Audio and radio play reviews

Typically, the Big Finish Companion Chronicles try to fit in with the writing style of the Doctor Who era in which they’re set. So the Hartnell stories tend to be (waves hands a bit, since it’s a bit more complicated than this) a bit hardcore sci-fi or historical, the Troughton ones have veered towards daft sci-fi and historicals, the Pertwee ones to monster stories and so on.

Set during the reign of the Fifth Doctor, Ringpullworld in no way attempts to fit in. It doesn’t feel like Doctor Who at all, at times. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because if you squint a bit, you could actually imagine this was written by Douglas Adams, since it’s probably the cleverest and most entertaining of all the Companion Chronicles so far. It really is that good.

Funny that it’s about Turlough, mind.

Continue reading “Review: The Companion Chronicles 4×5 – Ringpullworld”

As promised last review, I’m going to neatly step over the third in the latest series of Big Finish’s Companion Chronicles, The Prisoner of Peladon, on the general grounds that there are no companions in it, which is clearly taking the piss.

Instead, let’s talk aboutThe Pyralis Effect, starring Lalla Ward as Romana II. Now, despite the fact almost everyone loves the Fourth Doctor, most of the Companion Chronicles featuring him and his various assistants have been terrible, whether they feature Leela, Romana I or Romana II.

But, as you might have noticed, over series three of The Companion Chronicles and as we’ve gone through series four, the whole range began to get much, much better. So should it surprise you much to hear that, in contrast to those previous Fourth Doctor Chronicles, The Pyralis Effect is actually pretty good?

Continue reading “Review: The Companion Chronicles 4×4 – The Pyralis Effect”

When first we met James Robert McCrimmon, he was fighting the Battle of Culloden in one of Doctor Who‘s last few purely historical stories, The Highlanders. He left at the end of The War Games, his memories of his time with the Doctor wiped by the Time Lords – who then ended up using him and the Second Doctor as time agents during the mythical “season 6a” that the Sixth Doctor story The Two Doctors appears to reveal.

When we last met him in the Big Finish plays, it was for a Companion Chronicle, Helicon Prime, which – to put it bluntly – was absolute rubbish. To be fair, until recently, all the second Doctor Companion Chronicles were rubbish, so Helicon Prime wasn’t on its own for this quality shortfall. But it was rubbish.

Nevertheless, despite this inauspicious return, Jamie’s back in a big way – Big Finish intend to have him in a two-handed Companion Chronicle with Deborah Watling as Victoria in March, and as a companion of the Sixth Doctor in a forthcoming trilogy of plays (one of which will also feature Wendy Padbury as Zoe) and a Companion Chronicle.

So you might have been expecting this play, in which an agent of the Time Lord’s Celestial Intervention Agency gives Jamie back his memories of his time with the Doctor, to be the launch of this Jamie range.

Wrong.

Instead, we have a pretty good historical story – with just a hint of sci-fi – set during England’s Glorious Revolution.

Continue reading “Review: The Companion Chronicles 4×2 – The Glorious Revolution”

Big Finish are in something of a quandary when it comes to these Lost Stories. The idea behind them is to do a “full cast” production of a script or story that for one reason or another never got made, so that fans can finally have something like what was supposed to be on screen (but wasn’t).  

But as I’ve said before, sometimes there have been good reasons for stories not getting made. For example, apart from production difficulties, the script not getting handed in on time, etc, how about because it’s just rubbish?

What do you do if you’re Big Finish and the story is an absolute heap of sh*te? I mean terrifyingly, Timelash/Twin Dilemma bad. On TV, there are these people called script editors who take the scripts writers produce and, if necessary, make them palatable. But if Big Finish edits a really bad script that never got passed by a script editor, is it the authentic production fans wanted? If they don’t, aren’t they going to be making an absolute heap of Timelash sh*te?

The route Big Finish chose with Mission To Magnus, Philip Martin’s lost script from Colin Baker’s aborted second season, was not to edit the script. Oh dear.

Now Mission To Magnus has everything: it has the Doctor’s school bully; it has a planet ruled by women facing war with a planet ruled by men; it has Sil from Vengeance on Varos, who has a consignment of winter woolies (his words, not mine) to sell; it has child actors.

In short, it’s an absolute heap of sh*te. Normally, I don’t endorse Third Reich policies, but if you can, please burn any copies of this play that you come across. Please.

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – The Lost Stories – 02 – Mission To Magnus”