Big Finish

Doctor Who: Only the Monstrous – The Innocent Review

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DW The Innocent

Now, technically the War Doctor made his debut in a 30 second stinger at the end of “The Name of the Doctor”, but that would seem like a waste of that story for the sake of 30 seconds, so I decided to go down the Eighth Doctor route and do John Hurt’s first performance from start to finish in the role as the lead (as Day of the Doctor was covered last year…), meaning we get the first Full Cast Audio Drama to feature him: “The Innocent”, from the “Only the Monstrous” box set. Is it any good? Well… It’s alright, I guess. It’s nice to finally debut my War Doctor image template anyway!

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Doctor Who: Storm Warning Review

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DW Storm Warning

So, yeah, this isn’t Paul McGann’s debut story, that’s obviously the TV Movie, but as that was already covered in the Regeneration marathon I thought I’d follow the other pattern of these debut stories and cover Paul McGann’s first full story as The Doctor, which release-wise is Storm Warning. It also neatly crosses over with the “Audio / Comic Companion Debut Story” marathon I’ve been doing on and off (though not quite in the right order) as it features the debut of Charley, one of the more memorable and iconic Eighth Doctor companions. So… let’s get to it!

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Doctor Who: The Harvest Review

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DW The Harvest

The audio / comic companion intro marathon reaches Hex, one of the best original companions who, along with Evelyn for the Sixth Doctor and Charley for the Eighth, form a trio of great audio only companions during the 2000s / early 2010s for Big Finish. Hex’s arc is long and somewhat complicated, but it’s extremely fun (well, apart from the final trilogy of stories…) so I’m looking forward to one day running through them all again. Anyway! Hex’s debut story, The Harvest, is a great, tense story with the Cybermen being used in a really clever way. Let’s have a closer look!

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Doctor Who: The Dispossessed Review

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DW The Dispossessed

The latest Main Range release, The Dispossessed, has some good ideas tucked in it somewhere, but much like Paradise Towers that it references so much, the good ideas are buried in a bunch of bad, over-the-top acting and in this case, a really clumsy amount of exposition explained via a simple conversation pattern. More info, you say? Read on!

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Doctor Who: Colditz Review

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DW Colditz.jpg

Elizabeth Klein is one of the odder “companions” of The Doctor. She starts off as an alternate reality Nazi, ends up in our reality, and then… well, lot’s of other stuff, but concentrating on her debut story you’d probably think I made some sort of mistake. Klein’s next three stories form one of the best “trilogies” in the main range, but since this all about debut stories, we have Colditz, one of the earlier stories from Big Finish, but a great little look into all sides of World War II through the eyes of soldiers and inmates of the infamous castle, plus David Tennant’s first Doctor Who role thrown in! Let’s take a look…

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The Diary of River Song: Series 4 – Whodunnit? & Someone I once Knew Review

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Diary of River Song S4 P2

The second two episodes of River Song Series 4 are vastly different, one being an amusing take on the murder mystery genre, and the other being a straight up Doctor Who “universe is ending” epic. Thankfully, what they both share in common is that they’re both good! Not amazing, but good, and the interactions between River and Tom Baker’s Doctor are worth the price of admission alone. Let’s take a closer look!

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The Diary of River Song: Series 4 – Time in a Bottle & Kings of Infinite Space Review

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Diary of River Song S4 P1

Although I haven’t gotten around to covering Series 2 or 3 yet, I’m not going hold off on reviewing a new release! Plus, who can wait to listen to the Fourth Doctor interact with River Song? Well, all of us, because that doesn’t happen until Episode 4. Still! The first two stories of this set actually work well as both a set up to the rest of the story, and as a little mini arc all by itself, thought differ wildly in quality. Let’s have a look at the debut of the Discordia then, a race that sounds like it was taken straight from the Russell T. Davies book of mythical race naming!

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Doctor Who: Crime of the Century Review

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DW Crime of the Century

Raine Creevy was supposed to be the companion that replaced Ace in the now mythical “Season 27”, and although that never came to be, here she is! Crime of the Century was the second story in the Seventh Doctor Lost Stories, and although the original pitch has been changed to include Ace, it’s safe to say if this aired on TV in 1990… Yeah, the series wouldn’t be as well received as most of Season 26 is, let’s put it that way…

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Doctor Who: Criss-Cross Review

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DW Criss-Cross

Criss-Cross introduces us to the Sixth Doctor’s latest companion Constance Clark (though this was technically the second release featuring her…), a pretty tough, by-the-book WREN from WW2. The actual story has a pretty standard “foe”, but is also rich in Second World War spies and espionage plots, including the Doctor himself working and staying in Bletchley Park for some time. Let’s take a closer look…

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Doctor Who: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster Review

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DW Crimes of Thomas Brewster

That’s right, just three stories later (in the audio / comic companions debut story marathon) and we’re back with a story ending in “of Thomas Brewster”. This is also the first of three stories in this list that the companion debuting doesn’t actually become a travelling companion until later, as yes, this is the debut of the frequently annoying Flip… It’s actually funny listening to it, how clear that the story wasn’t written with the character becoming a permanent fixture in mind. With all that being said, let’s take a look at “The Crimes of Thomas Brewster”…

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