The third and final part of the Eighth Doctor “Echoes” boxset started off really good, it has an interesting world with a unique hook to it that I was interested in seeing how it played out, but sadly the ending was such a non-event that it kind of took all the wind out of my sails… Let’s take a look!
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As the end credits rolled on “73 Yards” all I could think was “this was written by the same guy who wrote Space Babies…?” Yes, this episode is something of a marvel, a really great and creepy story that is also one of RTD’s beloved “Doctor-lite” episodes he used to do. This season of Doctor Who is on a hell of a hot streak now, it makes me even more confused about what episode they chose to open it with! Let’s take a look…
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The latest Eighth Doctor audio boxset has arrived and its title of “Echoes” seems to be a reference to the fact that these two stories feel awfully similar to other Eight/Liv/Helen stories in the recent past. They’re both well written, don’t get me wrong, but I couldn’t shake a sense of… I don’t know, I don’t want to saw “boredom” because again, they’re good stories, but maybe “sameness” is the right word. Not just Doctor Who stories (obviously!) but other Helen and Liv stories specifically hitting some very familiar beats to the ones here. Well, let’s take a look anyway!
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“Boom” is a fine example of Steve Moffatt just telling a great self-contained story, like he most famously did during Russell T. Davies’ original run, though he did have the odd classic as show runner. The Doctor steps on a landmine and the entire 40-odd minute story takes place around him as he tries to get out of the predicament. Simple sounding story but actually a brilliant showcase of tension as a storytelling tool. Let’s take a look!
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After what was something of a major misstep of a first episode I’m happy to say I really enjoyed “The Devil’s Chord”. I mean, if you don’t like big over-the-top scenery-chewing villains like I do you may dislike this episode as well, but I had a smile of my face for most of it… MOST of it, can’t say the musical number at the end was good, not because it was out of place (it actually made sense) but because it had crap lyrics and wasn’t catchy at all, two things you kind of need for a musical piece! Well, anyway, let’s take a look!
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Well… that was a thing. A pretty crap thing, honestly. Thank goodness they opened with a double bill because at least I really enjoyed the second episode, but I’ll get to that later. As for “Space Babies” it was a classic case of “had some good ideas but the bad ones drowned them out”, plus it has a lot of Series 1 Russell T. Davies lowbrow toilet humour, which isn’t my kind of thing either. Oh well, let’s take a look quickly, then we can move on to the good one!
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*This review was originally written before I changed the review format but has been kept in its original form (don’t worry, this is the last one in the old format!)
When planning this run of stories out I decided to throw in Black Hole for no other reason than I’ve mentioned it several times during the course of this blog so I fancied giving it another listen. It features The Second Doctor, Victoria, Jamie and The Monk, and is a fun story all round, but does the heavy-handed forced continuity hurt or add to the experience? Let’s find out!
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*This review was originally written before I changed the review format but has been kept in its original form (mostly because I couldn’t be bothered to rearrange it…)
It’s funny that I’ve gone this far without reviewing a Second Doctor Companion Chronicle, then when I finally pick one it’s the one story where its actually more of an audio drama than a traditional CC two-person reading. It’s cleverly written and well acted though, as I remembered, which is why I threw it in here… So let’s take a look!
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The Sontarans vs. Rutans mini-series-that-was-originally-a-box-set comes to a close with this rare stand-alone War Doctor story. “In Name Only” does a good job of tying all the different story strands that have been created across the previous three releases while also giving a fun story to digest as well. Let’s take a look!
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The second story of the latest Fifth Doctor boxset sees the return of the “Dream Crabs” from the Twelfth Doctor Christmas Special “Last Christmas” as well as a couple of audios a year or two ago, and its safe to say that there really isn’t anything new you can do with them beyond repeating the same story beats from their first appearance. Most returning monsters you can put some sort of spin on but here its more dreams within dreams sequences and fake-outs, with only a little wrinkle in why they are where they are. Still, unoriginal as it may be, what was it like to listen to? Let’s find out!
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Hogan Reviews 