The Big Finish Catch-up: December 2016

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;

I don't have much to say about the order I listen to the releases in, I just buy them, stick them in draw and ask a random family member or friend to sort them out for me into order. However I do ask for one that looks like a "good un" to be reserved for December as kind of a Christmas treat. During December I had a personally bad month due to death of my mother, later in the month I needed to drift away for a few hours and listened to the aforementioned Christmas treat.

It turned out to be "The Highest Science" an adaption of a new adventure book written by Gareth Roberts from the early 90's featuring the 7th Doctor and Bernice Summerfield. Ooh, this is one of those books I always meant to get but never got around to it. I was an avid reader of the range but 24 books a year meant I've nowhere near read them all. This is one that I really liked the cover of and always meant to get around to it.

Its a wonderfully cheeky story with quite an edge - its got a right nasty villain and theres a lot of humour. I'd only read two of Roberts books before so was aware of his style. There is a lot of 'Spinal Tap' style humour and it does feel very 90's in places. The Chelonians I think I've heard or read elsewhere were very good value as was Bernices trucker friend. The main villain is outstandingly evil and the actor is clearly having fun. The only slight niggles are production details where the Chelonians suddenly turn incoherent and an opening that I had to rewind a dozen times as I couldn't understand the railway announcers words. 

This is one I know I'm going to come back to, its lots of fun and after twenty years of build up it lived up to my expectations and picked me up when I needed it, 8/10.