Another fun story from Series 12, this time not ruined by a heavy-handed delivery of an otherwise fine message. Another pseudo-historical for the Thirteenth Doctor, and once again it was great, informative for the younger, and just a fun episode for the older. Basically… let’s take a closer look!
A little bit late with this review, but still (just) before the next-to-air episode, it’s time to put down in words my thoughts on Orphan 55. I’ll be honest, I was really enjoying it for most of its runtime, it was a good base under siege story with some properly creepy monsters, sadly there was a twist that not only didn’t really work in Who’s history, but didn’t work at all due to its lack of subtly. Want to know what I’m going on about? Read on!
The new series of Doctor Who has (finally) started with a two-parter named “Spyfall”, which is at east an actual pun on “Skyfall”, unlike a certain episode last season that set me off… ANYWAY, Spyfall is Chris Chibnall’s best effort so far, which comes as a big relief after his rather poor track history in the last series. Throw in an unexpected twist and it’s a good near-two hours. Let’s take a closer look!
2019 was a weird year for Doctor Who stories, as there was only a single, solitary episode on January 1st, meaning this list is pretty much entirely Big Finish (I’m always behind on the comics I’m afraid). Still, which Big Finish was best? Did their anniversary release come up big? Did the one TV episode place at all?! Let’s find out!
The last Main Range audio of the year / decade, Blood on Santa’s Claw is an “and Other Stories” release that is actually more one single story where the location changes a bit in between. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but often entertaining, Blood on Santa’s Claw is a good end to the range in 2019, if not exactly the most original story you’ll listen to this year… Let’s take a look!
Daughter of the Gods was pitched as a what if “5th Anniversary Story”, a classic multi-Doctor story but with, at that point, the only two Doctors. What ended up happening instead is a weird opportunity to explore the character of Katarina a bit more, a companion who barely lasted a handful of episodes, all of which are missing (and yet to be animated!) Either way I really enjoyed it, so that’s all that matters in the end! Let’s take a deeper look at it…
The first of two 2nd Doctor stories from last month that I’m finally catching up on, and I’m glad I listened to this one first because… well, it was a bit dull. It had some good concepts and performances, but it was quite a slog to get through, and it would have come across as far worse had I listened to it after the second story… But enough about that, let’s take a closer look at Home Guard, shall we?
Back when the original run of Lost Stories came out “The Ultimate Evil” was notable by its absence, especially given it was so far along back in the day that it had a Target novel adaptation, something most of the other releases in this audio range didn’t have. So rights issues have apparently been sorted and The Ultimate Evil finally gets a dramatized adaptation and… yeah… erm, it’s not good. Very of its time, no doubt, but … Yeah. Let’s take a look! Continue reading
The Lost Stories make an unexpected return this month (as in it was unexpected when it was announced months ago…), starting with Nightmare Country, a Fifth Doctor story that was proposed for Season 21 but deemed too expensive to produce. This audio adaptation proved not only fun to listen to, but also… not really sure how it would have been too expensive, honestly. Either way, let’s have a look at Nightmare Country!
Going into this final release in the most recent Fifth Doctor Main Range trilogy I was expecting to like Conversion more based on the synopsis, but it actually ended up the other way around. That’s not saying the latter story was bad, and in fact the end scene was brilliant, but … well, let’s save the specifics for the actual review, shall we?
Hogan Reviews 