“The War Valeyard? Now you’re just being stupid!” was my initial reaction to this boxset, but then I thought about it, and with The Doctor not fighting the war, of course the Time Lords would be happy with an evil version of The Doctor, so the more I thought about it, the more I actually looked forward to the story seen here at the end of the set, and thankfully it didn’t disappoint! Let’s take a look!
The Eighth Doctor is still avoiding the Time War as we reach Series 3 of the titular range, and we finally (I guess?) get a good look at the backstory for his companion, Bliss. That being said, the highlight of this double bill is the second episode, away from her muddled continuity…
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 second half of the Further Adventures of Lucie Miller sees a bit more stability with an average first part and a fun finale seeing the return of a familiar enemy (much like a lot of “finales” from the Eighth / Lucie era!) and may well have set a new record for longest blog title! Let’s take a look!
Lucie Miller is back in the first many releases this month, but the first half of this boxset is split between a bit of a train wreck of a first story, and a good second one. Let’s take a closer look then, shall we?
The second half of Ravenous 3 sadly fails to keep up the momentum of its first two episodes, and while neither story were bad, both were lacking in forward momentum and instead felt like two episodes of running on the spot. Still, some good times to be had, and it certainly seems like it’s going to lead to a big conclusion! Let’s take a look.
“Deeptime Frontier” picks up right from the end of Ravenous 2, with The Doctor and co. in immediate danger from the titular threat, but the highlight of this double bill has to be “Companion Piece”, which decides to step away from the core storyline almost entirely and have a bit of a celebration of the Eighth Doctor’s audio history by bringing back a bunch of past companions for a one-off (or a companion piece to the core storyline, if you will!) It made for a fun start to the set, so let’s take a look!
This was an awkward one to review, as it felt to recent to re-listen to it retrospectively, yet it was obviously far too long ago to review it from memory. Still, there were worst things to relisten to than the introduction of The Eleven, and the debut story of Helen Sinclair (though mostly because it’s a really good story, rather than for the debut itself) So while it may be a fair few years before I review the rest of Doom Coalition, let’s take a look how it started, shall we?
Continuing the many audio companions of the Eighth Doctor we have Molly O’Sullivan, who appears solely in the Dark Eyes series of audios. Dark Eyes begins the Eighth Doctor’s transfer from the single-disc “Eighth Doctor Adventures” range to series of four, four-story boxset “series”, a theme that continues today, although that really begin with Dark Eyes 2, as this boxset was clearly written as a stand-alone story, a four-parter in all but name, which is why I’m reviewing the whole box rather than splitting it in half like I do for later releases. With all that being said, is it any good? Erm…
When I announced this Audio/Comic companion marathon I actually excluded Tamsin Drew because in reality she’s just a cog in the larger Lucie Miller storyline and only lasts two or three stories as an actual Doctor companion, but you know what? The Eighth Doctor names her in his death monologue, so why not? Save someone complaining I “left her out” anyway! With that all said, let’s take a look at Situation Vacant, a really fun hour of Doctor Who!
Hogan Reviews 