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 - Afterlife

Bang up to date with the latest release in the Big Finish regular monthly range: Afterlife by Matt Fitton, directed by Ken Bentley.

This is a direct follow on from the events in Gods and Monsters with Ace grieving for the loss of her friend Hex, and the Seventh Doctor coming to terms with the consequences of his actions. Ace persuades the Doctor to deliver a letter from Hex to his grandmother and to tell her about Hex's death. Meanwhile Ace gets mixed up in a local gang war and comes across a criminal with a surprising resemblance to her old friend.

So much of the action involves the Doctor sitting down with Mrs Schofield (played with Liverpudlian relish by Jean Boht) and discussing the life and death of her grandson. It is quite touching stuff with the Doctor forced into a position he has no real experience of. The B plot about a turf war between feuding criminals was rather less interesting, as was the predictable alien involvement. Personally I could have done with more of the Doctor and less of the usual running around. However Sylvester McCoy is still flying off to New Zealand so Big Finish have to cut their cloth accordingly, and a second plot line for the separated companion is traditional after all.

Now I am going to enter spoiler territory so look away if you plan to listen to this audio but have not done so as yet. This story is all about the Doctor and Ace dealing with the death of Hex, and the consequences. All powerful stuff, but it all seems totally negated by bringing him back to life at the end of the play. Alright his memory has been wiped and he's essentially a different character played by the same actor, but for me this just wasted all of the build up that led to Hex's sacrifice in Gods and Monsters. I know that Philip Olivier has been a popular actor with the Big Finish crew and I'm sure they wanted to bring him back somehow I just wish they had found a different way to do so.

Still the conversations between McCoy and Boht are very well done so it's another 3 star story for me. Where they go from here with Hex remains to be seen, maybe I'm wrong and they will produce something interesting.

Big Finish - The Assassination Games

The final story in the 1963 trilogy: The Assassination games by John Dorney. Directed by Ken Bentley.

I'm falling behind with these reviews and I have quite a few more Big Finish releases lined up for New Year listening so I'll be brief. It's 1963 and the Doctor and Ace are mixed up in political intrigue surrounding a missile test. Fortunately the Counter-Measures team are on hand to help out.

With Sylvester McCoy nipping back and forth to New Zealand to work on the Hobbit movies Big Finish have filled in the gaps by adding plenty of supporting characters to the Seventh Doctor stories. It's a tactic that works well here as the Counter-measures team step up to fill out this story. The political comings and goings plus the usual capture and escape tropes work well and this was the most enjoyable of the 1963 trilogy for me.

But it is several weeks since I listened to it and I can't really remember much more about it. 4 out of 5 votes in the Commons and on towards the Afterlife.

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 - Daleks Among Us

The second Big Finish audio on the playlist for my long bike ride was Daleks Among Us by Alan Barnes and directed by Ken Bentley.

The conclusion to the latest Klein trilogy sees the Seventh Doctor, Will Arrowsmith and Dr Klein herself arrive on the planet Azimuth in search of that elusive Persuasion machine. As ever things are not what they seem and while Elizabeth learns the shocking truth about her past the Doctor encounters and old enemy.

Well this is just fabulous. Everyone here is on top form and I was very impressed to learn that Alan Barnes was the author. I have had problems with some of his previous scripts but it seems that Daleks bring out the best in him. And these Daleks are fairly nasty and violent and not just the giant screeching toys that they can sometimes appear as in Doctor Who. In fact there is a real sense of menace in this story with none of the humour to be found in Starlight Robbery.

I like this idea of the Seventh Doctor sensing his time is limited and trying to wrap up loose ends, all the while keeping an eye on Elizabeth Klein in case she somehow reverts to type. There is some more of that Elder Gods stuff which bores me but that is more than made up for with a clash of wills with a dark enemy. I didn't look at any cast lists in advance so I didn't know what was coming and Big Finish pulled off a big surprise. I won't spoil it here but it was as much fun as when they managed a similar trick in Unit: Dominion.

While all this is going on Dr Klein "borrows" the Tardis to travel back to 1945 Germany and discover some of the shocking truth about her origins that the Doctor has been keeping from her. Once again Tracey Childs does a marvellous job. I did like the way her German accent deepened when she was in her home country. I don't know if it would sound convincing to German listeners but it impressed me.

All in all a terrific story and my favourite of the trilogy. 4.5 out of 5 Persuasion machines. One of the best Big Finish stories around.

Big Finish - Starlight Robbery

Starlight Robbery written by Matt Fitton and directed by Ken Bentley.

Here is the second part in the current Seventh Doctor trilogy. Elizabeth Klein and Will Arrowsmith are sent undercover to an illicit, galactic arms fair run by the Urodelian crook, Garundel who we last heard in Black and White. The Doctor has set his two companions on the trail of the Persuasion machine and its creator Kurt Schalk.

Sylvester McCoy is a busy chap and this seems like one of the Doctor-lite episodes from new Who. So Klein and Arrowsmith do most of the leg work here and they are ably assisted by a host of bad guys attending the arms auction. In particular Dan Starkey who plays Strax on TV gives us three different Sontarans. His performance is one of the high points of this audio drama. It's nice to hear the Sontarans as a credible military power instead of just figures of fun. I am less keen on Garundel as a character but his role as a galactic con man works in this story so I'll give him a pass.

As ever it is Tracey Childs as Klein who really shines as the best thing in the whole episode. I've mused before about why her character works so well with the Seventh Doctor. We shouldn't like her but we do. The few moments she gets with the Doctor are great stuff. She can see through the master manipulator and recognises when she is being used as a tool, "just another sonic screwdriver" as she memorably puts it.

The story didn't grab me particularly, but the Sontarans and Klein were worth the price of admission alone. 4 out of Sontaran spheres for Starlight Robbery.

Big Finish - Persuasion

Number 175 in the Big Finish main range is Persuasion by Jonathan Barnes, directed by Ken Bentley.

Klein is back! Her story is getting a little complicated at this point. Let's just say she is the most interesting UNIT scientific advisor after the Doctor, and her love hate relationship with his seventh incarnation continues. And this time she has a young and enthusiastic but very inexperienced assistant along with her. Will Arrowsmith knows a lot about the mysterious Umbrella man and what UNIT refer to as "blue box incidents" but this is his first actual encounter.

The story concerns another set of powerful elder gods who the Seventh Doctor wants to deal with before his time his done. He senses that his next regeneration is approaching and is worried that his replacement may not be as resolute as he is. This sense that Sylvester McCoy's Doctor is ageing and trying to tie up loose ends before he finishes is very interesting and I wonder if Big Finish will continue with this. Also rather intriguing is the idea of the very powerful Persuasion machine which acts as the MacGuffin for this story. The machine's ability to persuade populations of whatever idea the controller programmes into it is obviously of interest to politicians of all ideologies. I presume this will also come back in the next two parts of this Klein trilogy.

I confess the elder gods stuff that cropped up in Protect and Survive and Gods and Monsters rather bores me. Here the characters of the Shepherd and Shepherdess speak in iambic pentameter which presumably was rather challenging for Jonathan Barnes to write, and it sounds impressive, but their storyline does nothing for me. Fortunately there is Klein and the idea of the Persuasion machine to keep me interested. Tracey Childs is right up there with Maggie Stables as a great Big Finish supporting actor and perfect foil for the Doctor. I was less convinced by Christian Edwards as Will Arrowsmith but maybe his character will grow on me.

Some interesting stuff in this one but let down by uninteresting bad guys. A middle of the road 3 out of 5 straw hats from me.

Big Finish - Unit: Dominion

This was the third of Big Finish's special release box sets from the end of 2012:
Unit: Dominion by Nicholas Briggs and Jason Arnopp, and directed by Nicholas Briggs (he's a busy chap).

I'm going to use the synopsis directly from the Big Finish website here. The universe stands on the brink of a dimensional crisis – and the Doctor and Raine are pulled into the very epicentre of it. Meanwhile on Earth, UNIT scientific advisor Dr Elizabeth Klein and an incarnation of the Doctor she's never encountered before are tested to the limit by a series of bizarre, alien invasions. At the heart of it all is a terrible secret, almost as old as the Time Lords themselves. Reality is beginning to unravel and two Doctors, Klein, Raine and all of UNIT must use all their strength and guile to prevent the whole of creation being torn apart.For a lot of the time we have two stories going on here. 

We all know that Sylvester McCoy has been in New Zealand for a long time making The Hobbit, and has only been available for brief periods of recording with Big Finish. So he is off stuck in another dimension with Beth Chalmer's Raine Creevy for the first half of this drama. This leaves us focusing on Dr Klein and another future version of the Doctor played with flamboyant relish by Alex Macqueen. There's also a Unit sergeant called Pete Wilson who gives us the ordinary person's point of view and also provides a human interest angle as his wife is about to give birth and his duties keep him away for her.

There's all sorts of strange creatures and trans-dimensional incursions as Unit struggle to save the Earth and there's also a big reveal which was a great surprise (for me anyway). But you know what was the best thing about this? Elizabeth Klein. What is it about Klein's character that makes her so interesting and enjoyable to listen to? She has so far appeared in five Big Finish stories including this one. She's combative and forthright in her views and rather abrasive. She started out as a Nazi scientist, although this version of her is unaware of her past due to the Seventh Doctor's meddling. Despite (or, perhaps, because of) all this she is absolutely fascinating. The actress Tracey Childs is best known for being in a rather dire 1980s soap opera but her vocal performances here are just marvellous. Big Finish has had to create some memorable recurring characters of their own but I believe my favourite so far is Klein.

Having said that she is given a close run for her money by Alex Macqueen's new version of the Doctor with his "Hello, you" catchphrase. His petulant and snobbish dealings with Unit reminded me of Jon Pertwee's rather arrogant third Doctor. It's all done with great panache and although the trans-dimensional story can get a little confusing at times the great characters and performances more than compensate.

I enjoyed the music by Martin Johnson and would also pick out Alex Mallinson for his cover art, and for doing a pretty convincing American accent in one of the smaller parts. My only criticism of the sound design was that there was too much radio sound effect when characters are speaking on walkie-talkies. I think we got the point that they were speaking over the radio and the effects could have been toned down a little so we could hear the dialogue easier. However minor quibbles aside this was a terrific box set from Big Finish and I am glad I finally gave in and bought it before the price went up.

This matched the heights of Dark Eyes and gets 4.5 out of 5 giant floating heads Excellent stuff.

Big Finish - The Shadow Heart

The latest main range monthly release is The Shadow Heart, written by Jonathan Morris, directed by Ken Bentley.

The conclusion to the Drashani trilogy arrives and it is time for the Seventh Doctor to return and face the consequences of the actions of his earlier selves. In the last episode the monsters from The Burning Prince, the Wrath, were transformed into an intergalactic police force, but their programming seems to have gone wrong and now they are at war with the Earth empire. Meanwhile there is a price on the Doctor's head and he has to face the music for what he has wrought.

This is a big story that leaps from one world to another. Along the way it involves some roguish scrap traders, a heroic starship crew and a giant space snail! And on top of this it introduces the impossibly glamorous mercenary Vienna Salvatori, played by Chase Masterston, who is set to get her own spin off story. Several of the actors return from the previous episodes and there isn't a dud performance to worry about. It does sound like they all had a lot of fun recording this story. The production hits the usual high standards of Big Finish  I think I preferred the music in The Acheron Pulse but otherwise this story has the slight edge. It never quite hits the frenetic heights of The Burning Prince but not many stories do.

4 out of 5 astronomical ammonites for The Shadow Heart.

Big Finish - Love and War

Hot off the presses this month is the long awaited Big Finish adaptation of Paul Cornell's Love and War.

There is an awful lot happening on a planet called Heaven. The Seventh Doctor is looking for a mysterious book, Ace is off falling in love, there's the strange Church of the Vacuum, some adventures in cyberspace, an evil fungal menace, and finally an attack of the Zombies! All this and the first appearance of Professor Bernice Summerfield. When Paul Cornell wrote the original novel for the Virgin New Adventures line back in 1992 "Bennie" Summerfield was introduced as a new companion for the Doctor, and over the years she has gone on to be an extremely popular character. She is a template for the success that Big Finish has had with introducing other companions such as Evelyn Smythe, Charlie Pollard and Lucie Miller. Summerfield also predates Lara Croft as an adventurous female archaeologist, which leads to a little in-joke in this production when she refers to herself as a "Tomb Raider".

I am a big fan of Paul Cornell's writing, particularly his work on Captain Britain, and the episodes he has written for new Doctor Who. I haven't read the original novel so I was really looking forward to this production which has been adapted by Jacqueline Rayner and directed by Gary Russell. It comes on three CDs with the third disc featuring a couple of prelude pieces and lots of interviews with all the people involved. The story itself is split into two acts on the first two CDs. I did miss the usual four act structure with the episode ending leading straight into the musical scream of the theme tune, but that is just a minor niggle.

Instead let me start with some positives. Lisa Bowerman just inhabits the role of Bennie Summerfield. She has played the part for so long that it is difficult to imagine anyone else doing it. She also directs for Big Finish and she may even have written for them although the search function on their website makes it difficult to tell. Anyway, she has a long association with both the character and Big Finish, and she is very good here. The other actor who stands out in this story is Sophie Aldred. I confess that I have had problems with a few of her previous performances. She occasionally does that thing of hitting her lines a bit too quickly without giving her character the time to react to what has just been said. It makes the script sound more like a reading than an audio drama and it is something I have complained about before. I suspect that it is just one of those things that my ears are sensitive to. However, here she does a marvellous job as the younger version of Ace, the one from the television stories of the 1980s. She manages that actor's trick of making her voice sound young again in much the same way that Louise Jameson has been doing as Leela in her Big Finish stories. I didn't quite believe Ace's love story with Jan but that is more to do with the script than with Aldred's performance, which is very good.

And I'm afraid that is about it for the positives. I did enjoy the monster voices but apart from that this was a disappointment. Part of the problem was the weight of expectation. On top of that there was just too much going on and too many plot lines. Just when I was getting into the story of the Doctor and Bennie it switched to Ace and Jan, or into Cyberspace with a strange character called Christopher, or sitting around a camp-fire with a group of new age, Dalek killing travellers. Meanwhile the bad guys are doing whatever the bad guys do. And at the end the Seventh Doctor, the master manipulator, the Trickster God does ... well, he does something. I am not sure what it was but he wins, and everybody who is still alive gets a sort of happy ending and quite frankly I was bored.

Even the extra features were a let down. This may come across as bit of a jaded review but I am getting a little tired of hearing the actors talking about how everyone they work with is "lovely". I wanted to hear more about the story and the novel, or more about Professor Summerfield. They do sort of get to that eventually but first they have to remind us of how "lovely" it was, and how much fun they all had together, and what a splendid lunch Big Finish lays on.

It is strange that some of the Big Finish special releases that I have looked forward to hearing turn out to be a bit of a disappointment like Zagreus. And then something unexpected like The Burning Prince or Voyage to Venus can come along and really surprise me. As I said earlier it is the high hopes that may be the problem for me. Love and War gets a miserable 1 out of 5 fungal spores. My lowest mark yet. I hear good things about the new Unit: Dominion stories, maybe I should have gone for them instead?

Big Finish - The Angel of Scutari

Big Finish release 122 from June 2009 - The Angel of Scutari. Written by Paul Sutton and directed by Ken Bentley.

This completes the Ace and Hex miniseries and sets up a cliff-hanger which would not pay off until over a year later in Project: Destiny. The Tardis crew arrive in the Crimea in October 1854 and get caught in the middle of the terrible clash between the British and Russian empires.  As ever the trio get separated, while the Doctor is off manipulating events and trying to fix a few problems in the time-stream Hex gets to meet the woman who inspired him to take up nursing, and Ace encounters a young Russian writer.

I am on record as not liking the historical Doctor Who adventures either on television or in the audio dramas but this was actually very enjoyable. Paul Sutton makes the wise decision to have this story concentrate on Hex who is left to get on with providing medical and nursing care for the wounded in the British army barracks at Scutari. In a neat twist the changes in basic care that he introduces inspire the Lady with the Lamp herself. I confess that when I first heard Philip Olivier as Hex I was bothered by his Liverpudlian accent, but just like Maggie Stables as Evelyn Smythe Olivier's performance has won me over. It has been interesting to have a companion who is less than impressed with the Seventh Doctor's manipulations. He has also become increasingly disillusioned by the numbers of deaths he has witnessed since first entering the Tardis. The Angel of Scutari leaves Hex alone in the Crimea long enough for him to make a difference, and to do something positive to balance the scales.

On the other hand this story was a bit of a backward step for the character of Ace. Big Finish should decide whether they are going with the baseball bat Ace from the television show, or the battle hardened warrior Ace from the New Adventures books. In Enemy of the Daleks we clearly had the older, warrior Ace who can quickly take charge in a combat situation. But in the early parts of this tale we are back to the petulant, whiny Ace, although she does morph into a different, more mature character when she travels with that famous Russian writer.

All in all an enjoyable story and the best of this mini-series for me. The extras were pretty good as well and I was surprised to hear Hugh Bonneville in there who I hadn't spotted during the drama itself. 4 out of 5 misplaced musket balls for The Angel of Scutari. Now for some 2000AD!

Big Finish - Enemy of the Daleks

Big Finish main range release 121 from May 2009 - Enemy of the Daleks by David Bishop and directed by Ken Bentley.

I got it wrong at the end of my Burning Prince review. Enemy of the Daleks is the middle part of an Ace, Seven and Hex mini-series that began with The Magic Mousetrap and will conclude with The Angel of Scutari. The trio arrive on the planet of Bliss expecting just that, but finding a classic base under siege and a scientist with a terrible plan to defeat the Daleks. Something bad is about to happen and the Doctor thinks it is his job to make sure it does.

You can't beat the Doctor Who combination of Daleks and a remote base in peril. Especially not when you have Nicholas Briggs' Dalek voices and another creepy monster voiced by Jeremy James who can do remarkable things with his larynx. This is an enjoyable production with all the right elements and it is nice to hear more of Hex developing his doubts about the Doctor's motivations, sowing seeds that would not pay off for another 3 years. Philip Olivier is growing on me. Meanwhile Kate Ashfield gives an interesting performance as Lieutenant Stokes, swapping Zombies, in Shaun of the Dead, for Daleks here but still in as much trouble. We recently watched her in a rather good adaptation of John Wyndham's Random Quest for the British Invaders podcast.

I also enjoyed listening to the CD extras on this release but I'm glad that Big Finish subsequently decided to shift them from the end of the first disc to the second disc. Much easier to listen to the interviews without fear of spoilers when you have heard the whole production rather than half-way through it.

In summary, great Dalek and monster voices, interesting Zulu references and some good Hex and Ace moments. 3.5 out of 5 Dalek eye-stalks. The Angel of Scutari is next.

Big Finish - Gods and Monsters

Big Finish release 164 - Gods and Monsters by Mike Maddox and Alan Barnes, directed by Ken Bentley.

Carrying straight on from the end of Black and White the four companions travel back in time to rescue the Doctor from a deadly trap sprung by one of his oldest enemies. The Seventh Doctor has a reputation as a master manipulator, someone who always has a plan and manoeuvres people into position like a chess grandmaster. But maybe this time he has gone to far, or has even been outplayed?

I still think of myself as a relative newcomer to Big Finish and, indeed, to great chunks of classic Doctor Who which I am watching for the first time. So I am only just finding out about about some of the key creators behind the scenes. Alan Barnes is someone I only encountered recently in a rather marvellous set of short documentaries called Stripped for Action about the history of Doctor Who comics which you can watch on youtube. He has edited both Doctor Who Magazine and the Judge Dredd Megazine in the past and is now a script editor and writer for Big Finish. If the Seventh Doctor is the fictional manipulator then Alan Barnes is the real thing, the mastermind behind the scenes who has been building up this story for some time. Clues have been left about different coloured Tardises, certain items of power, names and even the history and fate of some of the Doctor's companions.

Barnes and Maddox bring this altogether beautifully in Gods and Monsters. This is a battle on an epic scale and one that the Doctor may only be a pawn in rather than the King. I can't say much more about the plot without spoilers but the production itself is excellent. All the performances are great, and I particularly enjoyed Philip Olivier as Hex who has become a rather reluctant companion who doesn't really trust the Doctor. The music and the sound design are very good and I was delighted to hear the classic noise of the Tardis door mechanism towards the end of the story.

The finale is particularly moving although I found the short coda added after the end music rather detracted from the emotional impact of the ending for me. All in all an impressive production and a fantastic bit of slow build story telling by Alan Barnes. 4 out of 5 magical hammers.

Next will be some Fifth Doctor trouble in The Burning Prince.

Big Finish - The Magic Mousetrap

Big Finish 120 - The Magic Mousetrap. Written by Matthew Sweet and directed by Ken Bentley.

This is the start of an earlier Ace and Hex mini series and it begins rather mysteriously. The Doctor finds himself on a cable car travelling to an exclusive sanatorium in the Alps. Except that the Doctor seems to be having problems with his memory and events seem to be repeating themselves. Plus there are two mysterious  patients in the attic who seem to know more than they are letting on.

How to start a Doctor Who adventure can be challenging. The standard formula of the Tardis materialising just in time for the Doctor and companion to investigate some strange goings on can become a bit repetitive. So here the writer and critic Matthew Sweet throws us right in to the middle of the mystery and we are as much in the dark as the Doctor. It is an effective technique but it is a bit confusing. There are also some strange accents to contend with. Sweet was influenced by Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain so there is some weird experimental stuff going on here.

Acting and production are up to the usual high standards and the actors who had to do accents actually do a fine job and I didn't find them too distracting. I was confused by the story structure but that may be just me not paying full attention with my recent glut of Big Finish audios.

3 out of 5 straw boaters. Next up is my last encounter with the Eighth Doctor for the time being.

Big Finish - Black and White

Right up to date with the very latest monthly release from Big Finish. Number 163 Black and White by Matt Fitton, directed by Ken Bentley.

Taking up right where Protect and Survive finished Ace and Hex find themselves in the black Tardis with two characters from previous stories. Captain Lysandra Aristedes was a member of the Forge in Project: Destiny, and Sally Morgan was "recruited" by the Seventh Doctor at the end of The House of Blue Fire. There is confusion as both pairs believe they are the Doctor's current companions, nobody can explain why there are now two Tardises of different colours, and the Doctor himself is nowhere to be found.

While the companions squabble the Black Tardis deposits them in the land of the ancient Danes and right in the middle of the tale of Beowulf and the monster Grendel. This is another Doctor light story recorded while Sylvester McCoy was in New Zealand filming the Hobbit. He does appear but for much of the time the great mystery is where the Doctor is and what is his cunning plan? Even when he is absent the master manipulator seems to be influencing events but maybe this time he has gone too far.

The two Tardis crews get re-arranged  allowing Hex to flirt with Sally while Ace and Lysandra argue. In fact after some recent more grown up stories for Ace this is a bit of a return to the petulant hothead from the 1980s. The pairs get separated in time and space and to be honest it does get a little confusing as to what is happening and when, although having two actors playing the young and old Beowulf does help. Interweaving the legend of Beowulf with a Doctor Who story is done quite cleverly by the writer Marc Fitton and I particularly enjoyed a nice little joke about Grendel's mother.

Quite an interesting story which sets up the final part of this mini series. It never reached the heights of Protect and Survive for me and I did get lost from time to time, so 3 out of 5 Tardis outer shells for me. Next up will be another Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard adventure.

Big Finish - Protect and Survive

Catching up with a more recent Big Finish release this is last month's main range number 162 - Protect and Survive. Written by Jonathan Morris and directed by Ken Bentley.

The Doctor has vanished and the Tardis lands near a remote Yorkshire cottage where Ace and Hex find themselves in a version of When the Wind Blows. It is the late 1980s, the sky is filled with the bomber planes, an elderly couple are stocking up their fallout shelter, and in the distance could that be the sound of an air-raid siren?

I vividly remember this time period and the fear of nuclear war which seemed like a distinct possibility. Although the infamous Protect and Survive leaflet was never officially released we certainly knew all about it, and I remember watching the public information film of the same name when it was leaked to the BBC. So I was fascinated by this story and how the writer could fit it in to Doctor Who's web of time. We know that Hex comes from a future England where there has been no nuclear war, so how can a nuclear device have fallen on an airbase in Yorkshire in 1989? Yet that is what seems to have happened and Ace and Hex are forced to seek shelter in Albert and Peggy's house.

The first two chapters of this drama are completely gripping and incredibly poignant. It feels quite claustrophobic stuck in that shelter with just the four characters. In fact this is a very stripped down production with a small cast and all set in and around that small cottage in the hills. Inevitably the twists and turns unfold and we found out what is really going on. To be honest I found the explanation slightly less interesting than the set up. However the Doctor does turn up in the fourth part and sets an interesting variant of the Prisoner's Dilemma with a neat twist involving the title of the story. So I take my hat off to the writer here, this is one of best Big Finish scripts I have heard recently.

Great performances particularly by Ian Hogg and Elizabeth Bennett as Albert and Peggy, and Peter Egan does a lovely version of Patrick Allen's original narration for the Protect and Survive films. Apart from the slight dip in the third chapter it is difficult to fault this production. I even spotted little nods to two infamous BBC films Threads and The War Game which we have covered on British Invaders.

4.5 out of 5 all clear sirens. Next up will be an early appearance from the Eighth Doctor.

Big Finish - Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge

Big Finish monthly release 141 - Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge. Written by Marty Ross and directed by Ken Bentley.

The Doctor, Ace and Hex arrive in 1934 in a remote part of Alaska and find a scientific expedition investigating a strange citadel in the ice, and the dark horrors it contains. As is traditional the companions get separated from the Doctor and make their own discoveries about a medical institute and the strange writer who lives there. Meanwhile the Doctor gets to make a few nice in-jokes about his literal cliff-hanging act in the TV story Dragonfire.

As with many Big Finish stories the clue to this one is in the title which sounds like something written by H.P. Lovecraft. The writer of weird horror stories about Elder Gods and nameless terrors appears here in thinly disguised form, and this tale has his fingerprints all over it. There is indeed some dark horror lurking in the dark, icy wastes which will threaten all life on Earth unless the Doctor can stop it. Think about the Cthulhu mythos and you will have a fair idea why the scientific team led by the determined Emerson Whytecrag should probably not disturb whatever lurks in the terrible Citadel.

I really enjoyed the writing on this story, all the Lovecraft references, and the nods to continuity from the television series. Unfortunately what I didn't enjoy so much was the accents chosen by some of the actors. Even Michael Brandon who is American attempts a regional accent to sound like whatever Lovecraft himself sounded like. Unless the story specifically calls for a particular accent then I would rather they didn't bother. Accents have to be really, really good or I just find them distracting.

Apart from that bugbear of mine this is a fairly good Big Finish story but possibly just a linking piece between the terrible events in A Death in the Family and what is to come in the Black and White mini-series. It gets a solid 3 out of 5 Tentacles.

Big Finish - A Death in the Family

Big Finish release 140 - A Death in the Family. Written by Steven Hall and directed by Ken Bentley.

So this is it. The conclusion of a long arc of stories featuring Evelyn, The Forge, Ace and Hex, and the villainous presence of the Word Lord. And this was not what I was expecting at all. The story starts out with a fairly straight-forward first part that ends in a dramatic cliff-hanger. Then the narrative splits and we get chapters featuring first Hex and then Ace, before Evelyn returns in the final part and the grand plan of the Seventh Doctor, the great manipulator, is revealed. With the Word Lord drawing his powers from language itself it takes a remarkable scheme to overcome him and I cannot really say much more about the plot without giving too much away.

With the Doctor away from the action for most of the story there is a lot of work for his three companions to do. I confess I am still unsure about the character of Hex but he is growing on me. Sophie Aldred gives us a grown up Ace who is more than just baseball bats, bombs and youthful rebellion, and I really enjoyed her chapter. But yet again it is Evelyn who won me over. There is something about the feisty Dr Smythe that appeals to me and Maggie Stables gives another completely convincing performance. As does Ian Reddington as a new incarnation of the villain who uses words as weapons. and does so with considerable relish.

The production values are up to their usual high standard and there is little more I can add. This was a surprising, but very satisfying conclusion to a long series of stories. 4 out of 5 seals of Rassilon. Tremendous stuff.

Big Finish - Project: Destiny

Big Finish number 139 Project: Destiny by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, directed by Ken Bentley.

Hex has been shot during the Crimean war in The Angel of Scutari. The Doctor and Ace rush to get him to the familiar medical surroundings of St Garts, the hospital they first met him in. However something is very much amiss, London is empty and quarantined because of an infection that turns its victims into huge insectoid "Contaminants", and the mysterious department C4 are investigating. Except that C4 is The Forge by another name and soon the Seventh Doctor is locking horns with Nimrod again. Meanwhile Hex is discovering some unpleasant truths about his family history.

At the end of Thicker than Water I said I wanted more bangs and crashes and this story delivers. Right from the start the Doctor and his companions are dealing with an army of the infected trying to get in at them, helicopter gunships, and the malevolence of Nimrod and his Forge troops. Stephen Chance is more restrained as Nimrod and appears all the more more evil for it. I liked that all his Forge agents have codenames from Greek mythology, Maggie O'Neill plays a character called Aristedes. The story also dips in to the Dracula mythology from Hammer horror films to regenerate agent Artemis who appeared in earlier Forge stories.

Continuity is a knotty problem for fans of any long running characters. We like history to be respected, and for elements from older stories to be referred to in newer adventures. But we also want to hear new stories, and to conveniently ignore some of the more outlandish moments from the past. Personally I have a fairly flexible approach to continuity but it is fantastic how Big Finish is building their own version of the Whoniverse with recurring characters and groups like The Forge. This continuity comes back to haunt Hex, almost literally in this case.

This is a terrific conclusion to the Forge arc of stories and I hope it is not the last time the Doctor will encounter them. 4 out of 5 phials of the Twilight virus antidote. Next will be the story this has all been building up to: A Death in the Family has a lot to live up to. Will it meet the challenge?