1st Doctor

Doctor Who: Sea Smoke Review

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Kicking off a Halloween-themed boxset of stories (in January, if you needed a tip off as to how behind on Big Finish audio reviews I am…) is “Sea Smoke”, my first full experience of the recast First Doctor / Dodo combination, and I have to say… it didn’t do much to convince me to jump in. I mean, at the best of times I’m not all that interested in Hartnell era audios as I’m not all that interested in a fair few of the Hartnell era TV stories, but having some of the poorer recasts at the centre doesn’t help much. Anyway, let’s take a look at “Sea Smoke” on its own merits…

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Doctor Who: The Savages Review

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Now I thought Underwater Menace and Galaxy 4 were obscure lost stories to animate, “The Savages” has now taken the lead on that front as while it is a sci-fi story rather than a historical and does involve the (rather crap) exit of long-time companion Steven it’s also on the dull side, especially when watching the recon made from a bunch of stills and a soundtrack. Does the animation breathe new life into the otherwise sleepy story? Yes, having moving characters and false-camera work does hold your attention much more easily. Does it mean the story is good now? Um… well…

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Doctor Who – Deathworld Review

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In terms of “Lost Stories” that are left to adapt Deathworld was a big one as it was the original planned 10th Anniversary story featuring all three Doctors at that point in the show, but William Hartnell’s failing health meant it was scrapped early on and The Three Doctors was created instead. It always sounded really odd based on what we knew and getting to hear it adapted hasn’t changed my mind there, I have no idea how this would’ve worked at the time, but whatever. How does it work now, as an audio drama with four of the six regulars being recasts? Let’s find out!

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Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Well, how to I start this review off? The Celestial Toymaker was one of my least favourite Who stories period, one I was dreading on day reviewing and having to sit through three episodes of painfully boring slideshows and a bit of a naff final episode. Then along came the news it was being animated! Great, that at least takes care of the photo slideshow not doing the glacial pace any favours, but then the animation turns out to be in a 3D CG style that looked pretty terrible in the trailer and in watching it is only a bit better than I feared. Did it make it easier to watch? Yeah, but it’s sort of like replacing something I hated with something I really don’t like, so… it’s not a major win… Well, with all that rambling over with, let’s actually take a look, shall we?

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Doctor Who: The Three Doctors Review

David HoganLeave a comment

It’s time to end the Multi-Doctor Catch Up Marathon with the very first multi-Doctor story! The Three Doctors aired to kick off Season 10 (and so fans have taken to call it the 10th Anniversary story, though technically that’s not true…) and saw the return of Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor to assist his successor. Sadly William Hartnell was too ill to actually participate on set so he advises from a “Time Eddy”, or a small plastic triangle in someone’s shed, but hey-ho. At least had an excuse, unlike Tom Baker in the Five Doctors! Add in some early fun Time Lord lore and a cheesy villain it’s a good time in front of the telly. Let’s take a look!

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Doctor Who: The Five Doctors Review

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The Five Doctors has to be one of my favourite “comfort food” things to put on, if I’m not really sure what to watch or for whatever reason feeling unhappy it’s something that will cheer me up for 90 minutes or so. That being said this is a review and to be completely fair to it the story really isn’t up to much, it’s a big anniversary special with loads of companions and, well, four Doctors to be more accurate, plus a few old villains and the like so it doesn’t really have time to be anything with more substance. Am I just making excuses? Well, let’s take a closer look…

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Doctor Who: The Forgotten Review

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“The Forgotten” was a big deal at the time of its release as it was pretty much the first bit of media to properly connect “Classic Who” with “NuWho”, with the then-current 10th Doctor strolling down memory lane in a museum dedicated to himself but with no memories of his previous lives. It’s sort of like “The Eight Doctors” but less about Terrence Dicks patting himself on the back. Sadly though as the series progresses the art gets worse and worse until the final issue has some of the worst likenesses I’ve ever seen. At the time I ignored it because “classic and old Doctors next to each other!” but now, when that concept is old hat? Let’s take a look…

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Doctor Who: Destiny of the Doctor – Parts I – III Review

David HoganLeave a comment

I was unsure how to cover these stories as one review for all 11 would be far too long and individually would eat up far too many days of the this already lengthy catch up marathon so I compromised in the middle (and therefore had to make a new template for them…) Basically these are Companion Chronicles, one hour audiobooks read by a companion with one extra actor performing a new guest role, with one for each Doctor up to 11 (a.k.a. all of them at the time it was written) but with a linking thread through all the stories of the Eleventh Doctor communicating with his past selves in various ways due to something happening in the final part. It was a fun idea and gave me an extra story to listen to each month leading up to the 50th but ten years later and listening to them in closer proximity is quite a different experience… Let’s take a look! (at the first three…)

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Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time Review

David HoganLeave a comment

This one was a little awkward to review as it had an issue per Doctor with a linking narrative with a meet up at the end, the same set up as the next 50th Anniversary thing I’m looking at in this marathon but that I’ve split up into four whereas this I’m keeping together and that’s because the individual stories are much shorter, being single comic issues, unlike Destiny of the Doctor, which is comprised of roughly one-hour audios. Anyway! Prisoners of Time was IDW’s contribution and it had some good ideas but it was ruined by a really… really naff villain reveal and attempt to make an emotional moment out of it that only served to make me laugh. Let’s take a look!

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Doctor Who: Once and Future – The Union Review

David HoganLeave a comment

So as to not spam two Doctor Who reviews in one day let’s take a look at the last (until next year…) entry of the Once and Future storyline before my daily Multi-Doctor story marathon kicks off tomorrow. Thankfully “The Union” was a really enjoyable story with some fun cameos and twists, to the point where I can’t help but think adding on a second hour with similar themes to the other Once and Future releases leading into this and just releasing it stand-alone would’ve been much better than the mostly weak monthly releases we’ve had, but ah well… let’s take a look!

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