This was on sale a while ago, and I finally have the spare money to pick up the odd spin-off series… that being said, it took a while for me to get around to listening to it, but here we are! The first two episodes of Diary of River Song start off seemingly very stand-alone, and although they turn out to be more connected than it first seems, they are fun mini-stories… Not amazing, but fun. Let’s take a closer look!
When this was first released in 2012 I was really excited to hear this story, and it didn’t disappoint! But what about listening to it a second time this past week, the uniqueness of a four-hour boxset now long gone, and the big twist at the end of Part 3 already known? Let’s find out if UNIT: Dominion still packs a punch!
The main range takes a brief detour from the trilogy format to give a solo Fifth Doctor story based around him meeting a previously unheard/seen incarnation of UNIT. Admittedly this is to set up a lose trilogy of UNIT stories in the main range that will be split up throughout the year (so not really breaking from the trilogy format, but hey-ho…) and if this is anything to go by then… I’m not that interested. It’s a fine story, The Doctor in particular is well handled, but it’s slow going, and when it gets going it soon stops again. Let’s have a closer look, and try not to accidentally type “The Halifax Rift” while we’re at it…
While the first two parts of Ravenous 1 were pretty much standalone, the second half of the set is a two-parter, clearing a few lingering things from Doom Coalition before setting the foundations for this series going forward. It features the return of crazy rouge Time Lord The Eleven, but also features the return of Z-list villain The Kandyman, though not as an evil Bertie Bassett this time. Does it all work?! Well, let’s find out, shall we?
When the Doom Coalition series of boxes ended with a cliffhanger, many were left confused as the 8th Doctor Time War sets soon began their run… Thankfully, a new series of boxes titled “Ravenous” was soon announced as being the continuation of the Dark Eyes-Doom Coalition story strand. So how does it start? Oddly, it starts completely in isolation, the first two parts being more like throwaway stories from the old Eighth Doctor Adventures range of one-hour tales, but I enjoyed them a lot, so it worked for me! After all the arc heavy stories and Time Wars it’s nice to hear Paul McGann in a somewhat normal environment again (normal for Doctor Who anyway!) So let’s take a look at the first two parts of “Ravenous 1”, shall we?
Blake’s 7 Audio Drama Series 4 comes to a close with “Crossfire – Part 3”, another set of four stories, now in the middle of the galactic civil war between Servalan and the Former President. The Liberator crew can find only way solution to ending the war, and nobody is thrilled with it… but was I thrilled in hearing it?! Pretty much! Let’s take a closer look…
After what I felt was the first weak story in the Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan audios with Ghost Walk, I’m happy to report that Serpent in the Silver Mask is back to being great fun, with plenty of humour and a really fun murder mystery plot. Let’s take a look at this… Doctor Whodunnit! … Sorry (also goes without saying, as I always put a spoiler warning, but as this is a murder mystery it’s best to skip to the “overall thoughts” and see if it sounds good if you haven’t listened to it yourself yet…)
I’m guessing the first thing that came into most people’s heads when they saw that the Third Doctor was getting full cast audios was “maybe now we can get a Third Doctor – Cybermen story!”, and it took a couple of boxsets, but here we are! Written by Marc “Spare Parts” Platt, Tyrants of Logic is a good story that while doesn’t touch his enduring classic, still provides us with a good full cast Third Doctor confrontation with the Cybermen, at last. So let’s take a bit more of a detailed look…
It’s time for another set of two four-part Third Doctor stories from Big Finish! Once again Tim Treloar does an excellent job filling on for the sadly departed Mr. Pertwee and in this first story we have Rufus Hound returning as his incarnation of the meddling Monk. What could go wrong? Not much, thankfully! Let’s take a look…
Sadly after a really strong run of stories for this TARDIS team, we finally hit a story that I just didn’t care for. It wasn’t awful, but it was certainly dull, and did little to nothing with the companions… A shame, but you can’t win them all! Let’s take a closer look…
Hogan Reviews 