Travel in Hope, the latest Ninth Doctor full cast box set, gets off to a fun start with two well written space-based stand alone stories that may not amaze you but will definitely entertain you, in two very different ways. “Below There” I found the best of the two for creating a good sense of tension and intrigue while “The Butler Did It” was a fun little run-around “whodunnit”. Let’s take a look!
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The second and third stories in the “James Robert McCrimmon” boxset of Season 6B stories offer two fun and simple hour-long (or two part) stories and moves the whole Raven plotline along a little bit too. Michael Troughton and Fraser Hines get on really well as a double act, so if nothing else the two stories are elevated due to that. Let’s take a look!
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Ignoring the terrible cover art and the stupid sounding name of “James Robert McCrimmon – Jamie” this opening two-part story for this year’s Second Doctor “Season 6B” story sets up the new status quo of The Doctor and Jamie doing missions for the Time Lord known as Raven, and of course there are few duos who work together as well. So let’s look at this latest “older Jamie having issues with his locked memories” story!
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The next Once and Future story, “A Genius for War”, is sadly the most generic of them all so far, though at least it’s a good example of a pretty standard Time War story only with the Seventh Doctor in it, but that’s about the only thing that’s different here. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Davros story as much as the next guy, but it’s safe to say that this one doesn’t feel like any kind of anniversary special at all and I’m beginning to long for the days of overly-crammed multi-Doctor releases… Still, let’s take a look, shall we?
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The second three-part story in “Far From Home” is less a “great concept not really well executed” like the previous story and more a “good idea done alright”. It has a greater focus on Naomi at last but all that did was further demonstrate how Eleanor Crooks still doesn’t seem to know how to show a range of emotions on audio, so that didn’t really help things either. Oh well! Let’s take a look and finally put the June Big Finish releases to bed…
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It’s time for another dose of the Seventh Doctor travelling with Harry Sullivan and Naomi Cross, a duo that we’re still waiting on the start of their adventures, but there you go. I think that’s next year’s Fourth Doctor stories, so not long left… Anyway, “Operation Dusk” feels like one of those stories where someone put two and two together and realised how perfectly they fit, in this case the Vashta Nerada and the Blitz, a time where Britain had to put out their lights and plunge themselves into the dark. Does it work? Let’s find out!
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It’s time for Margaret’s not particularly long or interesting stay in the TARDIS to come to an end, and it seems like they’ve saved the best for last! Yes, The Ghost of Margaret made me care more about the character than any of her other appearances and just generally told a really good story. Better late than never, I guess! Let’s take a look.
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The latest Fourth Doctor Adventures set nears its end with this fun, albeit straight forward, four-part adventure featuring the Weeping Angels, the only “new series” monsters to gain any forward momentum as a “classic” enemy, so much so that Big Finish have just blatantly ignored the Eleventh Doctor claiming to have only encountered them once before… Anyway, let’s take a look at the story!
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The first half (I guess?) of the latest chunk of “Fourth Doctor Adventures” comprises of two two-part stories that feel completely different. The Wizard of Time tried something new with the story structure (or at least “rarely used”) where as The Friendly Invasion is a little more “safe” though has some good ideas in. The thing is neither story particularly worked for me, which is a shame because I do obviously prefer when they do try and step out of the standard box so I’m kind of annoyed I much preferred the next story, which is basically your bog-standard base under siege… oh well! Let’s take a look as this double bill first.
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The Ark is another not-really-lost Lost Story based on an earlier draft of a later revised and filmed Fourth Doctor story, in this case The Ark in Space (and therefore has nothing to do with the First Doctor TV story The Ark, just to make the story’s title even more confusing!) I think The Ark does at least offer a greater difference to the TV story than Return of the Cybermen did but it’s definitely weaker than the TV story we did get (so good job there, Robert Holmes!) begging the question “why did they bother adapting a rejected script?” The answer? I don’t know, but I’ve listened to it now, so I’ll review it one way or another!
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Hogan Reviews 