laid out for him.

Pretty decent story overall.