This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Rapture

A somewhat bleak but otherwise simple Cyberman story, there were some interesting ideas thrown about but were this story really succeeds is in the characters. Specifically Hex, I can already tell he's gonna be a great companion. His dynamic with McShane (or Ace, as she used to be known) is fantastic. He's not as interesting with the Doctor but I'm hopeful that that will change.

The story itself is nothing remarkable although it does have a pretty grim atmosphere. The other two Cybermen stories in this trilogy are a lot bleaker and depressing than this though. I found the idea of it being set in 2021  and being all futuristic quite funny given that's now history to us. Cybermen trying to become human again is also a great idea even if I think it could've been utilised a little bit better.

Good story and a good start to what I'm aware will become a very large and expansive arc.

Next Story: Dreamtime

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Colditz

Not sure I liked this one. There were some really good bits, particularly between Ace and her brother but most of it was just offputting and a bit too "wow we can say drugs and sex now!!" which I don't tend to care for in my Doctor Who. The soundtrack was great though and I loved the remixed version of the Doctor Who theme.

I don't really have much else to say about this story, it's not bad by any means, just not my cup of tea. If I was anyone else I'd probably give this a higher rating.

Next Story: The Harvest

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Dust Breeding

David Tennant is in this... as a Nazi. He must've been quite desperate to get on Doctor Who huh. Still he plays the role really well, as he tends to when it comes to villains.

There's a lot of things to like about this story. There's a character from an alternate timeline where the Nazis won, which gives us some really great discussions about changing time and the "correct" history. Klein is quite an interesting character in general, I'm glad to hear that there'll be more with her later down the line.

Ace gets a really solid role here. While the Doctor is out scheming and doing whatever Ace is trapped in Colditz castle trying to escape. She blends in quite nicely with all these soldier types and there's a really good underlying theme of Ace "growing up" which is cemented at the end by her dropping the name Ace and going for Dorothy McShane instead. It'll be interesting to see where that leads.

Really good stuff, another win for 7 it seems.

Next Story: The Rapture

Previous Story: World Enough and Time

Another really enjoyable one but again nothing remarkable. It's always great to have a multi-doc and I think 6 and 7 are a good combo in that they're basically polar opposites. I especially love 7 not putting up with River's usual nonsense, it feels quite fitting that he'd be the one to finally outsmart her.

I think my main problem with this whole set is how inconsistent it's felt. Sure all the stories lead into one another but they rarely feel like part of the same larger story even though they technically are. Each of the writers were clearly only told where to begin and where to end and then made up the middle which leads to the whole thing feeling a bit jarring.

Still, this is a solid finale. Much better than the finale to the previous set in my opinion.

Next Story: The Lady in the Lake

Previous Story: Five Twenty-Nine

This is a really fun one, but nothing impressive. It doesn't help that it's coming off the back of the phenomenal Five Twenty-Nine. After that I think it's very difficult for anything to compare. Still I absolutely enjoyed this one, mainly because 6 feels particularly suited to meeting River. Alex Kingston and Colin Baker have excellent chemistry which absolutely helps.

The idea of the Doctor as managing director of a company is quite funny and it was a good way to satirise corporate bureaucracy. Doctor Who meets office politics isn't something you'd expect to be good but it works surprisingly well. My only issue really is that I don't like this as an explanation for the 5:29 event in the last story, it really felt quite mysterious and impactful so to find out that it's just some generic alien's generic evil plan doesn't really impress me.

Solid story nonetheless.

Next Story: The Eye of the Storm

Previous Story: The Unknown

What a masterclass of a story. It's genuinely so impressive that a story like this can manage to be so grounded and simple and yet have such high stakes at the same time. You're lured in with a false sense of security, River is on a small island with a fairly average, normal family. And then the broadcast starts. And there's a sense of impending doom from there on out. There's no clever plan to beat the villain or anything, River is just trying her best to keep one family alive for slightly longer.

It's the first story in the Diary of River Song that genuinely makes her feel distinct from the Doctor in that she doesn't always save the day with some grand speech and it's frankly quite refreshing. Alex Kingston puts in her best performance yet alongside one of the best supporting casts I've heard in any Big Finish audio drama. By the end of it you genuinely care about these characters as much as River herself which is quite an impressive feat in just 50 something minutes.

I cannot overstate how much of a banger this is.

Next Story: World Enough and Time

Previous Story: The Rulers of the Universe

Quite liked this one. It starts off very interestingly, with none of the characters knowing exactly who they are. It's a clever way to get around the Doctor meeting River out of order. I thought the way the chief engineer going mad was depicted to be quite good, in particular that scene where he sees the robot that isn't there and it tries to convince him that everyone else is just ignoring it.

I think where this story suffers is it tries to be too complicated that it wraps back round to being technobabble again. It's really the kind of thing where you have to give it your full attention the entire way through otherwise you'll have zero clue what's going on. It's quite fun though, overall. And a pretty solid cliffhanger too.

Next Story: Five Twenty-Nine

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Grey Man of the Mountain

Really boring story which is a shame considering it has Geoffrey Beevers' Master in it. It's not all that surprising though considering it was written by Mike Tucker who did The Genocide Machine, another frightfullly dull and formulaic adventure. The only thing keeping this one anywhere above that one is the aforementioned Geoffrey Beevers. And the lack of Daleks, that helps too.

Speaking of Beevers, it doesn't really feel like he's settled back into the role yet. He's still good but with the hindsight of his later performances this one does stand out a bit (alteast in my eyes). Although in fairness he only did it one time what would have been twenty-something years ago by this point.

Nothing remarkable here sadly, but it could have been a lot worse.

Next Story: Colditz

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Genocide Machine

I'm not gonna pretend like this story is some masterpiece. It's not. In fact, it's quite generic and simple. But it's a simple story done really well. You're not gonna be mindblown by a twist or shocked at a reveal. It's a story about the journey, not the destination. I realise I'm being quite poetic about something that doesn't really deserve it but I did quite enjoy this one. Most likely only for the characters - the entire cast had great chemistry with each other. Ace in particular had some great moments with a character called Kirsty.

To be honest, if I'd have been in a worse mood I'd probably hate this story but as it stands I think it's a sweet but unremarkable adventure.

Next Story: Dust Breeding

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Fearmonger

If it weren't for their horrendously grating voices Dalek stories would be perfect to put yourself to sleep. Ok, so there have been a few times where they're genuinely good. This, however, is not one of those times. It's quite possibly the most banal, boring Dalek story there is but with so many others competing for that title I'm not sure I'm ready to give it out so easily.

There's the odd idea or two in this story that's actually fairly interesting like the library that "rivals the Matrix on Gallifrey". That's really not enough to redeem this story whatsoever. At the very least, it's fitting for this to be their first story on audio - a perfect distillation of everything to come. It really sets a precedent huh?

Next Story: The Grey Man of the Mountain