The Big Finish Catch-up: September 2015

For those of you new to this section of the blog, I started listening to the Big Finish Doctor Who releases when they started back in 1999, getting them as they were released up to mid 2002 and release No 33 Neverland. At that time I left Uni and due to being a bit busy with life and what not I only heard one or two releases over the next few years. I started getting back into them around 2008 and was 6 years behind at that point. Due to wondering off into the Lost Doctor range and a relaxed listening pace I fell further behind. In order to catch up I'm listening to two releases a month (or more when its a 60 min single disc release, plus without seeing the cover or knowing anything about the story) and my mission to catch up continues;

Spaceport Fear featuring the 6th Doctor and Mel is a fantastic little story involving an isolated setting, a good set up and a cracking plot involving a few twists that I didn't see coming. Strongly recommended 7/10.

Second up this month is a dip into the 'companion chronicle' range. Starring Jean Marsh in a story featuring the 1st Doctor, Sara and Steven. I actually recommend getting this over Halloween, viewing this as a taster to see if I'm going to buy anything from this range again its a roaring success. Its a very good story and one that I'm sure would have caught a few people off guard - I really don't want to say much in case I accidentally give anything away. It reminds me very much of the main ranges experimental stage from around 2003/4. I can't give more of a tribute to this than say - I'm in, I'm going to be listening to more of this range and you'll see more reviews coming up in this blog.

Third up this month and its another range as we go into the 4th Doctor range. This is a rare case of the 'not knowing anything' factor screwing things up. This was paired with the previous story in this review and I expected a single disc story unfortunately I got half a story as this is a double disc story as in Dalek story at the start of the 8th Doctor range. Reviewing what I did hear however, its very good to hear Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and John Leeson plus the production really sounds like 70's Who. However the story is terrible, disappointing given the cast and quality of the quest cast. Quite frankly as opposed to hearing a story I listened to characters being moved around a chess board and some awful characterisation. A halftime score of 5/10 and its that high due to so many of my fan buttons being pressed by this lineup of regulars.