Big Finish - Dark Eyes 4

The Dark Eyes series has been a huge success for Big Finish and here is the fourth and final box set, written by Marc Fitton and John Dorney, and directed by Ken Bentley.

Liv Chenka is back, as is the Master and the Daleks, and they are joined by Sontarans as well. Paul McGann is as engaging as ever as the Eight Doctor and Alex MacQueen attacks the bad guy role with his usual relish.

The final tale of Molly O'Sullivan and her dark eyes is all explained but along the way there are some interesting interludes most notably in the first story A Life in the Day which tells a remarkable time loop story with a touching love affair at its heart. It is probably the best thing in the whole box set and extremely well done.

Elsewhere a different actress plays the older Molly with considerable success and there are the final pieces in the jigsaw puzzle of the origin of the Eminence. I may have missed this in an earlier story but I was stunned when I realised how a scientific acronym gave the Eminence its name. Very clever writing indeed.

I've enjoyed each of the Dark Eyes box sets and this one was no exception. A solid 4 out of 5 time loops.

Big Finish - Mistfall

Four blog posts in one day, I must be at a loose end. Having skipped the last Sixth Doctor trilogy from the Big Finish monthly Doctor Who range I dip my toe back in to find out what Peter Davison and the rest of his Tardis crew are doing in Mistfall. Written by Andrew Smith and directed by Ken Bentley.

From the Big Finish synopsis: Drawn off-course, the TARDIS passes through a CVE into a closed universe – a hugely improbable event with a tragically obvious cause. In order to escape inescapable E-Space, the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough are forced to venture in the wilds of planet Alzarius. And immediatly I'm in trouble because this all refers back to TV episodes that I haven't seen, so the back story is a mystery to me. And yet again this story slipped past me while I was listening to it in the car.

There's the inevitable splitting up of the Tardis team, and there are some nasty swamp beasties who must not be woken from their hibernation, so of course that's what happens straight away. And in all of this the ever reliable Peter Davison does his best, while Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson rush around without very much to do. Four people is too many for one Tardis, and there are too many other characters so I lost what little grasp I had on the plot from the start.

I may need a longer break to get my Doctor Who bug back. At the moment I'm only interested in Dark Eyes, Sherlock Holmes and possibly the next installment of their Survivors series, but nothing more than that. I suspect Mistfall is pretty good but it got past me with a mere 2.5 out of 5 Marshmellow Men. Will I regain my Equilibrium with the next release?

Big Finish - The Judgement of Sherlock Holmes

The Judgement of Sherlock Holmes, written by Jonathan Barnes and directed by Ken Bentley.

The third of three recent special releases from Big Finish. Dark Eyes 3 was terrific, Frankenstein was sublime, can Holmes possibly match their high standard? This box set goes some way to explaining what Holmes did in the gap years between the Reichenbach Falls and his return to London. It links Dr Watson, Mycroft Holmes, Inspector Lestrade and the Great Detective himself as their different adventures are revealed to be linked by the fight against a sinister secret society. The story shifts across the globe as the characters try and unravel the mystery that threatens to disrupt everything the British Empire holds dear.

It's a clever juggling act to have the well known double act of Holmes and Watson separated but somehow working on the same case. Barnes manages to keep all the plates spinning and still give us all of the cracking moments of action, adventure and criminal deduction that we want from a Sherlock Holmes story. There are some terrific battles of wills as our heroes clash with the villains and try and decide the fate of England with their verbal sparring. A radio play is the perfect setting for these philosophical debates between good and evil, and interestingly here the main battle takes us all the way back to the birth of philosophical study. Well done, Mr Barnes.

Nicholas Briggs and Richard Earl are now firmly ensconced as my favourite incarnations of Holmes and Watson. They just sound perfect for the parts and deliver tremendous performances. They are ably supported by a great cast with Tim Bentinck and Jemma Churchill standing out as Mycroft Holmes and Helena Eidelmann respectively.

As ever the sound design and music are brilliant and it's all delivered with the usual high standard we expect from Big Finish. If I have any quibble it might be that the scene between Sherlock and Mycroft were they try to outdo each other with their deductive powers in a restaurant probably strayed over the line into improbability, but it wouldn't be a Homes story without some imposible feat of mental acuity.

Overall it's smashing package and my favourite of the three recent releases. Impossible to give it less than five stars.

Big Finish - Frankenstein

Another quick review for another bit of enjoyable Big Finish audio. Frankenstein adapted by Jonathan Barnes and directed by Scott Handcock, with Arthur Darville as Victor Frankenstein and Nicholas Briggs as his Creation.

A pretty faithful adaptation that really brings out the theme of Frankenstein's rejection of his monstrous offspring. Briggs does a great job and gives the creature a voice that was both unexpected and particularly fitting. His philosophical jousting with his "father/mother" are the highlight of this terrific production. Some other members of the Big Finish family round out the cast including Geoffrey Beevers, Georgia Moffett and Terry Molloy.

Quite possibly my favourite adaptation of the book at the moment. Five stars and on towards the return of Sherlock Holmes.

Dark Eyes 3

Big Finish keep pulling me in with their special releases and here we go again with Dark Eyes 3, written by Matt Fitton and directed by Ken Bentley.

Paul McGann is back as the Eighth Doctor and up against Alex McQueen as his nemesis the Master. Plus there's Molly O'Sullivan and the fearsome Eminence who is now set up as a major presence affecting several of the Big Finish Doctors. It rattles along with great verve and while some of it may have been a bit confusing in places it was still terrific fun.

McGann is as good as ever and McQueen gets the most out of his role as the villain with scene stealing relish. Not so much Ruth Bradley this time as she was off being busy elsewhere, but Nicola Walker makes a good companion instead. There will be a Dark Eyes 4 which will apparently wrap up this whole Molly O'Sullivan storyline, and I will probably be there for that one as well.

Four out of five stars.

Big Finish - Mask of Tragedy and Signs and Wonders

It's double release month for the Big Finish main Doctor Who range so two Seventh Doctor stories here. Mask of Tragedy by James Goss, and Signs and Wonders by Matt Fitton, both directed by Ken Bentley.

Two stories that wrap up Hector/Hex story line and set things up for a new Tardis team. The first is set in ancient Greece and features Aristophanes and his plays, and the second brings Hector back to his home town of Liverpool which seems to be on the verge of some apocalyptic event. Along the way the Doctor, Ace, Hex and Sally get separated, reunited and do plenty of dialoguing with a variety of aliens and big bad guys.

It will come as no surprise to learn that I am a bit bored with this particular Tardis grouping, and that sense of ennui is worst in the first story because it features Philip Olivier doing a "voice" again. Honestly, it's a bad idea and thankfully the Signs and Wonders story sticks with his familiar scouse accent.

There's some good performances in here and a few interesting ideas but on the whole they just went on and on and I lost the plot quite a lot.

I can't wait for the forthcoming Big Finish adaptation of Frankenstein and their next Sherlock Holmes box set but I may need to take a break from the main Doctor Who series for a while until something interesting comes up. Two stars for Mask of Tragedy and 2.5 for Signs and Wonders because it doesn't feature a "voice".

Big Finish - Revenge of the Swarm

The latest from the monthly main range: Revenge of the Swarm by Jonathan Morris, directed by Ken Bentley.

Back to the Seventh, Ace and Hex combination with the ongoing plot about restoring Hex's original memories, but first there's a plague ridden space station and a return of the Swarm from the Fourth Doctor television story The Invisible Enemy. The Doctor seems to have the bad guys defeated and the whole thing wrapped up after two episodes, so much so that the third and fourth parts seemed like unnecessary padding. Still the Doctor gets to roll some Rs with relish and Ace rides a light bike from Tron and makes a nice Jet Set Willy reference.

It's all done with the usual Big Finish professionalism apart from one sore point. Philip Olivier has to do a Swarm possessed Hex voice and while he sounds entirely natural when doing his normal voice he struggles with his alien inflected tone. It really stood out for the wrong reasons and spoiled the last two parts for me. Shame really as this was almost a good Seventh Doctor story.

So only two of out a possible five light cycles for the first part of what appears to be a Seventh versus bugs trilogy. Ho hum and roll on the next Big Finish Sherlock Holmes release please.

Big Finish - Omega

Last of the £1 purchases: Omega by Nev Fountain, directed by Gary Russell, with Ian Collier as Omega and Caroline Munro as Sentia.

Let me quote from the Big Finish blurb itself: A strange telepathic message prompts the Doctor to travel to the 'Sector of Forgotten Souls', a place where, thousands of years ago, Omega's ship vanished whilst detonating a star. He's not the only one journeying towards it. 'Jolly Chronolidays' prides itself on giving its tourists an experience of galactic history that is far better than mere time travel.

And of course this is not just a holiday recreation of the legend of Omega, the big bag guy is going to make an appearance and we are set for a head to head debate between the Fifth Doctor and Omega himself. This is one of three stories Big Finish ran in their first fifty releases that dealt with three big bads, I have listened to the Seventh Doctor's encounter with the Master but have not yet bought Davros with Colin Baker as the Sixth. Now my big problem with this is that I have almost no familiarity with the character of Omega. Everyone knows Davros and the Master but I can't remember any of the television stories in which Omega appears. So I missed most of the significance of his rantings in this story. The head to head stuff was pretty good and there is a nice twist involved which set this apart from some other clashes with big bad guys. And, of course, there is the delectable Caroline Munro as Sentia. She doesn't look like she did in the 1970s when I was completelty smitten but she still sounds sexy to me.

So it's a bit of an oddity, as have been my other two £1 purchases. I'm going to be generous and swayed by the presence of Ms Munro and give this 3.5 out of a possible 5 hands of Omega. Perhaps I should get the Sixth and Davros story and complete the trilogy but in the meantime it's back to the main range because there's a new Seventh Doctor story to tee up next.

Big Finish - Loups-Garoux

Another £1 offering from the sale, Loups-Garoux by Marc Platt, directed by Nicholas Pegg.

The Fifth Doctor and Turlough are in Rio de Janeiro for the carnival but get caught up in a hunt for a Werewolf and a race to death on a speeding monorail train. Actually it's even more confusing than that and I can't really remember all the other stuff that happens and quite how the Doctor resolves it all in the end. This one felt very long indeed, like an episode of Thunderbirds with Jeff Tracy and Lady Penelope stuck on a runaway train while the Thunderbirds try to come to the rescue.

I was hoping for a creepy Werewolf tale (or tail even?) but it was all a bit confusing and dragged out for me. The cast are all fine, Eleanor Bron and Bert Kwouk are in it which was a surprise. As ever there is nothing wrong with the production values but it just didn't do it for me at all and I found my attention wandering. I confess I also miss not having the CD extras on the these earlier releases. Who would have thought that I would miss hearing the Big Finish actors waffle on about the terrific lunches they get while recording?

2 out of 5 Lupine antidotes and on to Omega we go.

Big Finish - Doctor Who and the Pirates

I picked up three titles for a £1 each in the recent Big Finish fifteen year anniversary sale and here is the first. Doctor Who and the Pirates by Jacqueline Rayner, directed by Barnaby Edwards.

Evelyn Smythe visits one of her students to recount a somewhat improbable tale of the Sixth Doctor and some seafaring shenanigans. But there is something deeper than Davy Jones locker going on and the nonsensical tale has a point. However there is a fair bit of that nonsense to get through before we learn the true purpose of Dr Smythe's visit. And there is some singing, in fact the third act is a musical and how you feel about that my depend on whether you can stand the light operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. It has to be said that the cast do a pretty good job of their singing duties but it was not quite my thing. 

The pirate stuff including a rather over the top performance by a Bill Oddie is a bit tiresome but the framing story is rather touching and Maggie Stables is as good as ever. I just wish we could have some more from her but that probably isn't going to happen which is a great shame.

So a bit of a mixed bag that gets three out of piratical eye patches, but not at all bad for a pound. Next up from the Big Finish pound shop is the Fifth Doctor and some Werewolves.

Big Finish - Breaking Bubbles and other stories

This monthly release from Big Finish is one of the yearly collection of four shorter stories with some sort of shared theme. Breaking Bubbles and other stories.

I'll borrow the copy from their website to give you the details of the four stories:

An anthology of four tales on the theme of perception.

Breaking Bubbles by LM Myles

The Doctor and Peri find themselves in the palatial gardens of the deposed Empress Safira Valtris where nothing is ever quite what it seems.

Of Chaos Time The by Mark Ravenhill

Cast adrift in his own chronology, the Doctor must avert the consequences of a catastrophic experiment in using time as a weapon of war.

An Eye For Murder by Una McCormack

The year is 1939, and a case of poison pen letters at St Ursula’s College threatens to change the course of the Second World War. Fortunately thriller writer Miss Sarah Perry is on hand to investigate...

The Curious Incident of the Doctor in the Night-Time by Nev Fountain

Michael is a young boy who likes to solve mysteries, such as the mystery of the extra gnome, the mystery of the absent father, and the mystery of the strange man in yellow trousers at the bottom of the garden.

All are directed by Nicholas "he never sleeps" Briggs.

Let's be honest I'm a bit jaded with old Sixie at the moment and even pairing him with the lovely Nicola Bryant didn't get me terribly excited about this release. Having said that the second and fourth stories stood out and did something interesting. The Curious Incident actually does quite well with its version of the original book.

This may be a perfect CD set to hand to a newcomer to give them a flavour of what Big Finish can do. Art and production design are up to their usual high standards. So I'll give it 2 out of 5 garden gnomes and hope that Sixie finds a Big Finish companion who can put him in his place as well as Evelyn Smythe. Step up, Flip Jackson.

Big Finish - Survivors

Brian, my co-host on the British Invaders podcast, convinced me that I should try Big Finish's Survivors boxset and I wasn't disappointed.

The original Terry nation series was one of the great pieces of seventies television. A terrible world where the self sufficiency of the Good Life had become a matter of life and death. Big Finish have kept the original setting and woven a story that includes characters from the originals and introduces new ones as well. 

As ever with fictional apocalypses the story offers both theory and practice of different models of survival. This is best demonstrated here by the performance of Adrian Lukis as James Gillison, a former sociology lecturer who has a vision of a perfect co-operative community that slowly goes wrong as he morphs from savior to something much worse.

It goes with saying that the performances are good, and the sound design and terrifying music by Nick Briggs are perfect. Of course it's great to have the original theme tune up there but the strange background music really builds mood and suspense.

I'm delighted that Big Finish are getting so many new licences and doing great things with them. Long may they continue, and I look forward to future releases in the Survivors range. This is a five star production all round. Highly recommended.

You can hear what Brian and I made of the original TV series here.

Big Finish - Masquerade

Masquerade by Stephen Cole, directed by Ken Bentley.

The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa find themselves caught up in a seventeenth century French chateau full of dangerous liaisons, but because this is Doctor Who there is much more to this than meets the eye (or ear?). And there is a strange and threatening presence lurking in the wings known only as the Steamroller man.

The first chapter of this story is rather good with the Doctor and Nyssa slowly realising that their memories and perceptions are being manipulated. In fact I could have done with this going on a little longer but the constraints of the four act structure demand a revelation and a cliffhanger every twenty five minutes. Once the mystery of what is really going on is revealed then it just becomes a succession of techno babble explanations and a lot of shouting.

I have to say that the background music here also stood out for the wrong reasons. It was too noticeable to me and jarred somehow which is me being very unfair on the composer, and the huge amount of background music that Big Finish have to produce every month. On the plus side all the performances are good and Peter Davison is his usual relaxed self in the CD extra interviews.

I think Tomb Ship was the best of this Fifth Doctor trilogy. Masquerade gets a middling 3 out of 5 powdered wigs. Next month it's the turn of Sixie and some short stories.

Big Finish - Tomb Ship

Tomb Ship by Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby, directed by Ken Bentley.

The latest from the Big Finish monthly range and it feels like I haven't done one of these in a while what with all the 2000AD reviews. I am only getting the main Doctor Who range  now and no others, although at some point I will probably return to the Jago and Litefoot series when time and money allow. In the meantime here is a stand alone Fifth Doctor and Nyssa story where they land on a mysterious ship, soon realise it is full of traps but when they try to return to the Tardis find it has vanished. Inevitably there are several other characters on board, all with their own agenda and  the Doctor is recruited to solve all the puzzles and try to negotiate safe passage to whatever treasure the ship is hiding.

Keeping with the 2000AD theme this is written by a pair of Tharg's script droids and there are some comic book elements to the puzzles. And I do like a Fifth Doctor series where he is conflict with the people he meets while still trying to save them from the desperate scenario they find themselves in. That was what made The Burning Prince so good. Tomb Ship seems like it is going to head down similar lines but doesn't quite manage the same sense of desperate urgency that story conveyed. Peter Davison is tremendous fun as ever, but I am still trying to feel some sense of connection to Nyssa who still seems naive and uninteresting.

Cast and crew deliver their usual high standard of production and the CD extra interviews are fun. I wonder who will organise these now after the sad death of Paul Spragg. Tomb ship feels like it would have been a fairly traditional Saturday teatime Doctor Who serial and that's no bad thing, and it was better than last month's Moonflesh. Four out of five pairs of cricket trousers and lets hope for a Jago and Litefoot sale soon.

Big Finish - Jago & Litefoot season four

More fun is to be had with the redoubtable investigators of the infernal, Jago and Litefoot, and here is the fourth box set with four more stories.

Here's what you get:

4.1 Jago in Love by Nigel Fairs
4.2 Beautiful Things by John Dorney
4.3 The Lonely Clock by Matthew Sweet
4.4 The Hourglass Killers by Justin Richards
And an extra bonus CD of behind-the-scenes material.

Leela is still on board and Colin Baker turns up as the mysterious Professor Cornelius Dark. Meanwhile the stories are linked by the malign manipulations of two bad guys called Mr Kempston and Mr Hardwick.

The vocal variety act provided by Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin continues to steal the show. And I always enjoy a Matthew Sweet story. As well as the extra fixtures on the bonus CD each story ends with some interviews with the writers and actors, and I could happily listen to Mr Sweet talk about anything, particularly this sort of Victoriana in which he specialises.

Away from the main actors the bad guys are performed with a certain amount of relish by Christopher Beeny and Mike Grady. The reveal that Cornelius Dark is really the Sixth Doctor is no surprise at all, and Leela's character seems a bit variable depending on which episode she is in.

Jago & Litefoot are really splendid and my favourite flavour of Big Finish at the moment. I'm not sure this is quite up to the high standards of the first three sets but still 4 out of 5 end of pier peep shows.

Big Finish - Moonflesh

Hot off the press with the latest monthly release from the main Big Finish Doctor Who range. Moonflesh by Mark Morris, directed by Ken Bentley.

Doctor number Five and Nyssa arrive in a 1911 Suffolk wildlife park just in time to join a hunting party. But there is something strange lurking among the various artifacts collected by the owner, Nathaniel Whitlock, and before long they are caught up in a earlier version of John Carpenter's The Thing. Someone is possessed by the alien force but who is it and what is the alien's plan?

Some slightly silly voices from the actors in this one and that's before they start getting taken over by the alien energy force. In particular the two older male characters seem determined to outdo each other for British bluster and bravado. The idea of the hidden alien from The Thing, or John Campbell's original short story Who Goes There? on which the film was based is a terrific one and I rather hoped for more of that creeping paranoia in this story. Sadly they didn't really stick with this theme until it reappeared for the finale.

So a bit of a missed opportunity for me, and I still find Nyssa a bit dull. Peter Davison is splendid as ever but I struggled with the scenes that he wasn't in. A middling 3 out of 5 weird red meteorites. My main range malaise continues.

Big Finish - The Mahogany Murderers

I've got season four of Jago and Litefoot ready to go on my iPod but I realised that I have never listened to their first Big Finish story which appeared in the Companion Chronicles series. I've just taken out a new subscription to the main range (I caved in) so I used the free gift option to pick it up. 

The Mahogany Murderers by Andy Lane, directed by Lisa Bowerman.

Henry Gordon Jago and Professor Litefoot team up for the first time after the Talons of Weng Chiang and take turns recounting a series of meetings with some remarkable wooden mannequins which seem to be responsible for several deaths. There are a couple of problems with this adventure, firstly the titular heroes are not quite the firm friends that they become in their subsequent series which is a shame. Their relationship is slightly spiky and I prefer their bonhomie in the box sets.

The second problem is a familiar one for me which is that I just don't get on so well with the narrated stories as compared with the full cast stuff. And the companion chronicles have small casts and do the narration thing. So it's the full cast productions in their regular series that appeal the most.

Having said that Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter are probably two of the best voices from all the Big Finish regulars. Plus this story does introduce the villainous Doctor Tulp who featured in season one. It's good but just not great, 3 out of 5 wooden hearts.

Big Finish - Judge Dredd: The Crime Chronicles

Big Finish have to make harsh business decisions based on what they can flog to us. Their big sellers like the main Doctor Who range, Sherlock Holmes and Blake's 7 have a guaranteed audience, but their ventures out into other franchises are always going to be risky to see if they can recoup their costs and turn a profit.

The full cast audio 2000AD adventures ran from 2002 to 2004 although by the last one the cast was basically just Toby Longworth doing all the voices himself. I presume they thought they could sustain the series if they reduced the stories to something more like an enhanced audio-book, mainly one person narrating but with one or maybe two other voices appearing briefly. And so, after a five year gap,  we got the four crime chronicles.

I have to say that the single voice telling a story is not my favourite flavour of Big Finish so I was approaching these with some trepidation. But they are the last of the 2000AD audios so here goes.

1.01 Stranger than Truth by David Bishop. The series are all directed by John Ainsworth

An academic is hoping to meet Mega City One's most famous author Truman Kaput but it seems that a character from his books has come to life and is murdering his way towards his creator.

This one switches the action between narration from the book character and the Brit-Cit scholar whose researches are dogged by the rising body count. So it was closer to the main range stories than what is to come. Still a bit dull though and it never quite explains why Dredd is acting so strangely. 2.5 out of 5

1.02 Blood Will Tell by James Swallow

Dredd is forced to account for his actions at an SJS hearing after he tangles with a Judge who took the Long Walk and then returned to attack his former city.

Putting Dredd right in the middle of this one makes it the best of the bunch. Toby Longworth as ever gives good voice, and having him tangle with rogue Judges is always good value. 3 out of 5 stars.

1.02 The Devil's Playground by Jonathan Clements

A religious community that are clearly based on the Amish live in a protected block within the Mega-City. Once their youngsters reach 18 they are allowed out into the big city for a year's experience before deciding whether to return to their sequestered lifestyle. Except one of them has been murdered and her best friend need's Dredd's help to find out why.

Mostly narrated as a straightforward story by the actress Gemma Wardle with just a few bits of Longworth's Dredd and it was just too long and dull for me. The Amish parallels are too easy and obvious, there is a basic mistake about how Dredd's Lawgiver works, and the cover image gives away the ending. Worst of the bunch I'm afraid. 2 out of 5.

1.04 Double Zero by James Swallow

Dredd and Anderson have to track down a powerful psychic before undercover agents from other cities find him and kill him.

Louise Jameson is a Big Finish regular and a versatile actress, but she doesn't sound like Cassandra Anderson to me. Her american accent may not be her strongest and suffers when heard next to Longworth's. And the super psychic kid storyline runs pretty frequently anyway. Another 2.5 out of 5 stars and the series rather peters out with a whimper instead of a bang.

The Crime Chronicles never really scale the heights of full cast audio adventures like Death Trap, Get Karter and the two Strontium Dogs, and I guess the sales weren't great as there have been no more since. The availability of the 2000AD range is a bit patchy which may be down to rights problems and a shortage of actual CDs. I think only 9 of the original 18 full cast stories are available now, but you can still get all the Crime Chronicles. Or you can head to the BBC cult site where 5 of the stories including the two Simon Pegg Strontium Dog adventures are still there for nowt.

Overall for these four stories a middling 2.5 out of 5 badge chain links. There are better stories out there.

Big Finish - Scavenger

Scavenger is release number 184 and it's written by William Gallagher and directed by Nicholas Briggs.

Thursday 28 May 2071: the day the Anglo-Indian Salvage 2 rocket launches. Its mission: to clean up space; to remove from Earth’s orbit over a century’s worth of man-made junk, and the Doctor and Flip are there to watch. However they are soon separated with Flip floating about in a spacesuit while the Doctor is down on Earth trying to persuade mission control to let him save the day.

This was recorded back in June 2013 and goodness knows how long before that it was commissioned and written. So it is just an unfortunate coincidence that the set up seems quite similar to the Sandra Bullock movie Gravity. There's a similar chain reaction of destroyed satellites and a couple of astronauts floating in space having to use their wits to save themselves.

I've been struggling so far with this Sixth and Flip trilogy, neither Antidote to Oblivion or The Brood of Erys really grabbed me. This is better than either of those but not by much. The story works a bit better and Flip is less annoying than normal, but I think I need a bit of a Colin Baker break. I do love him and his grumpy Doctor but his stories seem a bit dull at the moment. And I had a slight problem with the way he pronounced one character's names. It's an unusual Indian name which most of the cast manage perfectly easily but each time the Doctor tries it sounds like Baker is taking a bit of a run at it. It's just a little thing but it stood out and bothered me.

Another problem was once the nature of Scavenger's host was revealed it was fairly obvious how this was going to end and I don't usually see these things coming. Best of the trilogy but only 3 out of 5 space helmets and bring on Peter Davison please.

Big Finish - The Brood of Erys

Release number 183 The Brood of Erys by Andrew Smith, directed by Nicholas Briggs.

The Sixth Doctor and Flip encounter a living moon called Erys, a bunch of mischievous aliens, and a woman with no memory and a strange mission to complete. After that a whole bunch of stuff happened and I may have nodded off for a while.

Hmmm. I'm not enjoying the current Sixth/Flip trilogy. I didn't think much of Antidote to Oblivion and this was even more dull. At the moment there seems to be much more fun to be had with other Big Finish releases such as Jago & Litefoot, Sherlock Holmes and Dark Eyes. And my subscription is coming up for renewal. Decisions, decisions.

Again there's no major problems here, it just didn't grab my attention at all. 2 out of 5 space skimmers and let's hope Scavenger can restore my enthusiasm for the monthly range.