Tag Archives: Big Finish

Doctor Who: Time War -Volume Three. Big Finish Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Paul McGann, Rakhee Thakrar, Michael Jayston, Nicholas Briggs, Adèle Anderson, Wendy Craig, Andrew Fettes, Raj Ghatak, Natalie Gumede, Anjli Mohindra, Jamie Newall, Jude Owusu, John Scougall, Venice Van Someren, Nina Wadia, Tracey Wiles.

If ever there was an arc of stories that deserved to be told for television within the Doctor Who universe, then The Time War would surely be the set that the fandom would overwhelmingly clamour, would petition in their droves to have given precedence over all others.

Doctor Who: Time War -Volume Three. Big Finish Audio Drama Review. full post

(692 words, estimated 2:46 mins reading time)

Big Finish. Jenny – The Doctor’s Daughter. Audio Drama Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Georgia Tennant, Adèle Anderson, Sean Biggerstaff, Anthony Calf, Silas Carson, Siân Phillips, Clare Corbett, Paul Courtenay, Olivia Darnley, John Dorney, Sara Houghton, Arina II, Rosalyn Landor, Pik-Sen Lim, Stuart Milligan, Siân Phillips, Arabella Weir, Sarah Woodward.

Like father, like daughter. One though has the advantage of having had all of time and space to explore for thousands of years, the other, well she has barely scratched the surface of her own place in the Universe, let alone following on in her dad’s footsteps and carrying on the family tradition.

Big Finish. Jenny – The Doctor’s Daughter. Audio Drama Box Set Review. full post

(528 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Charlotte Pollard: The Further Adventures. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: India Fisher, Paul McGann, Rakia Ayola, John Banks, Shiloh Coke, Mark Elstob, Chris Jarman, Lara Lemon, Michelle Livingstone, Yasmin Mwanza, Cyril Nri, Rhoda Ofori-Attah, Theo Solomon. Andrew James Spooner.

For the majority who don’t delve deep into the mythos and background of Doctor Who, the name Charley Pollard is possibly a whispered name only vaguely caught as reference when Paul McGann’s incarnation of the man in the blue box from Gallifrey lamented those he had lost along the way as he faced the unknown in a forced regeneration as the Time War raged, as the War Doctor waited in the shadows.

Charlotte Pollard: The Further Adventures. Audio Drama Review. full post

(508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Dalek Universe 2. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: David Tennant, Jane Slavin, Joe Sims, John Banks, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Nicholas Briggs, Barnaby Edwards, Avita Jay, Kevin McNally, Leighton Pugh, Blake Ritson, Nina Toussaint-White.

It is often a surprise that for all the talk of family in Doctor Who, the thought of blood relations meeting the Doctor in different incarnations has never been truly explored.

Dalek Universe 2. Audio Drama Review. full post

(510 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

The Avengers Lost Episodes Volume 4: Hunt The Man Down. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Tim Treloar, Elizabeth Morton, Mark Bonnar, Robbie Stevens.

Prison is not a place where the unknown stays hidden for long and yet for Frank Preston, serving Time for the stealing £100,000 pounds, the exact location of his ill-gotten gains has remained a complete mystery to everybody but him.

The Avengers Lost Episodes Volume 4: Hunt The Man Down. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish. full post

(406 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Dark Eyes 4. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Paul McGann, Nicola Walker, Barnaby Kay, Beth Chalmers, Charlie Norfolk, Derek Hutchinson, Dan Starkey, Camilla Power, John Dorney, Rachael Stirling, Alex Wyndham, Blake Ritson, Nicholas Briggs, Alex MacQueen, Sorcha Cusack, Susannah Harker, David Sibley.

Arguably one of the most involved, most deliberately, and it has to be said wonderfully elaborately written endeavours undertaken by Big Finish finally comes to an end as the saga of Dark Eyes sees the Eighth incarnation battle not only the Eminence, The Master and the Daleks but also Time itself. It is a battle that sees the foreshadowing of what is to come, of the ache that will grip the Doctor as the Time War sets out to destroy all and in which the very soul of the Time Lord is challenged.

Doctor Who: Dark Eyes 4. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish. full post

(464 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Death Match. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Geoffrey Beevers, Susan Brown, Damien Lynch, Andy Secombe, Chris Porter.

Death has always walked side by side with The Doctor that at times its hard to see where the join might be. One such clue is where the rotting shell of The Master is, Death surely is playing a more dangerous game with him than with the Doctor.

Following on directly from John Dorney’s Requiem For The Space Men, Death Match is a suitable sequel in which Big Finish asks the pertinent questions of what it means to be entertained.

Doctor Who: Death Match. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 3, The Springers. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Dan Starkey, Miranda Raison, Peter Barrett, Derek Hutchinson, Emily Joyce, Sarah Lark, Mark Goldthorp, Geoffrey Breton, Philip Pope, Nicholas Briggs, Nick Hendrix, Angus Wright.

The third volume of stories from Big Finish concerning The Avengers team of Dr. David keel and John Stead starts with the premise of a prison break out. It is a premise that has been done before the 1960s series first aired and has been done perhaps more successfully since, notably in one of the best films ever in the Shawshank Redemption and in the highly popular Prison Break television series, and yet there is something nostalgic and homely about revisiting an idea when you take away the modern bells and whistles attached to a story.

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 3, The Springers. Audio Drama Review. full post

(520 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Philip Hinchcliffe Presents, The Devil’s Armada. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Jamie Newall, Nigel Carrington, Alix Dunsmore, Joe Jameson, Beth Chalmers, Philip Bretherton, Ben Porter, Tim Bentinck.

 

The world of Doctor Who is seemingly entrenched into two distinct realms of story-telling themes, the historical, whether that comes down to the gothic fancy, the accurate, with the only that those writing about The Doctor can employ a good science-fiction twist too or the warning from the past in which holds a mirror to the present day audience or the category that is so steeped into invention that the monsters come from out of nowhere and place themselves at the very heart of Humanity’s future. Both are equally enthralling, both as enjoyable as its counterpart and yet rarely do the mix well.

Doctor Who: Philip Hinchcliffe Presents, The Devil’s Armada. Audio Drama Review. full post

(515 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Charlotte Pollard, The Viyran Solution. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: India Fisher, Michael Maloney, James Joyce, Nicholas Briggs, Louise Bradley, Nadia Kamil.

The solution is always part of the problem it seems. No matter how grand the answer, another dilemma will pop up in its place. Just as The Doctor faced being able to eradicate the Daleks from all time and space by placing two wires together, the quandary appeared that he would be as evil as them for not letting nature take its course. The solution is never the utter final truth. For the Viyrans and Charley Pollard, the solution is even more complex and for Charlotte Pollard the stakes have never been higher.

Charlotte Pollard, The Viyran Solution. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish. full post

(377 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)