The second half of the first Forty box set at least focuses more on the Fifth Doctor that it’s supposed to be celebrating. This story sees the later version of this Doctor arriving in his own past, faced with Adric alive and well. It at least makes better use of the concept than the Second Doctor-heavy first half, anyway! Let’s take a look!
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The era of three-disc boxsets for Doctors 5-7 begins with “Forty”, the first of two Fifth Doctor boxsets celebrating forty years since Peter Davison’s debut in the role. Oddly the first of the two stories, “Secrets of Telos”, is far more a celebration of Second Doctor classic Tomb of the Cybermen than it is anything to do with the Fifth Doctor. Whether you feel this is a bad thing or not aside, is the story any good on its own merits? Let’s take a look!
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River Song’s third series kicks off with a great story looking at some plot threads left hanging from the sixth TV series and generally taking a good look at regeneration as a whole, while the second plays more like a traditional Fifth Doctor story that happens to have River Song in it. So two very different stories, but what are they like in more detail? Well, good thing you asked!
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I’ve always been interested in the Excelis stories, a trilogy of audio dramas across the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors (plus one Bernice Summerfield story) all set on the same world with the same immortal but many years apart created to appease classic fans who may not take to the debuting Eighth Doctor, but I’ve always been put off by the Seventh Doctor entry being CD only. Well a couple of weeks ago it finally appeared for Download and the whole four story set was bundled in an offer, so off we finally go! Excelis Dawns also features the audio debut of Iris Wildthyme, which is sometimes fun, often overbearing. Is that still true here?! Let’s find out!
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It’s time to unofficially end the Doctor Who Monthly Main Range as this duo was supposed to be the release after The Lost Resort (under the title of “Perils and Nightmares”) before they were both understandably plucked from the schedule. It’s also the end of the Marc stories, which feels like they’ve only just begun. Does it end well? Is he still playing second fiddle to Adric, despite still being alive and in The Doctor’s face? Let’s find out!
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So although we’re technically already done with the monthly Main Range, this and the next story are actually the last of the Main Range, it’s just this story was delayed due to a significant part of the plot being rather similar to a certain global pandemic and so as a knock on effect the following release was also delayed (due to referencing this one, I assume). So what’s The Lost Resort like? Does it follow on the whole “Marc is Cyberman-ized and The Doctor ran for it before coming back” storyline? Well… oddly it mostly focuses on a much older storyline…
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Out of the three “Out of Time” releases (which drives me crazy as the first story was just called “Out of Time” with no subtitle, so don’t try and retroactively add that as a series title!) this is the one I was least interested in only due to the fact that this pairing of “classic and new” Doctors had already been done, and in live action no less. Still, they do have the odd relationship of actually getting on, which most Doctor pairings don’t, so this story felt quite unique in that sense. Let’s take a look!
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So here we are, after over 20 years of monthly releases, the final Main Range Doctor Who story. While each Doctor previously in this range will be getting their own box set releases going forward, it still feels like quite the “end of an era”. So what was the release to end it all like? Funnily enough very similar to the one that started it all, but that’s not really a good thing…
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Here we go then, not only the last stand-alone Fifth Doctor story in the classic “Main Range”, but also the last single Doctor, four-part story in the Main Range. While I’m sure the boxsets that replace it will be perfectly fine, it is a shame to say goodbye to what has always been the backbone of Big Finish Doctor Who. So before we get to the final multi-Doctor release next month let’s look at “The Blazing Hour”, a Fifth Doctor and Turlough story, which in itself is quite rare. Was it a good send off to the regular range’s standard format? Let’s find out!
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It’s time for the second half of this makeshift “eight one-parters forming a sort-of whole” story and see how it comes to a close. The first part was a mixed bag of good and average, with the whole “meeting the same people in different roles” thing wearing a bit thin by the end. Is three more episodes worth it before getting to the big finale? Well…
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Hogan Reviews 