Big Finish - The Feast of Axos

The Feast of Axos by Mike Maddox, directed by Nicholas Briggs.

Continuing the arc of stories featuring the Sixth Doctor, Evelyn Smythe and Thomas Brewster. This harks back to an adventure from the Third Doctor's time on television. The space parasite Axos was left deactivated in orbit around the Earth by the Doctor, but now humanity is facing a power crisis and have sent up a mission to restart Axos and harness its power for Earth. Well we know that's not going to go well don't we?

The Sixth Doctor and Evelyn continue to be one of my favourite Big Finish combinations. It seems that the grumpy Doctor meets his match with an older, no-nonsense companion. I just love a Dr Smythe story, her brief but eventful space walk is a highlight of this audio drama. Sadly Maggie Stables is not very well at the present so we may not get any more stories with her. I shall have to look at the back catalogue and see if I have missed any of her adventures while hoping that Ms Stables feels better soon.

On the other hand I am still unsure about Thomas Brewster. John Pickard's performance is fine but for some reason the character does nothing for me. He's just there and I could take him or leave him. Maybe I will be more convinced by Industrial Evolution.

The rest of the production is pretty good and it was nice to see a France space mission depicted as brave and resourceful for a change. But, apart from the Evelyn scenes this story didn't do a great deal for me. Middle of the road 2.5 out of 5 claws of Axos for this one.