The next Ninth Doctor boxset has arrived and it has a linking narrative of “stories where something from the past in effecting the present”, which is an odd choice as it does make all three stories feel rather samey, even if they take place is vastly different eras. The fact that these two stories also have the Doctor get a temporary companion to help out against an other-worldly threat, a.k.a. like 95% of these Ninth Doctor audio stories, doesn’t help the overall samey feeling these sets have created for themselves… Ah well, let’s take a look at the first two stories, shall we?

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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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While only half done I think “The Last Day” might be a classic case of “careful what you wish for” because I complained that the Sixth Doctor’s audio-exclusive final adventure before his regeneration was rather flat and uneventful but here the Seventh Doctor’s audio-exclusive final adventure is so over-stuffed with characters, continuity and episodes that it’s so far pretty poor, I have to say. I mean I know I’m technically judging half a story but boy if this half is the set up I don’t have a lot of faith in the second half having a good pay-off given just how many characters and storyline strings are going on… Let’s take a look anyway!

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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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