Big Finish - The Light at the End

The Light at the End. Written and directed by Nicholas Briggs.

It's the 50th anniversary special featuring the eight classic Doctors, a host of companions, the Time Lords, and the Master, and it's all fantastic. Everything about this production just hits the right spot for Doctor Who's birthday celebrations. The music and sound effects are superb. All the Doctors are on fine form with Tom Baker and Paul McGann really standing out. And there's a terrifically creepy performance from Geoffrey Beevers as the Master.

I won't go into details of the story and how all eight doctors end up drawn back to an important event on the 23rd November, 1963. However it's all masterfully done, there is nothing like a good multi-Doctor story and this is a real stand out. It even features incarnations of the first three Doctors here played by William Russell, Frazer Hines and Tim Trealor. They are trapped in some sort of Tardis time pocket so their voices are a little distorted which allows the actors some leeway in their recreation of the original actors.

As well as all this there are two CDs worth of extras which are well worth listening to. It's a tremendous package from Big Finish and it is impossible to give it less than 5 out of 5 classic Doctors. Highly recommended.

Big Finish - The Dalek Contract and

Two Big Finish stories from the Fourth Doctor Adventures range, The Dalek Contract and The Final Phase. Both written and directed by Nicholas Briggs.

This is really a two part story for the Fourth Doctor and Romana as they deal with the consequences of a deal that the capitalist megalomaniac Cuthbert has made with the Daleks. And when have the Daleks ever kept their word?

There is something very nostalgic about the Big Finish Fourth Doctor adventures. They have deliberately set out to recreate the feel of the late 1970s in these stories and it is all rather charming. Alistair Lock's music seems to catch this mood perfectly and really stood out as a great example of what Big Finish do so well. Obviously Tom Baker is on cracking form and John Leeson is in there as K-9 as well. David Warner brings a robust Northern accent to the part of Cuthbert and is a delight, as is long time Doctor Who fan Toby Hadoke. But these stories really belong to the late Mary Tamm who plays Romana for the last time ever. She is so good and it is almost painfully sad to listen to them knowing that she was not very well at the time, and that this is her last work on Doctor Who.

I bought these stories because Nicholas Briggs recorded some crowd noise during a live podcast at Big Finish day 3 and my voice is in there somewhere in the background. The Dalek Contract part two, track five in case you're interested. But these are two terrific Dalek stories tinged with the melancholy that has affected the Who universe recently as we have lost so many of the companions from the classic series.

Four out of five mechanical Mutts and farewell to Romana One.

Big Finish - The Justice of Jalxar

From the Fourth Doctor series here is The Justice of Jalxar by John Dorney, directed by Ken Bentley.

The Doctor and Romana arrive in Victorian London on the trail of a crashed alien spaceship but they need some local knowledge. And who better to turn to than the Doctor's acquaintances from a previous adventure, Professor Litefoot and Henry Gordon Jago. There are a number of strange murders to solve, and there is the mysterious figure of The Pugilist, who appears out of nowhere to fight his one man war on crime and wrong-doers.

Corks! This was simply splendid. With witty nods to superhero stories, the steampunk genre, a Victorian version of the X-Files and even a Taxi Driver joke, John Dorney has delivered a fantastic script which showcases Big Finish at its finest. The performances are top notch with the remarkable Christopher Benjamin stealing the show as Jago, although Tom Baker, Trevor Baxter and the late Mary Tamm give him a run for his money. The sound design, the music and special effects and even the cover art are fantastic, and this two part story really cracks along,

I may have a problem here. I'm trying to stick to the main range Doctor Who releases, but there's also the upcoming Sherlock Holmes stories, and now there's the Fourth Doctor series and the temptation of all the Jago & Litefoot material which I haven't even touched on. Balancing this budget could get tricky.

Anyway, leaving those purchasing dilemmas aside this was fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 5 out of 5 steam powered robots. Only the eighth Big Finish story to get that top score from me. Corks!

Big Finish - Night of the Stormcrow

Subscribers get more at Big Finish and this Christmas the bonus release was Night of the Stormcrow, written by Marc Platt and directed by Nicholas Briggs. At the moment it is only available with a subscription and won't be available to buy for another year.

The Fourth Doctor and Leela arrive at a remote observatory on Mount McKerry. The Tardis has misbehaved and this seems to be related to a power surge that has damaged the astronomers' instruments. The clue to the mystery may be a strange signal that the scientists were scanning before all their equipment failed. Have they discovered a new life form? Or has it discovered them?

This is classic Doctor Who territory. A remote base in peril, a group of scientists who are pushing things a bit far, some lurking danger outside, and a splendidly eccentric Doctor who wades into the middle of things with scarf and teeth flowing in the wind. The first act of this two part story is wonderfully creepy as something dark and nasty starts to pick off members of the group. I was reminded of Nigel Kneale's The Stone Tape which has the same mixture of old and new, and science coming up against an ancient evil which it believes it can control until events spiral out of control.

Tom Baker and Louise Jameson are on top form and are ably matched by Ann Bell, and by another Big Finish appearance from Chase Masterson. Both of them play characters who are not completely sympathetic  but whose actions are understandable. Their scientific curiosity drives them towards things they don't comprehend and it may be asking too much for even the Doctor to save them.

After a sinister and compelling first part the second chapter has a lot to live up to and perhaps inevitably it falls short as Marc Platt has to explain what is going on and provide some resolution. The air of menace from earlier is dispelled by some of the techno-babble. It's not bad and the music and sound design by Jamie Robertson are fantastic, but it doesn't quite reach the five star standard set by the opening.

Let's give it 4 out of 5 Janus thorns and applaud Big Finish for such a high standard in its recent releases.

Big Finish - Energy of the Daleks

Release number four in the Big Finish Fourth Doctor series: Energy of the Daleks. Written and directed by Nicholas Briggs, with Tom Baker, Louise Jameson and Mark Benton.

The Doctor and Leela arrive in London in time to witness a company called Globesphere solve the energy crisis, but all is not what it seems and there is a malevolent force behind the plan to harness solar power from the Moon. Guess who, or what?

I listen to the Big Finish podcasts and last month I entered a competition tied in to their Sherlock Holmes series, and this is the CD I won! I bought the first two of the Fourth Doctor stories at Big Finish day but time and money prevented me from subscribing to them in addition to the regular monthly releases so this was a nice bonus. And it is a cracking story.

Tom Baker and Louise Jameson just seem to be having great fun recreating their roles from 30 years ago. And the Daleks are great with suitably scary voices by Nick Briggs. Mark Benton played the first named character to die in the 2005 revival of Doctor Who on television and here he is again intersecting with the Whoniverse. His character is on the receiving end of a lot of the Doctor's techno-babble and his responses are fantastic. He sums up the bewilderment most of us would feel if we ever encountered someone like the Doctor. It is a very nice turn by Benton and it really cemented this story for me.

I have found some of the monthly two CD stories a bit long in places. This single CD two parter really zips along and seemed too short in comparison. Maybe three episodes would suit me best? Anyway it's another great Big Finish release which is going to get the first full 5 out of 5 Dalek suction cups from me.

Next up is Peter Davison in The Jupiter Conjunction.

Big Finish - The Renaissance Man

Big Finish The Fourth Doctor adventures number 2 - The Renaissance Man, with Tom Baker, Louise Jameson and Ian McNeice as Harcourt. Written by Justin Richards and directed by Ken Bentley. And what's the point of going to Big Finish day and getting my CD cover signed if I can't use the image for this post? Voila!

Here's the synopsis straight from the Big Finish site: To continue Leela’s education, the Doctor promises to take her to the famous Morovanian Museum. But the TARDIS lands instead in a quiet English village, where they meet the enigmatic collector Harcourt and his family.

Taking up where they left off last time and it is almost exactly like Saturday tea-time in the 1970s all over again. There isn't a creepy monster for the Doctor to defeat, this is more of a mental struggle for him to overcome. But Doctor number four has always done well in battles of willpower, I'm thinking of his classic encounters with Davros and Morbius. Ian McNeice makes a suitable villain of the piece as Harcourt which, interestingly, was the name of the character he played in the great BBC drama Edge of Darkness.

This was another good story. I think I prefer Destination Nerva for its monster, but this one has got Tom Baker and Louise Jameson's signatures on the front cover! I'm going to be tough with my rating and give this 3.5 out of a possible 5 wide-brimmed Poet hats.

Big Finish - Destination Nerva

Big Finish The Fourth Doctor adventures number 1 - Destination Nerva, with Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Louise Jameson as Leela. Written and directed by Nick Briggs.

They're back! The Doctor and Leela depart from Jago and Lightfoot at the end of the Talons of Weng-Chiang and find themselves on the new space dock Nerva long before it becomes the Ark in Space. But, as ever, there  is something evil lurking in the shadows and it is a new, and quite monstrous threat for the Doctor.

At Big Finish day all the talk of the new Fourth Doctor adventures was about how Baker and Jameson just seemed to pick up where they left off about thirty years ago, and it's certainly the case in this story. Tom Baker sounds almost exactly the same as he did in the 1970s and Louise Jameson does some clever tricks with her voice to recreate her intelligent savage Leela. As ever the sound design and production are great with some particularly weird sound effects for the creatures. And the story is an interesting metaphor about British Imperialism.

The only down side is that these new adventures are only two parters. I'm going to give Destination Nerva  4 out of 5 ridiculously long, woollen scarves. Next up I'm back to the regular monthly releases and Sawbones Hex encounters the Curse of Davros!