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…
Rage of the Time Lords was actually released a few months back, but due to all the crazy nonsense in my life, I decided to save it for when I was better able to settle down and listen to it… and here we are! Admittedly, after all that, Rage of the Time Lords is good, but fails to live up to the hype of the previous two War Master sets, which have been among my favourite Who related material each year they were released. That’s not to say this is bad though! Let’s take a closer look…
The sixth series of Diary of River Song’s last two episodes are much like the first, and while its safe to say the magic is wearing off with the “visiting classic stories just before they happen” idea, it’s still a fun listen… For the most part. Let’s take closer look!
The Sixth Series of the Diary of River Song is based around our titular character arriving in the middle of some classic adventures from the first four Doctors, with these first two being set just before the very first episode, and during the Second Doctor’s TV classic “The Web of Fear” respectively. Let’s see if this different format gets off to a good start or not, shall we?
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…
“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…
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 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!
Hogan Reviews 