What happens when you take a historical person like Ada Lovelace and place her in a plot not unlike The Terminator? Unsurprisingly, given how I phrased that specific question, you get this! Seriously though, the idea of using the woman who, for all intents and purposes, invented computer code in a story about machines going back in time to change history was a great one, but does the story do the idea justice?
The Doctor and his new companion Ann Kelso visit their first alien world together, and it just so happens to be a bit Jurassic Park-y (and Alien-y!)… but with Drashigs! I’ve always loved the Drashigs, they were heavily featured in my first Jon Pertwee story, and I always thought those shots of them screaming and suddenly twisting their heads towards the camera was unsettling… at the time. Anyway, I’m glad they’ve finally been brought back, and even made to work well on audio! Let’s take a look…
Series 8 of the Fourth Doctor Adventures is a significant event as it features Tom Baker’s Doctor getting a brand new companion in the form of Ann Kelso, and it’s not long before the two strike up a good back and forth. The rest of the story is an odd mix of 70s police show and general British gangland stuff, but with a heavy alien presence, obviously! Let’s take a look…
The 2019 run of Main Range stories kicks off with a first for Big Finish, despite celebrating 20 years with the Doctor Who license this year: Kamelion! The silver robot whose prop creator sadly passed leaving no one able to actually use the thing, so it was swiftly written out of the TV show… hooray? Well…
It’s been a little while, but we’re back with more Blake’s 7 from Big Finish. Following on from the three-box series “Crossfire”, the first box of “Restoration” not only settles the cliffhanger from the end of the previous set, but also puts us on an interesting course going forward, as any good follow up should do, while not forgetting plot points already set in motion… So let’s take a closer look at these four episodes, and kick off “Audio Series 5”!
Original Sin introduces us to Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej and is an adaptation of the novel of the same name from back in the 90s “New Adventures” range. Given their final stories haven’t been adapted into audios I wasn’t going to include them in this marathon, they’re really Book companions rather than Audio or Comics, but Big Finish have started releasing new, audio only stories with The Doctor, Chris and Roz so that made them… straddle the line. Given their intro story has been adapted into audio though, I thought it’d be fair game! So let’s take a look!
Unlike the next story in the Audio / Comic Companion Debut marathon, this novel adaptation certainly makes sense in the audio category as Bernice Summerfield has made more audio appearances than she did during her initial novel run. Love and War is suitably dramatic and does a great job of introducing Benny, but the main thing was a rather nasty turn for Ace that sees her leave The Doctor is a huff… So let’s take a look!
The Sixth incarnation of The Doctor is once again travelling alone in The Hunting Ground, our last main range audio drama story of 2018, and boy… it’s not very interesting. It gives off a vibe of the writer having a core concept but not knowing how to either spread it across two hours, nor how to write cliffhangers. Still, it’s not all bad! Let’s take a look in more detail…
The first of two Main Range releases this month, neither of which are directly linked to anything. Muse of Fire is definitely the most interesting though, as not only is it a new Doctor / Ace / Hex story, but it sees the return of Iris Wildthyme, and even her panda teddy bear companion… Panda. All this plus 1920s Paris and Paul Magrs at the helm of the script? You know its going to be something to behold…
The last half of the first War Master set won my pick for best Doctor Who story of 2017, and Master of Callous, which is one big story across four parts, might be pretty damn close to topping the list again! While once again David Jacobi’s Master is grin-inducingly brilliant, the new characters and world introduced here are really great too, and they’re given proper room to breathe thanks to the long runtime. It’s not perfect, but it’s damn good! Let’s take a deeper look then…
Hogan Reviews 