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!
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
My idea of reviewing a story from every season as its released on Blu-ray immediately ran into a problem thanks to the release of Season 23, a season that’s actually one long story, albeit a story that is clearly segmented into four parts. Rather than review the whole Trial of a Time Lord (which I didn’t have time to do due to a certain six film, six game marathon) I was going to just review one part, but that didn’t seem right either. Thankfully, on the Blu-ray, is a special “Standalone Edition” of one of the stories, with all the Trial stuff cut out, so I’ve decided to review that, and then later do an additional paragraph or two when I reach this story during a review of Trial proper. With all that said, how is Terror of the Vervoids when all the Trial stuff is removed? Let’s find out!
The first of two main range releases this month, Harry Houdini’s War caps off the unconnected Sixth Doctor and Peri trilogy with a more thoughtful and interesting spy tale (with some sci-fi twists, obviously!) and one or two misdirections, rather appropriately! Let’s take a closer look…
Emissary of the Daleks promised to be a bit more of an interesting look at the rather tired Dalek occupation storyline, focusing on the idea of an Emissary leading the planet instead of the Daleks full-force, but sadly within the first episode a Dalek ship arrives with a Dalek Supreme and a bunch of Daleks on it, and it spends the whole run time being nothing but predictable Dalek stuff. Dalek stuff done well, don’t get me wrong, but original it’s not! Let’s take a closer look…
It’s been a long time since we got a new story featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri (especially the “as seen on TV” versions) so if nothing else this story felt both fresh, in a way, and nostalgic. The central premise of punishing someone for crimes he can no longer remember is a genuinely interesting idea that was only partially explored, sadly. So let’s have a look at the story overall, shall we?
To celebrate 20 years of making Doctor Who audios, Big Finish released a special, roughly six-hour story titled “The Legacy of Time”, and now I’ve finally found the time to finish it, I can say it was a fun collection of stories, but was definitely just that. There wasn’t much of an over-arching plot, which is fine, it’s just different to what I was expecting. Let’s take a closer look!
The Sixth incarnation of The Doctor is once again travelling alone in The Hunting Ground, our last main range audio drama story of 2018, and boy… it’s not very interesting. It gives off a vibe of the writer having a core concept but not knowing how to either spread it across two hours, nor how to write cliffhangers. Still, it’s not all bad! Let’s take a look in more detail…
How to ruin a Doctor Who story: either have a crap plot, cast child actors who are so awful that they were clearly only hired because they were twins, cut the budget but try and realise the script anyway rather than alter it, or write The Doctor to be a complete selfish crazy person who is thoroughly unlikable and have him strangle his own companion in a fit of paranoid rage. How to make a properly awful Doctor Who story: do all of the above, at the same time. Welcome to The Twin Dilemma!
Criss-Cross introduces us to the Sixth Doctor’s latest companion Constance Clark (though this was technically the second release featuring her…), a pretty tough, by-the-book WREN from WW2. The actual story has a pretty standard “foe”, but is also rich in Second World War spies and espionage plots, including the Doctor himself working and staying in Bletchley Park for some time. Let’s take a closer look…
Hogan Reviews 