Who Audio

Doctor Who: Prison in Space Review

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DW Prison in Space

The Lost Stories range reaches the Second Doctor and boy… it gets off to some kind of start, that’s for sure. I can only imagine how this story would’ve came across on TV at the time, let alone retrospectively. Credit to Simon Guerrier for not changing much of the original script because I can now truly look back on this and go “Yeah, I’m glad that didn’t get made”. So with all that being said, let’s take a look at the frankly sexist Prison in Space, and then suddenly gain a new respect for The Krotons (the story that ended up replacing it when this script was rejected after author Dick Sharples refused to do re-writes).

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DW: The Daleks – The Destroyers Review

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DW Daleks The Destroyers

Before we get to the Second Doctor’s Lost Stories, I want to cover this “Lost Story”, which was a pilot Terry Nation wrote for a standalone Dalek TV Series. It was bundled with the first Second Doctor Lost Story, but given its strong ties to First Doctor TV Serial “The Daleks’ Master Plan” I thought I’d include it here, in between the first two Doctors, although it will be stored in the Spin-Off section, obviously. So how can you have The Daleks in their own TV story? Well, just have them as the central antagonists and build a cast of characters to fight them! But does it work?

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Doctor Who: The Dark Planet Review

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DW The Dark Planet

The run of First Doctor Lost Stories comes to an end with a story set during that rare Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki period of the show, and a script that was clearly shot down at the due to budget! (Actually turns out it was shot down due to being too similar to another story they were developing, The Hidden Planet by Malcolm Hulke, which ironically also wouldn’t see the light of day) Large crystal cities, people literally made of light and shadow, several scenes of people flying… It just wouldn’t have worked. At all. Still, does it work as an adapted “advanced audiobook”? That’s the main question! Let’s find out…

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Doctor Who: Farewell, Great Macedon Review

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DW Farewell Great Macedon

When it comes to lost Doctor Who stories that were actually made, Marco Polo is often held in high regard, and it’s fair to say that Farewell, Great Macedon shares a lot with it. Not just as a historical story, as many Hartnell stories were, but as a longer story with lots of political intrigue, murder (of which our leads are often falsely accused) and a knowledge of history that must not be changed. With just three cast members and six episodes of mostly talking, does Macedon manage to hold your attention? Read on!

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Doctor Who: The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance Review

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DW The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance

Next up on our look at the Lost Stories is the very oddly named “The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance”, and is actually quite the oddity. It was completely scripted and pitched as a single-episode story (the serial format hadn’t been set in stone at the time of writing) but the pitch was shot down. Really it was only adapted here because the original script still existed and Big Finish was adapting writer Moris Farhi’s other story (Farewell, Great Macedon) so why not? Well… why not indeed, I guess! It’s an odd story, but is it a good story? Let’s find out!

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Doctor Who: The Masters of Luxor Review

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DW The Masters of Luxor

Time to kick off my look at the whole of Big Finish’s Lost Stories range. Although after the First Doctor I’ll be looking at them in the order they were released (per Doctor) I wanted to start off with Luxor, even though this story contains references to two other Lost Stories, because it was originally going to be the 2nd ever story before it was replaced with a little known story called “The Daleks”! That makes it extremely interesting and technically the earliest Lost Story to be recreated … It’s a shame it’s a bit crap, really…

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Doctor Who: Stranded 1 – Must-See TV & Divine Intervention Review

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DW Stranded 1 Part 2

With the cast and setting firmly established, it’s time to start teasing a longer narrative for the story arc (beyond being “stranded” obviously!) while still having fun with the new regulars. On both these counts the second half of Stranded 1 does exactly that, making for fun stories that also tease more to come. Want more info? Read on!

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Doctor Who: Stranded 1 – Lost Property & Wild Animals Review

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DW Stranded 1 Part 1

Well, as advertised, the new Eighth Doctor storyline gets off to a rather… slow start. Stranded on Earth once again but with no UNIT to distract him, The Doctor, along with Liv and Helen, have to try and blend in with regular life in (a mysteriously COVID free) 2020 London. Does Doctor Who work in a contemporary and sometimes completely alien free setting? Let’s find out!

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Doctor Who: Scorched Earth Review

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DW Scorched Earth

The main range continues to plough forward with the next Sixth Doctor / Constance / Flip story, and boy it’s a dozy. Scorched Earth takes place in France just after its liberation, in other words Constance’s near future, and so this story really explores the differences between Constance from the 1940s and Flip from the 2010s. Throw in some soldiers on all sides of the war and a fiery alien and you’ve got a hit on your hands! Let’s take a closer look.

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Doctor Who: Operation: Hellfire Review

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DW Operation Hellfire

Much like with Poison of the Daleks, my immediate thought was “World War II again?” but unlike the Dalek story before this, I quickly thought to myself “That being said, the Third Doctor had very few historical-set stories, and never appeared in WWII, so…It’s actually quite fresh for this incarnation”. So ignoring the setting, is it fresh? or more importantly, is it any good? Let’s find out!

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