Doctor Who – The Best of Big Finish, Part Five

In my last Best of Big Finish article I mentioned that I had finished most of the second series of Eighth Doctor audios, and I had only a handful of audios (including the infamous Zagreus) remaining in the Eighth Doctor’s first batch of stories. What makes these audios so fascinating is that, other than the less-than-stellar TV Movie from 1996 and the fantastic but brief Night of the Doctor from 2013, they are the only medium through which fans can experience the Eighth Doctor. Whilst we can all live in hope that one day the BBC will give Paul McGann a spinoff or mini-series of his own, in the meantime the stellar audios that he has been a part of can suffice for fans of McGann. All of these audios can be picked up on the Big Finish website for just £3 each, so they are definitely worth checking out.

The Time of the Daleks

This audio is essentially a re-imagining of the lost Second Doctor episode The Evil of the Daleks, which is by no means a bad thing – since Evil can no longer be experienced, it makes sense to attempt a remake eventually – but the story is perhaps in places a little too close to Evil. Regardless, McGann and Fisher are brilliant as always, and the Daleks prove to be as menacing as ever.

What truly makes this audio worth the time is the fact that the Daleks quote Shakespeare throughout, something that is unnerving in context but hilarious to listen to, particularly since the plot revolves a fair amount around the Daleks attempting to remove all of Shakespeare from time, but in order to do that they have to learn Shakespeare themselves.

Neverland

Neverland concludes the story arc involving Charley Pollard and the time-phenomenon that has pursued her and the Doctor since they met, and also leads into Zagreus, making it a fairly important audio in the Eighth Doctor’s early years. The audio features Lalla Ward as Romana II in her first encounter with the Eighth Doctor, and also features some interesting developments on Time Lord society, specifically their early methods of capitol punishment.

All in all, Neverland is essentially the ‘setup’ for the next audio, and given its successors infamous reputation it goes without saying that this audio is an important chapter in the Eighth Doctor’s adventures.

Zagreus

As strange as it is, I actually quite liked Zagreus. I am aware of this audio’s controversial nature, and its placement as the ‘Marmite’ audio for most fans – they either love it or they hate it. To its credit, Zagreus attempts to do something radically different for a Doctor Who story, and it plays with some really interesting ideas. By far one of the best features of this story is the abundance of classic cast members, everyone from Louise Jameson to Jon Pertwee (the latter as a prerecording taken from a fan production). In a strange twist, however, the entire group of regular cast have been given totally random roles in this story, making it an interesting ride for those who are familiar with them all.

The first of two main weaknesses of Zagreus is the length – in fact, its length is its Achilles heel in many ways, as the second main weakness of Zagreus is the meandering plot – but the story could have been tightened up a lot more as the final product is a whopping four hours long – twice the length of a standard Big Finish production. True to Classic Who form, this means filler galore.

—- WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ZAGREUS TO FOLLOW —-

Scherzo

This is a strange one. Scherzo is set directly after Zagreus and is the first in the ‘divergent universe’ arc that makes up the second major plot arc in the Eighth Doctor’s era after Charley. After the somewhat hectic and tragic conclusion to Zagreus, the Eighth Doctor and Charley end up in a totally new universe in which time no longer exists, and for most of the audio they cannot see or feel anything but each other – they are totally trapped in a universe in which the only thing that exists is sound.

This audio really showcases what the format of audio stories can do that the televised show could not, and really amps up the horror factor to the extent that this might be the scariest of the Big Finish audios that I have listened to so far, in a strange way. As the only two cast members, Paul McGann and India Fisher do a fantastic job here, and they are quickly becoming one of my favourite Doctor/Companion pairings.

So that concludes my thoughts on the next round of Eighth Doctor audios from Big Finish. If you enjoyed, be sure to leave a like and you can follow us either here or on Facebook for more content like this. Thanks for reading!

See More

Silver Nemesis: A Hidden Classic?

As far as ratings go, reception for 1988’s Silver Nemesis is generally quite poor. The Discontinuity Guide puts this episode down as lacking ‘pace and character involvement’, which could be saying more about the shortcomings of the three-part format than anything else. Regardless, Silver Nemesis does commit the cardinal sin that many post-1960s Cybermen stories are guilty of – including the Cybermen in the story, without doing anything interesting with them. But surely amidst all this negative criticism, there must be something worthwhile to talk about from this story. After all, for better or worse, it will forever remain Doctor Who’s 25th Anniversary episode.

So to begin my analysis of Silver Nemesis, let’s start with the obvious – Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred are fantastic in this episode. The Seventh Doctor is regarded as unpopular, but in reality he is simply overlooked – for those who watch his episodes, a darker, more exciting and more serious side to the Seventh Doctor becomes clear. Once he drops his comic facade, the Seventh Doctor is cunning and devious, but never strays too far from his good nature. In this episode the Seventh Doctor pulls off a daring feat of strategy and manipulation to ensure that neither the Cybermen, the Neo-Nazis, or an insane lady from the past achieve their goals.

Speaking of an insane lady from the past, there is a strange subplot involving a certain Lady Peinforte, who has apparently at some point in the past encountered a Time Lord weapon and managed to bend it to her will (even making it take on her appearance) and has somehow discovered the secrets of alchemical time travel, all whilst being a cavalier from the 1500s. Whilst the character of Peinforte may seem like an odd addition, her presence in the story provides an interesting method by which Cybermen are destroyed – her arrows, which she believes are effective due to being laced with poison, are actually useful for killing Cybermen due to the fact that the tips are made of gold (for some reason.) Ultimately, Peinforte is mostly in the episode for comic relief, and her death is as anticlimactic as her role in the story turns out to be.

The Cybermen in this story are about as effective as they have been throughout the 80s – so make of that what you will. They do prove their effectiveness in combat by annihilating many of the Nazi soldiers, but seeing Cybermen being felled by arrows and tiny rocks of gold flung at them by Ace’s slingshot effectively completes their devaluation as villains that had been in process throughout the decade. After being destroyed by the spears of the Raston Warrior Robot in The Five Doctors it seems that arrows was the next logical step. Nonetheless, the Cybermen do present a threat in the parallels that are drawn between those and the Nazis. Hearing the Cyberleader and the Nazi commander negotiating the division of dominion over Earth in terms of labor camps is chilling.

Ultimately though, having recently read the novelisation of the unmade Season ’27’ episode Illegal Alien, it has to be said that the plot of that book is somewhat superior to this episode. Oddly, both involve Nazis, and one of the reasons why Illegal Alien didn’t make it to Season 26 is due to the fact that there was already a World War 2 episode planned. Silver Nemesis does have some big positives, particularly Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred’s performances as the Seventh Doctor and Ace, who are always a great Doctor/Companion pairing. As with the rest of Season 25, Silver Nemesis is worth a watch for the novelty factor alone.

So there were my thoughts on Silver Nemesis, if you enjoyed be sure to leave a like and you can follow us either here or on Facebook for more content like this. Thanks for reading!

See More

Star Trek – First Impressions of Deep Space Nine

I have been a lifelong fan of Star Trek, but often through watching the same episodes of the same series over and over again, primarily Star Trek: The Next Generation. I later went on to start watching Voyager, but after several Netflix marathons I had finished all the good episodes that I hadn’t already seen on SciFi, and so found that I had run out of new Star Trek to watch. So, after much deliberation, I finally concluded: I had to start watching Deep Space 9. Unlike practically all other Star Trek shows and films, DS9 was a show that had never interested me before due to it’s premise – rather than crewing a starship, the main cast instead man a space station guarding a wormhole, and I had always assumed – wrongly – that this would mean that the show was boring. But after watching some DS9 for myself, so far the highlights have been:

The ‘friendship’ between Quark and Odo

Two surprise favorites of mine are Quark and Odo, who start as fairly bland characters but eventually gain a wealth of development in the first series. The two are initially rivals, having known each other already from the Cardassian occupation, but eventually learn to depend on each other for information and advice as the series continues. Interestingly, despite being framed as a potential antagonist, Quark does eventually come to care for the rest of the crew, particularly Odo.

Odo’s odd abilities and origins are also intriguing, and I am almost certain that what race Odo belongs to or what role he plays on Deep Space Nine will be an important factors in later seasons, and Quark gives us a unique insight into the Ferengi culture. Talking of which:

The Ferengi

Throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation it is apparent that the writers never really knew what to do with the Ferengi as a species. Initially introduced as a replacement for the Klingons after they allied with the Fededation, the Ferengi were just not menacing enough to stick as effective villains and their role was reduced to mere comedy by the end, with the role of primary villain eventually falling to the Romulans and the Borg.

In DS9, however, the Ferengi become a direct focus as their presence on the station is benign – this gives us our first and foremost Ferengi recurring character, Quark, and so the Ferengi as a species are expanded upon a lot more, giving us better insight into their culture and how they operate.

The Setting and the Politics of Bajor

DS9 deals heavily with the aftermath of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, a planet that is not a member of the Federation but has the potential to be inducted, and how Starfleet has to deal with the subsequent political, religious and economic impact of the discovery of a stable wormhole near Bajor that leads to the lucrative Gamma Quadrant just as Bajor begins to reassert itself as an independent power. The character of Major Kira, a Bajoran ex-freedom fighter who takes on the role of First Officer aboard DS9 to aid in the reconstruction efforts, and how her relationship with Commander Sisko and the other Federation characters blossoms shows how the benevolence and honorable intentions of the Federation can go a long way in bringing trust, order and stability to a highly chaotic region, explaining how the Federation has expanded so rapidly despite its dedication to pacifism.

What is also interesting about DS9 is how it refuses to shy away from depicting very real interpretations of political and religious debates, particularly in the context of a sensitive, deeply religious and politically charged former occupied territory. Many of the ethical and moral questions brought up in the early episodes revolve around how Bajor is going to adapt to survive in the new political climate, and this mostly focuses on Major Kira learning to accept and eventually trust her Starfleet colleagues.

Miles O’Brien

Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation will know Miles O’Brien already, as he serves as the transporter chief and occasional bridge officer throughout the series. The first episode of DS9 depicts his transference from the USS Enterprise to DS9, alongside his faithful wife Keiko O’Brien who continues to be little more than a minor character throughout the series. By contrast, O’Brien takes on a ‘Scotty’ role, and fills the shoes of Chief Engineer more naturally than Geordi La Forge did in many ways.

Miles definitely plays a more prominent role in this show than he did in TNG, but the inclusion of Miles O’Brien in so many episodes of both TNG and DS9 gives him the honour of being the character with the second largest number of appearances – behind Warf who doesn’t feature in DS9 until later but featured in all of TNG as well as the movies – and the idea of bringing back a character who was less developed in the main series in one of the spinoffs is something that the newer Star Trek television shows should consider.

Doctor Julian Bashir

In short – Bashir is hilarious. Intentionally or not, DS9 follows the Star Trek tradition of having Doctors with eclectic and quirky personalities, and Bashir’s many moments linking to a recurring subplot of his bizarre comedic obsession with Dax make him a distinct character among the rest of the Federation cast. I frequently found myself uttering the statement: “Oh Bashir, you idiot.” at various points throughout several episodes, although not all of his misfortunes and mishaps are his fault – occasionally he is possessed by evil entities or a victim of his obsessive fantasies of Dax made solid by a strange phenomenon in a strangely Red Dwarf-esque plot. Generally, episodes focusing on Bashir are great fun.

Overall Thoughts

Having finished the first series of DS9, I can conclude that DS9 is definitely worth the time and I am greatly looking forward to watching more. The characters are likeable, interesting and have good chemistry, and my personal favourites are definitely Bashir, Dax and Odo. For the rest of the casst, despite a few instances of hammy acting or underwhelming sub-plots, generally the first series has been consistently good, with perhaps a slight dip in quality roundabout the middle, although the quality goes back up towards the end of the series.

So those were my thoughts on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, series one. Have you watched Deep Space Nine? If so, did you like it? Leave your answer in the comments below, and be sure to leave a like if you enjoyed. Thanks for Reading!

Doctor Who – The Best of Big Finish, Part Four

I have been listening to Big Finish for just over two months now, and yet already I have made my way through swathes of episodes by listening to them daily – whilst out and about walking around the park or to the gym, whilst cooking or doing housework, and also during long car journeys. The series has been very rewarding to listen to as a Doctor Who fan and I would thoroughly recommend any who have not already to check out Big Finish on their website. Many of the earlier audios are very cheap for a digital download and the bundles of the first dozen or so stories for each Doctor periodically go on sale so it is really easy to pick them up cheap.

Following on from my Best of Big Finish, Part Three comes the next installment in my Big Finish reviews series, as I make my way through Big Finish’s main range. Unlike most Big Finish audios, most of these require previous episodes for context and understanding, so to begin:

The Mutant Phase

The first audio on this list is the third in the ‘Dalek Empire’ series, that also includes The Genocide Machine, The Apocalypse Element and the conclusion The Time of the Daleks. Featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa as well as a Dalek Emperor and Thals all attempting to prevent a history-altering mutation in the Dalek genome that could destroy both the Dalek race and the universe. The scope of this episode is larger than any in the Dalek Empire arc so far, and it links quite heavily with the 12-part First Doctor story The Dalek Invasion of Earth, but don’t let that put you off.

The Mutant Phase does a great job of maintaining the high stakes due to the temporal nature of it – usually when Big Finish does a ‘the Daleks invade this planet for this reason’ can get stale over time, but having a story in which the Daleks try to change all of history to rid themselves of a plague is fairly interesting, although there are more twists that make the reasoning by this and the Doctor’s motives more convoluted.

Invaders from Mars

The fact alone that Simon Pegg is part of the cast tells you that this is going to be a fun one, but Invaders from Mars is a contender for funniest audio I have listened to so far in the series, although I am yet to listen to The Holy Terror. The story partly revolves around the 1938 Halloween radio transmission of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds perfomred by Orson Welles, but some comical twists add to the surreal humour of this story. Likewise, as this is an episode that is perhaps meant to be taken less seriously, there appears to be a higher amount of ‘silly voices’ involved in the production of this audio, and not all of them can be Simon Pegg.

In typical Big Finish style, however, there are some dark elements, and the story is not without its fair share of death – but Invaders from Mars is definitely worth a listen for fans of the Eighth Doctor and Charley, and also for fans of historicals. Interestingly, this audio is written by Mark Gatiss, who would go on to write a lot of stories for the new series including The Unquiet Dead and Empress of Mars, so he clearly has a thing for historicals and episodes with Mars in the title.

Seasons of Fear

As far as ‘returning monsters’ go, you don’t really get more obscure than the return of the Nimon to Doctor Who in Seasons of Fear. The Nimon featured in just one episode of Classic Who, and yet still managed to get a return in NuWho in The God Complex (sort of), but that wasn’t before Big Finish had already granted them their glorious return here in a surprisingly standout episode featuring an almost comical relationship that develops between the Doctor and an immortal who serves a legion of Bull-people who want to supersede the Time Lords and become Masters of the universe.

The premise of this story is notable as it uses the time-travel elements of Doctor Who a lot more than most stories might, and the early parts almost give us a new location and time period each episode. The story flows consistently throughout, however, and the development of the character of Sebastian Grayle is both humorous and fascinatingly dark. Overall this is well worth a listen as it provides crucial development for the arc of the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard.

Embrace the Darkness

When Big Finish does creepy well, it does it really well, and and Embrace the Darkness sums up creepy – its essentially a sinister horror in audio form that also features a helping of sci-fi concepts and great characters and voice acting. The story is a basic ‘base-under-siege’ formula, but the execution makes it notable as the aliens in this are by no means as malevolent as one might expect from a sci-fi horror story.

It cannot be understated how good India Fisher is as a companion, particularly as she is able to bring her audio-only character Charley to life, and her chemistry with Paul McGann makes every audio with the pair acting together a treat.

As this is the third Eighth Doctor story on the list, it is important to note at this point that I am on an Eighth Doctor binge, and my next Big Finish Review will feature the next few Eighth Doctor audios as well as the infamous Zagreus.

So that was my list of the Best of Big Finish, Part Four. If you enjoyed then be sure to leave a like, and you can follow Sacred Icon either here or on Facebook for more content like this. Thanks for reading!

See more:

Doctor Who Book Review – Illegal Alien

Illegal Alien was among the first of the BBC Past Doctor Who Adventures novels which ran from 1997-2005 and actually began life as a potential TV story for Season 26 and later the unmade ‘Season 27’ which would have aired had the BBC not cancelled the show in 1989. Written by Mike Tucker, a visual effects assistant on Classic Who and model unit supervisor for NuWho, and script editor Robert Perry, this book is essentially a direct novelisation of the script for the unmade TV story, and is therefore split into four parts. With the end of each part being equatable to the cliffhangers seen in the TV show, a nice addition.

The book features the Seventh Doctor and Ace facing off against the Cybermen in Britain in World War II, a concept that works really well and can draw off several Nazi-related themes in a similar fashion to the TV story Victory of the Daleks does with the Daleks and Churchill. But for the first few chapters, the book reads almost like a detective story – the first-person narration of detective Cody McBride makes this story read like a Noir in some places, making it even more of a shame that this was never adapted for television.

The version of the Cybermen that are intended to be represented in this novel is unclear – the original cover depicts a Cybermen from The Wheel in Space, whereas the republished version from The Monster Collection in the 2010s features a Cybus-Industries Cyberman, as seen from 2006’s Rise of the Cybermen. However, the descriptions in the novel as well as the era it was set in would suggest that the Cybermen are a more upgraded version of the kind seen in Silver Nemesis. Interestingly, this book depicts Cybermats, the entire cyber-conversion process and the concept of a critically damaged Cyberman scavenging humans for parts long before NuWho did. If this episode had ever been produced, it would have required a monumental budget.

The setting of the Second World War also allows for some interesting character development for Ace, who encounters Nazis in the flesh having already fostered a growing hatred of them since her best friend from her childhood was murdered by Neo-Nazis, showing a continuation of her character arc from Season 26. Ace also spends the majority of this book separated from the Doctor, and figures out what is going on independently, showing a wealth of character development since Remembrance of the Daleks.

As previously mentioned, this novel was recently made a part of The Monster Collection series, which also included re-releases of Tenth Doctor novels like String of the Zygons and Prisoner of the Daleks, and reviews of those novels will follow.

Overall, Illegal Alien is a great read with some truly memorable characters and a story that gives us a unique insight into what the unmade ‘Season 27’ would have been like. Undoubtedly, had this story been made, it would have been one of the most ambitious Doctor Who stories to date.

How to Fix – Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks

Welcome to the latest article in a series called ‘How to Fix’, in which I will be offering my opinion on how to improve on stories from various entries in different franchises, in this case I will be focusing on a specific New Series Dalek two-parter in a similar fashion to my previous installment. It must be noted that not all of the films, games or episodes that I will be talking about in this series have to necessarily be ‘broken’ in order to fix them, simply that these articles will offer alternate means of telling the same stories.

The divisive Series 3 two-parter Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks took some truly great sci-fi concepts and executed them in the style of a B-Movie. The episode is infamous for several reasons – the song-and-dance routine, the strangely phallic face of the Human-Dalek Hybrid, and the premature destruction of three-quarters of the Cult of Skaro. Considering that their last appearance had been in Series 2’s Doomsday, an episode that was not only hard-hitting emotionally but also featured the first instance of individual Daleks escaping at the end, presumably to get revenge on the Doctor at a later date. Overall, Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks had a lot to live up to and, despite its potential, it just didn’t stand up to previous Dalek stories in the revival. So, to begin:

Do more with the concept of the ‘Cult of Skaro’, and the character of Dalek Sec

By far the most interesting aspect of this two-parter is the individual Daleks themselves, and tragically the episode does little to capitalize on their uniqueness as characters. The concept of having a secret order of specific Daleks that have the adaptability and intelligence to scheme beyond the capacity of an ordinary Dalek is interesting enough, but to have this small number of Daleks used as antagonists throughout multiple seasons is an even more interesting idea. For one, it would eliminate the problem that the early NuWho series’ had with Daleks apparently finding more and more inconceivable ways of surviving the Time War, as having a tiny number of survivors reappear as recurring villains is better than having to come up with a different excuse as to why Daleks are around each series. Unfortunately, Evolution of the Daleks in particular does away with this concept a little too early, killing three out of the four Cult members in their second story.

Admittedly, the character arc for Dalek Sec in this story is spectacular, and the execution is fairly effective as well (apart from the phallic protrusions on the Hybrid’s chin, but the less said about that the better). Having Sec sacrifice himself at the end to save the Doctor illustrates just how far a bit of Human DNA can go in rehabilitating a Dalek, even one as committed to the cause as Sec, and his hybridization and subsequent struggle with gaining human emotions is both an interesting concept for a Dalek story and a great spanner to throw into the works of the hierarchy of the Cult. The problem is that, upon killing Sec, Evolution of the Daleks disposes of Daleks Thay and Jast as well, in a pointless firefight that ultimately solves nothing, when realistically these two Daleks should have escaped with Dalek Caan as their characters had barely been developed when they were unceremoniously killed off.

Do more with the supporting characters

Although Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks constantly reminds the audience that it is set in New York, with the presence of the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and Hooverville serving to ground the audience in both the location and the time period, unfortunately the supporting cast of this episode are given strangely little to do in the grand scheme of things. Ultimately, the only real purpose that Martha, Tallulah, Lazlo and Frank serve in the final episode is discovering the the Daleks have attached Dalekanium to the Empire State Building, and this discovery is ultimately pointless as the Doctor fails to remove it in time anyway. Daleks In Manhattan manages to give its supporting cast a little more to do, but overall following the death of Solomon the Doctor assumes all the main narrative roles in this story, which is odd considering usually Dalek stories rely primarily on the companion to figure things out whilst the Doctor strikes up an ideological debate with his foes.

Unfortunately, at the crucial point at which this might have been useful, the Doctor totally fails to engage with the potential of the Dalek Sec Hybrid. It should be noted that, upon the death of the Hybrid, it is truly unclear whether or not the Doctor actually trusted him at all – he does refer to Sec as ‘the cleverest Dalek ever’, but in typical fashion the Tenth Doctor seems to be totally indifferent to the destruction of this opportunity to recreate the Dalek race from the ground up, instead being seemingly more focused on berating the Daleks for their lack of foresight rather than genuinely grieving the reformed Sec.

Rework the Dalek’s plan so that it makes sense

Clearly whoever scripted this episode had no idea how genetics actually work, or how DNA and life relate to each other in the real world. As many fans will already know, Doctor Who has always been about suspending disbelief for the sake of narrative enjoyment, but in the case of Daleks In Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks this actually hurts the story as the suspension of disbelief is simply unnecessary. The Daleks would surely have the know-how to create Human-Dalek hybrids even with primitive technology, but the logic of ’emptying’ human bodies to be ‘filled’ with Dalek DNA is about the stupidest way of presenting this concept. Why not just have the Daleks growing the new Hybrid soldiers in tanks, and requiring the lightning strike to bring them to life? Or, heck, just have the lightning strike be there to power their Emergency Temporal Shift to escape to the future – the Daleks could have just revisited the concept of Robomen and indoctrinated Humans into doing their bidding rather than using the seemingly redundant Pig Slaves.

Overall, most of what makes Daleks In Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks is the mishandling of the Daleks themselves as the main villain – it would be easy to tweak this story to save the Cult of Skaro storyline whilst still keeping its emotional impact, and circumventing some of the stranger concepts in favor of more familiar Dalek concepts would make this story more popular with Dalek fans.

So those were my thoughts on how to fix Daleks In Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks. I hope you enjoyed, and if you did then be sure to leave a like and you can follow Sacred Icon either here or on Facebook, and for more content like this have a look at the Read More section down below. Thanks for reading!

Doctor Who – The Best of Big Finish, Part Three

Continuing from my previous articles on both my First Impressions of Big Finish, the Best of Big Finish, Part One and the Best of Big Finish, Part Two I now present the next phase in my review series of the Doctor Who audios. In a similar fashion to my review of the Two Masters Trilogy, I have decided to review some newer Big Finish releases available as both digital downloads and in CD format from the Big Finish website. So to begin:

Last of the Cybermen

This audio is actually the second part of a loose ‘Locum Doctors Trilogy’, which consists of the previous story The Defectors which sees the Seventh Doctor meet Jo Grant, and the next story The Secret History which has the Fifth Doctor meet Steven and Vicki. Slotting in the middle is Last of the Cybermen in which the Sixth Doctor meets Jamie and Zoe and fights against the Cybermen in the final battle between the Telosian Cybermen and Humanity, and its scale is pretty epic. The characters are likeable and interesting, and Jamie and Zoe pair really well with the Sixth Doctor and it would be great if these two could appear in the monthly range more often.

The story plays on elements from various classic Cyberman stories as well as borrowing a few NuWho ideas to round the whole thing off, whilst also managing to define itself as a brand new story. Previous Big Finish Cyberman stories like Spare Parts and Sword of Orion describe the Cyber-conversion process in detail but Last of the Cybermen depicts Cyber-production on a huge scale, as the Cybermen churn out hundreds of soldiers an hour to battle the human onslaught, and it’s gripping.

We Are The Daleks

What is the only race in existence that is more evil than the Daleks? Easy, economically liberal Conservatives. And this audio demonstrates what could happen if the Tories and the Daleks had ever decided to team up in the late 1980s, although some may say that events would have just played out as normal. Regardless, We Are The Daleks is a great romp that is intended as a ‘jumping-on point’ for newer listeners to the main range, and thus consists of a well-rounded self-contained story with few outside references or requirements, and this definitely helps it as a standalone story.

What also benefits We Are The Daleks, like the earlier audio The Juggernauts, is the redeemed companion Mel who in this audio appears alongside the Seventh Doctor. Even for those who have seen very few televised Mel stories her reputation as a fairly shallow and ‘screamy’ companion is pervasive, yet the Big Finish audios do wonders for redeeming her character, making her a stronger character and giving her a more direct role in the story. Like The Juggernauts, We Are The Daleks shows Mel going undercover and expertly blending into a top-of-the-range work environment using her exceptional skill at coding, and with these two audios alone she is quickly becoming one of my favourite audio companions which shows just how effective the audios are at redeeming missed potential from the show…

Order of the Daleks

The cover of this audio alone is eye-catching enough, and although the concept of a ‘stained glass Dalek’ may seem odd at first, the context of the story justifies their presence – having crashed on a primitive planet with limited technology, the Daleks have infiltrated an order of Monks known as the ‘Brotherhood of the Black Petal’, teaching them how to construct rudimentary casings for them out of stained glass and lead. The Sixth Doctor and a Galactic Census team arrive to investigate signs of alien interference in a medieval society, and chaos ensues. On the surface, Order of the Daleks is a fairly standard Dalek story, but the concepts it utilises in the narrative context make it stand out, as Daleks that are both unarmed and vulnerable make an interesting twist on the standard formula for Dalek stories.

Another interesting aspect to this story is the relatively new audio-only Sixth Doctor companion Constance Clarke, who appeared initially in The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure, an audio anthology that depicts the lead-up to the Sixth Doctor’s regeneration. Constance originates from the Second World War, originally working as a leading WREN before encountering the Doctor, and in this story she faces the Daleks for the first time and proves her mettle against the Doctor’s ultimate foe. The supporting cast also brings this story to life, as there are a fair few memorable characters with distinctive voice acting and some great moments between the Monks and the Daleks as well as some intrigue within the Brotherhood, as all is not as it seems on the seemingly idyllic world of Strellin…

Energy of the Daleks

Last on the list is the fourth installment of the Fourth Doctor Adventures, a six-part series that saw the return of Tom Baker to the role of the Fourth Doctor for the first time in decades. Energy of the Daleks features the Fourth Doctor and companion Leela facing off against – you guessed it – the Daleks, and for the most part Energy of the Daleks follows the ‘standard’ Dalek story formula. The real draw for this story is Tom Baker, as hearing him face off against the Daleks again after so many years is a real treat. What makes this all the better is that, despite having one of the longest tenures of all the Doctors, the Fourth Doctor only fought the Daleks twice – once in Genesis of the Daleks, which was a definite classic but was mostly focused around the Kaled/Thal conflict and the introduction of Davros rather than being a true Dalek story, and Destiny of the Daleks, which is a universally poor story. Energy of the Daleks therefore gives the Fourth Doctor a chance to really shine in a battle against the Daleks in a way that his TV tenure (for whatever reason) denied him.

Another peculiar thing about Energy of the Daleks is its length – unlike all of the other Big Finish audios I have previously reviewed, this and all other Fourth Doctor Adventures stories use a single-disc format of around one hour, as opposed to the two-disc 4×25 minute format of the Main Range. This makes Energy of the Daleks more similar in length and feel to a NuWho story, meaning that the pacing is much faster and thus this audio is probably more accessible to those NuWho fans who aren’t sure of how to get into Big Finish.

So that’s the end of Part 3 of my Best of Big Finish, I hope you enjoyed and if you did then be sure to leave a like, and you can follow us either here or on Facebook for more content like this. Also, check out the read more tab below for articles related to this one. Thanks for reading!

Read more in this series with the links below:

And check out more of my Doctor Who opinion pieces here:

Doctor Who – Big Finish – The Two Masters Trilogy Review

This might be a bit of a jump forward in time from my previous Big Finish audio reviews, all of which have been focused on their earlier works between 1999-2007, whereas these three audios come from 2016. So what is the reason for this sudden leap? The honest answer is, I’ve been so excited to listen to these audios that I thought the minute I finished the final part of The Two Masters then I would start my review right away before moving on to the next audio on my list, Energy of the Daleks. So without further ado, we start the review of this trilogy at the beginning – sort of.

And You Will Obey Me

Listening to this audio so soon after Master was interesting in that they share a somewhat similar premise – the decayed (or, as we should probably refer to him now, the burnt) incarnation of the Master played by Geoffrey Beevers is trapped on Earth and shows signs of displaying acts of mercy, although this audio does come with a few twists and turns that eventually prove that this and Master are in fact nothing alike. The plot introduces several concepts and characters that play into the wider ‘Two Masters trilogy’ overarching plotline, which in this case involves the cripsy Beevers Master being hunted by intergalactic bounty hunters and crashing his TARDIS in Hexford 1984, only to apparently live out a humble and meagre existence before dying of natural causes and being buried in an unmarked grave in 2016. Naturally, upon hearing this, the Doctor knows that something is very wrong.

Similarly to Master, the Doctor is initially hopeful that the Master may have experienced a sudden change of heart, but in this case the truth is far more complicated and focuses on not only the Master but 4 of his associates, a group of children who initially find him and are influenced by his hypnotic power. The interactions between the Master and his saviours is interesting, and Geoffrey Beevers is as good as always as playing a sinister yet oddly charming character. Overall, And You Will Obey Me serves as both an intriguing standalone adventure as well as a great introduction to the ‘Two Masters trilogy’.

Vampire of the Mind

This audio served as my first introduction to the incarnation of the Master played by Alex Macqueen, and needless to say he did not disappoint. This incarnation is far more jovial then some of his predecessors, and in a way bridges the gap between the ‘classic’ Masters and the initial ‘NuWho’ interpretation of the character realised by John Simm. Usually paired with the Eighth Doctor, this incarnation appears here in a rare example of him facing another Doctor incarnation, in this case, the Sixth Doctor played by Colin Baker. For those who do not rate Baker’s incarnation very highly compared to other Doctors, prepare to have that preconception utterly smashed by his appearance in Big Finish audios – it is the view of many that the Sixth Doctor is the best of all the Doctors audio-wise, and Vampire of the Mind is a great example of a strong and energetic performance from Colin Baker that really brings this audio to life.

In terms of plot and execution, however, Vampire of the Mind is perhaps the weakest of the ‘Two Masters trilogy’ as it lacks the obvious appeal of its successor or the intriguing character interactions of its predecessor. Also, the plot itself is somewhat strung-together – the Master’s plan seems to change somewhat as the story progresses, and even when all the pieces in play are revealed it can be difficult to figure out what the Master’s game was from the beginning. Nonetheless, Vampire of the Mind is a great listen, particularly for those who are interested in the Macqueen incarnation but don’t want to have to listen to all 16 instalments of the Dark Eyes series just yet.

The Two Masters

And now for the climactic finale, that ties together the loose ends and cliffhanging plot developments of the previous two instalments and delivers a great 2-hour long multi-Master story that kicks off right into the action and gives some great dialogue between the two incarnations. Essentially, its everything you could ask for from a multi-Master story, particularly since at this point there had never been any others, since World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls wouldn’t air until just over a year later.

The best thing about The Two Masters is how it parallels with multi-Doctor stories that we have seen in the past. Since this story includes two Masters, one might assume that they are working together to achieve some greater goal – the two Masters do team up at one point, but for the majority of the first half the two are at bitter war with each other across time and space, a fascinating concept of a bitter rivalry between two incarnations of the same Time Lord that has never been previously explored.

The Two Masters also contains a few plot twists of its own that explain and explore various plot threads and concepts from both And You Will Obey Me and Vampire of the Mind – although it is not absolutely necessary to listen to these two before listening to The Two Masters, it does help to understand the finer points of the story since both previous stories explain what each incarnation of the Master was doing immediately prior to meeting each other, and how their actions in the previous stories connect and flow into the main story of The Two Masters.

Another fantastic element to this story is Sylvester McCoy, who was the perfect choice of Doctor to facilitate a multi-Master story as only the Seventh Doctor could possess the Machiavellian levels of scheming to out-plot two versions of the Master at once, and Sylvester McCoy plays the devious trickster very well, and particularly here. The only real shame is that he appears here without either companions Mel or Ace, instead taking on a temporary companion for this story.

Overall, the Two Masters trilogy is definitely worth a listen, particularly for those interested in the character of the Master, the idea of multi-incarnation adventures, fans of Beevers or Macqueen or just fans of 80s-themed Big Finish audios in general, as it effectively increases the tension and stakes throughout and offers a unique angle on the Master’s incarnations and history.

So that’s my review of the Two Masters trilogy, I hope you enjoyed and if you did then be sure to leave a like, and you can follow us either here or on Facebook for more content like this. Also, check out the read more tab below for articles related to this one. Thanks for reading!

Read more in this series with the links below:

And check out more of my Doctor Who opinion pieces here: