The Big Finish Catch Up: October 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;

First up this month was the second and final disc of the story started last month featuring the 4th Doctor, Romana and K9. This later part of the story is more enjoyable than the first half as there's less padding and it looks like it may be setting up things for later in the season. On a production level it really sounds like 70's Doctor Who whilst on the acting front Mary Tamm and John Leeson are also able to recapture their performances with Tom being... well Tom! There is a good guest cast with David Warner and Hayley Atwell performing well but things are let down by the writing and length of the story - there's a decent one disc story in here but its spread to thin, plus Nick Briggs is what I call a 'plot' writer trying to do a camp story and not pulling it off. Disappointing 5/10.

We move on to the Eighth Doctor Range starring Paul McGanns 8th Doctor and Sheridan Smiths Lucie. Now this is a single disc story that could easily be a double disc release, utterly brilliant with guest star Nigel Havers putting in one of the best one off performances I've heard. What I enjoyed about this story is that it feels like we're coming in during the final five minutes of an adventure and then pushes on in a completely new direction. It also feels like some time has passed by since the previous story in this range. The Doctor and Lucie feel like a team that has hit its stride - which makes the end come as a bit of a shock. From a story that starts out all action this is one of the most personal stories I've heard which is mostly down to the characters of Rachel and Nick Zimmerman. This season continues to be brilliant 10/10.

The final story this month was Power Play from the Lost Story range starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the 6th Doctor and Peri. I must point out that I managed to hear this without seeing a certain character on the cover and it was rather a nice surprise. I found this story to be something of a tale of two halves, the first half being very good and threatening to be a bolter of a joy ride. However when the characters enter the compound it gets a tad dull and the geography of the story stopped making sense. On the whole I recommend this story as for large sways of it theres a lot of fun to be had. One thing I will say is that one of the guest actors struggles but I think its due to trying to recapture the character as I've heard her do good things in a certain main range story that contains a number in its title 7/10.  

As this is the final story in the third season of 'The Lost Stories' I'll be listening to (The Masters of Luxor and The Rosemariners I may come to eventually) I feel I should say something on the season. I recommend this season highly and feel the Fifth Doctor stories are the stronger with 'The Elite' and 'The Children of Seth' actually being rather special, the Sixth Doctor stories are all good solid stories and the more consistent of the six stories. I recommend the season and in all likely hood I'll be getting 'Masters' at some point.