The Big Finish Catch-Up November - December 2022

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; 

The Devils Armada, an effortless recreation of the Hinchcliffe era from the first "Philip Hinchcliffe Presents" box set. Everyone involved is on top form and bar from a few moments where it forgot it was an audio I was fully absorbed and transported back to watching Tom Baker VHS's 9/10.

Cold Fusion, an adaption of one of my favourite "Past Doctor Adventure" books and the final entry of the Novel adaption range. We end this range as we started with a case study of how the 7th Doctor evolved in the "Virgin New Adventures" range. When I heard this was being adapted I squeed as it was one of my favourite books and I'm so pleased they made this an old money six part story as I didn't want to lose anything via an edit from the story. The premise of this story is the strongest thing about it, the season 19 TARDIS crew featuring a freshly regenerated 5th Doctor land and stumble right into the middle of a 7th Doctor VNA and chaos ensues. Virtually everything (apart from the prologue) is seen through the eyes of the 5th Doctors crew and its a bit of an eye opener seeing the VNA 7th Doctor from this point of view. The 7th Doctor is mostly in the background for this story and its a really good move as despite knowing more about this Doctor due to the sheer number of books we are left with more questions about him as the story proceeds. One of the strongest parts of the story is the various companions interacting as is the 7th Doctor getting to meet Adric. We began this range with the 7th Doctor putting his companion through the ringer and we leave it with the 7th Doctor putting his younger self through the ringer. A fitting end to this range even though I want more 10/10.

The Hidden Realm, the second and final story from Volume Two of "The Third Doctor Adventures." A rather nice little story and as an Earth set story a good combination with the space set story in this volume. Now that I've heard a full box set (as well as his appearance in Light at the End and Legacy of Time) I feel its my time to give an opinion on Tim Treloar's performance as The Third Doctor. Its a thumbs up from me, he has a very good go at the voice but the real strength is in the mannerisms. I'll look forward to coming back to this range again in the future. As for the story its quite nice, a traditional ruralish setting bringing back memories of the era its set. It has an intriguing setup and a good idea, however it feels a bit tightly plotted and lacking in flavour. In all honesty I wouldn't have minded the other story in this volume being six parts and this one being two. There is a good bit of fun to be had with this story but it is bite sized 6/10. 

The Big Finish Catch-Up March - October 2022

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; 

However as I've fallen behind its time for some snap reviews of the last years of my Big Finish listening, these contain first time listens and relistens to old favourites:

The Transcendence of Ethos - A good first impression for the 3rd Doctor range, 8/10.

The Ghosts of Gralstead - A fantastic first story from the Philip Hinchcliffe presents range 10/10.

A Thing of Guile - good second part of the second War Doctor box set 7/10.

He Jests at Scars - weird yet good entry for the Unbound range starring the Valeyard 7/10.

Lies on Ruins - Good moody start to the Legacy of Time box set 8/10.

The Split Infinitive - Fun bouncy second part of Legacy of Time box set 8/10.

The Sacrifice of Jo Grant - Charming emotional third part of the Legacy of Time 9/10.

Relative Time - Really fun bursting at the seems entry to the Legacy of Time 8/10.

Damaged Goods - A perfect adaption of the NA adventure for the Novelisation range 10/10.

The Avenues of Time - Decent yet feels unspecial entry into the Legacy of Time 5/10.

Collision Course - Finale of the Legacy of Time, good moody story with a fun climax for the box set 8/10.

The Big Finish Catch-Up May 2020

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 start this blog entry with a confession, I've run out of money and I'm running out of Big Finish stories that I bought on sale and have in the bank. As such I'm currently having one two hour Big Finish session a month. As such this entry includes a second listening of the first River Song box set and the first listening of UNIT: Dominion. Enjoy the review and more entries will be up soon.

The River Song box set treads the line finely of being a box set and having standalone stories. As the box set progresses they get less standalone which is perfectly understandable, that being said Rulers  of the Universe and Signs I can see being relistened to in the future with Signs being up there with Big Finish best stuff. As a box set it is very campy and has a 70's feel which should help you decide weather it interests you or not. So its a 7.5/10 from me.

UNIT Dominion is a very strange box set, it doesn't tread the box set stand alone story fine at all a its one story. Its interesting and possibly has too much going on to the extent that no plot lines give us time to do a deep dive and it feels like skirting around in the shallows for a few hours. We get some resolution to Kleins story although in all honesty I thought the previous ending was fine so it gets a polite thankyou with a shrug from me. Its nice to see Raine and I hope she shows up more often. This story is at its best when bonkers stuff is happening and UNIT is struggling to cope. Its a 5.5/10 from me and as a whole it needs an edit.

The Big Finish Catch-up: January - August 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;

Hello ladies and gentle readers, regular readers of this blog may have noticed that blog entries are becoming a tad infrequent. Sorry about that but life is getting in the way and in an effort to catch up all the stories I listened to in the first eight months of the year are getting a one sentence review, so here we go;

The Macros, Lost story featuring the 6th Doctor and Peri: nice tight story decent plot.

Circular Time, series of one episode stories featuring the 5th Doctor and Nyssa: punch the air level brilliant, again didn't know about the format and the most enjoyable release I've heard in ages.

Nocturne, featuring the 7th Doctor, Ace and Hex: a rather low key feel but very good and oddly emotional in a strange way.

Renaissance of the Daleks, featuring the 5th Doctor and Nyssa: very good plot but very uninvolving.

Year of the Pig, featuring the 6th Doctor and Peri: Very Wodehouse in a good way.

The Thousand Worlds featuring the War Doctor: good but very much the second act of a box set.

Exotron and Urban Myths featuring the 5th Doctor and Peri: Exotron was decent and Urban Myths was very enjoyable.

Valhalla featuring the 7th Doctor, very atmospheric with the first half being a lot better.

I.D. and Urgent Calls featuring the 6th Doctor: I have no memory what so ever of I.D. and Urgent Calls is utter gorgeousness personified.

Memory Lane featuring the 8th Doctor: Charley and C'rizz: good stuff in a rather good strange way.

Frozen Time featuring the 7th Doctor: run of the mill.

Son of the Dragon featuring the 5th Doctor, Peri and Erimem: good but felt like a retread of 'The Settling' without the bite.

Return of the Daleks featuring the 7th Doctor: very good and very dark.

Rulers of the Universe featuring River Song and the 8th Doctor: very good and cracking end to the box set.

The Circus of Doom featuring the 4th Doctor and Mike Yates: Tom is bloody brilliant and on cracking form.

The Heart of the Battle featuring the War Doctor: a powerful end to the series with John Hurt being more bombastic than I expected.

100 featuring the 6th Doctor and Evelyn: two wonderfully funny stories, a fantastic dark one and one I'd love to have been a full length story.

Absolution featuring the 8th Doctor, Charley and C'rizz: an absolute unexpected game changer.

Minds Eye and Mission of the Viyrans featuring the 5th Doctor, Peri and Erimem: two cracking and different stories leaving me rather anxious for this line up of characters. 

The Big Finish Catch Up: April 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;

We wonder back into the Lost Story range with The Guardians of Prophecy featuring the 6th Doctor and Peri. A rather fun romp that gets exciting and tense in certain parts. Written by Johnny Byrne who wrote The Keeper of Traken (and adapted by Jonathan Morris) this story also features The Melkur and Traken Union. Theres a lot to enjoy in this story and there is little connecting this to The Keeper of Traken and can be enjoyed on its own merits. Of note is a good guest cast including Graham Cole (I spent the entire story trying to recognise his voice), Stephen Thorne (who played Omega, Azal and Eldrad in the TV series) and Simon Williams of Upstairs/Downstairs fame and Remembrance of the Daleks. Never less than enjoyable and at times attention grabbing its a firm recommendation from me.

The second story this month is The Settling featuring the 7th Doctor, Ace and Hex played by Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and Philip Olivier. Written by Simon Guerrier and takes place during Cromwell's campaign in Ireland. I can't really review this sadly for one reason, as often said in this section of the blog I listen to these stories knowing nothing about them picking them off the top of a pile and playing the discs. However when I pulled this story off the top of the pile I could feel that it was different and that it had three discs. I assumed it was going to be like Zagreus and The Next Life in that it was going to be longer than the usual stories. As such I'm listening to the story looking for subtle clues (which weren't there) as to where the story could spin off and all of a sudden when I was expecting a cliff hanger the story ended when I was braced for another hour. The 3rd disc was actually a promo disc for Big Finishes other ranges. I'm going to have to put this under the category "give it another listen" although what I heard was very good technically I don't think its fair to review the story. Clive Mantle was in top form and I like that they put Hex centre stage for this story. 

The Big Finish Catch Up: October 2014

In this months update of my attempt to catch up with the Big Finish releases I wonder off the main range into the Eighth Doctor Adventures and The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield...

First up is Blood of the Daleks, the first story in the new range of "Eighth Doctor Adventures" an offshoot series taking the 8th Doctor out of the main range and giving us something more familiar with  post 2005 Who. I have to say I did originally hear the first season when it aired but haven't heard it since. This story feels different from the main range, its more snappy and less fluffy than the usual Big Finish play. Its a stark story albeit traditional, a colony invaded by the Daleks but this is a very bleak colony perhaps teetering on the edge of collapse before the Daleks turn up. Very few of the colonists are sympathetic and some are worse than the Daleks, if you like stories with an edge this one is for you. Getting on to the regulars Paul McGanns 8th Doctor is wonderfully put out from the onset, having a new companion and status quo forced on him - the Doctor is in a grumpy mood and wants to show it. We haven't heard McGann play the Doctor this prickly since the alternative universe season. Sheridan Smith is a welcome addition as Lucie, neither her or The Doctor like each other or wanting to spend any time together is a wonderful little twist. Lucie has been placed with The Doctor for her safety by the Time Lords for some undisclosed reason. An amusing start, an engrossing story and a little bit of spice at the end as a new character is introduced that is pivotal to the season story line.

The next listen was the final two parts of The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield box set "Random Ghosts" and "The Lights of *****." Two strong stories bringing the story to a close. On finishing the set I can best describe this as one story separated into four acts, centering on Bernice with the other characters flitting in and out. "Random Ghosts" is perhaps the most fascinating Big Finish story I've heard, I absolutely adored it (and the format) and could have listened to an expanded version for hours if it existed. The final story is quite odd, I'd advise not to look up its title as it improves the 3rd story. Its more of a small scale deep story that presents a few interesting thoughts and a lot less flash bang wallop than I expected. Strongly recommend and a welcome return for the Virgin New Adventures team.

As a whole I rate this box set highly, personally I think the price is a bit steep but this set imo has the most re listen value in anything Big Finish have produced. Every disc in the story has at least one scene or reveal I want to hear again, in particular how I missed all the clues in part one and I want to hear part three again as it packed a lot in and I'm sure I missed loads in here. As someone whose only heard the main range stories of Bernice along with the Love & War adaption and her Excelis story its made me want to listen to more stories from her range which makes this set a success in my book.