Finishing off the “Deadly Strangers” set then is a story featuring the return of The Mara, well, sort of anyway. It takes place in a clinic where people are sent to a deep sleep for many years at a time and so the idea of the Mara invading people’s dreams while they’re kept under is a good, it’s just sadly the story really isn’t all that interesting. Ah well, let’s take a look!
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The next set of Eighth Doctor / Charley / Audacity stories has arrived (or did a short while ago…) and with it an interesting titbit: the first story in the set, “Puccini and The Doctor”, was written by Matthew Jacobs, the man who wrote the TV Movie and therefore created the Eighth Doctor, returning to the franchise for the first time since then. It’s a good thing it has such an interesting behind-the-scenes bit of info because I have to say the set as a whole is rather average or in one case flat-out bad, so there isn’t a lot to talk about otherwise…
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“The Doctor and Carnacki” is a three-story anthology release featuring the Seventh Doctor meeting Thomas Carnacki at three points in his life, an interesting concept… if you’re familiar with Carnacki. Sadly I wasn’t, and in looking him up I was surprised to find that he is actually a fictional character from the early 1900s but unlike say, Sherlock Holmes who is fictional within the Who-niverse Carnacki here is just a regular character. I mean, whatever, makes no difference to me (literally!) but it was an interesting choice. Sadly though my complete lack of knowledge or enthusiasm for Carnacki kind of cuts the whole possible excitement of this boxset in half and so I just get a trio of Seventh Doctor stories with no catch, but did I get a GOOD trio of Seventh Doctor stories? Well…
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Remember “Once and Future”? The big 60th Anniversary run of stories that ended up being almost entirely disappointing nonsense with little thought into the writing? Well, this is the “Coda” to that story, an epilogue with one more special crossover, in this case The War Doctor and The Fugitive Doctor. The latter has an interesting premise if your brave enough to run with it (a pre-Hartnell Doctor from the Dark Times either working for the shady division or running away from it) but for the sake of this story it’s actually just two Doctors who are more inclined to violence than the numbered ones accidentally at odds with each other, and you know what? It was really fun, perhaps the highlight of the whole Once and Future storyline… which isn’t saying much, but still! Let’s take a look.
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“Doctor Who: Time War – Uncharted: Reflections” (bloody hell, enough subtitles for you?) is the latest Eighth Doctor Time War offering, continuing the adventures of The Doctor, his great-grandson from another universe Alex and Cass, that one off character he met right at the end of his life that has been retroactively made into a companion I guess he forgets. It’s an odd mix, but even more oddly it really works! Reflections is a really fun four story set, with each story building nicely from the one before it. Let’s take a look!
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It’s time for another story from probably my most anticipated Doctor Who range of them all at the moment: the Third Doctor adventures. “The Quintessence” is the next in the line of older Jo Grant (or Jo Jones) adventures that got off to a bad start last year but I’m happy to say that this second set is among the very best this year. While it starts slowly (and oddly familiar) it turns into not just a great story but a great story with the Cybermen, the original Mondas ones no less. Let’s take a look!
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“The Great Beyond” is the latest Fifth Doctor release from Big Finish and has taken the approach of doing a six-parter, something that can sometimes lead to a great story full of slow-burn plots and great characterisation, but often ends up spinning its wheels and padding out the story poorly, and I’m sorry to say this is very much the latter. It’s a shame as there are some fun sci-fi ideas on display here and the TARDIS team is well realised, but the plot doesn’t survive the nearly three hours, and the new characters barely survive the one scene they’re introduced in! Let’s take a look, anyway…
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“The Stuff of Legend” is an odd one in that it was more conceived as a live show experience than a traditional release, though this version I listened to was a simple studio recorded version before they “took it on tour”. That means it doesn’t fit into a range or anything, it’s just a two-hour Eighth Doctor and Charley story featuring the Alex Macqueen Master… which is honestly good enough for me as I love all of those things! It also has the Daleks, which can be good or bad at this point, and some pretty generic supporting characters… So basically the story isn’t breaking any new ground at any point, but it’s fun enough. Let’s take a look!
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I remember years ago John Dorney said in an interview that he was practically begging to do a story with the Dominators and that he was “serious” when people thought he was joking. I was intrigued, especially as Mr. Dorney is probably my favourite writer in the Big Finish stable, and finally: here we are, and you know what? It’s an extremely predictable and by-the-numbers “resistance group fighting against invading aliens” story. Huh? Mr. Dorney could’ve written this exact story with any number of other alien races, why did this prove the Dominators “needed” a second go around? Oh well… At least the Fourth Doctor / Naomi / Harry stories are over now, it hasn’t been a great run. Let’s take a look!
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Next up in the Fourth Doctor / Harry / Naomi run of stories is “The Face in the Storm”, where Big Finish go back to the “person meets their relative in the past and can’t risk damaging their own future” trope, complete with a tragic storyline for good measure. I mean, at least it isn’t Helen this time, I guess! Let’s take a look…
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Hogan Reviews 