Interference Part One, where do I start with you?

If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be 'meaty'. It's doing an awful lot of work. There are a lot of moving parts, a lot of Faction Paradox lore to absorb, a lot of characters doing a lot of things. There's a lot to follow, so it took me a while to get through as I tried to digest it. Because of this, I think I percieve it as having been a 'slow' book, but I don't think that really is true. Each chapter is full of intrigue, moving the story along. However, none of it is linear, so to understand, you have to be paying attention. I feel this is a book, just as Unnatural History, that one would get a lot out of rereading.

The Doctor is having a hell of a time in this one. Beaten, tortured, writing on the walls of his prison in blood, his only friend executed... Yeah, Eight is having a classic adventure. I'm not sure I totally understand why he's in the prison, but in order to get out, he's doing some weird blood magic with the maths base code of the universe. As you do. He's also hanging out on a hill telling this story to someone else, presumably another Time Lord.

And this Time Lord is I.M. Foreman, of junkyard fame, I presume. In the Third Doctor's life, Foreman is at the head of a travelling show which he's taken to the planet Dust, which is where the Faction live. In the Eighth Doctor's life, she's hanging out on a hill. Typical Time Lord stuff I guess. Meanwhile, the Faction are up to all sorts of mischief - either as of yet unexplained or I did a classic me and didn't quite understand it. For reasons best known to them, a faction of the Faction (who used to be the Faction but now don't remember that except for their weird TV transmission brains) have taken over a conference in weapons dealing.

This is where, for the first time, we meet Compassion - a character I was hitherto aware of, but I didn't realise this was her introduction, or that she was one of the Remote (the Faction faction. Keep up). Remote, because of the TV signals in their brains, get it? And then she kidnaps Sam and puts her onto the TV transmission line and gives her a classic Sam bad day. There's also a horrid Welshman, other Faction agents, and some weird flashbacks to Sam on some bad trip. Of course.

Sarah Jane is also there, because of Eight's blood maths magic. She's entangled in the scheme, blonde for some reason, and at this weapons dealing conference where she meets Sam. And then she meets an Ogron who comes for tea. Of course. Meanwhile (or previously?) she's also at I.M. Foreman's travelling show on the planet Dust, which she nor Three are meant to be on. Because the Faction is meddling in time that doesn't exist. Or blood maths magic. Hard to tell.

Oh, and Fitz has been split up from them and forcibly inducted into the Faction. On another world in another time. Why not?

As I say, there are a lot of things happening here. It also feels very much like a Part One. There are a lot of strands waiting to resolve and coalesce, which I'm not mad about because obviously, I'm about to start Part Two. I have been on the periphery of Faction Paradox for a while, having known broadly what it is, but not really having dived into it. I still feel intrigued by it, but this book has perhaps shown me that maybe the Faction as a genre won't quite do it for me. I can't quite explain it, but I think maybe it's all a little too lore-rich blood-cult for me.

That said, I did enjoy this book, even if I didn't 100% understand it all. Lore is something I'm both intrigued by and don't have much patience for. Oftentimes, Lore can get a little too long winded and deep, and forget it's meant to be telling an engaging story too - this is much the same issue I have with Lord of the Rings. Beautiful worldbuilding, but at the end of the day, I just don't really care. I don't think I have a 'worldbuilding brain'.

But I digress. Interference Part One is one hell of a book, and despite the fact I'm not a Lore person, I was engaged through the whole thing. Interesting and intriguing is, to me (especially after some of the other EDAs to date), a great big win.

In 2014, I listened to To The Death for the first time. Stay with me here, this is relevant. Technically, my first exposure to the Monk was The Time Meddler a few years prior, but he didn't make much impact on me then. To The Death, however... astute readers will understand from these clues why I, as a Lucie Miller lover first and person second, have a real grudge against the Monk and always will forever. Between this and the fact that I don't care much for Churchill stories, I was having some trepidation going into this one.

Rufus Hound is a wonderful Monk. He's effortlessly charming, a little sly and slimy and smug but without being overbearing and annoying. He sparkles in every scene. In fact, he's certainly the best part of this episode. I'm not entirely certain why he wanted Churchill to win the election, but him going head to head with the Doctor is effortlessly funny. The actual plot of stealing bombs and paintings and political intrigue and spaceships, I found to be a little dry, but the side characters are all well realised. I wasn't actively annoyed by any of them.

But the plot... lots is happening and it's not disengaging, but I just didn't find myself caring very strongly about any of it. As I say, it's worth it for the Monk, but as far as stories that I would rate highly, this is not one of them. Better than the last, but not one of the jewels of the MR

I really like The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. I think it's great fun, and a rich world, one which could easily be mined for a spinoff. And despite the low score of this audio, I really wanted to like it. I wanted it to be fun and silly, for us to dig into the past of the circus and the tribulations of its creators.

However, we don't get that. We get a talent show, two relatively unengaging lead characters who want to make their circus a reality, the Doctor doing nothing but juggling, and - for some reason that is still unclear to me - the Master. And we get that going round and round for two hours. Unfortunately, this isn't even one of the shorter MR stories. It's long. And it plods along.

The closest we get to being interesting is when Juniper Berry and Kingpin disagree - it's not even a real argument - and she leaves the circus. And I thought, oh, okay cool, it's part 3 but I can forgive that, maybe this is going somewhere. Finally, a character I kind of liked and was engaged with! And then she dies immediately. And we return to the Doctor juggling.

This story isn't exactly bad. I've heard worse in this range in quality, in sound design, in acting, in every metric. But the thing is, it just doesn't really do anything. I struggle to see the point of any of it. It seems like there is no reason for any of the characters to be there, and any of the suspense they're trying to build is underwhelming because it's too long winded. I wish I had enjoyed this. But I didn't. And no doubt, I will not remember this episode in a few days time.

As far as episodes of Thunderbirds goes, this is a fun one. I watched plenty of this as a child, and Thunderbird 2 is still my favourite. I don't remember the puppetry being as unnerving, though. Also the accents, goodness me! Nobody really sounds like that anymore. And I still adore Lady Penelope - I wanted a pink car as a child because of her!

However, as a piece of Doctor Who media... why am I watching this for a glimpse of a Dalek? I think I have better things to do with my life.

This is an utterly, utterly silly parody, and yet it's so interesting to watch as a piece of ephemera. It's fascinating to see the then contemporary references, as well as see how much Doctor Who must have already embedded itself as a staple of the TV landscape. It still holds up remarkably well as a silly piece of comedy, and at just seven minutes, is well worth a watch.

A McIntee novel always comes with a lot of atmosphere, and that atmosphere is usuall grimy, dark, and gloomy. Certainly, that is so in Autumn Mist - not a bad book, exactly, but one I definitely struggled with. We're launched immediately into the depths of battle in WWII, where Fitz pretends to be a Nazi and Sam gets shot dead. Again. This poor girl, it feels, has been dead in more books than she's been alive.

Perhaps this was a little of a 'me issue', because I'll openly admit, the World Wars setting does very little for me. The random fairy plot in this one also did little for me too - they were very ethereal and spooky and did a great job bringing Sam back from the brink, but they were also just kind of... there. I don't feel that the Doctor did much either, but I'll also confess that by the end, I was skim reading just to get through it.

I wouldn't say I hated this one; as I say, it wasn't dreadful. It did feel an awful lot at the start like somewhere for McIntee to put all his facts about WWII tanks, but it was very readable. It was nicely written. But that's about all positive I have to say for it. This one just didn't really work for me, unfortunately.

This one gets so many points for referencing the Zarbi. Love those guys. Anyway, this is definitely one of the better of these files because it's about a story set historically, and has way to reference other DW stories. It makes it seem more like an actual mystery file this way.

Archie Panjabi the Rani you will always always be famous to me <3

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EDIT: Okay I calmed down a bit and I have more to add. There were bits I enjoyed. The first half hour was fun. Thirteen was a fun surprise. Panjabi's Rani is amazing. Gatwa gave it his all. I love Melanie Jane Bush.

Everything else though... Why did the Rani get eaten by Omega? Why was Omega a massive dessicated skull who got defeated way too easily? What was that whole motherhood plot?? After a whole episode saying 'why must women always be mothers and housewives' we... make Belinda into a mother? We give her a baby that isn't hers and alter her entire life and don't play that like it's scary? What was the point of UNIT? Why did we spend so much time talking about a baby that I had no reason to care about? Why did Gatwa's start and end have to get overshadowed by RTD's nostalgia bait?

Why why why why?

Why did the Rani have to get eaten by the skull... I need her back so much it isn't even funny. But I don't suppose we ever will, because if there's one thing RTD loves to do, it's disappoint.

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EDIT 2: Because I'm a masochist or because I couldn't believe that DW could make me feel this bad or something, I did watch this episode again with a somewhat clearer head. And it is still a dreadful mess. I made a lot of bullet point notes as I watched and did enjoy some parts, but overall... well, I'll let myself explain. Here are some slightly edited highlights from my bullet point list:

• They’re clearly setting up a ‘our daughter is real so let’s save her at all costs’ plot here and I’m not sure how convinced I am because Poppy is such a nothing character
• ‘I’m in a suit’ ‘I’m wearing tweed’ ‘I’m wearing nylon’ ok that’s funny
• ‘Conrad couldn’t even imagine you’ I get what he’s trying to say here, that the reality where we all Live is better but like Rose does nothing after this so how can she look anything but performative here?
• Archie Panjabi. I love you.
• Is it just me or is Murray Gold’s soundtracking just seeming a bit... tired. It’s like BOOM FEEL THIS in every scene but it’s lacking the kind of zest of This is Gallifrey or All the Strange Strange Creatures etc
• This scene in UNIT Tower is like... who directed this (edit: it was Alex Sanjiv Pillai. This is his only DW directing credit). Who wrote this. It’s standing still and expositing. It’s boring to watch like objectively on a technical level. There’s a million characters standing still. It is SO static
• ‘You thought of me every night’ how… I just… best scene in the episode. How am I meant to interpret that for REAL
• ‘If I remember it then it’s true’ like... This is Amy but done worse really isn’t it. I get what they’re trying to do, I really do: they’re saying yeah, ok, Poppy is real because we believe in her. But it just feels like it’s come out of nowhere for Belinda to suddenly have this One Huge Trait. I feel like this could have even worked better if they’d seeded Belinda as fighty for more than an episode and a half but she’s been so passive since Lux. We should have had her protecting and biting people all along, then I might have believed her defense of Poppy better
• ‘I can’t help you with the fight. My battle is in there with my daughter.’ They put her in the box… ugh like she’s done nothing really all episode and now she’s in the box. Hm. Again seeing The Pandorica Opens parallels here but again I think that worked better because we saw all through Series 5 how much Amy cared about Rory and the Doctor and also Amy came OUT OF THE BOX like straightaway to do stuff
• btw I’m still enjoying myself. I’m standing by what I said about the first 30mins being fine. It’s silly but it’s DW silly. I can live with silly DW nonsense if I’m having fun, and despite some of the issues and some of the intrigue dampened by knowing what’s coming, I am having fun
• also LOL ANITA IS STILL JUST STANDING THERE get the woman a doorstop???
• ‘I want to say thank you.’ Ruby babe, just smack him! Come on! You don’t have to coddle him! ‘Your world is nice.’ Oh ok, that’s why we erased all trans people and put disabled people on the street??
• Not the Skull… ‘Omega has become his own legend.’ Correct me if i’m wrong but Omega was like basically a pathetic guy before who wanted to go and do shenanigans. Not an eff-off MASSIVE SKULL???
• The Rani got ate by the Skull… so quickly… it’s just over so fast and pointlessly and like. Why. I wouldn’t even be so mad if it made any sense but it doesn’t. The Skull shows up and they all look a bit scared then he picks her up and eats her but again it’s all so STIFF AND STATIC AND SLOW. And then like that the Skull is just. Gone. The Rani and the Skull just. Gone. No fanfare, no pomp, no weight on the plot, just. Gone.
• Murray you’re killing me here. This whole thing of Poppy coming out of the box (lol) is so emotionally overwrought that it makes me not care
• Ok yea let’s give the baby to Carla? makes… uh… sense?
• I’m just so... The idea of the Doctor being in a platonic relationship with Belinda as they raise Poppy? Love that. But his sudden desire for kids is?? huh??
• Folding this coat is haunting though and Ruby being the only one to remember is excellent. I might not care about Poppy but this? This is the best emotional beat in the whole episode. See director you can do a good job!
• Imagine the Fifteen & Belinda & Ruby team we could have had
• See if we stopped here this is haunting. Solid 7/10 to this point. There are issues but Ruby forever being the only one to remember Poppy? Love that as a kind of tragic finale
• Why are we happy to have found Conrad? Can’t he just piss off? How come he gets to have a lovely ending and Belinda just got put in a box??
• Again, world’s staticest direction here, we’re all standing around watching Ruby losing it. Again, I really see how we’re trying to do a ‘save everyone’ plot but forcing a baby they neither want nor remember upon them? hmm… Again, reminiscing. A recap of the season. <urray is overdoing it to hell. ‘Sometimes I think we’re all your children’.
• ‘Best male’ like… come on Russ. Shush. But yay Jodie!! The audible gasp i gasped the first time But also like. What is the point of her being here? Yay because she’s fun but like, make it make sense
• ‘We never change. All these faces and we never really change’ yeah I like that
• ‘That was the point. All this time i had to be here [for Poppy]’ yeah don’t love this rewriting of Belinda’s WHOLE timeline for this. Like this is a fine character. It’s just not the character we had. Remember in Bernice Summerfield: Asking for a Friend when Dr Who changed his therapists whole timeline without asking to give her a family and she was mad about it because that’s not HER life lol
• ‘Poppy the human’ I think we’re meant to be sad ? idk. idc. Where’s susan? Why have we suddenly got the Doctor wanting a kid so much? I guess my main issue with this is like, nothing seems to have any impact. It’s all SHOUTY AND FLASHY AND BEGGING FOR ATTENTION but all these plot points happen. And stop. And have no impact. idk they’re asking me to be sad but I’m not feeling it
• Also like Poppy never says or does anything. Why do I care about her?
• ohhh don’t go I actually feel sad now i’m not in shock
• I still think the Billie Piper thing is stupid as hell, soz

And then I wrote this too, immediately after my rewatch:

Ok, so closing remarks. Three eyerolls later I think the best I can give this one is 5/10. I hated it a lot less without the shocks. I am still upset and angry about the Rani. I still think Belinda deserved better than the Box. If it had stopped at 40 mins we’d be looking at a 7/10 tbh. Stupid but passable.

However it did not end after 40 mins. There was a whole other 30 mins of just… nothingness. Yay 13. Yay Poppy. Yay universe saved, I guess. But none of that really had any impact on me because there didn’t seem much point. I think that’s how I feel about it all. There is so much going on, so many elements and moving parts and yet the whole hour and seven mins feels sluggish. As I said a few times, not helped by the abysmal direction because so much of it is just standing around giving history lessons to each other. Which is boring on audio, let alone TV.

There is so much going on and yet it’s all fleeting and pointless. Rose is there, now she’s gone. Kate and UNIT are there and they blow stuff up and now they’re gone. Thirteen is here and now she’s gone. The epic the Rani and Omega showdown is so lame it’s barely worth talking about. None of it makes sense either - and as I say I’m a Doctor Qho fan who likes Time-Flight and Battlefield and Fear Her. I can take stupid nonsense.

But this? I can’t quite articulate it but it feels like I’ve been starved and strapped to a chair and RTD is wheeling me along one of those buffets where the food is on plates with metal lids, and he’s opening the lids and going ‘mmm yum yum right?’ and moving on before I can eat and it’s like woah slow down Russ. I want to eat, I’m starving here. And he’s like ‘hehe what a hoot right?’ and I’m like ‘Russ i’m starving here!!’

Maybe that metaphor got away from me. Anyway.

My point is, there were so many things dangling in all of Ncuti’s seasons. Ruby and the snow. The song in her heart. Poppy. Susan Twist. Sutekh. The One Who Waits. Omega. The Rani. Susan Foreman. The Time Lords. The exploding TARDIS. 73 yards. So on, so on, so on. And some of those got kind of tied up (by being ate by the Skull…) but there are still so many things that I now feel will never be resolved which does not bring me joy. I feel like I’ve been giving it the benefit of the doubt for two years waiting for it all to add up and it’s just gone nowhere. And that’s frustrating.

I guess, perhaps, some of this was production issues. The last 30 mins feel so tacked on and forced and I have no doubt that’s because they were. If we’d had S3 as we were meant to, who knows? Maybe we would have some answers. But we’re not getting S3 as it would have been and realistically we’re looking at 2027 at the earliest for more Who. If we’re getting it at all. I think maybe being flashy and loud and not tying up each season well (or at all) has not worked in RTD’s favour. And the frustratingest thing of all is we know he can! Look at series 1! Beautiful television! And I suppose the difference there is they had one shot to make it right. One shot to tell the most beautiful story they could because there was no guarantee of more. And they did. By god, they did it.

I do believe RTD loves Doctor Who. I don't believe he would maliciously write badly, or try to make it bad on purpose. But I also believe that this season felt kind of stale, from Murray Gold’s music to the same but different (and worse) story beats from RTD1. I hesitate to call him lazy because that's a word that's been overly bandied about, but honestly? It does feel a little like they’re going through the motions of making Doctorr Who and marketing it to a Tiktok audience rather than actually doing what Doctor Who has always done best and focussing on making good stories. It doesn’t always succeed. It never has. But it tries. I think looking back to the past has truly hampered RTD2 and it hasn’t been crafted with the same care because it was assumed the audience would be there. And we are. But after that…

The best episode of RTD2 (The Story and The Engine) was written by someone who’s never done Who before. And I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

It took me a long while to get round to writing this review because it took me quite a while to digest this book. What a book it is. Anyone who knows anything about the EDAs knows that Unnatural History is considered one of the greats, and I must say, I understand why. However, there was a section in the start to middle where I didn't understand why. For a second, I really thought I was going to be the only person who thought that Unnatural History was just fine rather than wow!

But I was wrong. I think part of my issue is that there are a lot of moving parts in this book. There are lots of characters to keep track of, complicated timelines and even more complicated explanations for why the time is out of wack. I think this is the kind of book that benefits from reread, from careful pondering. Which is no bad thing, especially given some of the forgettable dross the EDAs have given us to this point. Though it's hard to follow, especially at first, Unnatural History really ramps up as it passes the halfway point, and I read most of that in one go, breathlessly engaged.

The book opens with an alternative 'brown haired' Sam, harking back to the biodata shenanigans of Alien Bodies (another book whose complexity bamboozled me. I kind of want to get into Faction Paradox but I fear I have no hope of understanding it) and then proceeds to make her so, so interesting that it makes you wish Blorman had written every other appearance of Sam ever. This isn't the blonde Sam we know and, uh, love - this is edgy brunette Sam, a Sam who does drugs and has a s**t job and yells at the world. She makes blonde Sam look like the most boring person alive, and yet, despite the utter lack of characterisation our poor Sam has had over the last twenty-odd books, it is still somehow obvious that she is indeed a could have been version rather than a totally different person.

And that's why it's utterly heartbreaking when brunette Sam decides to sacrifice herself for the 'number 18'. Through the whole book, the Doctor is desperately trying to prevent the city from falling apart, and failing as he's pursued by a guy who would just love to study him like a bug, and a creepy child of the Facton Paradox. There are call-backs to the movie, and inadvertent calls-forward to New Who arcs such as the Hybrid and the Timeless Child. This is a book that seems to have grown and recontextualised itself long after publication (that, or New Who writers really need to stop poaching the EDAs for ideas).

Fitz too is again excellent in this one. Though I was at first a bit icked out when he and Sam slept together, I do think it made sense and I don't hate the decision. Poor Fitz always seems to be having the worst day ever in these books. Then again, when does any Eight companion have a good time?

So overall, yes. I thought this one started a little slow, but I have still given it a 10/10 because once I got into it, I got really into it, and by the end it slammed into me like a train. It's the kind of book where you turn the last page and go 'woah' and have to stare at the wall for a while to take it all in.

It's a shame that Ian Marter never got to write any VNAs or EDAs because I know in my heart they would have been fantastic. The Invasion is not a TV story I remember too well, but the book does follow the story closely, without much of the extra detail Marter often puts in his novelisations.

That said, the prose is beautifully written. The story moves along at a great pace, all the characters feel like the screen versions we love and the threat of the Cybermen feels real. There's hardly any extra padding, and where there is, it's to drive home how brutal a death is or how twisted the villain's plan is. It is a litte gorier than the TV version - as I say, Marter would have aced a VNA.

A genuinely enjoyable listen, read well by David Troughton, and yet again proving what a wonderful writer Marter is.

After the joy and fun of Demontage, Revolution Man comes and hits like a brick in the face. Heavy, dark, full of drugs and splattery deaths, Leonard presents us with another book which is full of social commentary and gore. This may be my favourite of the Leonard-penned EDAs so far, though I am still trying to decipher how I felt about it.

For one thing, it wasn't boring. We have a small set of minor characters, and though they're all destined for the grave eventually (what else is a minor character in the EDAs for, after all?), they are relatively compelling, if all a little caricaturish. Maddie, naive and sweet, gets swept up in the drug-fuelled schemes of her pop star boyfriend, Ed. Ed has stumbled upon a mystical flower that grants users magical psychic abilies when ingested. And he decides to use these to overthrow the entire world.

I must say that the finer details of why he was motivated to do this were lost on me, and certainly the narrative doesn't paint his Revolution Man ideas in a particularly flattering light. It is hard to tell exactly what this book thinks about world governments and about revolutionaries because it seems to want to condemn them all as violent and a little useless.

However, a political plot is one Sam thrives in. For the first time in a while, she feels like she has a presence again which is nice. Trapped in the late 60s, she draws parallels between activism then and from her time, and makes some nice acknowledgments of the progress that has been made. Her conflict with Fitz is also compelling, especially when it comes to how they view the Doctor. Her worship of him and insistence that he can do no wrong has previously made her a bit passive, but in contrast with Fitz's doubt, she flourishes here. Fitz, meanwhile, spends a lot of time freezing to death in Tibet. I didn't like him very much in this one - he was lacking some of what made him endearing in previous novels.

The Doctor too felt a little out of character and distant, and I'm certainly not sure how I feel about him pulling the trigger at the end. Of course, Ed isn't the first person the Doctor has got killed, but the viscera of Ed's gory insides splattering on the Doctor's coat was a strong choice. I am not sure I agree with it though.

Overall, definitely a better read than some of the other tedious and terrible books of the range, though its subject matter means enjoying it was not easy. A decent enough book, but not one I'd rush to reread.

What a delight it is to have a fun book in this series! I don't think we've had a properly fun one since The Scarlet Empress, and I don't think I've honestly enjoyed one this much since then either. I feel like I'm really on the precipice of hitting the really excellent section of the EDAs, which is exciting to me.

But to the topic at hand: Demontage. There are a lot of moving parts in this book. Set in a casino complex at the edge of a warzone between the generically human-y Battrulians and the wolfish Canvines. As far as Who stories go, that's not an atypical kind of setup - a war, a tension, political players manouevring and scheming. Because the Battrul president is arriving, and there's a target on her head. And on top of that, the artist whose creepy works are being displayed, has been murdered, and it looks like a Canvine did it.

This book is just brimming with side characters, which is something I have complained about in DW novels before, but this one gives them a rich personality and doesn't just treat them as cannon fodder, which is refreshing. We have Bigdog Caruso, the Canvine who just wants to watch the opera in peace; the two artists Blanc and Gath who are up to no good; poor, beautiful Vermillion who gets trapped in a painting. Then we have double-bluffing Stabilo, pretending to be a buffoon but really out to protect the president; and Rappare and Forster, lying and cheating gamblers. All of these are great characters, to the point that I even remembered all the names without looking them up!

Though of course, the best side character in this novel is Hazard Solarin, super assassin with his cool glass murder-ware and a life lived entirely by random chance. For almost the entire novel, we assume he's out to kill the president and the Doctor, but in reality, he's been paid to make sure the president isn't harmed. His death at the end didn't come as a surprise, exactly, but it did make me go aw, man, which is more than a random side character's death usually does in these things.

And all of this is before I've said a word about Fitz and his ridiculous James Bond schtick, getting him muddled up in the assassination. The man just wants a cigarette, but his nature just keeps getting him into scrapes. Two books in, and I'm easily seeing why he's a fan favourite. The Doctor too was characterised beatifully in this book - seemingly naive and innocent, but always scheming, always pulling the strings. That's the Mr Dr Who that I like to see. Poor Sam yet again gets the least to do, but she wasn't totally bland  which is more than she has been elsewhere.

I'm not sure I fully understood Blanc and Rath's scheme with the painting monsters, but I'm also not sure it really matters because I had fun. The monsters were unique too - I really liked the descriptions of them as being made of canvas. The end came round quite quickly in a battle of painting demons and action, and as I say, I lost the plot a little, but I don't mind. I had fun. To me, that's what counts.

I will confess, it is only a love for the ICMG that has brought me here. But what fun I have had! Ian with a comical beard! Allison smacking someone on the head with a wrench! Rachel working on a turbofan engine! All that was missing was Sir Toby up to something (and yes, this completely flies in the face of the audios canon, but it is what it is).

The actual story is relatively simple - an alien race has infiltrated humanity with a plan for domination, and the ICMG get mixed up in stopping it. The side characters were relatively uninspiring, but they served their purpose well. If anything, I thought the story itself wrapped up a little too fast, a little too conveniently. But I had fun, so I don't mind that much.

Ace and the Doctor were well served too - Ace especially has a large role in figuring out the alien plan and how to stop it which is nice. There is always a danger in ICMG stories that Allison gets a little overlooked due to her status as an 'assistant', and though she does spend much of the time here as a wall for Rachel to bounce ideas off, I will be thinking about her violent tendecies with fondnes in days to come.

It is difficult, I think, when you have an alien race that has been designated as a homogenous fighter race who love war and all think the same, to write a story that is actually interesting as well as not just being a rehash of stuff done before. John Dorney, as always, delivers. This story plays with the ideas of Sontaran clone batches and how powerful a Sontaran would be if they were to have an entire clone genetic batch in one being. There's also some generic humans v Sontarans stuff, and Strang trying to create a portal that will take him anywhere in space so he can go and conquer it completely.

In a sense, it is a relatively generic story - the Sontaran plotline, though interesting, is run of the mill in terms of 'the bad guy is defeated. But it is the Doctor and Leela's relationship that really makes this story shine. Leela decides, at the end, that it is not worth the potential of Strang's dangerous genetic batch getting out into the universe so she detroys them, against the Doctor's wishes. He is upset by this, but Leela is steadfast in her beliefs. It was very good to hear a story that allows Leela to be ruthless and calculating in a way that isn't just 'yeah, the stupid warrior stabs'. It offers a truly interesting insight into the stark differences between the Doctor and Leela, and Jameson's performance when the Doctor tells Leela he's taking her home is utterly heartbreaking. This alone elevated this to a higher rating for me.

The story is presented as almost a case file of the events of Remembrance. This, I thought, made for a more interesting read than a simple out of universe summary, as althought it did provide a comprehensive recap of events, the tone made it compelling. Though there isn't particularly anything new or groundbreaking in the summary, it is nice to see the ICMG get the recognition they deserve, and for Allison to be recognised as a physicist in her own right rather than just 'Rachel's assistant'.

A summary of events in the 'real world' leading up to of Remembrance of the Daleks. This story solidifies Quatermass as part of the Whoniverse and amusingly references the fact that Doctor Who itself exists in Remembrance. With ties to Delta and the Bannermen and The Abominable Snowmen create a surprisingly coherent narrative given all the disjointed bits of canon it's trying to knit together. Nothing particularly substantial, but an intriguing read nevertheless.

This story was kind of dull to me until about 50 minutes in. The premise itself is not disinteresting - a creature that feasts on the dark and time and provokes apathy in people. We're introduced to a cast of relatively uninspiring side characters who waffle back and forth about turning the lights on and catching the Stormcrow creature.

It's only when the Doctor gets overtaken by the creature that things get a little more interesting. He immediately rejects Leela and humanity as being annoying clinger-ons, and seems to abandon her, much to her surprise. One of the things that intrigues me most about Leela's character is the way she does not and has never belonged. Though she clings to the Sevateem, she never really fit in there, and many of her most interesting stories dig into these ideas. So when Leela said 'I may never find the place where I belong', I sat bolt upright, suddenly intrigued.

Without thinking, this story manages to cut straight to the thesis of Leela's character, giving us a touching scene where she reflects that she will probably never see the place she was born again.

And then it goes back to being a little dull. A shame, but goes to show that every episode can have a hidden gem in it.

This book spends its first thirty pages Doctorless and introducing us to a million side characters who will all be dead by the end. I hate it when DW novels do this - they almost invariably give me no reasons to care about the side characters and I am rarely sad to see them go. The Face Eater is no exception.

It's not a bad book, exactly. I just didn't enjoy any part of it. Sam and the Doctor head to a pioneering human colony world led by tight fisted ex-military Helen Percival. I rather suspect we were meant to think of her as a domineering bitch but I find that kind of woman hot so I liked her. In fact, she was basically the only character with a personality that wasn't just a tired stock trope. We have Fuller, the world weary detective, and Leary, the misunderstood hero, and after that I stop remembering names.

And then we have the Doctor and Sam who are basically just there. The Doctor is off having a jaunty old time getting beaten up and hanging out with the telepathic natives of the world while Sam gets lusted over by a 40 year old man for some reason and has, yet again, a very bad day. Neither of them seemed to be that relevant to the story and both spent a sizeable amount of time hospitalised, immobilised, and broken.

The world itself is an interesting one - Messingham insists upon introducing every character with their full name and racial identity which paints us a picture of an incredibly diverse world. Men and women seem equal in jobs and society. Everyone is pulling towards the same goal. But for all the interesting potentials there, the story may as well have been set on Earth in the 90s. It gave no flavour of otherworldliness.

This perhaps sounds more negative than I feel, but in truth I feel very little. I will, in all likelihood, forget about this book very quickly, except for one conclusion: for a book called The Face Eater, basically nobody got their face eaten. What a false promise.

This could not have been a more generic commentary on climate change and corporate greed if it tried. That said, it was a perfectly fine commentary. It got the job done. The Daleks were... well, there I guess. It was unremarkable, though not tedious.

As always, Leela is the highlight here with Louise Jameson giving her all to fight against becoming a Roboman. And though Leela costume remarks are tiresome at best, I can't deny I did get a kick out of how much she enjoyed wearing trainers.

A typical Briggs base under siege story. Not a particularly special story, but filled its purpose well. I quite enjoyed Alison and Leela's interactions, and though she didn't have an awful lot to do, Leela was never treated by the narrative as stupid which I appreciate. It is also interesting to me how often a Briggs script is very anti-empire. Here, British Empire is treated as savage and base - something that Leela is explicitly not in this episode. The British pillaging the alien ship and taking it to dominate the alien culture is very much treated as a bad thing in this script, so despite the generic plot beats, I still enjoyed the story overall as it made me think, which is better than being boring.

I came very close to rating this one 3, and the entire reason for that is that finally this series has given me a character I like: Morli. Is this strongly to do with the fact we rarely get characters who sound like they're from the North East in DW? Perhaps. But she is also kind of bonkers, and when every single other moment of this series is bogged down with scrapy Dalek voices and serious, boring characters, that is a blessed relief. I wouldn't call the acting good, or even her story that engaging, but I was not tuned out so that was a big win.

The negative is that the entire rest of the story is boring. Suz and Alby have begun to actively annoy me with every word that comes out of their mouths. Suz' relentless threat to kill herself quickly becomes meaningless when it is clear she'll never follow through. The Daleks insistence on always calling her Suuu-sann Mennn-dezzzz is irritating at best and egregious at worst, and I couldn't possibly tell you what their plan is because I am not tuned in to this series. Kalendorf continues to be the other most engaging character, but when your competition is Dalek-synth turned way up and a handful of other generic rebels whose names I don't remember, that's not hard.

I am sad that I have not been enjoying this series, and though I will see it through to the end of s2, I don't think I'll be picking up 3 and 4. Unless something drastically interesting happens at the end of this series, anyway. But I have not been given a lot to hope for.

This one was... weird. And it was definitely meant to be. Stylistically full of experimentation and metaphor and layers that contradicted each other. But blissfully it wasn't boring.

At its core, this story wants to tackle the complex ideas of what right one has to make a choice, and how faith can affect that. It wants to be a commentary on religion and human nature and free will. But it's trapped in the skin of a 90s Doctor Who novel and that means we have to sit through an entire extended metaphor which details the Doctor's c-section but actually he's just being possessed by a pregnant sun(?). This was the part to which I, aloud, said 'What is going on...'

If I'm honest, I'm not sure I fully understood the plot or the point Mortimore was actually trying to make. It feels like he was throwing his musings around in a sandbox and having fun playing with his dolls. This is, I accept, a valid approach, but not necessarily a sensical one. However, Sam did get something to do in this one, even if that was die horribly again and get possessed and have to deal with a cult leader. The usual for her. I'm not certain I understand if she's okay or not, honestly.

But! It did not bore me. It was strange and visceral, but I wasn't bored. That to me is a great big win.

What a strange and charming little story. Full of all the typical Paul Magrs trappings one would expect, our Bessie has been forgotten in an old junkyard, and now being hunted down by a villain who wants to huy her for a million pounds

The whole story is thin - it's just Bessie reflecting on every story she is in on TV and somehow psychically communing with her new friend. And at the end, she gives up her sentience to get a message to the Doctor that he's in trouble. But despite that, it's enjoyable enough and wonderfully read by Stephanie Cole.

This is a story that, on paper, is very good. Avril comes back! She wants to steal Peter! Ruth and Jack discover their pasts and Brax finally defeats Pandora from Gallifrey for good! All that sounds great, and what's more it's set at Christmas, how lovely. If you like a plot, this sure is a plot that seems great.

But despite all this, it manages to be exceedingly boring.

As I say, there's nothing strictly bad in this. The acting is fine, the sound design is a little saccharine in places but servicable, the plot is theoretically fun. But I can't make myself say anything else about it but 'it's fine'. I found it to chug slowly along, and even all the twists were like 'and now this is happening'. I couldn't feel sad about Peter because I've not connected to him at all since Boxset Era began, and Ruth and Jack are so nothingy to me that their shady pasts didn't hit at all. Even Benny, who I adore, doesn't make me feel anything in this one.

I wish I had more to say, but I don't. It's fine. This is the worst boxset of Boxset Era.

You know when you listen to an episode and literally nothing happens for an hour, so you're like huh. What was the point of that. HMS Surprise is one of those episodes. Benny, Peter, and Jack get whooshed away to a shipyard where Benny meets some mystery guy in a lighthouse and Peter and Jack meander around and around some old ship.

And that keeps happening for an hour.

This episode isn't bad, not at all. The characterisation is fine, so Jack continues to be annoying and Peter's continued vendetta against his mother isn't particularly engaging either, and the concept of the story is fine. It's just boring. It's a nothingy story. They all wander about and get confused by things, and then it ends. Not a favourite by any means.