Category: The Audio Dramas

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5th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Psychodrome

Doctor WhoFollowing their hurried escape from Castrovalva, the TARDIS’ new passengers try to get accustomed to one another, as well as to the new Doctor. The TARDIS lands in what appears to be an underground cave, though signs of more advanced artificial structures are found within. Adric accidentally bumps into one of these structures, and suddenly creatures appear, absconding with the unoccupied TARDIS. The Doctor and Adric pursue them, while Nyssa and Tegan find that there are other humans there, namely a party of anachronistic explorers. The search for the TARDIS leads the Doctor and Adric to a crashed spacecraft whose crew fears other creatures that lurk in the night. Other groups of humans are found as well: a seemingly medieval kingdom, a monastery whose existence revolves around scientific contemplation and study, and more. In each scenario, there are three people, and as the Doctor and his companions encounter them all, deaths begin to occur. But as much guilty as the time travelers feel for the mounting deaths, they’re even more shocked to learn that they’re just as responsible for bringing everyone they meet into existence.

Order this CDwritten by Jonathan Morris
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Fool Circle Productions

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Robert Whitelock (Professor Rickett / King Magus / Denyx), Phil Mulryne (Magpie / Calcula / Prince Erdos), Camilla Power (Perditia / Jenessa / Zaria), Bethan Walker (Javon / Pyrrha / Queen Antigone)

Timeline: after Castrovalva and before Iterations Of I and Four To Doomsday

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

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6th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

End Of The Line

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and his companion, Constance Clarke, arrive at a train station that seems to be in a strange limbo. A train car full of passengers finds nothing amiss with this situation, but when it becomes obvious that something out of the ordinary is happening, their reactions range from the kind of indignation reserved for an everyday traffic delay to something far worse. The Doctor and Constance quickly discover that not everyone aboard the train is what or who they seem to be. Neither is the train station, which serves as a nexus between multiple realities. Someone aboard the train is here to break down the barriers that keep those realities separated, unless the Doctor can stop them.

written by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Howard Carter

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Miranda Raison (Constance Clarke), Anthony Howell (Tim Hope), Chris Finney (Keith Potter), Ony Uhiara (Alice Lloyd), Hamish Clark (Norman), Maggie Service (Hilary Ratchett)

Notes: Maggie Service can be heard in nearly episode of the BBC2 sci-fi sitcom Hyperspace, as the inordinately cheerful voice of the ship’s PA system.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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6th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Red House

Doctor WhoThe Doctor, traveling in the company of Charlotte Pollard, arrives on an island populated by werewolves; there are werewolves in law enforcement and there are werewolf refugees as well. Charley is captured for the local constables and taken to meet “Doctor Pain”, while the Doctor is surrounded by the refugees and begins planning to help them free Charley and themselves. “Doctor Pain” is Dr. Paignton, a scientist seeking a way to permanently reverse the lycanthropy that has taken hold on the island, but she doesn’t believe Charley’s claims to be human. Fortunately, Paignton’s porter is a Time Lord, operating undercover, and he frees Charley from Paignton’s psychic extractor. He warns Charley that the Doctor is embarking on a course of action that could lead to genocide, and sets her free to warn him. As the werewolves take over Dr. Paignton’s facility, a last-ditch failsafe protocol is set into motion: nuclear missiles from the planet’s mainland will “neutralize” all life on the island unless the Doctor can stop them.

written by Alan Barnes
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Howard Carter

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), India Fisher (Charlotte Pollard), Michael Jayston (The Valeyard), Ashley McGuire (Sergeant), Andree Bernard (Dr. Paignton / Constable), Rory Keenan (Ugo), Jessie Buckley (Lina), Kieran Hodgson (Arin / Dennis)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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6th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Stage Fright

Doctor WhoThe Doctor brings Flip to Victorian London, where he plans to take her to Henry Gordon Jago’s theatre, only to find it closed – and Jago at the pub. Jago can afford a drink, though, because he has a new benefactor – a mysterious producer and self-appointed leading actor who has swept into London with a new show that overpowers its audience with emotion. Professor Charles Litefoot, on the other hand, is glad the Doctor is here to help him solve a string of mysterious murders, all of the victims aspiring actors. The Doctor is alarmed to see that the murder victims are dressed as his past companions, and that the theatrical extravaganza booked in Jago’s theatre consists of re-enactments of his past regenerations. When he discovers that the would-be theatre impresario is named “Mr. Yardvale”, the Doctor is sure he’s walking into a trap…of his own design.

written by Matt Fitton
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Howard Carter

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Lisa Greenwood (Flip), Christopher Benjamin (Henry Jago), Trevor Baxter (George Litefoot), Lisa Bowerman (Ellie Higson), Michael Jayston (The Valeyard), Andree Bernard (Susie/Sylvie), Lizzie Roper (Bella)

Notes: Star Wars is a part of the entertainment landscape in the Doctor Who universe; Flip uses the “Dark Side of the Force” analogy for the explanation of the Valeyard relative to the Doctor, though when she says she loved Jar Jar, even the Doctor finds its difficult to let her off the hook. (Poor Jar Jar.) Jago & Litefoot, stars of their own Big Finish audio spinoff series, are well acquainted with the Doctor in both his fourth and sixth incarnations; they first met the sixth Doctor in Voyage To Venus, continued traveling with him in Voyage To The New World, and encountered him again in the all-star audio saga The Worlds Of Doctor Who.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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6th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Last Adventure: The Brink Of Death

Doctor WhoIn the blink of an eye, the familiar, curly-haired, colorfully-clothed form of the Doctor’s sixth incarnation vanishes, replaced by the gaunt face of the Valeyard. The TARDIS travels onward, and Mel notices nothing.

The Doctor finds himself trapped in the Matrix, the repository of all Time Lord knowledge, as a fading echo of his own consciousness – the fate of all Time Lords when they meet their final death. A young Time Lady, Genesta, has found him in the Matrix and is able to reinstate his corporeal form, but he has very little time until even that is erased. The Valeyard has found a way to do what he hoped to do at the Doctor’s trial: to eliminate the Doctor and his future incarnations, and take the Doctor’s place. The Doctor can prevent this from happening with the time he has left, but only at the cost of bringing about events that will cause his next regeneration.

Order this CDwritten by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Howard Carter

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), Michael Jayston (The Valeyard), Liz White (Genesta), Robbie Stevens (Coordinator Storin / Nathemus 1), Susan Earnshaw (Lorelas / Nathemus 2), Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor)

Notes: Past Big Finish adventures have shown the Valeyard to have a near-obsession with rewriting the Doctor’s past, including (also in The Last Adventure box set) Stage Fright and the Doctor Who Unbound story He Jests At Scars… Though billed as the sixth Doctor’s regeneration story for Big Finish’s purposes, there had already been two regeneration stories for the sixth Doctor in print, the BBC Books novel Spiral Scratch, and the posthumously-finished charity novel Time’s Champion, co-written by the late Craig Hinton. All three tell, naturally, completely different stories, and in any case, while this plants an endpoint for the sixth Doctor in the audio world, it’s certainly not an end to Colin Baker playing the Doctor for Big Finish.

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

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3rd Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Prisoners Of The Lake

Doctor WhoUNIT is called in to an underwater archaeological site, where a team of scientists and other experts are investigating surprisingly advanced ancient ruins on a lake bed. But the ruins aren’t why Captain Mike Yates is there; he’s there to look into a number of missing artifacts from those ruins. The director of the project is surprisingly uncooperative, while Mike finds a more receptive ear among the scientists and dive teams. While he’s there, Mike witnesses the discovery of technology among the ruins, a find which he reports immediately to UNIT – and to the Doctor. The Doctor and Jo arrive promptly, and begin taking an active part in the investigation of the “ruins”, which the Doctor theorizes is a crashed spacecraft. The vehicle is guarded by statue-like robots capable of exerting deadly force. The scientists working on the project are now more determined than ever to get past these defenses to discover what’s inside the ship. The Doctor warns that perhaps the robotic guardians aren’t there to fend off scavengers from Earth, but may be there to protect Earth from what’s aboard their ship…

written by Justin Richards
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Jamie Robertson

Cast: Tim Treloar (The Doctor / Narrator), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Richard Franklin (Mike Yates), Carolyn Seymour (Freda Mattingly), Robbie Stevens (Johnny Repford / Director Pennard / Statue / Prosecutor), John Banks (Chief Dastron / Lt. Macintyre / UNIT Operative / Archaeologist)

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

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8th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Eleven

Doctor WhoThe Eleven, a Time Lord criminal who still hears all ten of his murderous prior incarnations as voices in his head, is brought to justice and returned to Gallifrey by the Doctor (in his seventh incarnation). Too dangerous for any normal imprisonment, the Eleven is confined to cold stasis.

The eighth Doctor and Liv Chenka, freshly escaped from their latest crisis, find that the TARDIS is out of their control, recalled to Gallifrey. The Doctor is tersely greeted by both an appointee of the High Council and the head of the Celestial Intervention Agency, reluctantly working together. Their goal: to recapture the Eleven, who escaped from confinement while being interviewed by a student from the Time Lord academy. Liv Chenka is able to spot the Eleven, thanks to his cloaking abilities being keyed to fool the senses of other Time Lords, but not humans. The Eleven tries to install himself as Gallifrey’s ruler in the absence of the President, but what he really wants is the President’s access to Gallifreyan relics of considerable power. His primary interest is in something called the Regeneration Codex, about which little is known, even by other Time Lords. Leaving a trail of death and destruction in his wake across Gallifrey’s Capitol, the Eleven steals a TARDIS and leaves for Earth. All too familiar with this course of action, the Doctor is deputized by the Time Lords to retrieve the Eleven at any cost.

Order this CD written by Matt Fitton
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Wilfredo Acosta

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), Nicola Walker (Liv Chenka), Mark Bonnar (The Eleven), Ramon Tikaram (Castellan), Caroline Langrishe (Lady Farina), Bethan Walker (Kiani), Robert Bathurst (Cardinal Padrac), John Banks (Captain), Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor)

Notes: The Omega Vault is mentioned, first cited in The Day Of The Doctor (2013) as the storehouse of the Time Lords’ most powerful weapons, though the Eleven seems to be particularly partial to the Sash and Rod of Rassilon, which are relics invested upon the sitting President of Gallifrey (The Deadly Assassin, 1976, and The Invasion Of Time, 1978). Flavia’s tenure as President is mentioned as well; she took office following the Doctor’s hasty retreat from being elected to that office in The Five Doctors (1983). Also mentioned are the current President, Romana, and her policy of allowing students from other time-sensitive species attend the Academy on Gallifrey; these events play out in the spin-off audio series Gallifrey.

Timeline: after Eye Of Darkness and before The Red Lady; before Night Of The Doctor

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

Categories
8th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Red Lady

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Liv arrive in London in the 1960s, expecting to find the Eleven or some sign of him. The Doctor pays a visit to the National Gallery, where he finds that a mysterious stone tablet dating back to ancient Greece, and a mysterious collection of artwork bequeathed to the Gallery after the death of its reclusive owner, has the experts stymied. One of those experts, Helen Sinclair, is none too pleased to find that the Doctor and Liv Chenka have broken into her office, but she’s even more shocked when a colleague – who has been obsessing over the collection of paintings – is killed. When the Doctor examines those pictures, he notices something that Helen’s unfortunate colleague reported: there’s a woman with red hair in each one, and she seems to be moving, as if to summon him. Liv notices something similar about another of the paintings, but sees nothing unusual about the one the Doctor is examining. The Red Lady is calling to each of them…and if they keep looking at her, she can escape from the paintings and dominate their minds forever.

Order this CD written by John Dorney
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Wilfredo Acosta

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), Nicola Walker (Liv Chenka), Hattie Morahan (Helen Sinclair), Caroline Langrishe (Red Lady / Rachel), David Yelland (Walter Pritchett), John Voce (Albert Kennedy / Professor)

Timeline: after The Eleven and before The Galileo Trap; before Night Of The Doctor

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

Categories
8th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Galileo Trap

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Liv, with Helen in tow, follow the distress signal from Galileo back to the 1600s. Helen has much to learn about blending in to Earth’s history as a time traveler, but someone else there is being even less quiet about it: she meets a man who knows what watches and photographs are. A local noble is killed during what seems to be a hunt for a creature that doesn’t belong on Earth. Finally, the Doctor locates Galileo in exile with his daughter, seemingly losing his mind…until, in a moment along, Galileo reveals that he does recognize the Doctor, and he is being held captive. The Eleven has engineered this trap, leaving assassins to deal with the Doctor while he moves on to his next goal.

Order this CD written by Marc Platt
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Wilfredo Acosta

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), Nicola Walker (Liv Chenka), Hattie Morahan (Helen Sinclair), John Woodvine (Galileo Galilei), Esther Hall (Virginia), Gunnar Cauthery (Cavalli), Ewan Bailey (Count Licori), Harry Myers (Cleaver), Mark Bonnar (The Eleven), Lizzie Mounter (Beggar Woman), John Banks (Monk / Youth)

Notes: The Doctor says that Galileo’s daughter gave him recorder lessons, which could be interpreted to mean that he last visited during his first or second incarnations (though the second Doctor’s variable ability to play the recorder may well indicate that a later incarnation felt the need for a refresher course).

Timeline: after The Red Lady and before The Satanic Mill; before Night Of The Doctor

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

Categories
8th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Satanic Mill

Doctor WhoThe Doctor, Liv, and Helen find themselves on another world where labor is forced to the point that workers die for not meeting quota. The Doctor goes to get to the bottom of this system, while Liv and Helen become trapped within it. But since they haven’t been brainwashed into total submission like this planet’s other residents, they quickly draw attention to themselves, at which Helen decides more overt interference is in order. The Doctor finds the Eleven at the reins, driving workers until they die in order to complete a device he needs to detonate a sun and create a black hole, replicating the sequence of events from which the Time Lords derived their power. The Eleven also wants to execute the Doctor, as slowly and painfully as possible, in the process. Even two companions may be unable to save him this time.

Order this CD written by Marc Platt
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Wilfredo Acosta

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), Nicola Walker (Liv Chenka), Hattie Morahan (Helen Sinclair), Mark Bonnar (The Eleven), Matthew Cottle (Paine), Ewan Bailey (Father Locke / Orbs), Robert Bathurst (Padrac), John Woodvine (Galileo Galilei)

Timeline: after The Galileo Trap and before Beachhead; before Night Of The Doctor

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

Categories
Big Finish Spinoffs Doctor Who The Audio Dramas UNIT

Vanguard

UNIT: The WastingKate Stewart of UNIT is invited to a public relations demonstration of a revolutionary low-cost 3-D printer marketed by Devlin FutureTech, which can print fully working electronics as well as simpler items. Devlin has had free printers donated to nearly every government office in the world, and promises to put 3-D printing in the hands of the entire human race. Kate is impressed, but is fairly certain that it’s of little interest to UNIT; she also finds herself hounded by a reporter who seems unusually well-informed about UNIT’s activities (and commanding officers) in the past. Back at UNIT HQ in the Tower of London, Osgood tracks an incoming swarm of objects heading toward Earth, and with Colonel Shindi and Captain Carter, sets out to find any objects that survive the Earth’s atmosphere and hit the ground. Many of the objects arrive intact around the world, and Osgood recognizes them instantly from UNIT’s records: a Nestene energy sphere, signaling a new Auton invasion.

written by Matt Fitton
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Howard Carter

Cast: Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Ingrid Oliver (Osgood), Warren Brown (Lieutenant Sam Bishop), Ramon Tikaram (Colonel Shindi), James Joyce (Captain Josh Carter), Steve John Shepherd (Simon Devlin), Karina Fernandez (Jenna Gold), Tracy Wiles (Jacqui McGee), Derek Carlyle (Tim Stevens) and Nicholas Briggs (Nestene Consciousness)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Big Finish Spinoffs Doctor Who The Audio Dramas UNIT

Earthfall

UNIT: The WastingOsgood is sent to the Gobi Desert to work with a UNIT operative, Lt. Sam Bishop, in locating a Nestene sphere of particular interest, a control sphere coordinating the movement of others around it. What they discover is that Autons are already on the scene, led by Devlin’s executive assistant, and the sphere itself is missing. Sam is injured in a firefight and Osgood is taken hostage by the Autons. Sam finds himself in the care of a Bedouin tribe, also in possession of the Nestene control sphere, and sets out to lure the Autons back to him so he can rescue Osgood. Kate pays Devlin, the head of Devlin FutureTech, a personal visit, trying to find out about Devlin’s recent unprecedented investment into the petrochemical and plastic industries, and his company’s overnight transformation from an IT company into the world’s leading maker of 3-D printers. When he reveals that he recovered from a debilitating disease by having his skull replaced with a plastic one, it seems to confirm Kate’s supicions that Devlin is in league with the Autons.

written by Andrew Smith
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Howard Carter

Cast: Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Ingrid Oliver (Osgood), Warren Brown (Lieutenant Sam Bishop), Ramon Tikaram (Colonel Shindi), James Joyce (Captain Josh Carter), Steve John Shepherd (Simon Devlin), Karina Fernandez (Jenna Gold), Tracy Wiles (Jacqui McGee), Derek Carlyle (Tim Stevens) and Nicholas Briggs (Nestene Consciousness)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who The Audio Dramas War Doctor

The Innocent

Doctor WhoCardinal Olistra of the Time Lords receives word that the Doctor has died in the latest battle of the Time War, taking the place of two Time Lord soldiers sent to deploy the Daleks’ own Time Destructor in the path of their advance against Gallifrey. The Doctor felt more qualified – and likely to survive – than the young Time Lords whose place he takes. Indeed, he does survive, escaping (just barely) in his TARDIS, which lands on the planet Cesca, a world seemingly untouched by the Time War. But it’s still a planet at war: the native Cescans are under siege by their enemies, the Tarlians. The Doctor acts quickly to fend off a Tarlian attack, but when he is offered a reward, he asks to be left alone in peace. His request is almost granted; the only person who doesn’t honor it is the girl who first found him when his TARDIS landed there. Fascinated by his tales of travel through time, she wants to join him when he leaves, but the Doctor insists that he doesn’t take on companions anymore. The Doctor also insists that he is a monster, and she doesn’t believe him. But the Time Lords want him back on Gallifrey, fighting for their side – and they are not above doing away with the Doctor’s would-be companion for their own purposes.

written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Howard Carter

Cast: John Hurt (The War Doctor), Jacqueline Pearce (Cardinal Ollistra), Lucy Briggs-Owen (The Nursemaid), Carolyn Seymour (The Slave). Beth Chalmers (Veklin), Alex Wyndham (Seratrix), Kieran Hodgson (Bennus), Barnaby Edwards (Arverton), Mark McDonnell (Traanus), John Banks (Garv), Nicholas Briggs (Daleks)

Notes: The Dalek Time Destructor was last deployed, to devastating effect, on the planet Kembel in part 12 of The Daleks’ Masterplan (1966); on that occasion, it was activated by the first Doctor’s companion, Sara Kingdom, who paid for it with her life.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Big Finish Spinoffs Diary Of River Song Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Boundless Sea

Doctor WhoRiver is granted a temporary release from her stormcage prison cell to undertake a dangerous mission. The assignment seems simple enough: River, an archaeologist, is being asked to impersonate an archaeologist…on Earth, at a time when a gun-toting female archaeologist just isn’t the norm. But she’ll need those skills to investigate the disappearance of a young woman in an ancient tomb, especially when the young woman turns up again…as something a little bit less than human.

written by Jenny T. Colgan
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Howard Carter

Cast: Alex Kingston (River Song), Alexander Vlahos (Bertie Potts), Alexander Siddig (Marcus Gifford), Imogen Stubbs (Isabella Clerkwell), Gbemisola Ikumelo (Prim), Charlotte Christie (Daphne Garsington)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
10th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Technophobia

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Donna visit London’s Museum of Modern Technology in 2016, where they find not only the latest in cutting-edge tech, but the staff slowly losing their minds and cowering fearfully from anything electronic or electrical in nature. Aliens stalk the Museum, claiming the minds and lives of anyone who find them there. The time travelers flee into the Underground train system, stumbling across the aliens’ base of operations. These aliens, the Cognoscenti, invade by first devolving the minds of their invasion targets en masse, reducing them to a non-technological civilization incapable of mounting a resistance against a sophisticated enemy. But the Cognoscenti didn’t know the Doctor would be here – and after exposure to their mind-draining weapon, even the Doctor doesn’t know how to save the day.

written by Matt Fitton
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Howard Carter

Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna), Niky Wardley (Bex), Rachael Stirling (Jill Meadows), Chook Sibtain (Brian), Rory Keenan (Kevin), Jot Davies (Lukas)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green