Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures: Volume One

Written by Matt Fitton, Jenny T Colgan and James Goss

Directed by Nicholas Briggs

Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Niky Wardley (Bex), Rachael Stirling (Jill Meadows), Rory Keenan (Kevin), Alex Lowe (Soren), Sabrina Bartlett (Cora), Terry Molloy (Rone), Blake Ritson (Rudolph), Alice Krige (Queen Mother), Beth Chalmers (Hortense)

Big Finish Productions – Released 16th May 2016

So finally the most hotly anticipated Big Finish release since their Doctor Who license was expanded to include the new series of 2005-2013 has arrived. It’s been six years since David Tennant left the television series and yet just as he did on TV in the 2013 special The Day of The Doctor, he still effortlessly embodies the Tenth Doctor. Reuniting him with Catherine Tate for three new stand-alone stories set at inexact points during the Doctor’s travels with Donna Noble during the 2008 TV series is an obvious move. Despite, a less than auspicious beginning to their TV partnership in the 2006 Christmas special The Runaway Bride, the Doctor and Donna are still thought of as one of the most fondly remembered partnerships of the post 2005 series and hopefully this set of new adventures will be the first of many.

Technophobia by Matt Fitton

“Doctor, stop saying dongle!”

Prolific Big Finish scribe Matt Fitton sets the bar high for the Big Finish debut of the Tenth Doctor. What starts of as a story about Technology taking over develops into a much more sophisticated and sinister plot. The sixty minutes it takes to listen to this adventure whizzes by with similar pacing to the Russell T Davies written scripts of the 2008 TV series. Big Finish does here what it does best in managing to make a story featuring a handful of characters seem epic. Special mentions should go to Niky Wardley as Bex and Rory Keenan as Kevin, both great proto-companion characters. Wardley is no stranger to long-time Big Finish listeners having previously portrayed the Eighth Doctor’s companion Tamsin Drew. It’s also nice to hear Rachael Stirling as Jill Meadows, although it seemed a little strange to have someone so well known in a small role.

Time Reaver by Jenny T Colgan

“Somewhere there is a planet of the boys just dancing about in their pants…”

Established novelist Jenny Colgan recently wrote ‘The Boundless Sea’, the opening episode of the well-received first series of The Diary of River Song. For an author with a reputation for writing great historical stories, Time Reaver is a depature in being set at a futuristic space port planet albeit with a distinctly Pirates of the Caribbean atmosphere. For the most-part this story is a swashbuckling romp and as such Howard Carter’s music scoring which clearly seeks to imitate the Murray Gold TV scores really comes into its own here.

Some nice casting again in this story with special mentions to Terry Molloy as Rone and newcomer Sabrina Bartlett as the tom-boyish Cora. As is typical of Colgan’s Doctor Who novels, there are some great moments of pathos intermingled with the action and whilst Catherine Tate tends to get some of the best lines, David Tennant’s parting shot is perfectly judged.

Death and the Queen by James Goss

“Are you going to ruin all my weddings?”

James Goss has previously contributed some great audio plays to both Big Finish and BBC Audio, however, perhaps because of the high bar set by the first two adventures, this one didn’t quite seem to gel. That being said, there is still a lot to enjoy. The slightly unusual quasi- fairy-tale setting of Goritania works quite well and the highlights are the verbal sparring scenes involving Donna and the ferocious Queen Mother played by Alice Krige. Blake Ritson is also a welcome addition to the cast as Donna’s intended Prince Rudolph. The inclusion of one of the Tenth Doctor’s trademark “I’ve always wanted to meet you” lines may have long-time Big Finish listeners scratching their heads at an apparent continuity error but this a minor point. Overall, a fun story with some good performances with the highlights being the early scenes where the Doctor plays gooseberry to Donna and Rudolph and the later scenes when the Doctor finds a would-be replacement companion in the shape of the extremely practical maid Hortense played by Big Finish regular (and sometime companion to the Seventh Doctor) Beth Chalmers.

Overall, these three stories are a joy to listen to with the first two being particular highlights. Tennant and Tate remain as engaging a team as they did on television and it is hoped that we will hear more from both of them before too long. As already mentioned the soundscapes are well-realised and Howard Carter’s work on the sound design and music ensures that these stories feel very much in keeping with the 2008 television series. On the basis of this and of other recent new series related releases featuring UNIT, River Song and The War Doctor amongst others, it is to be hoped that this is only the start of many new audio adventures for the Tenth Doctor. It’s certainly far from being all over. With the recent news that Big Finish’s license has been extended until 2025, it seems fitting to conclude with a quote from one of last year’s milestone releases: Our future is in safe hands.