This year marks 50 years since the Sontarans debuted on screen and therefore 50 years since the Rutans were mentioned as well, so Big Finish have decided to cash in/celebrate this with what was clearly meant to be a boxset release but for whatever reason has become four separate releases over four months. Since they’re all different Doctors I would’ve had to review them separately anyway, so this works well enough for me! Most importantly in my mind though is this is the first time the TARDIS team of the Eighth Doctor, Charley and C’rizz have reunited as a “new story in an old period”, and while the era is not a favourite I can’t say the reunion didn’t make me smile when I heard. So let’s take a look at what is actually an extremely rare Sontaran and Rutan story! (though I guess won’t be rare once the four months are up…)

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The final two-thirds of “In The Bleak Midwinter” has less of a Christmas focus and more of a horror / sci-fi focus with the stories happening around the festive period. It certainly helps the box feel fresher and both stories are perfectly fine in their own right, even if the second story is a little on the plain side. Let’s take a look and then relax over Christmas… before I quickly try and write the review of the new Christmas special on Boxing Day or thereabouts!

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I’d like to say “I love it when a plan comes together!” but in reality it just so happens that this festive Doctor Who boxset is able to be reviewed on Christmas Eve itself, with just a little bit of “why not?” schedule managing by myself. That being said, I’m putting both halves up today because I don’t want to worry about handling my blog on Christmas Day itself, nor do I was to put up a Christmas story review after Christmas (new TV Who special aside because that actually airs on the day itself, so can’t get around that!) “Twenty-Four Doors in December” is a good old fashioned heart-warming story set in roughly modern-day revolving around a down-on-his-luck man looking for a Christmas miracle… does he get it?! Well… I mean it wouldn’t be very heart-warming otherwise, but let’s take a look and act surprised anyway!

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The second half of the Audacity set is, as the title plainly points out, set during the “Great Cyber-War” that was all the talk during the Fourth Doctor’s only TV encounter with the Cybermen. In fact this is a prequel to that story, showing how the war came to an end and even explains some of sillier aspects of the Cybermen from that period away in a fittingly silly way, all leading to an unexpected reveal at the end of the story that flies in the face of this “new era” being advertised, but I was happy though! Let’s take a look.

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Now the 60^th Anniversary stuff is out of the way it’s time to catch up with the Big Finish audio releases, and thankfully there isn’t actually that much to catch up on! “Audacity” was advertised as a fresh start for the Eighth Doctor, back in his younger velvet coat days with a new companion, and while this is true only until the end of the last episode of the set I can say that “The Devouring” is still a fun companion introduction story, if nothing else. Let’s take a look!

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