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?

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 - 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 - 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 - 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.

Big Finish - Jago & Litefoot series three

Fairly swiftly on from the second set to Jago & Litefoot series three. Featuring four stories written by Justin Richards, Matthew Sweet, John Dorney and Andy Lane. All directed by Lisa Bowerman, with music and sound design by Howard Carter, and artwork by Alex Mallinson.

Once again the four stories have a linked theme, this time of disturbances in time with echoes of future events impacting in the heroes' Victorian setting. In that respect it reminded me of Sapphire and Steel with time itself almost being an evil force to be controlled. So we have wet ghosts from a future shipwreck, a haunted children's book with a nasty little man who lives at the end of the garden, and a haunting in a theatre. And as ever there is a villainous figure lurking in the shadows whose sinister plan will be revealed in the fourth story. In fact there are two mystery names running through the series which will set up the cliif-hanger at the end.

Louise Jameson joins the cast reuniting Leela with Jago & Litefoot. All of the actors are splendid as ever,  it's well directed and I have run out of superlatives to describe the vocal brilliance of Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter in the title roles. They are such good fun that they even make the extensive CD extras entertaining.

Once again this spin off series is currently giving me much more fun than the current main range Doctor Who releases. A virtual and very voluptuous Victorian 5 out of 5 haunted books for Jago & Litefoot 3. Series four awaits me.

Big Finish - Dark Eyes 2

The sequel to the award winning first Dark Eyes box set. Dark Eyes 2 by Nicholas Briggs, Alan Barnes and Matt Fitton, directed by Nicholas Briggs.

The Eighth Doctor returns as does Molly O'Sullivan, the Daleks and the Master. Four linked stories range across time and space and bring the Doctor and Molly to a final confrontation in 1970s London. Splitting up the story does mean that this is not quite the cohesive whole that the first set was and I did have to concentrate more to keep up with what was going on. Interestingly one of the characters meets the Doctor twice but the wrong way round in his time line and her confusion does help the listener understand what is going on.

There are rather too many bad guys for my liking with Daleks, Viyrans, the Eminence and the Master all involved. I know that Daleks and Dark Eyes seem to go hand in hand but personally I would be happy to see them take a rest on the subs bench next time. 

I had a few doubts about Molly O'Sullivan in the first set but she is great here. I do like a companion who doesn't let the Doctor get away with too much nonsense and gives as good as she gets. There has been some discussion recently on the Big Finish site about whether working class companions work with Doctor Who. Molly is Irish working class and she succeeds splendidly as a sparring partner for Paul McGann's Doctor. Ruth Bradley has a lovely voice and thankfully they have dropped the colloquialisms I complained about last time.

This box set also benefits from performances by Nicola Walker and the fantastic Alexander Macqueen who tackles the part of the Master with enthusiasm. The rest of the production is up to the usual high Big Finish standard, which almost goes without saying these days.

Splendid stuff, another 4.5 out of 5 leather jackets. I look forward to future instalments although hopefully they will give the Daleks a rest next time and explore some new bad guys.

Big Finish - Antidote to Oblivion

Antidote to Oblivion is the first release of the year from the Big Finish monthly range. Written by Philip Martin and directed by Nicholas Briggs.

The Sixth Doctor and Flip respond to a distress signal from another Time Lord and find themselves in a future London where big business rules the day, and scientists are researching the end to all infections. That's never going to end well in science fiction, is it?

Once again my lack of knowledge of the Colin Baker years on television lets me down. I'm not familiar with the slug like villain Sil so his reappearance here played with sibilant relish by Nabil Shaban didn't really mean much to me. He's just one more bad guy, and not one that seems to provide much opposition for the Doctor. In particular there were none of those clash of wills dialogues that I like.

The production is fine with some of the music being very good but it was another average story for me. I'm not yet convinced by Lisa Greenwood's Flip and Colin Baker seemed to be overdoing his actor's articulation a bit in places.

Ho hum I'm afraid. 2.5 out of 5 abandoned underground stations. Time for some Sherlock Holmes instead.

Big Finish - The Trial of the Valeyard

Being a subscriber to the main Big Finish monthly Doctor Who stories means I get the yearly bonus release and here is Trial of the Valeyard by Alan Barnes and Mike Maddox, directed by Barnaby Edwards.

The Sixth Doctor is back in the Time Lords' courtroom again but this time he is defending the prosecutor from his own show trial. Can the Doctor untangle the web of lies surrounding his possible future self and reveal some of the dark secrets in Gallifrey's past?

I confess I haven't ever watched any of the Trial of the Time Lord series at all. I am also one of those Doctor Who fans who find the rest of the Time Lords rather boring and annoying. They have dull, pompous attitudes and tend to wear ridiculous robes and silly hats. One of the smart things that Russell T Davies did when he revived the show in 2005 was to scrap all that nonsense and leave the Doctor as the last survivor of his race. So this story was always going to have a hard time impressing me.

Colin Baker, Lynda Bellingham and Michael Jayston all tackle their roles with relish and sound like they are having a lot of fun. They are also all very charming in the CD extras interviews. But this was all rather dull for me. I'm not interested in whether the Doctor has twelve regenerations, or twenty four or a hundred. I'm still surprised that Robert Holmes introduced the concept in the 1970s but presumably that had something to do with making the Doctor appear mortal to some extent.

Last year's bonus release was the rather splendidly spooky Night of the Stormcrow which is now available to buy from the Big Finish site. My advice would be to go and buy that instead. 2 out of 5 Time Lord helmets for Trial of the Valeyard. Onwards!

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.