Doctor Who

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”