How to make a Whovian in 13 stories

I got the idea for this post from the article Introducing newbies to Doctor Who through online streaming at Kasterborous. I’ll admit I’ve often spent some time contemplating the very topic: which stories would I show to someone to turn them from a non-fan into a fan. Which stories would I show to a Whoob (Who-noob, geddit?) to get them hooked on Doctor Who?

Unfortunately I haven’t yet had the opportunity to put this scheme into practice, but here are thirteen stories—one for each Doctor—I’d show a non-fan to attempt to co-opt them into the fandom. These aren’t necessarily my favourite stories for each Doctor, but they’re the ones I think would most engage a non-fan with the franchise.

Latest Big Finish listens #3 [SPOILERS]

Question Marks — A fast-paced little story with gripping atmosphere and a small cast of great, well-written characters. Colin Baker is in great form here, as is Nicola Bryant. The story features an ingenious plot twist with a somewhat poignant ending. Unfortunately, I found Question Marks didn’t make as effective use of the 30-minute form as other such stories, like Urgent Calls; the exposition felt very rushed, and it was easy to lose track of the action and the plot. Rating: 7/10.

The Wrong Doctors — It was great fun hearing “Softer Six” encounter his younger, boisterous self in this story. There is a lot to like in this story, in particular the work of both Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford. Nevertheless, I found the plot to be confusing and hard to follow, which, unfortunately, detracted significantly from my enjoyment of the story. There were no problems, however, with telling the Sixes and Mels apart: I lost track a couple of times, but was quickly able to re-establish who was who without any problems. I think this story missed a trick in not making enough of the dynamic between the two Sixth Doctors: it would have been brilliant to hear the two Sixes arguing with each other and generally not being able to stand each other, but if I recall correctly, this only happened once and very briefly. Instead, they actually spend a lot of time complimenting each other (which, when you think about it, actually makes sense). Rating: 7/10.

Masters of Earth — This is just a great adventure story. Revisiting the infamous Dalek occupation of Earth is always going to prove great fun, and this story didn’t disappoint. As always, Colin Baker is giving his all to the part, even now that his voice has become audibly aged. While nevertheless an excellent story, Masters of Earth doesn’t contain much in the way of plot relating to the Doctor’s imperative to refrain from interfering during his visit and his consort with human resistance groups. Given the apparent premise of the story, one would have expected the Doctor to encounter the dilemma of having to stop the resistance from succeeding, and preventing the defeat of the Daleks, but this particular plot point scarcely featured, if at all; the story was basically a standard escape-from-the-Daleks story (albeit a brilliant one). Rating: 9/10.

Jubilee — Now this is a good Dalek story. Jubilee was the (loose) inspiration for the Series 1 episode, Dalek, and, while the former only bears a vague resemblance, story-wise, to the latter, Jubilee broadly deals with the same themes as Dalek. The theme of Jubilee is that humans have the same capacity for evil as do the Daleks, and, in fact, human evil is much, much worse as we have the free will to choose good and reject evil, while Daleks don’t have a choice as they are genetically engineered to be evil and hateful. There are some truly blood-curdling scenes demonstrating how evil humans can be if we want to be, and humans are mercilessly compared to Daleks throughout the story in ways that make the listener feel more disturbed by the humans’ atrocities than anything we’ve seen the Daleks do. By the end, the listener actually feels more sympathy for the Daleks in this story than the humans. This is certainly among the most disturbing and mature of Big Finish’s output, and an undoubted masterpiece in that regard. Rating: 10/10.

The Holy Terror — This story begins in very whimsical fashion, but soon becomes quite disturbing, and becomes darker and more terrifying as the story progresses. The story addresses adherence to cultural and religious custom, the nature of authoritarian societies, the parent-child relationship, and crime and punishment. This is probably the darkest Doctor Who story I’ve ever seen or heard. The morally-warped society in this story is a vision of hell on earth, if there ever was one, and there are some truly gruesome sequences: for example, in one particularly disturbing scene, a five-year old child repeatedly screams “Kill! Kill! Kill! I want to kill!”. That child proceeds to kill the entire population of the society as it searches for its father. Truly horrifying stuff; this story would never make it into the television show. The most perturbing listening of all comes at the end of the story in a particularly sinister twist that explains what exactly has been going on in this absurd, terrible place. To my mind, The Holy Terror is a masterpiece of drama, a perfectly written, acted and executed audio play. Rating: 10/10.

Storm Warning — Doctor Who Discovers Historical Mysteries, this time the truth behind the fate of the R101. I believe this is McGann’s first outing as the Eighth Doctor on audio, and he immediately takes to the role with a languid flair that shows why he is the most underrated of all the Doctors. This is also Charley Pollard’s first story with the Eighth Doctor, an adventurous, bubbly, feisty young woman who quickly endears herself to us, and, I think, forms a perfect match for the Eighth Doctor. The story itself holds up well enough, and there is a cast of great, well-realised characters, although the alien creatures in this story, I think, are slightly absurd and probably not the best the writer(s) could come up with. Nevertheless, despite this, the story was enjoyable and absorbing enough, and a great introduction to the Eighth Doctor and Charley on audio. Rating: 8/10.

The Sword of Orion — To me, The Sword of Orion seems like a hidden gem that merits a place among the best of Big Finish. It’s a spooky, atmospheric Cyberman story with a cast of great, well-played characters. The plot oozes urgency and conspiracy, while the Cybermen (the 1968 models I believe, considering the Cyberman head on the cover), lying dormant but slowly waking up on a giant spaceship, are a great deal scarier and creepier than they have been in most of their television appearances. The plot is engrossing, and its exposition is masterfully executed. The story, to an extent, addresses prejudice and racial supremacy, although the significance of the conflict with the androids could have been worked into the plot better. Nevertheless, The Sword of Orion is just a great, gripping story with the Cybermen at their best. Rating: 9/10.

The Stones of Venice — This is an interesting story set in the future in the last days of Venice before it, supposedly, collapses and sinks beneath the mire. It’s a story of magic, myth and legend, political intrigue, love and betrayal. The plot is interesting enough, although it is rather quaint and silly, and somewhat predictable. There is a cast of fairly nondescript and unremarkable characters. There are also certain elements of the story that seem to demand a lot of suspension of disbelief (the Venetian gondoliers have evolved into an amphibious sub-race? Seriously?). Nevertheless, such bizarre antics don’t overtly detract from the quality of what is, admittedly, an interesting and enjoyable, but unexceptional, story. Rating: 7/10.

Minuet in Hell — This one started off quite well, and was clearly supposed to be an “epic” (of sorts) finale to the Eighth Doctor audio “Season 27”, but I’m not sure it quite succeeded. In the first stages of the story, when we don’t know what had happened to the Doctor and Charley, and, in particular, as the Doctor seemed disoriented and amnesiac, finding himself a “patient” of some secretive lunatic asylum, the atmosphere was quite interesting and reeked of intrigue and and plot, especially given the presence of such unsavoury characters as Dashwood, Dale Pargeter and (at first) Gideon Crane. But then the wheels came off and the rest of the story was quite silly and ridiculous, not to mention overlong. To be sure, the story was entertaining enough in itself, and effectively held my attention until the end, but a story about a politician who summons demons is always going to be a bit ridiculous. The demons themselves were rubbish (those voices… ugh). The most interesting part of this story was the Doctor’s disorientation and his dialogue with Gideon Crane, as the Doctor was forced to question whether he really was the Doctor or whether he’d dreamt up everything about himself in his insanity. I shall also put in a special mention for Maureen Oakley, whose character Dale Pargeter was one of the few bright lights in a particularly bad cast of supporting characters. It was also great to hear the Brigadier return, always a welcome and reassuring presence in any Doctor Who. Rating: 6/10.

Invaders from Mars — This story has a great idea — positively inspired, I might go as far as to say: while that infamous broadcast of The War of the Worlds is causing mass hysteria in New York, an actual alien invasion is taking place. Therein lay the potential for a great audio drama. Alas, this audio is not well produced. There is an overlarge cast and too many things happening at once. For a seemingly simple story premise, the writers (Mark Gatiss) have managed to make the plot unnecessarily convoluted and drawn out. Reading other reviews of this story, I noted with some relief that I wasn’t the only one who had difficulty following the plot. There were, for example, several indistinguishable male characters, not all of whose purpose I could divine. The story only really seemed to pick up in Part 3, when the aliens showed their faces and the nature of the “invasion” became clear. Still yet, their “threat” was slightly silly and something of a letdown as they appeared to be a supremely unconvincing two-man (or two-alien) protection racket planning to collude with a mobster (or something… like I said, I never worked out what half the characters were for) to take over the world. One positive aspect of this story, though (for me, at least), was that Paul McGann seems to be finally coming into his own as the Doctor; for me, in this story, Paul McGann has been most convincingly the Doctor than in any prior story in the Eighth Doctor saga. Rating: 5/10.

The Chimes of Midnight — What’s there to say? A masterpiece. Perfection. Absolutely spellbinding stuff. I had heard of Chimes’ reputation beforehand, and I was not disappointed by any means. I was totally captivated all the way through by this luminous script brought vividly to life by superlative acting and production by all involved. It’s claustrophobic, creepy and unbearably suspenseful. A whodunnit is always great fun, but this is the best of Agatha Christie done Doctor Who style. “Anomalous” is really the key word of this plot, an otherworldly mystery spotted with the fingerprints of some sinister, supernatural force. My only criticism would be that the “answer” to this mystery, and the nature of this inexplicable, anomalous place, is a bit too clever-clever wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey for my tastes. I think it would have been more effective if a more simple explanation were preferred (less is more, after all), without changing the nature of the force at work (a time paradox). Edward Grove, a sentient paradox, or so it seemed, was also a bit of an unconvincing part of the plot. Nevertheless, these criticisms are minor and don’t detract consequentially from the fact that this is an outstanding, superlative audio drama, and a genuine classic to boot. It’s not just classic Doctor Who, but classic drama full stop. What more could you want? Rating: 10/10.

Seasons of Fear — An engaging, well-choreographed story spanning several time periods, featuring a menacing, tragic villain as well as the return of an old enemy of the Doctor’s. This is a “runaround” style story similar to The Chase (the Hartnell story), and it is prosecuted admirably as the Doctor and Charley chase their immortal adversary through different periods in British history: now British Singapore, now Roman Britain, now the court of Edward the Confessor, now the Georgian Home Counties. I wouldn’t say each of these periods are “brought to life”, as such, in that we really get a sense that the Doctor is in Roman Britain, etc, but it’s a fun chase nonetheless. The villain, Sebastian Grayle, is an interesting character, if only for the way we observe his gradual moral and personal deterioration as immortality takes its toll on him. The Grayle we meet in Georgian times is a different creature altogether from the Grayle we meet in Roman Britain, a point made disturbingly and emphatically when the 1,400 years old Grayle meets his young Roman self. In this way, the story makes a compelling philosophical point about the nature of mortality and immortality. It was great to hear the return of the Nimon, up to their old tricks again, although they were a much more sinister presence in the story when they were Grayle’s unnamed, shadowy “masters” — I think their physical appearance in the story was somewhat wasted. McGann and Fisher were both in top form, as always, and the humour in this story was appreciated and fun (“Cheer up, there’s a mouse!” said the Doctor as he and Charley languished in a medieval dungeon). Rating: 8/10.

Classic Who marathon: impressions

My recent watching of the Doctor Who TV Movie completes the “Classic Who” segment of my 50-year marathon, having watched all of the classic Doctors in order from Hartnell to McGann for the first time. It’s taken me the better part of a year, and I’m pleased to have, er, “caught up” with the first 33 years of Who that I missed by virtue of not having been alive. I’ve soaked up many memorable moments from the show’s original run and thoroughly submerged myself in Who history and lore. To complete my 50-year marathon, I need only to watch “New Who” up to Capaldi. The New Who segment of my marathon will be a rewatch, but I’ve been enjoying following the life and times of this alien time-travelling physician so much that I simply have to keep going until the end. It’d feel incomplete otherwise.

In any case, before I move onto Eccleston, I’ve decided to listen to the Eighth Doctor Big Finish audios (or some of them, at least). McGann, very unfortunately, didn’t get an “era” on television like the rest of the Doctors; his only televised outing was a very ordinary television movie. The Eighth Doctor’s “era” is on audio, and, I understand, McGann, like Colin Baker, was “redeemed” on audio by Big Finish. So I feel I owe it to McGann, given he is as legitimate an incarnation of the Doctor as any other, to immerse myself in his Doctor’s adventures just as I’ve immersed myself in the adventures of his predecessors, and as I will his successors. Thus, I’m delaying moving onto the revival as I experience the “McGann era” on audio. I’ve started with the Eighth Doctor’s adventures with Charley Pollard in Big Finish’s monthly range, which are the earliest in his timeline (apart from a couple of the more recent releases starting with In the Company of Friends). At the time of writing this, I’ve listened from Storm Warning through to The Chimes of Midnight, and have been very impressed with McGann from what I’ve listened to so far. I’ll be posting brief reviews of each audio I listen to in my regular “Latest Big Finish listens” feature.

In any case, having now seen all of Classic Who, and all of televised Who in general, it’s time to write down some impressions (and lists, lots of lists. Whovians love lists).

If I were to list my favourite eras of the show by Doctor (excluding McGann; as it would not be fair either to judge him by the movie alone, nor to judge him taking into account his audios without doing the same for Colin Baker, etc.), it would go like this:

1. Smith era (2010-2013)
2. Pertwee era (1970-1974)
3. Tom Baker era (1975-1981)
4. Davison era (1982-1984)
5. Troughton era (1966-1969)
6. Capaldi era (2014-)
7. McCoy era (1987-1989)
8. Eccleston era (2005)
9. Hartnell era (1963-1966)
10. Tennant era (2005-2009)
11. Colin Baker era (1984-1986)

I should say there are no eras of the show I really dislike, just as I don’t dislike any of the Doctors. I’m in the awkward position of having Colin Baker as my second favourite Doctor but liking his era the least — that’s because, while I absolutely adored his interpretation of the Doctor, the stories he was given were generally sub-par compared to the rest of the show, without being bad as such.

I started with William Hartnell, the original. I enjoyed his stories, and I enjoyed watching Hartnell himself. Hartnell clearly put a lot into that character, as the First Doctor is always a pleasure to watch, especially in his first season. The Hartnell era (particularly Season 1) is perhaps the most experimental in the show’s history, as the production team were working with a completely blank slate, and it’s a privilege to watch the show trying different things, testing its strengths, shaping itself. To my mind, Season 1 of Doctor Who is a straight run of classics (apart from episodes 2-4 of An Unearthly Child), and certainly one of the best ever seasons of Who; despite the low-rent production, it has all aged exceptionally well (which cannot be said for many serials in later eras). Seasons 2 and 3 (and 4) didn’t meet the consistent quality that Season 1 had achieved, but there are still a spattering of gems throughout, albeit among a lot of rubbish as well. The Doctor’s companions, especially Ian and Barbara (although Vicki is an all-time favourite of mine), are all great, lovable characters who made the Hartnell era even more enjoyable. The First Doctor himself is a compelling and interesting character, and it is fascinating to watch the Doctor transition over his era from a cantankerous, resolute recluse who seemed to desire only to be left alone into the character we know as the Doctor today, the renegade Time Lord determined to fight evil and injustice in the universe wherever he finds it.

Patrick Troughton’s era I just found great, walloping fun. The stories in the Troughton era are uncomplicated monster-of-the-week runarounds, commonly in the “base-under-siege” style. There’s nothing wrong with that: I know plenty of fans regret the poor scripts and simplistic stories of the Troughton era, but if you can just enjoy these stories for what they are, as I was able to do, Troughton can be marvellously fun. Even rather pedestrian scripts that would seem utterly silly and juvenile in, say, Season 26, like The Dominators, can be great fun if you appreciate them for what they are and just allow yourself to be absorbed by the story. In any case, the Troughton era has its fair share of undisputed classics, such as The Power of the Daleks, The Moonbase, The Evil of the Daleks, The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Enemy of the World, The Web of Fear, The Mind Robber, The Invasion, The Seeds of Death and The War Games, despite many episodes being regrettably missing. Troughton had a succession of great companions: Ben & Polly, Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield and Zoe Heriot. Jamie is an all-time fandom favourite, and, for me, the team of the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe is one of the most memorable and definitive TARDIS teams of all. The Second Doctor is played superbly all throughout his era by Patrick Troughton, who is easily the best actor to play the role in the classic run, and gives his all to the role. Troughton is an absolute joy to watch, and if he doesn’t significantly elevate the quality of his stories, no one does.

Jon Pertwee’s era is my favourite era of the classic show. Like the preceding era, it’s great fun, but with some distinctive aspects: namely, the earthbound stories and prominence of UNIT. When I had reached the Pertwee era, my initial reaction was “Oh great, a whole era of stories set on Earth. How unexciting.” What’s the point of a show about a man who can travel anywhere in time and space if he never leaves the Home Counties? However, I enjoyed the earthbound dynamic much more than I thought I would. I really grew fond of the “UNIT family” of the Brigadier, Liz Shaw/Jo Grant/Sarah-Jane Smith, Benton and Yates, who are all fabulous characters played well by great actors. The idea of having the Doctor marooned on Earth working for UNIT could easily have misfired, but it is pulled off superlatively, so much so that it’s my favourite era of the classic show, even if Pertwee himself is not one of my favourite Doctors. The Pertwee era, for me, is a long run of mostly high quality stories, which I only truly began to appreciate when I got to later eras of the show where such high quality writing and production became less commonplace. The Pertwee era gave us three classic, fondly-remembered companions — the Brigadier, Jo Grant and Sarah-Jane Smith — as well as the enduring enemy of the Master, and a whole host of great, classic stories.

The Tom Baker era, as fans know, is when Doctor Who reached its zenith in terms of popularity and presence in the public consciousness. Indeed, the first few seasons of Tom Baker are, to my mind, Doctor Who at its consistent best. The run of stories from The Ark in Space to The Sun Makers is an unbroken succession of 20 of the most memorable stories in the show’s history, with an abnormally high concentration of outright classics. It is an era when the show was simply getting it so right all the time. It also helps a great deal that Tom Baker is the most compelling portrayal of the character yet and since, an enigmatic, magnetic, and totally alien character by whom you simply can’t help but be mesmerised. Tom Baker’s companions were all memorable, even K9, although the Doctor looked a little put out in Logopolis surrounded by Tegan, Nyssa and Adric (missing Romana, one guesses; and yes, I totally ship them). The era began to lose its way in its fifth season, the Key to Time saga, and never recovers the glittering heights of Seasons 12-15, but even the latter stories of the Tom Baker era are generally higher quality than most of what came afterwards. There are still a smattering of great stories in these later seasons of the era, such as The Pirate Planet, The Stones of Blood, City of Death, Full Circle, The Keeper of Traken and Logopolis. Additionally, Shada, had it been completed, would easily have been one of the gleaming high-points of the show on par with The Caves of Androzani and City of Death, and, in the modern series, with Blink.

Like, Pertwee’s era, I enjoyed Peter Davison’s era far more than I anticipated, as I did the Fifth Doctor himself. The Davison era started uneasily, but soon found its rhythm. From Kinda onwards, the stories are generally quality, with the odd clunker here and there (*cough* Terminus *cough*). In Davison’s era, one can definitely sense the difference between John Nathan-Turner’s stewardship and previous eras of the show, not least in the adoption of silly “uniforms” for the Doctor, the exclusive use of tinny synthesizer music, and the marked difference in tone and feel (creepy gothic horror out, floodlit spaceships and other indistinguishable sets in). Davison’s companions are one unfortunate aspect of his era: while I personally like Nyssa, and Adric eventually grew on me, Tegan is annoying and awful (the stereotypical antipodeanity of her character was exaggerated to cringing point; she seemed to be able to talk only in cliches; and her constant cynical moaning must have sorely tried the Doctor’s seemingly infinite reasonableness and patience), and Turlough is a cowardly git, although he, at least, improves. In any case, the Doctor often seemed to be left somewhat overwhelmed by the number of hangers-on following him everywhere, getting in his way as he tries to save the universe. The balance is only rectified when Peri joined the Doctor at the end of Planet of Fire, but only for one story (what a great one it was, though). Over the course of his era, Davison himself became one of my favourite Doctors. Once I looked past the silly cricket whites he never took off, the Fifth Doctor was actually a highly engaging interpretation of the character, the original “old man in a young man’s body” Doctor. Davison developed and modified his Doctor’s characterisation over his three seasons, finally perfecting it in his final season, having gone from irritating youthful enthusiasm to gruff and world-weary, yet still unfailingly polite (which I find much more interesting).

Colin Baker, as I’ve said is my favourite Doctor of the classic era, and my second favourite Doctor of all, but whose era is my least favourite. From my perspective, Colin had one classic story (The Two Doctors), four other above average stories (Vengeance on Varos, Revelation of the Daleks, Mindwarp, The Ultimate Foe), and the rest were all either average or bad. Colin’s era began badly in The Twin Dilemma, but picked up in Vengeance on Varos and put out a couple of decent, even good stories that nevertheless fly under the radar as a result of the unremarkable stories that surrounded them. The Trial of a Time Lord was a great misfire which nevertheless has its great, even inspired moments, but ultimately falls flat. I think the problem was that Doctor Who, by then, had become too repetitive and samey; the right thing to do when Colin took over was to take the show in a completely new direction, preferably darker and more grown-up, to match the Sixth Doctor’s character (which was eventually done with McCoy), rather than to keep making more of the same. It does seem, in any case, as though the writers had begun to run out of ideas in Colin’s era: the scripts seem lazy and half-arsed, not to mention unimaginative. None of this, of course, was Colin’s fault. It seemed Colin was much more enthusiastic about the show than either JNT or the writers; he had big plans for his very interesting interpretation of the character, and was unabashed about his desire to surpass Tom Baker’s record of seven seasons playing the Doctor, and played the character himself with such zeal and conviction. For his commitment, he was unceremoniously and unfairly sacked by the BBC bigwigs (it really should have been JNT, who had done all he could and actually wanted to go). Colin’s is an era of missed opportunities, although not necessarily bad in itself: if you look hard enough, you can find things in this era as great as in any.

Sylvester McCoy’s era constituted something of a rebirth for the show, a rebirth that had been sorely needed. In the first place, though, the McCoy era started with the “silly season”, Season 24. A lot of fans deride Season 24 as an all-time low for Doctor Who before a glorious regeneration, but it can be quite enjoyable if, like Patrick Troughton’s era, you enjoy it for what it is; both Paradise Towers and Delta and the Bannermen are decent and enjoyable enough stories in their own right. However, the great u-turn that the show took in the following season was a positive development: I regard Remembrance of the Daleks and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy as masterpieces both; the latter in particular is an astonishingly creative and exciting exemplar of what the show could have become if it had been allowed to continue. Season 26 continued the new darker, more mature direction, with The Curse of Fenric a parting high-point. We know that it was all too little too late, but the final two seasons of the McCoy era are arguably the most creative storytelling the show has done since Season 1. My opinion of McCoy’s era is only slightly diminished by the fact that, despite his odd moments of glory, I found the Seventh Doctor a rather boring and unengaging Doctor. Ace, on the other hand, was a very interesting and engaging companion, easily the most developed companion of the whole classic run, and the unprecedented focus on Ace’s character prototypes the companion-centred storyelling of New Who.

So now, at the close of the classic segment of my 50-year marathon, my “favourite Doctors” list stands something like this:

1. Matt Smith
2. Colin Baker
3. Tom Baker
4. Peter Davison
5. Christopher Eccleston
6. David Tennant
7. Paul McGann
8. Peter Capaldi
9. Jon Pertwee
10. Patrick Troughton
11. William Hartnell
12. Sylvester McCoy

As Whovians know fully well, one’s personal “favourite Doctors” list is subject to constant change, even after one has long seen everything there is to see of Doctor Who. I’m sure mine will continue changing, especially as Paul McGann has been rapidly shooting up my list the more I hear of him on audio. My rewatching of Eccleston and Tennant in the New Who segment of my marathon may yet change my opinions of them (Matt Smith has no chance of being dislodged from the top spot). In addition, Peter Capaldi also has the potential to make it much higher, come Series 9.

Latest Big Finish listens #2 [SPOILERS]

I’ve had a bit of an audio binge over the last week after a long period of not having listened to any new Big Finish. I’m still just going through the “highlights” at the present time, although I’ve moved onto the Sixth Doctor stories. I’ve got a vague plan in mind to listen to a particular Doctor’s audio stories after I’ve finished with his television stories and while I’m watching his successor on television. So I listened to Peter Davison after I’d finished with him on television, and now I’m listening to Colin Baker while I’m watching Sylvester McCoy. When I finish my Classic Who marathon (which probably won’t be long, given the rate I’m getting through the stories now), I want to do a marathon of the Eighth Doctor on audio before I move onto the New Who segment of my 50-year marathon. I probably won’t do all of the Eighth Doctor stories, but I think at least the Eighth Doctor Adventures, and perhaps the Dark Eyes saga as well.

In any case, without further ado, here are my thoughts and commentary on the latest Big Finish audios I’ve listened to. Just a spoiler warning, though: I’m not going to keep my “reviews” of Big Finish spoiler-free anymore as I did in the last installment, as I felt overly constrained by having to limit my commentary in the way I did.

The Kingmaker

The Fifth Doctor, and Peri and Erimem, get stuck two years apart in London during the reign of Richard III, meanwhile both become involved in the mystery of the Princes in the Tower. This is an intriguing story that purports to solve the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, and indeed does so in typical surreal Doctor Who fashion. I listened to this story knowing of its reputation as a Fifth Doctor audio “classic”, albeit somewhat sceptically as Doctor Who historicals never seem to entertain me as much as the general sci-fi stories (despite being a huge history buff). Indeed, there are some excellent moments in there, and Peter Davison is in top form. Separating the characters and seeing them follow separate streams of the same plot in different points in time, only to see both the characters and the plotlines converge at the end, was a well-executed device that makes what could have been a somewhat tiresome and unremarkable story grip and intrigue the listener. There is some wonderful dialogue between the Doctor and Richard III dealing with the reality of time travel, precognition, fate and predestination. Richard III is not portrayed as the pantomime villain of Shakespearean myth, but embattled, manipulative, flawed and fatalistic, cynical about, yet resigned to, his place in history, and a reputation The Kingmaker posits he doesn’t deserve.

If this story suffers from anything, it’s the confused to-and-fro between comedy and tragedy — to be sure, this does work effectively at times; I enjoyed the scenes involving the publisher’s robot and the scenes with Peri and Erimem in the tavern, but I feel that, in general, the comedy detracts from the drama, e.g. the scene in which Richard’s adviser conducts a “press conference” with the top gossips of the kingdom. This audio could have worked a great deal better as a straight drama with a few comedic elements thrown in here and there, but, in attempting to be both tragedy and comedy, does neither wholly successfully. The twist of the pub landlord and his “nieces” being the Duke of Clarence and the (crossdressing) Princes in the Tower actually worked very well as a plot twist and as Doctor Who’s “answer” to the historical mystery, but the revelation was marred somewhat by the Duke and the Princesses being, in general, indistinguishable from your common garden cockney slum-dwellers (and very comical ones at that). Another detriment to this story is the fourth part, which after the initial revelations about Shakespeare, the Duke of Clarence and the Princes in the Tower, seems to drag on somewhat pointlessly for the rest of the episode, as though filling in time. To be sure, the switcheroo with Richard III and Shakespeare was very clever, but the last fifteen minutes or so of the episode were quite unnecessary. For these reasons, I’m thus giving The Kingmaker a rating of 8/10 for what could have been a 10/10. Rating: 8/10.

Urgent Calls

Urgent Calls is a single-episode (half-hour) story involving the Sixth Doctor alone with one other major character. It’s a fantastic little story, an account, seemingly, of an alien invasion entirely through a series of phone calls between the Doctor and a woman called Lauren. The concept is ever so clever, and the story thrives precisely due to the limitations imposed upon it. There’s not much to say about such a clever little story like this, other than that I feel it would be a great introduction to Big Finish for newcomers to Doctor Who audios, a powerful and memorable exemplar of what Big Finish can do with Doctor Who on the audio format, albeit that it’s not a typical sample of a Big Finish audio.

Colin Baker plays the part of the Sixth Doctor with all the gusto and conviction with which, I am told, he is renowned on audio. This was my first experience with the Sixth Doctor on audio, and, although I had heard that the Sixth Doctor was somewhat “re-characterised” on audio into a more generic Doctor from his bombastic, brash, flamboyant, pompous persona on television (which I absolutely adored), and, from what I’ve since heard of Sixie on Big Finish, that is indeed something of the case, I was relieved to hear in Urgent Calls that the rough edges were still reassuringly there on what has become my second favourite Doctor. Nevertheless, the Doctor is also beginning to mellow in this story, a well-executed instance of character development. Kate Brown endears herself to us as Lauren, the sweet everywoman working in a call centre, and her chemistry with Colin is quite engaging. It’s interesting to hear Lauren’s and the Doctor’s relationship developing into something almost romantic (at least for Lauren), as they become familiar with each other, and as Lauren contributes to some initial character development for the Doctor. The story ends on a slightly sad note as (it is implied) the Doctor destroys the virus strand and the wrong number calls stop, meaning the Doctor’s and Lauren’s budding relationship has come to an end. I don’t know if Lauren makes a return in subsequent audios, but it would be great to see Lauren and the Doctor reunite in person. Rating: 9/10. [N.B. I think that picture is actually fanart; I’m not entirely sure, as I found it through a Google Image search. But whatever.]

Trial of the Valeyard

The Valeyard is on trial for charges unnamed in the familiar setting of the Time Lords’ orbiting courtroom, and the Doctor is his defence counsel. Big Finish effectively revisits the plotline from Trial of a Time Lord in this hour-long story, investigating the nature and origins of the mysterious figure of the Valeyard, allegedly the Doctor’s dark future incarnation. This audio also delves into the mysteries of Time Lord regeneration, and Rassilon’s legacy as “creator” of the Time Lord race. Trial of the Valeyard takes place predominantly as a courtroom trial, the three main actors of the original Trial — Colin Baker, Michael Jayston and Lynda Bellingham — reprising their roles as the Sixth Doctor, the Valeyard and Madame Inquisitor respectively. The story is slow to get moving, but when it does, there is immediately an air of intrigue as it becomes apparent the Valeyard’s charges are not allowed to be mentioned, suggesting, once again, High Council impropriety. The Valeyard’s recounting of his origins and life are absorbing exposition of one of the show’s more mysterious characters; likewise his explanation of his studies into regeneration are a fascinating contribution to the backstory of the Whoniverse, one of the most mystical aspects of the Time Lord species. It was thus slightly disappointing when the trial, the Valeyard’s revelations, everything, was revealed to have been an elaborate plot of the Valeyard’s to take revenge on the Doctor and the Inquisitor. A somewhat poor and lazy ending to what could have been a much better story.

Nevertheless, if this story does one thing right, it’s to bring home how very alien and otherworldly the Time Lords are as a species: watching and listening to the Doctor, it’s easy to forget that he, and his species, are not like us; Trial of the Valeyard reminds us, through compelling exposition, that the Time Lords are an impossibly ancient civilisation, a race of potentially immortal beings as exemplified in the mystery of regeneration. Colin Baker is fabulous here; it’s obvious he’s having delicious fun reprising the brash and petulant persona of the Sixth Doctor of the original Trial. The Doctor, at first having no qualms about seeing the Valeyard punished for whatever it is he’s done, soon becomes intrigued and curious and agrees to defend the Valeyard. It’s heartening to see that the Doctor’s sense of justice is not lost, as he becomes indignant at the lack of procedural fairness, even when it’s the Valeyard who’s on trial, prompting him to rally to the Valeyard’s defence. In the end this is an engrossing story that unfortunately suffered from a few detriments. Rating: 8/10.

…ish

The Sixth Doctor and Peri visit an intergalactic lexicographers’ conference, a gathering of the universe’s top word-nerds for the compilation of the greatest dictionary ever made. The leader of the grand enterprise is found seemingly dead by her own hand in curious circumstances. This was one of the stories I couldn’t wait to listen to, especially given that I adored Iterations of I, a story with a similar concept (in that a sentient number, in this a sentient word). Indeed, the concept is positively captivating: a sentient fragment of the longest word in existence, the “Omniverbum” a transcendental word around which meaning and reality itself becomes warped. This is all very clever and spacey-wacey, and has the potential to misfire if not executed well. For the most part, it is done well, enthralling and fascinating the listener, but there are times when the listener can lose track of what’s going on and have trouble following the very complicated explanations. I experienced this at times, and, for a while, was left listening not quite sure that I was following what was going on involving the “Ish” and Book. I was relieved, when reading other reviews, to find that I wasn’t the only one who encountered this problem. In any case, it detracts to a degree from the story in a way I never found when listening to Iterations of I, for example.

The Sixth Doctor and Peri work well together in this story, at least in the moments when they are actually together. It’s enjoyable hearing the playful banter between them, and their cute British-American double-act in defeating the “Ish” brought a grin to my face. It’s good to hear Peri characterised more intelligently than she was on television, where she appeared to be at times little more than a helpless bimbo. She’s a college botany student, after all, not just a pair of breasts, so it’s great to hear her using her intellect, resource and initiative in this story. I think the Six-Peri combination can work really well; there were moments of this on television, but …ish gives us a fairly good exemplar of what a joy to listen to the Six-Peri team can be. Overall this is an engaging and stimulating story unfortunately let down by its problems with exposition, which is a shame as in its imaginative concept was the potential for a classic. Rating: 8/10.